To a monarch of France belongs the honor of first interposing the royal authority for the entire suppression within his jurisdiction of this _impious custom_, so universally adopted, so dear to the nobility, and so profoundly rooted in the institutions of the Feudal Age. And here let me pause with reverence as I pronounce the name of St. Louis, a prince whose unenlightened errors may find easy condemnation in an age of larger toleration and wider knowledge, but whose firm and upright soul, exalted sense of justice, fatherly regard for the happiness of his people, respect for the rights of others, conscience void of offence toward God or man, make him foremost among Christian rulers, and the highest example for Christian prince or Christian people,--in one word, a model of True Greatness. He was of angelic conscience, subjecting whatever he did to the single and exclusive test of moral rectitude, disregarding every consideration of worldly advantage, all fear of worldly consequences. His soul, thus tremblingly sensitive to right, was shocked at the judicial combat. It was a sin, in his sight, thus to _tempt God_, by demanding of him a miracle, whenever judgment was pronounced. From these intimate convictions sprang a royal ordinance, promulgated first at a Parliament assembled in 1260: "_We forbid to all persons throughout our dominions the_ TRIAL BY BATTLE; ... _and instead of battles, we establish proofs by witnesses_.... AND THESE BATTLES WE ABOLISH IN OUR DOMINIONS FOREVER."[45] [45] Guizot, Hist. de la Civilisation en France, Leçon 14, Vol. IV. pp. 162-164. Such were the restraints on the royal authority, that this beneficent ordinance was confined in operation to the demesnes of the king, not embracing those of the barons and feudatories. But where the power of the sovereign did not reach, there he labored by example, influence, and express intercession,--treating with the great vassals, and inducing many to renounce this unnatural usage. Though for years later it continued to vex parts of France, its overthrow commenced with the Ordinance of St. Louis.