Weighing against the Bible

Weighing against the Bible

In the Middle Ages many churches had very large Bibles. When someone was accused of witchcraft, it was a practice to weigh that person against the Bible. If the Bible weighed more, then the accused was assuredly a witch since the word of God was "heavier" than the word of the Devil. However, if the person accused outweighed the Bible, then he or she was judged innocent. Although the Bibles were large and extremely heavy, few of them weighed more than the average person, so rarely was someone accused of witchcraft found guilty with this method of judgement. It soon fell out of favor.