Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria E.I.1.c.4, Justinian's Digest 1.1

At the beginning of the twelfth century, the ordeal was a wide spread method of proof.  During the course of the century the Ordo iudiciarius was substituted for the ordeal, especially in Southern Europe.   The rules governing this procedure were cobbled together by jurists and were taken primarily from Roman law. 

The change in procedure from the ordeal to a system of proof based on testimony and a judge presiding over the proceedings was unsettling and disconcerting for society and for the courts.