Trial by ordeal#Ordeal of water

The water sample is an archaic element of the history of law, to prove to the 3rd millennium BC in Codex Ur - Nammu as a flow sample at magic.

Samples not only cold but also hot water there was, especially in the early Middle Ages: When the hot water sample of the candidate had a ring or the like to get from a kettle of boiling water. Healed the wounds quickly, this was considered proof of innocence. During the cold water test, the suspect was immersed in cold water, he swam up, he was regarded as transferred.

At the time of the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, the latter was used in a weaker form than laboratory test to refute the Hexereiverdacht against the accused women or confirm. From this time the cold water test is also known under the name Hexenbad.

Water sample as God's judgment

The water sample is at the top of this historically verifiable history of God's judgments. The first writing traditional regard to the implementation of water samples dating back to the 3rd millennium BC In the 10th paragraph of the Code of Ur - Nammu, a legal text dating back to the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu of Ur, a water sample is described in a flow is to be performed. In the Code of Hammurabi, which dates from the 18th century BC, a kind of ordeal with the help of the water element is also described.

Different types of implementation of water samples have survived. Most commonly, however, were in the post-Christian Europe, two types of water samples, namely with hot and cold water, applied.

Water sample with hot water

The legal water sample with hot water ( aquae judicium ferventis, boiler or boiler sample catch) is probably the oldest form of God's judgment in Europe, which is also mentioned in the earliest legal texts (for example, Hincmar of Reims ). The accused had to get this bare arm a ring or a small stone from a kettle of boiling water. Hand and scalded arm were then joined and sealed. After a few days the dressing was removed. If the wound does not fester, the sample was passed, that is proven innocent. In another variant, designated as boiler catch or the accused had to catch a kettle of boiling water. The latter form was used in particular as a chastity test.

Water sample with cold water

The water sample with cold water ( aquae judicium frigidae ) was probably introduced by Pope Eugene II ( 824-827 ). The defendant was handcuffed and sitting cross lowered by a rope into a pond or similar water or thrown. This with the prayer formula. " Let the water does not receive the body of him who is freed from the weight of the Good borne aloft by the wind of injustice " If the accused floated above, this by no means was considered as evidence of witchcraft, but when he went down as evidence to the contrary, as this could still be considered as an exception. It was believed that the pure element of water would repel sorcerer. As with the water sample with hot water was needed in this case a "miracle " to be acquitted. If the accused did not or swam, he or she was pulled out of the water - and it also could result in unintended deaths here. This is logged as an error of procedure.

In a missal in the British Museum chronicles the part of the imperial party of a water sample in 1083 at the height of the Investiture Controversy by some of the leading prelates of the papal court the legality of the papal thing should prove. After three days of fasting, the water was blessed and a boy who should represent the Emperor Henry IV, lowered into the water. To the dismay of the prelates, he sank like a stone. As the Pope Gregory VII was reported of this ordered a repetition of the experiment, which had the same result. Then the boy was thrown in as a representative of the Pope and remained during two attempts on the surface, despite all attempts to plunge him into the water. Everyone involved an oath had been taken to keep the unexpected result of the water sample secret.

The water sample with cold water was still applied after the Middle Ages, in the early modern period as Hexenbad, although the participation of clergy in carrying out God's judgments had been forbidden by the Catholic Church at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and also the implementation of secular laws became more and more banned since the late Middle Ages, so increasingly since the 13th century, the torture as a means of obtaining a confession was used, with reports of such water samples are available from the late 17th century. However, the Hexenbad was rejected by most lawyers as evidence for the accusation of witchcraft. Nevertheless just passed the popular belief often means that defendants were asking to be allowed to submit the water sample, considering it a good chance to prove their innocence without having been subjected to torture. But your chances are very low because the evidence was interpreted to the competent judge.

Water sample at Currencies

Furthermore, there was also a " water sample " in the monetary history that has been applied to about 1871 to the fineness of gold and silver coins and on the basis of the displaced by immersion in water quantity of water and the Raugewichts the coin based on the specific gravity of pure gold, silver to copper mathematically determined relatively accurately because the alloy metals of the coin to be tested were known. See Ephraimites.