1. The defendant would take a sip of holy water and then be thrown into a pool of water. If the water "accepted" her as pure (i.e., if she sank to the bottom), she was considered innocent of the charges. If she floated to the surface, she was considered guilty.
2. The defendant would be required to pick up and carry a measure of iron weighing one pound after it had been heated over a fire. He would have to carry this nine feet, as measured by the length of his own foot.If the case involved a serious crime such as murder or betrayal of one's lord, the weight of the iron would be three pounds rather than one.
3. Court officials would heat a laundry cauldron to the boiling point, then throw a stone into the bottom. The plaintiff must pluck out the stone to prove his innocence. In serious cases, she must plunge in her arm up to the elbow.
4. A priest could prove his innocence by going before the altar and praying aloud that God would choke him if he were not telling the truth. He would then take a piece of the host and swallow it. If he swallowed it easily with no visible sign of discomfort, this was felt to be supernatural proof of his innocence. However, if he choked or had difficulty swallowing, this was thought to be supernatural proof of his guilt or deceit. P. J. Helm has speculated that this techinque might be more effective than modern readers would initially think. He proposed that a psychosomatic component might actually cause a guilt-plagued priest to choke--though to most modern thinkers the method seems like a dubious one.