CHAPTER VIII.

DECLINE OF THE JUDICIAL COMBAT.

Iceland and Norway the first to prohibit it 199 Opposition of the Municipalities 200 of the Church 206 Influence of the Roman law 211 Decline of the Judicial Duel in Spain 214 Struggle over its abolition in France 216 Reforms of St. Louis 217 Resistance of the Feudatories 218 Reaction after the death of St. Louis 222 Renewed efforts of Philippe le Bel 222 Continued by his successors 227 Occasional cases in fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries 228 Final disappearance 235 Its later history in Italy, Hungary, Flanders, Russia, Scotland 235 Maintained in England until the nineteenth century 241 Traces of its legal existence in the United States 246

III.

THE ORDEAL.