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OR'CUS, one of the names of the god of hell, the fame 
as Pluto, though confounded by fome with Charon. He 
had a temple at Rome. The word Orcus is generally ufed 
to fignify alfo the infernal regions. 
ORD, f. An edge or fharpnels ; as, in ordlielm, ord- 
bright, $r. and, in the Icelandic tongue, ord, fignifies a 
fpear or dart. GibJ'ou. — Ord, in old Englifh, fignified be¬ 
ginning; whence’probably the proverbial phrafes odds 
lords] find ends, forferaps or remnants; and perhaps oris, 
for wafte provifiori. Juhnjbn. — Ord is certainly our old 
word for beginning; and Chaucer ufes ord and end. But 
oris have no connection whatever with ord. Todd. —See 
Orts. 
ORD OF CAITHNESS, a cape of Scotland, in the 
fouth-eaft coalt of the county of Caithnefs. Lat. 58. 7. N. 
ion. 3. 28. W. 
ORDA'DO, a rock in the Pacific Ocean, near the coaft 
of Peru : five miles fouth-eaft of Calao. 
To ORDA'IN, v. a. [ ordino, Lat. ordomier, Fr.] To 
appoint; to decree.—Jeroboam ordained a feaft. 1 Kings, 
xii. 32.—As many as were ordained to eternal life, believ¬ 
ed. A6is, xiii. 4.8.—He commanded us to teftify, that it is 
he which was ordained of God, to be the judge of quick 
and dead. A6ls, x. 4.2. 
Know the caufe why mufic was ordain'd; 
Was it not to refrefh the mind of man 
After his ftudies, or his ufual pain ? Shahefpeare. 
To fouls opprefs’d and dumb with grief, 
The gods ordain this kind relief, 
That mufic llvould in founds convey 
What dying lovers dare not fay. Waller. 
To eftablifh ; to fettle ; to inftitute.—I will ordain a place 
for Ifrael. 1 Chron. xvii. 9. 
In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets’ found, 
Ordain them laws. Milton's P. L. 
Mulmutius 
Ordain'd our laws, whofe ufe the fword of Csefar 
Hath too much mangled. Shahefpeare. 
To fet in an office.—All, fignified unto you by a man 
Who is ordained over the affairs, fhall be utterly deftroy- 
ed. Eflhcr, xiii. 6.—To invert with minifterial function, 
or facerdotal power.—Meletius was ordained by Arian 
bilhops, and yet his ordination was never queftioned. 
Stilling fleet. 
ORDA'INABLE, adj. That may be appointed.—The 
nature of man is ordainablc to life. Bp. Hall's Rem. 
ORDA'INER, f. He who ordains, or decrees.—The 
performance of wholelome laws mu ft needs bring great 
commendation to the author and ordainer of them. Bur¬ 
row. —He who inverts with minifterial function, or facer¬ 
dotal power.—The ordainer pronounceth by name, when 
he figneth him, Such a man is confecrated from being 
prefbyter to be a bifhop, &c. Bp. Bedell's Life and Lett. 
ORDAVA'R, a towm of Perfian Armenia: fifty miles 
fouth-eaft of Nacfivan. 
ORDE'AL, J'. [cpbal, Sax. from op, great, and 
bele, judgment; ordalium, low. Lat.] A trial by fire or 
water, by which the perfon accufed appealed to heaven, 
by walking blindfold over hot bars of iron ; or being- 
thrown into the water, whence the vulgar trial of 
witches.—Their ordeal laws they ufed in doubtful cafes, 
when clear proofs were wanted. Hahewill on Providence. 
—In the time of king John, the purgation per ignem et 
aquam, or the trial by ordeal, continued ; but it ended 
with this king. Hole. 
The ordeal was an appeal to the immediate interpo- 
fition of divine power, and was particularly diftinguifhed 
by the appellation of judicium Dei; and fometimes vul¬ 
garis purgatio, to diftinguilh it from the canonical purga¬ 
tion, which was by the oath of the party. There were two 
forts of it more common than the reft, at lead in Eufope ; 
fire-ordeal, and water-ordeal. The former was confined 
Vol. XVII. No 1210. 
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to perfons of higher rank, the latter to the common 
people. Both thefe might be performed by deputy ; but 
the principal was to anfwer for the fuccefs of the trial; 
the deputy only venturing fome corporal pain, for hire, 
or perhaps for friendfhip. 
That the purgation by ordeal, of fome kind or other, 
is very ancient, admits not of a doubt; and that it was 
very univerfal in the times of fuperftitious barbarity, is 
equally certain. It feems even to have been known to 
the ancient Greeks ; for, in the Antigone of Sophocles, a 
perfon fufpeCled by Creon of a mifdemeanour, declares 
himfelf ready “ to handle hot iron, and to walk over fire,” 
in order to manifeft his innocence; which the fcholialt 
tells us was then a very ufual purgation. And Grotius 
gives us many inftances of water-ordeal in Bithynia, 
Sardinia, and other places. It feems, however, to be car¬ 
ried to a greater height among the Hindoos, than ever 1 it 
has been in any nation or among any people, however 
rude or barbarous; for, by a reference to our article 
Hindoostan, it will be feen, that the trial by ordeal 
among them is conducted in nine different ways. See 
vol. x. p. 14.6, 7. 
In every religion, (fays Mr. Gibbon,) the Deity has 
been invoked, to confirm the truth, or to pur.ifli the 
falfehood, of human teftimony; but this powerful inftru- 
ment was mifapplied and abufed by the fimplicity of the 
German legiflators. The party accufed might juftify his 
innocence, by producing before their tribunal a numbec 
of friendly witneffes, who folemnly declared their belief, 
or affurance, that he was not guilty. According to the 
weight of the charge, this legal number of compurgators 
was multiplied: feventy-two voices were required to 
abfolve an incendiary or an affaflin; and, when the chaf- 
tity of a queen of France was fufpefted, three hundred 
gallant nobles fwore, without hefitation, that the infant 
prince had been aftually begotten by her.deceafed huf- 
band. The fin and fcandal of manifeft and frequent 
perjuries engaged the magiftrates to remove thefe danger¬ 
ous temptations; and to fupply the defeats of human 
teftimony by the famous experiments of fire and water. 
Thefe extraordinary trials were fo capricioufly contrived, 
that in fome cales guilt, and innocence in others, could 
not be proved without the interpofition of a miracle. 
Such miracles were readily provided by fraud and credu¬ 
lity : the moll intricate caufes were determined by this 
eafy and infallible method; and the turbulent barba¬ 
rians, who might have difdained the fentence of the ma- 
giftrate, fubmiffively acquiefced in the judgment of God : 
for it was expefted, that fire would not burn the inno¬ 
cent; and that the pure element of water would not 
allow the guilty to fink into its bofom. Decline and Fall, 
ch. xxxviii. 
I. Fire-ordeal was performed either by taking up in 
the hand, unhurt, a piece of red-hot iron, of one, two, 
or three, pounds weight; or elfe by walking, barefoot and 
blindfold, over nine red-hot plough-fhares, laid length- 
wife at equal diftances. If the party efcaped being hurt, 
he was adjudged innocent; but, if it happened otherwife, 
as, without coliufion, it ufually did, he was then con¬ 
demned as guilty. However, by this latter method, 
queen Emma, the mother of Edward the Confeffor, is 
mentioned to have cleared her character, when fufpedted 
of familiarity with Alwyn bifhop of Winchefter. 
The firft account we have of Chriftians appealing to 
the fire-ordeal, as a proof of their innocence, is that of 
Simplicius, bifhop of Autun, who lived in the fourth 
century. This prelate, as the ftory is related, before his 
promotion to the epifcopal order, had married a wife, 
who loved him tenderly, and who, unwilling to quit him 
after his advancement, continued to fleep in the fame 
chamber with him. The fan&ity of Simplicius fuffered, 
at leaft in the yoice of fame, by the conftancy of his wife’s 
afteftion ; and it was rumoured about, that the holy man, 
though a bifhop, perfifted, in oppofition to the ecclefi- 
aftical canons, to tafte the fweets of matrimony: upon 
8 S which 
