[289] Chron. Domin. de Arkel (Matthæi Analect. VIII. 296). In 1336 a judicial duel was fought in Bavaria to decide a similar question—the right of two nobles to a coat of arms.—Würdinger, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Kampfrechtes in Bayern, München, 1877, p. 14.
[290] Rymer, Fœdera, II. 226-9, 230-4, 239-40, 242-3.—Lünig. Cod. Ital. Diplom. II. 986.
[291] Ramon Muntaner, cap. lxxi. See also Pedro’s own brief account of the matter in a letter of June 20, 1283, to his nephew, the Infante Juan of Castile.—Memorial Histórico Español, 1851, T. II. p. 99.
[292] “Sub speculatoris supremi judicio terminatum.”—Rymer, Fœd. VII. 407.
[293] Du Bellay, Mémoires, Liv. III.—The letters are given by Juan de Valdés in the Diálogo de Mercurio i Caron (Dos Diálogos, pp. 243, 247, 287.—Reformistas antiguos Españoles).
[294] An outlying fragment of the same belief is to be seen in the ancient Japanese practice of deciding knotty questions by the judicial duel (Griffis’s Mikado’s Empire, New York, 1876, p. 92). Even the most savage of existing races, the aborigines of Australia, have a kind of duel under certain rules by which private controversies are settled, and among the Melanesians the custom prevails, champions even being sometimes employed (Patetta, Le Ordalie, Torino, 1890, pp. 55, 60).
[295] Iliad. III. 277-323.
[296] Nicholaus Damascenus (Didot Frag. Hist. Græcor. III. 457).
[297] Liv. XXVII. 21.
[298] Senchus Mor, I. 251.