Judicium Dei Law and Legal Definition
“Judicium dei” is the judgment of God. Early Saxon and English law impiously reached the judgments on trials by ordeal, by physical combats etc. It was believed that the accused, if innocent, will be exculpated through divine intervention. Innocence was established if the "trial" produced no evidence of injury. For example, in an ordeal by fire the accused was forced to handle a red-hot iron or to walk barefoot and blindfolded over nine red-hot plowshares. The accused will not be injured if he was innocent. Such ordeal practices were ended in 1215 by decree of the Fourth Lateran Council.
