Ordeal by Boiling Water
When a man was accused of a serious crime, he was required to fast on only water, salt, and herbs and abstain from having sex for three days straight. During this time, he was forced to live with a priest, who would pray for help from God to endure his trial. Once those three days of preparation were over, and they considered a man’s body to be cleansed, they brought him to a cauldron of boiling water. He had to put his entire forearm into the cauldron to retrieve a stone from the bottom. The priests would quickly wrap his arm in bandages.
Three days later, the priests would unwrap the man’s arm. If it looked normal, it meant that God had healed his wounds, and he was declared innocent. If it was still scarred and burned, it meant that the man was innocent. According to the laws of Pope Gregory The Great, the accused man had to keep the fire going under his own cauldron for fourteen days straight. It is possible, then, that maybe someone was able to get away with lighting a fire just before their trial, and their water was not actually going at a full boil. Otherwise, this trial was likely to come up with a guilty verdict every single time.