The judgement of God and the fate of a dog: the ninth-century ordeal debate and the anonymous Song of Count Timo.

This paper argues that the judicial ordeal was the subject of a lively debate in the ninth century. Research on the medieval ordeal has mainly focused on opposition to the practice in the twelfth century, attaching little significance to earlier controversy. When Carolingian-era opinions of the ordeal are discussed, they are usually seen in terms of the later ordeal debate. Using as a case study the anonymous mid ninth-century Bavarian poem, the Song of Count Timo, this paper argues that the ninth-century ordeal debate revolved around Carolingian-era concerns, rather than twelfth-century ones. Thus, the Song of Count Timo opposed the ordeal because it saw it as undermining royal control of justice in the context of the political turbulence of the 830s. Examining the Carolingian-era ordeal debate on its own terms allows us to better understand the medieval ordeal, and also the law, politics and religious thought of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]