.. that in no manner thou receive this man, if he
be in any way guilty of the charge brought against him; by deed, namely,
or by consent, or by knowledge, or in any way; but make him to swim
above thee. And may no process be employed against thee, and no magic,
which may be able to conceal that" [i.e., the circumstance of his
guilt].
THE JUDGMENT OF THE MORSEL
A fifth form of the ordeal was the test of eating consecrated bread and
cheese. This was known as the _corsned_, or morsel of execration. The
priest wrote the Lord's Prayer on the bread, of which he then weighed
out a certain quantity--ten pennyweights--and so likewise with the
cheese. Under the right foot of the accused he set a cross of poplar
wood, and holding another cross of the same material over the man's
head, threw over his head the theft written on a tablet. He placed the
bread and cheese at the same moment in the mouth of the accused, and, on
doing so, recited the conjuration:
"I conjure thee, O man, by the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and
by the four-and-twenty elders, who daily sound praises before God, and
by the twelve patriarchs, the twelve prophets, the twelve apostles, the
evangelists, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, by all the saints and by
our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our salvation and for our
sins did suffer His hands to be affixed to the cross; that if thou wast
a partner in this theft or didst know of it, or hadst any fault, that
bread and cheese may not pass thy gullet and throat, but that thou
mayest tremble like an aspen-leaf, Amen; and not have rest, O man, until
thou dost vomit it forth with blood, if thou hast committed aught in the
matter of the aforesaid theft.
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