. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. ordancewith the manners and ideas of the period. Questions which otherwise wouldhave been difficult to solve were thus abruptty settled, and from these bloodydecisions there was no appeal. In some countries, indeed, the judge whohad decided between two antagonists had himself to submit to the judgmentof God, as represented by the judicial duel, and was forced to come downfrom his judgment-seat and contend in arms against the criminal he had just CHIVALRY. *57 condemned. On the other hand, however, it mustjbe
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. ordancewith the manners and ideas of the period. Questions which otherwise wouldhave been difficult to solve were thus abruptty settled, and from these bloodydecisions there was no appeal. In some countries, indeed, the judge whohad decided between two antagonists had himself to submit to the judgmentof God, as represented by the judicial duel, and was forced to come downfrom his judgment-seat and contend in arms against the criminal he had just CHIVALRY. *57 condemned. On the other hand, however, it mustjbe said that the judge, inhis turn, possessed the privilege of challenging a prisoner who refused to bowto his decision. If the principle of this rough combatant justice be once admitted, it mustbe acknowledged that a spirit of wisdom dictated every possible precautionto render its inconveniences as few as possible. The duel, in fact, only tookplace when a crime punishable by death had been committed, and then onlywhen there were no witnesses to the crime, but merely grave suspicions. Fig. 126.—Duel concerning the Honour of Ladies.—Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Histoirede Gerard de Nevers, a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the National Library ofParis. against the supposed criminal. All persons less than twenty-one or morethan sixty years of age, priests (Fig. 125), invalids, and women (Fig. 126),were dispensed from taking part in these combats, and were allowed to berepresented by champions. If the two parties to a dispute were of adifferent rank in life, certain regulations were drawn up-in favour of theplaintiff. A knight who challenged a serf was forced to fight with a serfsweapons, that is to say, with a shield and a staff, and to wear a leathernjerkin; if, on the contrary, the challenge came from the serf, the knight CHIVALRY. was allowed to fight as a knight, that is to say, on horseback and in was customary for the two parties to a judicial duel t
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