Ordeal

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( a.) Of or pertaining to trial by ordeal.

(2): ( n.) Any severe trial, or test; a painful experience.

(3): ( n.) An ancient form of test to determine guilt or innocence, by appealing to a supernatural decision, - once common in Europe, and still practiced in the East and by savage tribes.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Ordeal See Magic, p. 569 b .

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A test by fire, water, poison, wager of battle, or the like, of the innocence or guilt of persons in appeal thereby to the judgment of God in default of other evidence, on the superstitious belief that by means of it God would interfere to acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty, a test very often had recourse to among savage or half-civilised nations.