A painful technique used in the early Middle Ages to determine the guilt or innocence of suspects by divine intervention, conducted and supervised by the Church. Ordeal by fire required suspects (usually freemen) to carry hot irons, or to walk blindfold and barefoot through red-hot ploughshares or over heated coals. If they emerged unhurt or their wounds healed within three days they were innocent. Immersion of a hand or arm in boiling water was another method. Suspects (often alleged witches) were thrown into cold water and deemed guilty if they floated. Trial by blessed bread was a test for priests, for it was assumed guilty clergy would choke on hallowed food. Ordeals were repudiated by the Church in 1215. They were not particular to Europe; tribes in east Africa and Madagascar practised similar tests.