After solemn prayers for the success of the experiment, a priest, or in his stead some unexperienced youth, took up one of the pieces of wood, and if he happened upon that which was marked with the figure of the cross, the person was pronounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty.

[*] This practice, as it arose from superstition, was abolished by it in France.
[* LL.

Prison, tit.

14, apud Lindenbrog.p.

496.
trial, not because it was uncertain, but lest that sacred figure says he, of the cross should be prostituted in common disputes and controversies.] The ordeal was another established method of trial among Saxons.