Description

Type of trial by ordeal in Anglo-Saxon law

Technical

In Anglo-Saxon law, corsned, also known as the accursed or sacred morsel, or the morsel of execration, was a type of trial by ordeal that consisted of a suspected person eating a piece of barley bread and cheese totaling about one ounce in weight and consecrated with a form of exorcism as a trial to determine innocence. If guilty, it was believed that the bread would produce convulsions and paleness and cause choking. If innocent, it was believed the person could swallow it freely, and the bread would turn to nourishment. The term dates to before 1000 AD; the laws of Ethelred II reference this practice: "Gif man freondleasne weofod-þen mid tihtlan belecge, ga to corsnæde." The ecclesiastical laws of Canute the Great also mention the practice. According to Isaac D'Israeli, the bread was of unleavened barley, and the cheese was made of ewe's milk in the month of May. Writers such as Richard Burn and John Lingard have considered it an imitation of the "water of jealousy" used in the ordeal prescribed in Numbers 5:11-31 for cases of jealousy.