What was trial by oath

A short while later, the body is unceremoniously tossed into the Tiber River. And the aftermath of the trial had many twists and turns. For example, monks sympathetic to Formosus fetched the corpse from the river, and rumors even began to circulate that the corpse was performing miracles on the banks of the Tiber.

Moreover, bishops appointed by Formosus and still loyal to him staged a Vatican coup. A mob tossed Pope Stephen into a dungeon, where he was strangled.

Subsequently the decrees of the Cadaver Synod were first annulled and then reinstated by different popes. The Cadaver Synod succeeded in dampening enthusiasm for trying corpses.

Indeed, in Pope John IX even issued a decree prohibiting future trials of the dead. Even so, Pope Formosus was not the last person to show up dead for his trial. Over the next half millennium, scores of other cadavers had their unwanted days in court. So what was behind these trials? Why, in the Middle Ages would one try a dead pope?

Or anyone else? In part, such trials reflect medieval beliefs about death—death is not the end; people move on to their rewards and punishments in the next world. And a good part of the interest in trying dead people can be attributed to laws that allowed the confiscation of property of persons convicted—dead or alive--of serious crimes.

As late as , Judge Pierre Ayrault argued in a treatise that convicting the guilty after death made every bit as much sense as posthumous exonerations of the innocent.

But is it really necessary for the dead defendant to show up in court? The Trial of Emma. The Cadaver Synod was something of a special case. What about trials of non-popes, including ordinary people, accused of committing ordinary crimes? In these cases, most of Europe turned to systems of justice that produced just results only if God took enough interest in a case to provide it. Briefly put, there were two techniques, each semi-rational at best, that came into use.

The earliest trial form to develop was trial by oath—or more precisely, trial by compurgation. In these trials, a person accused of a crime tried to round up people willing to swear to his or her innocence—people called compurgators. These trials were not fact-based inquiries; the oaths were the evidence.

Even the high and mighty had to seek out compurgators. She won acquittal, however, when 82 knights lined up to confirm her chastity. If that seems like a high burden for Queen Uta, consider that a person accused of poisoning in Dark Ages Wales had to find compurgators to prove his innocence. Trials by oath made sense for people who believed God would strike dead anyone who swore falsely.

But objections to the system—people understood perjury was possible --led to another form of trial process, trial by ordeal. At first, ordeals were employed as a way of producing a result in intractable cases, but its use spread and in many places replaced compurgation altogether.

Trial by Ordeal. Trials by Ordeal bear almost no resemblance to modern trials. If a defendant was truly innocent, the thinking went, God would step in and perform a miracle to save the defendant from a grievous wrong.

Trials by ordeal were not, mind you, some wink-wink proceeding. People of the medieval world, for the most part, actually believed that God would ensure a just outcome. For most people of the time, God was ever-watchful—they could scarcely imagine Him just sitting by and let an innocent person be found guilty. In a trial by ordeal the defendant was subjected to a challenge, usually an unpleasant one causing serious injury. A typical ordeal might involve walking over hot irons or retrieving a stone from boiling water.

The defendant was found innocent if the injury sufficiently healed within a specific time—3 days was typical--and guilty if the injury still festered.

In the more bizarre ordeal of the cold water, bound suspects were thrown into a convenient body of water to see whether they sank or floated. Because water was believed to be pure and have the power to repel sin, anyone who sank persuasively enough was acquitted—and, with luck, might be resuscitated and live to see another day.

Emma of Normandy being led over hot ploughshares. No contemporaneous records exist for the trial by ordeal of Emma of Normandy. The earliest surviving record comes from The Annals of Winchester , written in about As with any account written over a century after the fact, it is best to assume the story as we have it contains a mixture of fact and and a large dose of fiction. The charge claimed that Emma had engaged in sexual relations with Bishop Elfwine of Winchester.

Emma insisted she was innocent—and that she willing undergo the ordeal of hot iron to prove it. The Archbishop of Canterbury agreed—but only with rigorous conditions. If she falters, if she does not press one of the ploughshares fully with her feet, if she is harmed the one least bit, then let her be judged a fornicator.

The nine red-hot ploughshares are laid across the pavement in a church. Emma enters and entreats God to save her. Led by the hand by bishops, she starts to walk. Miraculously, according to chroniclers, Emma passes the test with flying colors. Her feet are examined, or so the report goes, and they are found to be uninjured. All around proclaim a miracle. Emma is innocent of the charge and free to go, with all her confiscated property restored.

There is reason to take this account with a grain of salt. Perhaps the ordeal never even occurred at all. Separating fact from fiction can be difficult in a period without much record-keeping. It is beyond question, however, that the ordeal of hot iron was one of the more common forms of ordeal during this time period. Note also the involvement of the Church in these trials. The Catholic Church took to trials with gusto.

The use of ordeals actually e xpanded in the ninth through eleventh centuries along as Latin Christendom spread in Europe. The Church found trials by ordeal to be a handy way of dealing with heretics. Priests frequently were paid to supervise ordeals. If chroniclers are to be believed, trials by ordeal had a fairly high exoneration rate. Priests had a great deal of latitude to make judgments, even assuming the ordeals themselves were not manipulated, as of course they could be.

Has the wound healed enough to prove innocence? That can be a question without a clear answer. Perhaps a bribe might influence the final call? Given the discretion here, woe to the poor defendant undergoing an ordeal who had crossed the priest in some way. Isolated from the rest of Europe, Iceland developed a unique culture and legal system. One of the treasures we have from the medieval world are Icelandic sagas.

And the greatest of all Icelandic sagas, The Saga of Burnt Njal written in about , tells of a remarkable trial that took place at Iceland's Law Rock in about Of course, given time between the trial and when the story was put into writing, again one must assume the account is a mix of fact and fiction.

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If you wish to report a problem with a road or street you can do so online in this section. The contractor may appeal an unfavorable decision by the Comptroller by filing a petition with the CDRB within 30 days of the Comptroller's decision. The CDRB does not conduct a trial with live witnesses.

The CDRB is limited to the review of the decision of the agency head and the record before the agency head and the Comptroller. The parties may brief the issues and may make oral arguments supporting their respective positions.

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Judicial review pursuant to Article 78 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules is limited to whether or not the decision was made in violation of lawful procedure, was affected by an error of law, or was arbitrary and capricious or an abuse of discretion. Back to top [ back to top ] Licensing Taxi and Limousine Commission The Trials Division hears a number of cases involving Taxi and Limousine Commission licensed taxicab drivers and for-hire vehicle drivers, including discretionary license revocations, noncompliance hearings, summary suspension hearings following a pre-hearing suspension of a driver's license for alleged public safety risks, and fitness hearings typically resulting from a driver's failed drug test.

Read A Guide to your Hearing at the OATH Trials Division Guide in Spanish Department of Buildings The Trials Division conducts license revocation trials brought by the Department of Buildings against architects, engineers, master plumbers, electricians, hoist machine operators, site safety managers, concrete testing laboratories, and similar categories of licensees.

Department of Health and Mental Hygiene The Trials Division hears enforcement proceedings brought by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that include abatements of nuisances or other detrimental health conditions, as well as permit denials, suspensions, or revocations.

Business Integrity Commission The Trials Division conducts trials brought by the Business Integrity Commission against respondents who have allegedly engaged in unlicensed or unregistered collection of trade waste, as well as applicants and registrants with the Commission whose alleged violations include failure to complete a customer register, report required information, or properly label containers.

In 13th century Norway, the law makes it clear that reputation was important. If you had a bad reputation, you could simply end up in court. The only way to disprove accusations based on rumours during this time was to swear you were telling the truth. You could also get help from others who would stand up for you.

During the Middle Ages, trust was important. If there were no eyewitnesses to the alleged crime, it was all the more important to swear that you were telling the truth, Nordby said. Legal texts suggest that people took these vows very seriously in the Middle Ages. Up to eleven people could swear in support of the defendant. They commented on the question of guilt and considered what they thought was most likely.