The wood was held by two persons on
opposite sides of the psalter, and the accused having been placed before
them, one of them said thrice to the other: "He has the thing" (i.e.,
the stolen article). The other thrice answered: "He has it not."
Thereupon the priest declared: "This He will deign to make manifest unto
us, by Whose judgment are ruled things terrestrial and things celestial.
Thou art just, O Lord, and righteous are Thy judgments. Turn away the
evils of Thy enemies, and destroy them with Thy truth."
The fate of the accused depended on the miraculous turning of the
psalter. If the direction was from left to right he was innocent; if
from right to left, he was guilty. It would appear from the prayer, in
which the priest invoked Divine revelation, that he held the book, and
therefore it is natural to assume that, consciously or unconsciously,
his opinion must have influenced its movement. The prayer ran:
"Omnipotent, everlasting God, who didst create all things from nothing,
and didst form man from the clay of the earth, we pray Thee, as
suppliants by the intercession of Mary the most holy Mother of God ...
that Thou do make trial for us concerning this matter about which we are
uncertain; so that if so be that this man is guiltless, that book which
we hold in our hands shall [in revolving] follow the ordinary course of
the sun; but that if he be guilty that book shall move backwards.
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