Hello, I'd like you to imagine for a moment that you're a sheep farmer.

Not some fancy 21st century sheep farmer with heritage breeds and heated barns, just

your standard hard working sheep farmer living hundreds of years ago in medieval Europe.

Okay, are you there?

In your mind?

Now, imagine that just down the road from you is a rival sheep farmer.

Two of you have never gotten along and now he's accusing you of stealing some of his sheep.

You are arrested and sent to court.

And the court or the officials don't have any real reason to think that the neighbor would

make this up, but nor is there enough evidence to convict.

The judge doesn't want to send an innocent man to prison, but he also doesn't want to

let a criminal go free.

So he presents two options.

You can either plead guilty or your case can be turned over to a church court for a trial

by Ordeal.

There were two basic types of Ordeals in the period in question, Hot Ordeals and Cold

Ordeals.

That's Peter Leeson.

Hot Ordeals consisted of trials by water, in which case what they would do is, and by

they, I mean clerics.

It's clerics, priests who are administering all of these Ordeals.

Boyle a pot of water, throw a stone or a ring into it, ask the defendant to plunge his

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