e ring and sandals; these being peculiar to
bishops, who frequently wore them richly adorned with jewels.

Favin observes, that the custom of blessing _gloves_ at the coronation
of the kings of France, which still subsists, is a remain of the eastern
practice of investiture by _a glove_. A remarkable instance of this
ceremony is recorded. The unfortunate _Conradin_ was deprived of his
crown and his life by the usurper _Mainfroy_. When having ascended the
scaffold, the injured prince lamenting his hard fate, asserted his right
to the crown, and, as a token of investiture, threw his _glove_ among
the crowd, intreating it might be conveyed to some of his relations, who
would revenge his death,--it was taken up by a knight, and brought to
Peter, king of Aragon, who in virtue of this glove was afterwards
crowned at Palermo.

As the delivery of _gloves_ was once a part of the ceremony used in
giving possession, so the depriving a person of them was a mark of
divesting him of his office, and of degradation. The Earl of Carlisle,
in the reign of Edward the Second, impeached of holding a correspondence
with the Scots, was condemned to die as a traitor. Walsingham, relating
other circumstances of his degradation, says, "His spurs were cut off
with a hatchet; and his _gloves_ and shoes were taken off," &c.

Another use of _gloves_ was in a duel; he who threw one down was by this
act understood to give defiance, and he who took it up to accept the
challenge.[70]

The use of single combat, at first designed only for a trial of
innocence, like the ordeals of fire and water, was in succeeding ages
practised for deciding rights and property. Challenging by the _glove_
was continued down to the reign of Elizabeth, as appears by an account
given by Spelman of a duel appointed to be fought in Tothill Fields, in
the year 1571. The dispute was concerning some lands in the county of
Kent. The plaintiffs appeared in court, and demanded single combat. One
of them threw down his _glove_, which the other immediately taking up,
carried off on the point of his sword, and the day of fighting was
appointed; this affair was, however, adjusted by the queen's judicious
interference.

The ceremony is still practised of challenging by a _glove_ at the
coronations of the kings of England, by his majesty's champion entering
Westminster Hall completely armed and mounted.

Challenging by the _glove_ is still in use in some parts of the world.
In Germa