84 MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION of Castile, had two champions fight in order to decide whether the Roman law should be introduced into his domains. The knights regarded the duel as the most convenient and the most honorable method of deciding a suit; no discussions were gone through, no proofs were given; in offering him battle the adversary was answered. The duel was employed not only in the courts of the knights, but in the tribunals of the towns, among the citizens (bourgeois), often even among the peas- ants in the country; the combatants were then armed with shield and stick. When one of the adversaries could not fight he had himself replaced by a champion. The duel was customary in Paris, even in the tribunal of the bishop. Some people showed scruples in regard to it. Pope Eugenius III., being consulted, answered: "Make use of your custom," The custom of the duel was so deeply rooted that it could not be set aside; the duel suppressed in the courts, continued to be regarded as the sole means of doing oneself justice in affairs of honor. It is like the point of honor, a remnant of the Middle Ages. The Judgment of God.—The duel was not used by women, and was often forbidden to the peasantry. Then was employed the judgment of God. After mass and solemn prayers to ask God to manifest the truth, the accused man or woman submitted to a test. Sometimes he was made to carry a piece of red-hot iron for some distance, or to plunge an arm into a cauldron of boiling water; if, some days after, the hand or arm showed no wound, the judgment of God