Justice In Flames: Fire Review On The Examination

Trial by fire, the significant procedure of the judicatory history, is mainly prevalent in the Medieval Europe. Both as a means of proof and a judicial process, trial by fire is regarded as a 'primitive', 'uncivilized' and 'irrational' procedure. Therefore, the systematic study of trial by fire is singularly, such study is scarcely any in china. Although being from the German origin, the trial by fire is for sure a 'rational' and "desirable" procedure in the medieval course. To study the trial by fire systematically and meticulously, which could help us to unveil its essence and clarify the prejudices upon it. Furthermore, this paper puts the trial by fire into the historic course of litigation system, reviewing the continuity which might be concealed, and tries to provide a creative research approach for the study of judicatory system.Except the Preface and the Conclusion, this paper contains six parts.The first part is The Test of Fire and Trail by Ordeal, which illustrates the legend of 'Holy Lance', indicating the initial origin of trial by fire that, it is from the concept that, from of old, the fire would reveal the Truth. Gradually, the test of fire became an important form of ordeal, that is, the trial by fire. Whereas the tight relation of the trial by fire and ordeal, this paper defines the trial by fire and analyzes the conception of ordeal, furthermore, it also compares and expatiates on the affiliation between them.The second part is The Origin and the Development of Trial by Fire. In human judicatory history, trial by hot iron, which was appeared in the Council of Reisbach in 800, was mostly the premier form of trial by fire. However, the earliest absolutely reliable reference to this ordeal is the works of Agobard of Lyons, which were dated to around 820. Another form of trial by fire, the ordeal of walking on hot ploughshares, was first referred in the Turingian law in 802. From then on, it was widely used in the cases of sexual offences. By the mid-ninth century, the trial by fire had come into vigorous life; multifarious forms emerged and spread to various areas.The third part is The Types, the Applications and the Rules. This part introduces three types of trial by fire, that is, trial by hot iron, ordeal of hot ploughshares, and test by fire directly. Afterward, follows an approach of typological classification, it analyzes the applications of trial by fire in various cases, for example, the applications in cases of political trial, sexual charge and disputed paternity, and trial of faith, the universal application also included. Besides, it also analyzes the people who might face trial by fire in different instances and in the cases with various characteristics. Moreover, this part introduces the rules and rituals, which the trial by fire developed after being brought into the general judicatory procedure.The forth part is The Demise. The demise of trial by fire underwent a long and a reiterative course. The Fourth Lateran Council abolished ordeal, however, the absolute abolition is only after several years. Thus, although trial by fire was died out essentially in1300, we also could find the records of trial by fire held in 14th century. To review the demise of trial by fire, we needs to put such trail into the background of the demise of ordeal, which had been restricted and influenced by amounts of factors, among which, the most important concludes: the condemnation of the secular and the ecclesiastical authorities, the revival of the Roman Law, and the arising of the alternative procedures, etc. Most of all, ordeal had been condemned for a long time, and ultimately promulgated the prohibition of the 1215; second, from the late eleventh century to twelfth century, the clashes of the secular and the ecclesiastical incandesced, which give birth to the Centralized kingdoms of papalism, that lied the social foundation to the demise of ordeal; third, the revival of the Roman Law and the arising of the alternative procedures accelerated the demise. Moreover, there had been other causes, such as the distrusts for the clergy and the trail by fire, and the ambiguities exist in the results of trial by fire.The fifth part is The Empirical Basis. This part, in light of the specific historical background and social environment, demonstrates the empirical basis. First of all, trial by fire is the Judgment of God. People believe that the ubiquitous justice endowed by God will acquit the innocent and publish the guilty, though it is always sort of psychological deterrence to a large extent. Second, the trial by fire gathers its theoretical basis, which achieves the aim of explicitly concluding the pending actions. Moreover, the evidence suggests that mostly of people can pass trial of fire. Therefore, the trial by fire is not as cruel as one usually thought, but a relatively "merciful" action. Third, such ordeal as trial by fire undertakes the function of avoiding the overspreading of the conflicts. This paper, by the analysis of the social structure and the monarchy of Mediaeval France and Normans, elucidates ordeal is a kind of ideal judicial instrument employed by the kings and seigniors, which can ensure the ultimateness of the tribunal results; what is more, the results are prone to be easily accepted by the common people and beneficial to the precaution of the disputes of the masses and war actions, thus can maintain the peace of the society. Fourth, in the Medieval when the judgments mainly relied on the swears and the testimonies, as the increasing dissatisfaction of the swears and the overflow of the false testimonies gathers, the rulers would rather employ ordeal to take the place of the original swears, furthermore, they made use of such ordeal as trial by fire to backup the swears that are insufficient themselves to inhibit the false swears.The sixth part is On the Trial of Fire and the Development of Litigation System. In this part, the author probes into the state of the development of litigation system after the abolitions of the trial by fire. When the ordeal was abolished, there were two kinds of apparent trend of development in the judicial sphere: England and some other countries headed for the jury system rapidly; while a more significant advancement emerged in most other European countries, that is, the rising of inquisition. Apart from the demonstration of the abolition of the ordeal such as trial by fire as well as the rising of the new type substitutive procedures, this paper studies on the relationship between the trial by fire and modern litigation system.The ingenuity of this paper may be as follows: first, it conducts relatively systematic and deeply demonstration of the generation, development and collapse of the trial by fire; second, the trial by fire, as a kind of important proof means and a form of trial in the judicial history, was always criticized by people, while it unveil the essence of the trial by fire truthfully which is beneficial to clarify the prejudices upon it; third, based on the overall analysis of the trial of fire, the paper connects it with the development of the litigation system and puts forwards its historical continuity prudently.Some imperfections still exist in this paper, which are: Actually, there are amounts of pertinent foreign references, however, the mastery of these materials is not deficient, both for the subjective and objective causes. And, from the perspective of history research, the author's analysis is not exquisite enough; hence this study still leaves spacious room for a variety of improvements.