Cruentation

Cruentation was used in Germanic law systems as early as the medieval period, whence it spread to Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Scotland, and European colonies in North America.

If the wounds of the corpse then began to bleed or other unusual visual signs appeared, that was regarded as God's verdict, announcing that the accused was guilty.

[13] Yet Michael Alberti's Systema jurisprudentiae medicae [System of Forensic Medicine], published almost a century later, still encourages investigators to rely on torture and cruentation.

While Margaretha's story was described rather vaguely by Thomas of Cantimpré, the tale grew increasingly infamous and detailed as it spread throughout Europe and was elaborated on by later authors.

Works following the 13th century On Bees describe similar narratives that rely on cruentation as a piece of evidence stacked against Jews accused of the deaths of Christian children in Europe.

After the Lutheran reformation the practice of cruentation was unwarranted from a legal point of view in Denmark and Norway, and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries leading theologians of the Danish Church condemned it several times.

Apparently the practice was so popular that it continued to remain judicially sanctioned for some time even when that meant circumventing the official teaching of the Protestant state church.