Trial by Ordeal

Quaint form of proving innocence or guilt, depending on your status.

Trial by fire - This consisted of walking barefoot over red hot iron. If you survived that, and the resultant wound healed after three days you were considered innocent.

The second - trial by ordeal was the plunging of the arm into boiling water. If you had no blisters, you were assumed to be innocent.

The third was to be thrown into a river, if you sank, again, you were considered innocent.

Another method was the eating of food containing a feather. if you choked you were assumed guilty. As you can see, you were on a hiding to nothing.