t,
the command of the troops, and the administration of justice. But the
fierce and illiterate chieftain was seldom qualified to discharge the
duties of a judge, which required all the faculties of a philosophic
mind, laboriously cultivated by experience and study; and his rude
ignorance was compelled to embrace some simple, and visible, methods of
ascertaining the cause of justice. In every religion, the Deity has
been invoked to confirm the truth, or to punish the falsehood of human
testimony; but this powerful instrument was misapplied and abused by the
simplicity of the German legislators. The party accused might justify
his innocence, by producing before their tribunal a number of friendly
witnesses, who solemnly declared their belief, or assurance, that he was
not guilty. According to the weight of the charge, this legal number
of _compurgators_ was multiplied; seventy-two voices were required to
absolve an incendiary or assassin: and when the chastity of a queen
of France was suspected, three hundred gallant nobles swore, without
hesitation, that the infant prince had been actually begotten by her
deceased husband. The sin and scandal of manifest and frequent perjuries
engaged the magistrates to remove these dangerous temptations; and to
supply the defects of human testimony by the famous experiments of fire
and water. These extraordinary trials were so capriciously contrived,
that, in some cases, guilt, and innocence in others, could not be
proved without the interposition of a miracle. Such miracles were
really provided by fraud and credulity; the most intricate causes
were determined by this easy and infallible method, and the turbulent
Barbarians, who might have disdained the sentence of the magistrate,
submissively acquiesced in the judgment of God.

But the trials by single combat gradually obtained superior credit and
authority, among a warlike people, who could not believe that a brave
man deserved to suffer, or that a coward deserved to live. Both in civil
and criminal proceedings, the plaintiff, or accuser, the defendant, or
even the witness, were exposed to mortal challenge from the antagonist
who was destitute of legal proofs; and it was incumbent on them either
to desert their cause, or publicly to maintain their honor, in the lists
of battle. They fought either on foot, or on horseback, according to
the custom of their nation; and the decision of the sword, or lance,
was ratified by the sanction of