Ordeal by Water? What was that?

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Leo van de Pas

Ordeal by Water? What was that?

Legg inn av Leo van de Pas » 25 jan 2007 05:19:20

John Mautravers, in 1185 his son underwent the ordeal by water for him. John died about June 1200, and by his first wife, Alice, he had two sons, Walter and John; by his second wife, Alice de Bendeville, he had Thomas and William.

Would anyone know what this "ordeal by water" was, and why his son underwent it for him------and which son was it?

With many thanks.
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia

Nathaniel Taylor

Re: Ordeal by Water? What was that?

Legg inn av Nathaniel Taylor » 26 jan 2007 02:39:37

In article <mailman.2141.1169698796.30800.gen-medieval@rootsweb.com>,
"Leo van de Pas" <leovdpas@netspeed.com.au> wrote:

John Mautravers, in 1185 his son underwent the ordeal by water for him. John
died about June 1200, and by his first wife, Alice, he had two sons, Walter
and John; by his second wife, Alice de Bendeville, he had Thomas and William.

Would anyone know what this "ordeal by water" was, and why his son underwent
it for him------and which son was it?

Answers have already been posted on ordeal by boiling water & by cold
water, but not what this particular case was--it could have been any
number of things. The whole realm of the judicial ordeal (seeking a
controlled way to divine God's judgment of a suspect for criminal
behavior) has been well studied, for example in Robert Bartlett's _Trial
by Fire and Water: the Medieval Judicial Ordeal_ (1986), and even a
century earlier by H. C. Lea, in his essay on the ordeal (essentially a
collection of translated excerpts from primary sources, with commentary)
in _Superstition and Force_ (1870):

http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC0 ... printsec=t
itlepage

Nat Taylor
http://www.nltaylor.net

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