troduced as
decisive in all the disputes that might arise between man and man, the
opposition of all those whose prime virtue was personal bravery, was
necessarily excited. In fact, the nobility, from a very early period,
began to look with jealous eyes upon them. They were not slow to perceive
their true purport, which was no other than to make the Church the last
court of appeal in all cases, both civil and criminal: and not only did
the nobility prefer the ancient mode of single combat from this cause, in
itself a sufficient one, but they clung to it because an acquittal gained
by those displays of courage and address which the battle afforded, was
more creditable in the eyes of their compeers, than one which it required
but little or none of either to accomplish. To these causes may be added
another, which was perhaps more potent than either in raising the credit
of the judicial combat at the expense of the ordeal. The noble institution
of chivalry was beginning to take root, and, notwithstanding the clamours
of the clergy, war was made the sole business of life, and the only
elegant pursuit of the aristocracy. The fine spirit of honour was
introduced, any attack upon which was only to be avenged in the lists,
within sight of applauding crowds, whose verdict of approbation was far
more gratifying than the cold and formal acquittal of the ordeal.
Lothaire, the son of Louis I., abolished that by fire and the trial of the
cross within his dominions; but in England they were allowed so late as
the time of Henry III., in the early part of whose reign they were
prohibited by an order of council. In the mean time, the Crusades had
brought the institution of chivalry to the full height of perfection. The
chivalric spirit soon achieved the downfall of the ordeal system, and
established the judicial combat on a basis too firm to be shaken. It is
true that with the fall of chivalry, as an institution, fell the
tournament and the encounter in the lists; but the duel, their offspring,
has survived to this day, defying the efforts of sages and philosophers to
eradicate it. Among all the errors bequeathed to us by a barbarous age, it
has proved the most pertinacious. It has put variance between men's reason
and their honour; put the man of sense on a level with the fool, and made
thousands who condemn it submit to it or practise it.

Those who are curious to see the manner in which these combats were
regulated, may consult the lear