Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 295
frequent, appears not only from the codes of ancient
laws which eftablifhed it, but from the earheft writers
Concerning the praffice of law in the different nations
of Europe. They treat of this cuftom at great length ;
they enumerate the regulations concerning it with mi¬
nute accuracy ; and explain them with much folicitude.
It made a capital and extenfive article in jurifprudence.
There is not any one fubjedf in their fyftem of law,
which Beaumanoir, Defontaines, or the compilers of the
Affifes de Jerufalem, feem to have confidered as of
greater importance ; and none upon which they have
beftowed fo much attention. The fame obfervation will
hold with refpedt to the early authors of other nations.
It appears from Madox, that trials of this kind were
fo frequent in England, that fines, paid on thefe occa-
fions, made no inconfiderable branch of the king’s re¬
venue. Hift. of the Excheq. vol. i. p. 349. A very
curious account of a judicial combat between Mefire
Robert de Beaumanoir, and Mefire Pierre Tournemine,
in prefence of the Duke of Bretagne, A. D. 1385, is
publifhed by Morice, Mem.pour fervir depreuves a 1 Hift.
de Bretagne, tom. ii. p. 498. All the formalities ob-
ferved in fuch extraordinary proceedings are there de-
feribed more minutely than in any ancient monument
which I have had an opportunity of confidering. Tour¬
nemine was accufed by Beaumanoir of having murdered
his brother. The former was vanquifhed, but was faved
from being hanged upon the fpot, by the generous ip-
tercefiron of his antagonift. A good account of the
Origin of the laws concerning judicial combat is pub¬
lifhed in the hiftory of Pavia, by Bernardo Sacci, lib. ix.
c. 8. in Graev. Thef. Antiquit. ItaJ. vol. iii. 743.
This mode of trial was fo acceptable, that ecclefiaf-
tics, notwithftanding the prohibitions of the church,
were conftrained not only to connive at the pra&ice,
but to authorize it. A remarkable inftance of this is
produced by Pafquier Recherches, lib. iv. ch. i. p. 350.
The abbot Wittikindus, whofe words I have produced
in this note, confidered the determination of a point in
law by combat as the beft and moft honourable mode