[195] Under this heading we have the chief effort of ancient rhetoric to be helpful to the defense in cases brought before the courts. The term _status_ meant the crucial point in a case, and its subdivisions are intended to include the chief kinds of crucial points upon which the advocate must base his speech. The inference in both Isidore and Cassiodorus is that there is only one status in a case, but Quintilian (3, 6, 21) expressly says that there are more than one, and that the chief status in a case “is the strongest point in it on which the whole matter chiefly turns.” In this section Isidore borrows from Cassiodorus almost without change in the wording. In one case he has made a serious blunder in copying: the subdivisions that Cassiodorus places under _qualitas_, Isidore has placed under _finis_. (Cass., _De Rhet._, Halm, p. 496.) [196] “When an act that is imputed to a person is denied by another” (2, 5, 3), and the balancing of evidence is the method of deciding. [197] “When it is maintained that the act that is the matter of accusation is not that [specified], and its nature is shown by the use of definitions.” 2, 5, 3. [198] “In which the nature of justice and right and the abstract grounds of reward and punishment are gone into.” 2, 5, 5. [199] Term left undefined. [200] “Which of itself offers no satisfactory ground for defence but seeks for defence beyond its own limits.” 2, 5, 5. [201] “When the accused does not deny the act but demands that it be pardoned.” 2, 5, 6. [202] “When the deed is confessed but guilt is denied” on the ground of ignorance, accident, or necessity. 2, 5, 8. [203] “When the accused confesses that he has committed the wrong and has done so purposely, and still demands that he be pardoned, which kind can be of very rare occurrence.” 2, 5, 8. [204] “When the accused endeavors energetically to divert the charge made against him from himself and his guilt to another.” 2, 5, 6. [205] “When it is urged that there is justification because another had committed a wrong before.” 2, 5, 7. [206] “When some other honorable or expedient act of another is alleged, for the accomplishing of which the act specified in the accusation is asserted to have been done.” 2, 5, 7. [207] “In which there is discussion of what is just in view of civil custom and equity.” 2, 5, 5. [208] “When the nature of the case is inquired into; and since the dispute is concerned with the real meaning and classification of the matter at stake, this is called the _constitutio generalis_.” 2, 5, 3. This is the general heading under which all the sub-heads classified under _finis_ should have been placed. Isidore made a mistake in copying from Cassiodorus, in whom the classification is correct.