ABSTRACT The document presented here, one which has gone almost entirely unnoticed by historians, contains the record of three trials by ordeal undergone by suspected thieves, almost certainly in the first decade of the thirteenth century. It has a special interest in that it illustrates procedure not in a royal but in a private court, that of the bishop of Rochester at Southfleet. In various ways, it illuminates the charges against the accused and their responses to them, the procedure of the court and attendance at it, and the differing fates of the suspects. It shows that the court was not in fact entirely ‘private’, since it acted under the supervision of royal officials, while on one occasion a number of local gentry were present as well. But the record does not appear to have owed its survival to its legal or even social significance, rather it is suggested that it was preserved because the monks of Rochester cathedral priory regarded it as potentially useful in their recurrent disputes with the bishop.

中文翻译：

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十三世纪早期肯特法院的严酷审判

摘要 这里介绍的这份文件几乎完全没有被历史学家注意到，它包含了对嫌疑小偷所经历的三场考验的记录，几乎可以肯定是在 13 世纪的前十年。它有一个特别的兴趣，因为它不是在皇室而是在私人法庭中说明程序，即Southfleet 的罗切斯特主教的程序。它以各种方式阐明了对被告的指控及其回应、法庭程序和出庭情况以及嫌疑人的不同命运。它表明宫廷实际上并不完全是“私人的”，因为它在皇家官员的监督下运作，而有一次还有一些当地绅士在场。但该记录的存在似乎并不是由于其法律甚至社会意义，