Trial by ordeal
Videos
Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience.
Water-ordeal; miniature from the Luzerner Schilling
After being accused of adultery Cunigunde of Luxembourg proved her innocence by walking over red-hot plowshares.
Peter Bartholomew undergoing the ordeal of fire, by Gustave Doré.
Sita in an agnipariksha, Yuddha Kanda
Girolamo Savonarola
Videos
Girolamo Savonarola, OP, also referred to as Jerome Savonarola, was an Italian ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of
Trial by ordeal
…with Byzantine law and ecclesiastical canons. Angold notes, "Its abolition by Michael Palaiologos was universally acclaimed." In 1498, Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, the leader of a reform movement in Florence who claimed apocalyptic prophetic visions, saw one of his followers attempt to prove the divine sanction…
Girolamo Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo, c. 1498, Museo di San Marco, Florence
Posthumous portrait of Savonarola by Moretto da Brescia, c. 1524
Illustration from Compendio di revelatione, 1496, by Savonarola
Italian Renaissance Medal of Savonarola by Fiorentino. Electrotype, obverse.