The ordeals were believed to interpret spirit messages in a scheme to placate the spirits through disguised bribery. [1]
The early crime detectors and officers of the law believed that ghosts administered justice through medicine men and priests, conducting ordeals of poison, fire, and pain as methods of detecting crime. [2]
Jesus denounced belief in spells, ordeals, bewitching, cursing, signs, mandrakes, knotted cords, and all other forms of ignorant and enslaving superstition. [3]