294 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Appendix st If 71 : And though these customs were absurd,I. they were rather an improvement on the methodsof trial , which had formerly been practisedamong those barbarous nations, and which stillprevailed among the Anglo-Saxons.

When any controversy about a fact becametoo intricate for those ignorant judges to unravel,they had recourse to what they called the judgmentof God, that is, to fortune : Their methods ofconsulting this oracle were various. One of themwas the decision by the cross .- It was practised inthis manner. When a person was accused of anycrime, he first cleared himself by oath, and hewas attended by eleven compurgators. He nexttook two pieces of wood, one of which wasmarked with the sign of the cross ; and wrappingboth up in wool , he placed them on the altar,or on some celebrated relique. Aster solemnprayers for the success of the experiment, a priest,or in his stead some unexperienced youth , tookup one of the pieces of wood, and if he happened11904 that which was marked with the figure ofthe cross, the person was pronounced innocent;it otherwise, guilty ”. This practice , as it arosefrom superstition , was abolished by it in trance.The emperor , Lewis the Debonnaire , p iohibitedthat method os tual, not because it was uncer-tain, but lest that sacred figure, says he, of the

7 ° I b. Longob. lib. 2. tit. 55. cap. 23. spud Lindenb.

p.

71 See Desfontaincs and Beaumanoir.