Medieval Priest Manuals Instructed Clergy to Secretly Manipulate Ordeal Water Temperatures
Peter Leeson · a16z Podcast | The Why Behind the Weird · Jan 2, 2019 · at 18:34
Peter Leeson describes historical manuals instructing clergy on how to conduct and alter judicial ordeals.
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“Instruction manuals that priests of this era had for conducting ordeals, what you'll find is a whole bunch of fishy business where they essentially tell you to do things like, you know, you'll boil the water in private so that nobody can see, which means you might in fact not boil the water at all, right? You sprinkle holy water In scare quotes, sprinkle over the cauldron before the guy plunges his arm in, which gives you a chance to pour cold water in so that the water isn't actually boiling.”
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