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In Anglo-Saxon law, corsned (OE cor, "trial, investigation", + snǽd, "bit, piece"; Latin panis conjuratus), 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 totalling about an ounce in weight and consecrated with a form of exorcism as a trial of his innocence. If guilty, it was supposed 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.[1][2] 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."[3][4] The ecclesiastical laws of Canute the Great also mention the practice.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7][8]
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Webster, Noah (1828). "Corsned". Webster's Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts: C. & G. Merriam Co.
- ^ Blackstone, Sir William (1769). Commentaries on the laws of England. IV. 339. "Corsned, or morsel of execration: being a piece of cheese or bread, of about an ounce in weight, which was consecrated with a form of exorcism; desiring of the Almighty that it might cause convulsions and paleness, and find no passage, if the man was really guilty; but might turn to health and nourishment, if he was innocent."
- ^ 'Laws of Ethelred ix. 22 in Thorpe I. 344'. "corsned". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Thorpe, Benjamin (1865). "Ordel". Diplomatarium anglicum aevi saxonici. p 659.
- ^ Ecclesiastical Laws of Canute the Great, Article 5:
- English: "And if a friendless servant of the altar be charged with an accusation, who has no support to his oath, let him go to the corsned, and then thereat fare as God will, unless he may clear himself on the housel." Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne (1892). Ancient Facts and Fictions concerning Churches and Tithes. London: Macmillan and Co. Appendix E, p 340.
- Latin: "Si quis altari ministrantium accusetur, et, amicis destitutus, consacrementales non habeat, vadat ad judicium, id est ad panem conjuratum, quod Anglice dicitur corsned, et fiat sicut Deus velit; nisi super sanctum corpus Domini permittatur ut se purget." Great Britain (1840). "Legis Regis Cnuti", v. Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. Printed by G. E. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. p 523.
- ^ D'Israeli, Isaac. "Trials and Proofs of Guilt in Superstitious Ages". Curiosities of Literature.
- ^ Burn, Richard and John Burn (1792). A new law dictionary: intended for general use, as well as for gentlemen of the profession. By Richard Burn, ... And continued to the present time by John Burn, Esq. his son, ... In two volumes. Vol. 1. London. pp 231-232.
- ^ Lingard, John (1810). The antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Newcastle : Printed by E. Walker, sold by J. Booker and Keating. pp 310-311.
