How did they determine guilty and not guilty

For the most serious crimes the way they determined if a person was guilty or not was by an ordeal. There are four different types of ordeals. Ordeal by combat, ordeal by fire, ordeal by cold water, and ordeal by bread.

Ordeal by combat: Possibly the most common ordeal was by combat. The person accused was forced to fight with a muscular opponent. They believed that if the accused was innocent God would give him strength so that he could prevail. The person who had more physical strength would often win.

Ordeal by fire: The person accused had to hold a red hot metallic piece for a few seconds. Then their hand was bandaged up. Three days later if the accused person’s hand was infected, he or she would be found guilty and if it was healing there were thought innocent.

Ordeal by cold water: The accused was thrown into water, if he or she sank they were found innocent, it they floated then the accused was guilty. The idea was that water is a pure substance and would repel the guilty and sink the innocent.

Ordeal by bread: In this ordeal the accused would attempt to swallow a whole slice of bread without chewing, if they succeeded God helped them and they were found innocent.

For the less serious crimes they had a jury trial. Every citizen was forced to attend the jury trials and the accused was found guilty or innocent by a jury of twelve men.