Obs. exc. Hist. Also 8 (erron.) -et. [OE. cor-snǽd, f. cor choice, selection, investigation, trial (cf. G. kor, kör choice), f. ablaut stem of céosan to choose, coren chosen + snǽd bit, piece, f. snídan to cut. Called in OFris. cor-bita.]
In OE. law, the morsel of trial, a piece of bread of about an ounce weight consecrated by exorcism (panis conjuratus) which an accused person was required to swallow as a trial of his guilt or innocence.
a. 1000. Laws of Ethelred, ix. 22, in Thorpe, I. 344 (Bosw.). Gif man freondleasne weofod-þen mid tihtlan belecge, ga to corsnæde.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Corsned, Ordeal-bread, or imprecated Bread.
1747. Carte, Hist. Eng., I. 369. What was called … corsned (the loaf of execration) or the judicial morsel.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxiii. 74. The use of the ordeal, corsnet.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 339. Corsned, or morsel of execration: being a piece of cheese or bread, of about an ounce in weight, which was consecrated with a form of exorcism; desiring of the Almighty that it might cause convulsions and paleness, and find no passage, if the man was really guilty; but might turn to health and nourishment, if he was innocent.
1845. Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), II. x. 121.
1848. Lytton, Harold, II. V. v. 41. One of the most popular ordeals of the accused,—viz. that called the ‘corsned.’
