Misplaced Pages

#488511

79-477: The author of the Constitutions is purported to be Frederick himself, though Giacomo Amalfitano , Archbishop of Capua , appears as an influence as well. He was even reproved by the pope for accepting and advising clauses contrary to the wishes of the church. Traditionally, the work has been attributed to Pier delle Vigne , but it is almost certain that, while Frederick, Giacomo and Pier had their hand in it,

158-444: A 'three-fold' ordeal. The distinction between the one-fold and three-fold ordeal appears to be based on the severity of the crime, with the threefold ordeal being prescribed for more severe offences such as treachery or for notorious criminals. The ordeal would take place in a church, with several in attendance, purified and praying to God to reveal the truth. Afterwards, the hand was bound and examined after three days to see whether it

237-610: A council in Capua; the Emperor Henry V , who had seized Rome, and the antipope Gregory VIII (Martin Burdinus, Bishop of Braga), who crowned him emperor, were excommunicated. In 1569, Cardinal Niccolò Caetani di Sermoneta (1546–1585) presided over a provincial council in Capua. Archbishop Cesare Costa (1572–1602) held a provincial council on 2 November 1577. On 6–9 April 1603, Archbishop Robert Bellarmine (1602–1605) presided at

316-539: A decree, "Quamquam Ecclesia," on 30 April 1979, ordering the changes. Three ecclesiastical provinces were abolished entirely: those of Conza, Capua, and Sorrento. A new ecclesiastical province was created, to be called the Regio Campana, whose metropolitan was the archbishop of Naples. The dioceses formerly members of the suppressed Province of Capua (Gaeta, Calvi and Chieti, Caserta, and Sessa Arunca) became suffragans of Naples. The archbishop of Capua himself retained

395-598: A disciple of St. Peter . In the martyrology mention is made of many Capuan martyrs, and it is probable that, owing to its position and importance, Capua received the Christian doctrine at a very early period. The first bishop of whom there is positive record is Proterius (Protus), present at the Roman Council under Pope Melchiades in 313. Bishop Memorius, who held a council to deal with the Schism of Antioch and

474-524: A more likely explanation; if the holy water causes miscarriage, it is proof of guilt). Some cultures, such as the Efik Uburutu people of present-day Nigeria , would administer the poisonous Calabar bean ( Physostigma venenosum , known as esere in Efik ), which contains physostigmine , in an attempt to detect guilt. A defendant who vomited up the bean was innocent. A defendant who became ill or died

553-416: A physical test of whether the accused would float, rather than an ordeal invoking divine intervention to prove or disprove guilt, i.e., a witch floated by the nature of a witch, not because God intervened and caused her to float, demonstrating her guilt. According to a theory put forward by economics professor Peter Leeson , trial by ordeal may have been effective at sorting the guilty from the innocent. On

632-491: A procedure based on the premise that God would help the innocent by performing a miracle on their behalf. The practice has much earlier roots, attested to as far back as the Code of Hammurabi and the Code of Ur-Nammu . In pre-industrial society , the ordeal typically ranked along with the oath and witness accounts as the central means by which to reach a judicial verdict . Indeed, the term ordeal , Old English ordǣl , has

711-473: A provincial council in Capua. The next provincial council took place in 1859, two hundred and fifty-six years after Bellarmine's council. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1602–1605) held a diocesan synod in 1603. Cardinal Niccolò Caracciolo (1703–1728) held a diocesan synod in Capua on Pentecost Sunday, 1726. Following the Second Vatican Council , and in accordance with the norms laid out in

790-577: A river. If the accused man survived this ordeal, the accused was to be acquitted. If the accused was found innocent by this ordeal, the accuser was to be put to death and the accused man was to take possession of the then-deceased accuser's house. An ordeal by cold water is mentioned in the Vishnu Smrti , which is one of the texts of the Dharmaśāstra . The practice was also set out in Salic law but

869-537: A sign from God against him. The Inquisition arrested him shortly thereafter, with Savonarola convicted of heresy and hanged at the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Ordeal by fire ( Persian : ور ) was also used for judiciary purposes in ancient Iran . Persons accused of cheating in contracts or lying might be asked to prove their innocence by ordeal of fire as an ultimate test. Two examples of such an ordeal include

SECTION 10

#1732765358489

948-401: A society where people lived in close quarters and there was little centralized power. In a world where "the sacred penetrated into the chinks of the profane and vice-versa" the ordeal was a "controlled miracle" that served as a point of consensus when one of the greatest dangers to the community was feud. From this analysis, Brown argues that the increasing authoritativeness of the state lessened

1027-426: A stone from a boiling cauldron. Gregory said that it took Hyacinth about an hour to complete the task (because the waters were bubbling so ferociously), but he was pleased to record that when the heretic tried, he had the skin boiled off up to his elbow. Legal texts from the reign of King Athelstan (Lived: c.  894 – 27 October 939, Ruled: 924 – 939) provide some of the most elaborate royal regulations for

1106-419: A tradition known as sassywood . In it, a poisonous brew of erythrophleine , extracted from the bark of the "Ordeal Tree" ( erythrophleum suaveolens ), was administered to the defendant. While it has largely been outlawed, the practice is still in sporadic use by local communities. The "penalty of the peach" was an ancient ordeal that involved peach pits or their extracts. The pits contain amygdalin , which

1185-634: Is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Capua , in Campania , Italy, but its archbishop no longer holds metropolitan rank and has no ecclesiastical province. Since 1979, it is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Napoli , i.e. no longer has its own ecclesiastical province nor metropolitan status. According to the tradition, Christianity was first preached at Capua by St. Priscus ,

1264-514: Is metabolized into cyanide . In early modern Europe, the Mass was unofficially used as a form of poison ordeal: a suspected party was forced to take the Eucharist because they would be eternally damned if they were guilty, and thus their unwillingness to take the test would give an indication of their guilt. An Icelandic ordeal tradition involves the accused walking under a piece of turf. If

1343-459: The 6th-century Salic law , the ordeal of hot water required the accused to dip their hand into a kettle or pot of boiling water (sometimes oil or lead was used instead) and retrieve a stone. Assessment of the injury was similar to that of the fire ordeal. An early (non-judicial) example of the test was described by Bishop Gregory of Tours in the late 6th century. He describes how a Catholic saint , Hyacinth, bested an Arian rival by plucking

1422-545: The Assize of Clarendon in 1166. Prior to then, compurgation was the most usual method of proof, and the ordeal was used in cases where there was some presumption of guilt against the accused or when the accused was bound to fail in compurgation. A distinction was made between those accused fama publica (by public outcry) and those accused on the basis of specific facts. Those accused fama publica were able to exculpate themselves by means of compurgation, whereas those accused on

1501-456: The Code of Hammurabi . Under the Code of Ur-Nammu, a man who was accused of what some scholars have translated as "sorcery" was to undergo ordeal by water. If the man were proven innocent through this ordeal, the accuser was obligated to pay three shekels to the man who underwent judgment. The Code of Hammurabi dictated that, if a man was accused of a matter by another, the accused was to leap into

1580-536: The Devil 's service. King James VI of Scotland claimed in his Daemonologie that water was so pure an element that it repelled the guilty. Jacob Rickius claimed that witches were supernaturally light and recommended weighing them as an alternative to dunking them; this procedure and its status as an alternative to dunking were parodied in the 1975 British film Monty Python and the Holy Grail . The ordeal of

1659-557: The Liber is the product of months of work by a committee. The Constitutions were written in Latin and translated into Greek before their promulgation. They were meant to apply, as with previous Sicilian law, to all the peoples of the realm: Lombards, Greeks, Saracens, Germans, Jews. The 253 clauses are divided into three books: The Constitutions, like the Assizes before them, strengthened

SECTION 20

#1732765358489

1738-443: The heresy of Bonosus , is often mentioned in the letters of St. Augustine and St. Paulinus , and was the father of the ardent Pelagian Julian of Eclanum . In 841, during the bishopric of Paulinus, a band of Saracens destroyed Capua , and much of the population emigrated in a new town founded in another location. The episcopal see was moved there; later the old city, growing around the ancient basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore ,

1817-462: The Constitutions affected the bishops as they did all great landholders, but they also affected them in unique ways. The clergymen were made subject to the common courts. They were deprived also of judgement over heretics , prohibited from acquiring lands, and forced to sell inheritances. Also like the great dioceses and baronies, the cities were affected by the centralising laws which removed their powers and made them more directly subject to not only

1896-436: The Constitutions prohibited bearing arms without permission. A standing Saracen army was created to prevent the king from having to call up the unreliable barons, surely angered by the Constitutions. These, the feudatories, were gravely affected in other ways, too. For example, the sale of fiefs was banned, putting an end to subinfeudation, and all vassals were subject to the king's taxes and other imposts. Ecclesiastically,

1975-570: The Normans, but the only notable innovation of the ordeal by the conquerors was the introduction of the trial by battle. There were, however, minor conflicts between the customs of the Anglo-Saxons and the customs of the Normans that were typically resolved in ways that favored the Normans. In a famous story from Eadmer 's Historia novorum in Anglia , William Rufus expresses skepticism about

2054-461: The Pious in 819 and a decree of Lothar I , recorded in 876, abolished the ordeal so as to avoid the mockery of Christ. Franconian law prescribed that an accused was to be given dry bread and cheese blessed by a priest. If the accused choked on the food, they were considered guilty. This was transformed into the ordeal of the Eucharist (trial by sacrament) mentioned by Regino of Prüm ca. 900:AD;

2133-610: The accused having to pass through fire, or having molten metal poured on their chest. There were about 30 of these kinds of fiery tests in all. If the accused died, they were held to have been guilty; if survived, they were innocent, having been protected by Mithra and the other gods . The most simple form of such ordeals required the accused to take an oath, then drink a potion of sulfur ( Avestan : saokant , lit.   'sulfur', Middle Persian : sōgand , lit.   'oath', Persian: سوگند , romanized:  sowgand , lit.   'oath'). It

2212-422: The accused parties are ordered to retrieve an item from a container of boiling oil, with those who refuse the task being found guilty. In the other, both the accused and the accuser have to retrieve an item from boiling oil, with the person or persons whose hand remains unscathed being declared innocent. There were different types of trials by water: trial by hot water and trial by cold water. First mentioned in

2291-602: The accused sank, they were considered innocent, whereas if they floated, this indicated witchcraft . The ordeal would be conducted with a rope holding the subject so that the person being tested could be retrieved following the trial. A witch trial including this ordeal took place in Szeged , Hungary as late as 1728. Demonologists varied in their explanations as to why trial by water would be effective, although spiritual explanations were most common. Some argued that witches floated because they had renounced baptism when entering

2370-573: The accused was made to plunge their right hand into a boiling cauldron and pull out a ring. As Frankish influence spread throughout Europe, ordeal by cauldron spread to neighboring societies. The earliest references of ordeal by cauldron in the British Isles occurs in Irish law in the seventh century, but it is unlikely that this tradition shares roots with the Frankish tradition that is likely

2449-494: The accused was to take the oath of innocence. It was believed that if the oath had been false, the person would die within the same year. Numbers 5:12–27 prescribes that a woman suspected of adultery—one called a Sotah in later commentaries—should be made to swallow "the bitter water that causeth the curse" by the priest in order to determine her guilt. The accused would be condemned only if 'her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot'. One writer has recently argued that

Constitutions of Melfi - Misplaced Pages Continue

2528-405: The ancient laws and by our constitutions." The Constitutions notably used reason and logic to dismiss the superstitious foundations of the ordeal; for example, the use of trial by hot iron was dismissed because people believed "the natural heat of white-hot iron grows hot and, what is even more foolish, grows cold for no good reason at all", and trial by water was forbidden because of the belief "that

2607-424: The assumption that defendants were believers in divine intervention for the innocent, then only the truly innocent would choose to endure a trial; guilty defendants would confess or settle cases instead. Therefore, the theory goes, church and judicial authorities could routinely rig ordeals so that the participants—presumably innocent—could pass them. To support this theory, Leeson points to the great latitude given to

2686-456: The basis of specific facts and those who were thought to have bad character were made to undergo the ordeal. The Assize of Clarendon declared that all those said by a jury of presentment to be "accused or notoriously suspect" of robbery, thievery, or murder or of receiving anyone who had committed such a wrong were to be put to the ordeal of water. These juries of presentment were the hundred juries and vills , and these groups, in effect, made

2765-460: The community. The laws of Canute distinguish between "men of good repute" who were able to clear themselves by their own oath, "untrustworthy men" who required compurgators , and untrustworthy men who cannot find compurgators who must go to the ordeal. One of the laws of Ethelred the Unready declared that untrustworthy men were to be sent to the triple ordeal, that is, an ordeal of hot iron where

2844-470: The council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, major changes were made in the ecclesiastical administrative structure of southern Italy. Wide consultations had taken place with the bishops and other prelates who would be affected. Action, however, was deferred, first by the death of Pope Paul VI on 6 August 1978, then the death of Pope John Paul I on 28 September 1978, and the election of Pope John Paul II on 16 October 1978. Pope John Paul II issued

2923-533: The cross was apparently introduced in the Early Middle Ages in an attempt to discourage judicial duels among Germanic peoples . As with judicial duels, and unlike most other ordeals, the accuser had to undergo the ordeal together with the accused. They stood on either side of a cross and stretched out their hands horizontally. The first one to lower their arms lost. This ordeal was prescribed by Charlemagne in 779 and again in 806. A capitulary of Louis

3002-509: The defendant of the crime, who has been established only by his guilty conscience, will not be received by the element of freezing water, when, in fact, it is the retention of sufficient air that prevents him from submerging." Frederick also banned trial by battle, ordering that more weight be given to the testimony of witnesses, although exceptions to this were granted to knights, and for cases in which no witnesses could be provided. The Constitutions also contain incidental information relating to

3081-472: The equality of all citizens before the law was affirmed. The Constitutions made much of reducing the power of the nobility and of following the Roman tradition of equality before the law: thus, all freemen, all citizens, were equals, in theory. Likewise, for the benefit of commoners, Frederick banned trial by ordeal , ordering his judges to use instead "the common methods of proof which have been introduced both by

3160-734: The hundred jurors and the vills as to the defendant's suspicion was required to send him to the ordeal. However, the intermediate accusation of the juries could still be considered final in some sense as any person who was accused of murder by the juries was required to leave the realm even if he was exonerated by the ordeal. In 1215, clergy were forbidden to participate in ordeals by the Fourth Lateran Council . The English plea rolls contain no cases of trial by ordeal after 1219, when Henry III recognized its abolition. Popes were generally opposed to ordeals, although there are some apocryphal accounts describing their cooperation with

3239-415: The intermediate decision of whether an accused person would face the more final judgment of the ordeal. These bodies rendered "verdicts" of either suspected or not suspected. In cases where the defendant was accused on the basis of one or more specific facts, the defendant was sent to the ordeal upon the verdict of the hundred jury alone. In cases where the defendant was accused fama publica , the agreement of

Constitutions of Melfi - Misplaced Pages Continue

3318-414: The interplay of canon and common law was such that a clear anathema on the practice given in 1215 would have unintended consequences and overstepped the bounds of ecclesiastical authority. Secular authorities might deem someone guilty if they relied on clerical authority to avoid an ordeal, and certain "occult" crimes (those to which there would not normally be witnesses) could not be effectively prosecuted in

3397-473: The iron is three times heavier than that used in the simple ordeal, unless his lord and two other knights swear that he has not been accused of a crime recently, in which case he would be sent to an ordinary ordeal of hot iron. Unlike other European societies, the English rarely employed the ordeal in non-criminal proceedings. The mandatory use of the ordeal in certain criminal proceedings appears to date from

3476-536: The king as more and more simple freemen were raised to power. The magistrates were elected for a year pending reaffirmation and received a salary from the state. This made them loyal to the king and his administration, for without it they were nothing. The great officers of the Regno were the ancient ammiratus ammiratorum , the grand protonotary (or logothete ), great Chamberlain , great seneschal , great chancellor , great constable , and master justiciar . The last

3555-487: The king, but his ministers as well. Cities could not become communes , as many in Northern Italy had, and were prohibited from electing consuls or podestàs , on pain of sack and pillage. Like the baronage, the cities were deprived of rights of penal justice. These were transferred to the king and his magistrates alone. These magistrates or ministers became a more important class. Fewer and fewer noblemen served

3634-564: The leading candidate in the papal election to succeed Pope Gregory VII , but he steadfastly refused the election. Finally he was prevailed upon to assume the papal mantle, but he had second thoughts and removed himself to Terracina. The conference at Capua put strong pressure on him to reassume the papal throne, and, on 21 March 1087, he relented. Finally he was crowned in Rome on 9 May 1087 as Pope Victor III . On 7 April 1118, Pope Gelasius II , who had been forced to flee from Rome on 1 March, held

3713-409: The legal system of the time by any other means than ordeal. Innocent III's prohibition of clerical participation in trial by ordeal was essentially a call to action for secular authorities to move away from it, a process which took centuries to complete. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries some kinds of ordeals were once again used in witch-hunts , although these were actually intended more as

3792-542: The loser of the fight or the party represented by the losing champion was deemed guilty or liable. Champions could be used by one or both parties in an individual versus individual dispute, and could represent the individual in a trial by an organization; an organization or state government by its nature had to be represented by a single combatant selected as champion, although there are numerous cases of high-ranking nobility, state officials and even monarchs volunteering to serve as champion. Combat between groups of representatives

3871-608: The meaning of "judgment, verdict" from Proto-West Germanic uʀdailī (see German : Urteil , Dutch : oordeel ), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *uzdailiją "that which is dealt out". Priestly cooperation in trials by fire and water was forbidden by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Council of the Lateran of 1215 and replaced by compurgation . Trials by ordeal became rarer over the Late Middle Ages , but

3950-443: The ordeal after 50 men accused of forest offenses were exonerated by the ordeal of hot iron. In this story, Rufus states that he will take judgment from God's hands into his own. However, this skepticism was not universally shared by the intellectuals of the day, and Eadmer depicts Rufus as irreligious for rejecting the legitimacy of the ordeal. The use of the ordeal in medieval England was very sensitive to status and reputation in

4029-483: The power of the king and diminished the power of his feudatories. The centralising and bureaucratising tendencies of Roger II 's legislation continued a century later in the Constitutions. It also continued to emphasise the sacral role and God-given right to rule of the monarch. Frederick II wrote in the Constitutions that "we, whom He elevated beyond hope of man to the pinnacle of the Roman Empire." Militarily,

SECTION 50

#1732765358489

4108-651: The practice of medicine. Frederick proclaimed that, in order to become a medical practitioner, it was necessary to have some practical experience, which many European university-educated doctors did not have in 1231. According to Ernst Kantorowicz , the Liber "is the birth certificate of the modern administrative state." The Constitutions of Melfi remained applicable law in the Kingdom of Naples until 1809 and in Sicily until 1819. Archbishop of Capua The Archdiocese of Capua ( Latin : Archidioecesis Capuana )

4187-403: The practice was not discontinued until the 16th century. Certain trials by ordeal would continue to be used into the 17th century in witch-hunts . Ordeal by combat took place between two parties in a dispute, either two individuals, or between an individual and a government or other organization. They, or, under certain conditions, a designated "champion" acting on their behalf, would fight, and

4266-427: The practice. At first there was no general decree against ordeals, and they were only declared unlawful in individual cases. Eventually Pope Innocent III in Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215) promulgated a canon forbidding blessing of participants before ordeals. This decision was followed by further prohibitions by synods in thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250)

4345-438: The priests in administering the ordeal and interpreting the results of the ordeal. He also points to the overall high exoneration rate of accused persons undergoing the ordeal, when intuitively one would expect a very high proportion of people carrying a red hot iron to be badly burned and thus fail the ordeal. Peter Brown explains the persistence and eventual withering of the ordeal by stating that it helped promote consensus in

4424-437: The procedure has a rational basis, envisioning punishment only upon clear proof of pregnancy (a swelling belly) or venereal disease (a rotting thigh) (unless of course the woman was impregnated by her own husband; and of course even historical people were well aware that pregnancy would manifest itself in a very obvious fashion without bothering with rituals and drinking of special potions. Other scholars think an abortifacient

4503-431: The request of Abbot Bruno of Montecassino, and dedicated the renovated church of S. Benedict in Capua. In the 13th century, the cathedral had more than fifty-two clerics called canonici . Archbishop Marino Filomarino (1252–1285) reduced the number to forty, ten priests, ten deacons, and twenty subdeacons. They were originally presided over by a dignity called the archpriest, though the name was later changed to fean. There

4582-800: The source of trial by fire and water among the Anglo-Saxons and later the Normans in England. The laws of Ine , King of the West Saxons, produced around 690, contains the earliest reference to ordeal in Anglo-Saxon law; however, this is the last and only mention of ordeal in Anglo-Saxon England until the 10th century. After the Conquest of 1066 , the Old English customs of proof were repeated anew and in more detailed fashion by

4661-617: The title of archbishop, but the diocese became a suffragan of Naples. On April 30, 2013, Bishop Salvatore Visco of Isernia-Venafro was appointed Archbishop of Capua by Pope Francis. Archbishop Visco was born in Naples on July 28, 1948. He completed his studies at the Major Seminary of Naples as a student at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy , in the section Saint Thomas (Capodimonte). He

4740-485: The turf falls on the accused's head, the accused person is pronounced guilty. The ordeals of fire and water in England likely have their origin in Frankish tradition, as the earliest mention of the ordeal of the cauldron is in the first recension of the Salic Law in 510. Trial by cauldron was an ancient Frankish custom used against both freedmen and slaves in cases of theft, false witness and contempt of court, where

4819-478: The use of the ordeal in Anglo-Saxon England , though the period's fullest account of ordeal practices is found in an anonymous legal text written sometime in the 10th century. According to this text, usually given the title Ordal , the water had to be close to boiling temperature, and the depth from which the stone had to be retrieved was up to the wrist for a 'one-fold' ordeal and up to the elbow for

SECTION 60

#1732765358489

4898-487: Was abolished by Emperor Louis the Pious in 829. The practice reappeared in the Late Middle Ages : in the Dreieicher Wildbann of 1338, a man accused of poaching was to be submerged in a barrel three times and to be considered innocent if he sank, and guilty if he floated. Ordeal by water was associated with the witch-hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, although an inverse of most trials by ordeal; if

4977-589: Was accused of adultery with Bishop Ælfwine of Winchester but proved her innocence by walking barefoot unharmed over red-hot plowshares. During the First Crusade , the French mystic Peter Bartholomew allegedly went through the ordeal by fire in 1099 by his own choice to disprove a charge that his claimed discovery of the Holy Lance was fraudulent. He died as a result of his injuries. Trial by ordeal

5056-657: Was adopted in the 13th century by the Byzantine successor states the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus ; Michael Angold speculates this legal innovation was most likely through "the numerous western mercenaries in Byzantine service both before and after 1204." It was used to prove the innocence of the accused in cases of treason and use of magic to affect the health of the emperor. The most famous case where this

5135-425: Was also an archdeacon. In 1698 there were four dignities (the dean, the archdeacon, and two primicerii) In Lent 1087, an important conference of cardinals and bishops took place at Capua with Cardinal Desiderius, the abbot of Montecassino. A prominent part in the proceedings was taken by Cincius, the consul of Rome, Jordan Prince of Capua , and Duke Roger of Apulia and Calabria . On 24 May 1086, Desiderius had been

5214-402: Was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused (called a "proband" ) was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. In medieval Europe , like trial by combat , trial by ordeal, such as cruentation , was sometimes considered a "judgement of God " ( Latin : jūdicium Deī , Old English : Godes dōm ):

5293-678: Was believed that fire had an association with truth and hence with asha . In ancient India , the trial by fire was known as agnipariksha , in which Agni , the Fire God, would be invoked by a priest using mantras . After the invocation, a pyre would be built and lit, and the accused would be asked to sit on it. According to Hindu mythology , the Fire God would preserve the accused if they were innocent, if not, they would be burned to ashes. Trial by boiling oil has been practiced in villages in certain parts of West Africa , such as Togo . There are two primary versions of this trial. In one,

5372-428: Was considered guilty. Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity, and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena ( Cerbera manghas ) was routinely obligatory. In the 1820s, ingestion of the poisonous nut caused about 1000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861. Ancient Liberian cultures practiced

5451-594: Was employed was when Michael Palaiologos was accused of treason: he avoided enduring the red-iron by saying he would only hold it if the Metropolitan Phokas of Philadelphia could take the iron from the altar with his own hands and hand it to him. However, the Byzantines viewed trial by ordeal with disgust and considered it a barbarian innovation at odds with Byzantine law and ecclesiastical canons. Angold notes, "Its abolition by Michael Palaiologos

5530-404: Was healing or festering. This was still an isolated practice in remote 12th-century Catholic churches. A suspect would place their hand in the boiling water. If after three days God had not healed their wounds, the suspect was guilty of the crime. The ordeal of cold water has a precedent in the 13th law of the Code of Ur-Nammu (the oldest known surviving code of laws) and the second law of

5609-406: Was less common but still occurred. A notable case was that of Gero, Count of Alsleben , whose daughter married Siegfried II, Count of Stade . Ordeal by fire was one form of torture . The ordeal of fire typically required that the accused walk a certain distance, usually 9 feet (2.7 metres) or a certain number of paces, usually three, over red-hot plowshares or holding a red-hot iron. Innocence

5688-628: Was ordained a priest on April 14, 1973. After ordination he was Parochial Vicar of Holy Mary. He served as a Professor of Religion in the public schools (1974-1994), and at the same time was Pastor of the Church of Mater Domini (1985-1993), Director of the Diocesan Liturgical Office (1985-1994), Episcopal Delegate for the Permanent Diaconate ministry program, and Diocesan Director for other Ministries (1985-1995). He

5767-746: Was promoted vicar general of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pozzuoli , and dean of the chapter of the cathedral (1994-2007). Appointed Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Isernia-Venafro on April 5, 2007, by Pope Benedict XVI , he was ordained a bishop on June 2, 2007. He is currently vice-president of the Episcopal Conference of Abruzzi - Molise. Attribution 41°10′00″N 14°17′00″E  /  41.1667°N 14.2833°E  / 41.1667; 14.2833 Trial by ordeal Trial by ordeal

5846-491: Was repopulated and called Santa Maria di Capua (current Santa Maria Capua Vetere ). It is part of the current archdiocese of Capua. The first bishop of the diocese of Capua Nova ("New Capua") was Landulf (843–879). In 968 pope John XIII took refuge in Capua, and in gratitude raised the see to archiepiscopal rank on 14 August 966. First archbishop was John (966–973). On 24 December 1108, Pope Paschal II , who had been staying at Benevento for some months, visited Capua at

5925-590: Was sometimes established by a complete lack of injury, but it was more common for the wound to be bandaged and re-examined three days later by a priest, who would pronounce that God had intervened to heal it, or that it was merely festering —in which case the suspect would be exiled or put to death . One famous story about the ordeal of plowshares concerns the English King Edward the Confessor 's mother, Emma of Normandy . According to legend, she

6004-423: Was the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational ( Constitutions of Melfi ). In England, things started to change with King Henry III (1220). From the twelfth century, the ordeals started to be generally disapproved and they were discontinued during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Although papal authority had stood against ordeals generally since Innocent III,

6083-470: Was the head of the Magna Curia , the court of the king (his curia regis ) and the final court of appeal . The Magna Curia Rationum , a division of the curia , acted as an auditing department on the great bureaucracy. Other than this, there was a sort of parliament , consisting of not only the barons, but the universities and the landed commoners. It did not debate or rubber-stamp legislation, which

6162-412: Was the king's to make and unmake, but merely received it and promulgated, giving its advice where it could. Economically, state monopolies were imposed on silk, iron, and grain. On the other hand, tariffs on trade within the Regno were abolished. The privileges granted previously to Pisa and Genoa were, however, rescinded. Weights and measures were uniformly regulated across the realm. Finally,

6241-417: Was universally acclaimed." In 1498, Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola , the leader of a reform movement in Florence who claimed apocalyptic prophetic visions, attempted to prove the divine sanction of his mission by undergoing a trial by fire. The first of its kind in over 400 years, the trial was a fiasco for Savonarola, since a sudden rain doused the flames, canceling the event and taken by onlookers as

#488511