witches suspect to the sea or to a deep pool, tied stones to their backs and threw them into the water. She who did not sink was the guilty person, the meaning evidently being that the sacred element rejects the criminal. That an impure person dare not approach sacred waters is a general principle—whether the impurity is moral or physical is not a distinction made by ancient religion.”
In England the swimming of a witch was actually the Judgement of God, the water ordeal, that might be applied for many crimes. It goes back to early days, about the sixth or seventh century, and a full description is given in the laws of Aethelstan, 924–940. After a preparation of prayer and fasting the person who was to undergo the test presented himself, and was bound the right thumb to the right great toe, the left thumb to the left great toe, and thus cast upon the water to sink or swim whilst Heaven’s aid was invoked to decide the justice of the cause. If he sank he was innocent; if he swam he must be accounted guilty. Later there was introduced a change in the method of tying the accused; the right thumb was to be linked to the left big toe, the left thumb to the right big toe, so that the limbs would form the sign of the Holy Cross. This was the fashion employed in England during the seventeenth century and later, but the reason for this form had been obscured or completely forgotten. The code of S. Edward the Confessor prescribes the ordeal of water, and an oath with twelve compurgators was required. In certain cases thirty-six must be found, “et si alias de latrociniis composuerit est ad iudicium aquae.”
