ined by the Justices, a further day was assigned on the ground that
the coat of the Bishop's champion had been found to contain several
rolls of prayers and charms. In this instance no battle took place, as a
compromise was arranged, whereby the Bishop was to pay the Earl 1,500
marks, and judgment was given for the Bishop on the Earl making default.
With regard to charms, it may be remarked that there is copied on the
fly-leaf of a MS. volume of reports, _temp._ Edward I. and II., in a
contemporary hand, a charm comprising a list of the names of God, to be
recited only in special cases, one of which was "par doute de plai." We
may add that ecclesiastics not unfrequently retained a champion not for
one occasion, but permanently, and he was in receipt of regular pay.
Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, followed this course, giving a
bond to Thomas de Bruges in consideration of the said Thomas performing
the duties of champion. Similarly, by a deed dated London, April 28, 42
Henry III., one Henry de Fernbureg was engaged for the sum of 30 marks
sterling to be always ready to fight as the Abbot of Glastonbury's
champion in defence of the right which he had in the manors of Cranmore
and Pucklechurch, against the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Dean of
Wells and other their champions whatsoever.

Naturally, however, the judicial combat was an institution in which the
court and the aristocracy had a greater interest than the church. It has
been suggested, with much probability, that the office of the King's
Champion originated from this custom. In any case, members of the royal
house arranged, and even participated in, duels of this order; and one
of the best accounts of the practice has been preserved in a long and
elaborate epistle addressed to Richard II. by Thomas Duke of Gloucester
and Constable of England. The following are extracts:

"The king shall find the field for to fight in. And the lists shall be
lx paces of length and xl paces of breadth in good manner; and the earth
be firm, stable, and hard, and even, made without great stones, and the
earth be plat; and the lists strongly barred round about and a gate in
the east and another in the west with good and strong barriers of vij
foot of height or more.... The day of battle the King shall be in a sege
or scaffold there where they shall be.... When the appellant cometh to
his journey, he shall come to the gate of the lists in the east in such
manner as he will fi