Let God Judge: The Practice of Ordeal in Early and Medieval Law

Imagine living in 7th-century France or 12th-century Russia. You are summoned to court due to a dispute. You have no evidence to prove your innocence, and the person accusing you has no evidence either. There are only allegations. To resolve this deadlock, the judicial officials order you to place your hand into boiling water. After the designated time, you pull your hand out in agony.
If it is scalded and blistered, you are guilty; if your hand appears unharmed, you win the case.
Yes—one of the most peculiar methods of medieval law: the ordeal.

What Is an Ordeal and When Did It Emerge?

Known as “ordeal” in English, “ordalie” in French, and transferred into Turkish as “ordali”, the term broadly refers to an ancient method of identifying guilt. Its fundamental logic is to appeal to divine judgment when there is a lack of evidence or witnesses. Indeed, in Medieval Europe, this practice was called Iudicium Dei, meaning “the judgment of God.”
However, the earliest known examples of ordeals date back to long before the emergence of Abrahamic religions.

The ordeal is as old as the history of law itself. Its first known examples appear in the legal codes of the Sumerians. The earliest written law code in human history, the Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BCE), includes references to the river ordeal used in unresolved disputes. According to this code, in cases involving adultery, sorcery, or slander, the accused or accuser would be thrown into a river; if they survived without drowning, they were deemed innocent. The relevant articles in the Code of Ur-Nammu state:

• “If a man accuses another of sorcery, he shall be taken to the divine river. If the river declares him innocent, the accuser shall pay three shekels of silver.”
• “If a man accuses another man’s wife of lying in his arms (adultery), the woman shall be thrown into the river. If the river declares her innocent, the accuser shall pay one-third mina of silver.”
• “If a man brings an accusation against someone and the accused goes to the river and jumps into it but sinks, the accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves the accused innocent and he escapes unhurt, then the accuser shall be put to death, and the accused shall inherit the accuser’s house.”

This practice also appears in the Code of Hammurabi, though in a harsher form. In Hammurabi’s laws, if the accused survives the river ordeal, the accuser is executed.

Similarly, Babylonian and Assyrian laws used river ordeals in cases of adultery or sorcery. According to Assyrian law, if a man accused a married woman of adultery but could not provide witnesses, he would be thrown into the river with his hands tied; if he survived, he was innocent.

Although ordeals appear in Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian legislation, Hittite law contains no such practice, reflecting its comparatively advanced legal approach.

The most comprehensive early examples of ordeals appear in Indian law. Unlike Babylonian and Assyrian law, Indian ordeal practices were more detailed and varied. Besides river ordeals, they included tests involving red-hot iron, poisonous herbs, boiling oil, and venomous snakes.
The method of ordeal varied according to the nature of the offense.
For example:

• The accused might be required to hold a red-hot iron; if burned, they were guilty.
• They might be forced to eat poisonous herbs; if they died, they were guilty.
• They might have to plunge an arm into boiling oil mixed with cow dung; if it burned, they were guilty.
• In the snake ordeal, a venomous snake was placed in a basket with a ring or coin; if the blindfolded accused retrieved the object without being bitten, they were innocent.

In the Middle Ages, when religion and law were deeply intertwined, guilt was similarly tested by fire, water, or iron. If a person did not burn or did not drown, they were considered innocent.
Various forms of ordeals existed across medieval jurisprudence.

The earliest European examples appear around 500 CE, the first reference being in the Salic Law of 510. According to this law, ordeals were typically conducted with boiling water. Although primarily applied to free men, slaves could also be subjected to them in exceptional circumstances.
The accused had to submerge their hand into boiling water and retrieve a stone or object from the bottom. If the resulting burn healed cleanly, they were innocent; if the burn was severe or infected, they were guilty.

Ireland also practiced ordeals, though differently. There, the accused would press a red-hot iron to their tongue; if it burned, they were guilty.

In Russia, as recorded in the early legal text Russkaya Pravda, the accused would undergo a hot-iron ordeal in the absence of witnesses—but unlike Ireland, the iron was held in the hand rather than pressed to the tongue.

At the core of all these examples lies a belief that justice is delivered by God. When human judgment failed, cases were entrusted to divine will.
This faith in divine justice led, from the 10th century onward, to the increasing popularity of judicial duels, which began to replace ordeals. These duels, conducted under legal supervision, gradually took over the role of the ordeal.