Water sample (law)
The water sample is an archaic element of legal history, to be proven up to the 3rd millennium BC. In the Codex Ur-Nammu , there still as a river sample in sorcery.
Samples not only with cold but also with hot water existed, especially in the early Middle Ages : During the hot water test, the accused had to wear a ring or something similar. get from a kettle of boiling water. If the wounds healed quickly, this was taken as proof of innocence. During the cold water test, the suspect was submerged in cold water, if he swam above, he was considered convicted.
At the time of the witch hunts in the 16th and 17th centuries, the latter was used in a weakened form as a preliminary test to refute or confirm the suspicion of witchcraft against the accused women. From this time the cold water sample is also known as the Hexenbad .
Water test as a judgment of God
The water test stands at the beginning of the historically verifiable history of God's judgments . The first written reference to the implementation of water samples comes from the 3rd millennium BC. In the 10th paragraph of the Codex Ur-Nammu , a legal text that goes back to the Sumerian king Urnammu of Ur , a water test is described to be carried out in a river. Also in the Codex Hammurapi , which dates from the 18th century BC. A kind of divine judgment is also described with the help of the element water.
Various ways of carrying out water tests have been handed down. In post-Christian Europe, however, two types of water samples, namely hot and cold water, were used most frequently .
Water test with hot water
The legal water test with hot water ( iudicium aquae ferventis , kettle test or kettle catch ) is probably the oldest form of divine judgment in Europe, which is also mentioned in the oldest legal texts (for example in Hinkmar von Reims ). The defendant had to fetch a ring or a small stone from a kettle of boiling water with his bare arm. The hand and scalded arm were then bandaged and sealed. After a few days the bandage was removed. If the wound did not fester, the test had passed and innocence proved. In another variant known as a kettle trap , the defendants had to catch a kettle of boiling water. The latter form was used in particular as a test of chastity .
Water test with cold water
The water sample with cold water ( iudicium aquae frigidae ) was probably introduced by Pope Eugene II (824–827). The defendants were tied crosswise and, while sitting with a rope, lowered or thrown into a pond or similar body of water. This with the prayer formula: ". The water does not receive the body of the one of the weight of the good freed by the wind of injustice is borne aloft ceasing" If swam the accused above, this was seen as evidence of witchcraft, but when that went down, was the not as evidence to the contrary, as this could still be seen as an exception. It was believed that the pure element of water would repel sorcerers / witches. As with the water test with hot water, in this case it took a “miracle” to be acquitted. If the accused did not swim, they were pulled out of the water again - which could also lead to unwanted deaths. This was recorded as a "procedural error".
In a missal in the British Museum , the imperial party reports of a water test which, at the height of the investiture controversy in 1083, was supposed to prove the legitimacy of the papal cause by some leading prelates of the papal court. After three days of fasting, the water was blessed and a boy, who was supposed to represent Emperor Henry IV , was lowered into the water. To the horror of the prelates, it sank like a stone. When Pope Gregory VII was told about it, he ordered a repetition of the experiment, which had the same result. Then the boy was thrown in as the Pope's representative and remained on the surface for two attempts, despite all attempts to immerse him in the water. An oath was taken from all involved to keep the unexpected result of the water sample secret.
The water test with cold water was still used as a witch's bath after the Middle Ages, in the early modern period , although the participation of clergy in carrying out divine judgments had already been forbidden by the Catholic Church at the IV Lateran Council in 1215 , and The implementation of secular laws has also been increasingly prohibited since the late Middle Ages, so that since the 13th century torture has been increasingly used as an aid to obtaining a confession, with reports of such water samples from the late 17th century. However, the witch's bath was rejected by most lawyers as an indication of the allegation of witchcraft . Nevertheless, it is precisely the popular belief that often led defendants to ask to be allowed to submit to the water test, since they saw it as a good chance to prove their innocence without being subjected to torture. However, their chances were very slim, since the evidence was a matter of interpretation by the competent judge.
Water test for currencies
There was also a "water test" in currency history, which was used until around 1871 to determine the fineness of gold and silver coins based on the amount of water displaced by immersion in water and the rough weight of the coin based on the specific weights of pure gold, silver and To be able to determine copper mathematically relatively precisely, since the alloy metals of the coin to be tested were known. See Ephraimites .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Dinzelbacher : The foreign Middle Ages. Judgment of God and Animal Trial , Essen: Magnus Verlag 2006 p. 35f. ISBN 978-3-88400-504-0 .
- ↑ hu-berlin.de (accessed on May 30, 2009)
- ↑ It is mentioned in the Lex Salica and in the chapter of Ludwig the Pious from 819/819. The old Norwegian Frostathingslov orders them for women who want to purge themselves of well-founded accusations of pagan victims.
literature
- A. Erler: Kettle trap . In: Handbuch der Deutschen Rechtsgeschichte Vol. 2. Sp. 707 f. Berlin 1978.