COMETS. 



401 



The rules of judicial combat are detailed at great 

 length in the ordinances of various kings during 

 the middle ages, but the following summary will 

 be found amply sufficient for general readers 

 When a plaintive claimed a possession which the 

 defendant refused to resign, or charged him with 

 a crime which he denied, a challenge was the im- 

 mediate result. Whichever of them appealed to 

 the combat threw down before his adversary some 

 pledge, usually a glove, which was called the 

 gage of battle, and taking this up was the signal 

 that the challenge was accepted. In later ages it 

 was necessary to have the permission of the king 

 or liege lord before a challenge could be given, 

 but at first, the Suzerain had no right to interfere 

 until called to preside at the combat or to name a 

 president, and his power was limited to naming the 

 place and time for the contest. When the chal- 

 lenge was accepted, each combatant named certain 

 witnesses, called sponsors, or godfathers, " be- 

 cause," says an old historian, " they were about to 

 attend a baptism of blood," and these called the 

 champions their god-children ! These sponsors, or 

 seconds, as they were subsequently called, were 

 originally appointed to watch the combat, and see 

 that its rules were fairly observed ; but they soon 

 began to join in the fight themselves, either to aid 

 or to avenge their principals. Application was 

 next made to the Suzerain to appoint the umpire 

 or president, and the time and place of the combat. 

 A space called the "close-field"' was marked out, 

 and surrounded by ropes or palings. At the upper 

 part of this little amphitheatre a gallows or a pile 

 of wood was erected, that the vanquished, if he 

 escaped with life, might be instantly hanged or 

 burned. In front of this were two seats covered 

 with black, for the two combatants. Before en- 

 tering the lists the combatants attended mass, and 

 received the eucharist in the form prescribed for 

 its administration to persons at the point of death; 

 and so common were such events, that a special 

 service was prepared for the occasion, called " the 

 duellist mass," (missa pro duello,') which may be 

 found in most ancient missals. When the service 

 was concluded, the combatants were led by their 

 god-fathers, accompanied by the heralds and clergy, 

 to their seats in the lists, and a discourse was pro- 

 nounced, usually by a priest, exhorting them not 

 to tempt Providence if conscious of falsehood or 

 injustice. An oath was administered to each, in 

 which they called to witness, God, the virgin 

 Mary, the saints, and especially " that good knight 

 and gentleman St George," that their causes were 

 just, and that they would not depart from them. 

 They next swore on the Gospels that they had 

 used no sorcery, witchcraft, or magical incanta- 

 tions, and that they had not about them any spell, 

 amulet, or charm. But not satisfied with the oath, j 

 the president, called usually "the marshal of the ' 

 field," caused the combatants to be searched, and 

 at the same time had their arms measured, so that j 

 neither should have an unfair advantage by length 

 of weapon. The marshal of the field, attended by 

 the sponsors, then divided as fairly as he could the 

 advantages of ground, sun, and wind, sometimes 

 adding comfitures and other little sweets to serve 

 as refreshments in the battle. The lists were then 

 cleared, and the spectators prohibited from entering 

 them under pain of death ; severe penalties were 

 also denounced against any person who should dis- 

 tract or interrupt the combatants by coughing, 

 sneezing, speaking, or making any sound whatever. [ 



When these preliminaries were arranged, the mar- 

 shal gave the signal for combat by dropping his 

 truncheon, and saying to the sponsors, " Let the 

 brave champions go." In the earlier ages every 

 combat was a duel " to the utterance,*' that is, 

 until one or other of the champions was so 

 disabled as to be unfit for continuing the fight. 

 Defeat was condemnation, and when the subject 

 of charge was a capital crime, the vanquished passed 

 at once from the lists to the gibbet. 



Judicial combat in France was carried to a 

 greater extent than in any other European country. 

 Not only could a challenge be maintained between 

 the principals of a suit, but either of the parties 

 might challenge one of his adversary's witnesses, 

 or even the judge by whom the cause was tried, 

 if dissatisfied with his decision. Ladies or ec- 

 clesiastics fought by proxy ; if their champion 

 was overthrown he was condemned to lose his 

 right hand, and this penalty was rigidly enforced, 

 in order that champions should fight as strenu- 

 ously in the cause of others as they would in their 

 own. 



In the reign of William the Conqueror judicial 

 combats appear to have been very commcn in 

 England, for one of his laws forbids clergymen to 

 fight duels without the previous permission of 

 their bishop. But the feelings of the British 

 people were averse to this barbarism, and, from 

 the eleventh century, courts of law possessed 

 more authority in England than in any other 

 country. 



COMETS, (a.) The accounts of comets that 

 have come down to us from earlier times, although 

 somewhat numerous, and in many cases relating to 

 extraordinary celestial objects, are nevertheless so 

 vague, and in all probability so exaggerated, as to be 

 of little value. While the opinion prevailed, that 

 comets were temporary fires lighted up in our own 

 atmosphere, that is, of the same nature with those 

 transient meteors that attract a momentary gaze 

 and disappear, no exact observations were made, 

 and no pains seem to have been taken to verify an 

 hypothesis so hastily and generally received. It 

 appears not a little strange to us of the present day, 

 that it did not occur to men so acute and saga- 

 cious as Aristotle and others, who evidently had 

 paid some attention to this subject, that meteors, 

 and all atmospherical objects are to be seen only 

 over a small extent of the earth's surface, and that 

 they are seen in opposite directions from places not 

 very remote from each other. Now it is very well 

 known that when a comet presents itself, it is not 

 only seen over an extent of thousands of miles, but 

 it seems to occupy throughout this region the same 

 place in the heavens. It appears in the same con- 

 stellation, and near the same star. The path of 

 Halley's comet, for instance, traced among the stars, 

 was essentially the same to European and Ameri- 

 can observers. It is hence manifest, without having 

 recourse to any exact observations, that comets 

 cannot be very near the earth, as the ancient as- 

 tronomers supposed ; that they must be far re- 

 moved out of our atmosphere even to the region 

 of the planets. This important circumstance was 

 first fully ascertained by Tycho Braiie ; and being 

 well established, it was sufficient of itself to over- 

 throw the ancient doctrine on this subject. One 

 reason, no doubt, why this crude opinion prevailed 

 so long, was the belief in the existence of solid 

 crystal orbs supporting the planets, and wheeling 

 one within the other. Tlie idea of large bodies, 

 '2 c 



