Ordeal by Innocents: the Law and Liturgy of Trial by Water in Early Medieval Iberia

<p>This article studies trial by hot water in late antique and early medieval Iberia across three genres of source material. I first consider the marginal position of the law on “the ordeal of the cauldron” in the oldest copies of the Visigothic code, and translate its text. I then catalogue and synthesise the rich casebook of charters from Asturias-León, Navarra, and Catalunya down to 1031 which document the practice of ordeal. Finally I introduce a guide to the liturgy of trial by hot and cold water in a manuscript copied at Barcelona in 1011, and translate its text. I argue that the law is not of Visigothic origin, but emerged out of the liturgy and practice of ordeal from the ninth century, and was then read back into the code to acquire the legitimacy of a Visigothic past.</p>