Or Judgment of God, was a term anciently applied to all extraordinary trials of secret crimes; as those by arms and single combat; and the ordeals, or those by fire, or red hot ploughshares, by plunging the arm in boiling water, or the whole body in cold water, in hopes that God would work a miracle, rather than suffer truth and innocence to perish. These customs were a long time kept up even among Christians, and they are still in use in some nations. Trials of this sort were usually held in churches, in the presence of the bishop, priest, and secular judges, after three days fasting, confession, communion, and many adjurations and ceremonies, described at large by Du Cange.