TRIAL BY BREAD.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3133, 4 March 1879, Page 2

TRIAL BY BREAD.

' Among the trials of guilt common in remoter ages, besides the ordeals of single combat, of fire, of water, Jfere wm a still more singular relic of credulity and superstition—the Trial by Bread. It was thus conducted. A piece of bread was consecrated with prayer, desiring the Almighty, that that it might cause eonrulsions and paleness, and find no passage, if the man was guilty; but might turn to health and nourishment if he was innocent. This piece of bread^ called the "corsted," or "morsel of cursing," was then given to the suspected person. Our historians assure us that Godwin, Earl of Kent, in the reign of Edfraid the Con-, fessor, abjuring the death of. the;king's brother, appealed to his corsted, which stuck in his throat and killed him. Though this custom has long been abolished, we are to often reminded of it by the unwarrantable language of inconsiderate people; in such phrases as, "May this morsel be my last!" "May this piece of bread choke me!" The superstitious people who practised this mode of trial were veryparticular'in the. making of their bread and cheese; The bread was to be of unleavened barley, and the cheese made of ewe's milk in the month of .May, no other of the twelve months having any power to detect a criminal.