_Gloves_, beside their original design for a covering of the hand, have been employed on several great and solemn occasions; as in the ceremony of _investitures_, in bestowing lands, or in conferring _dignities_. Giving possession by the delivery of a _glove_, prevailed in several parts of Christendom in later ages. In the year 1002, the bishops of Paderborn and Moncerco were put into possession of their sees by receiving a _glove_. It was thought so essential a part of the episcopal habit, that some abbots in France presuming to wear _gloves_, the council of Poitiers interposed in the affair, and forbad them the use, on the same principle as the ring and sandals; these being peculiar to bishops, who frequently wore them richly adorned with jewels. Favin observes, that the custom of blessing _gloves_ at the coronation of the kings of France, which still subsists, is a remain of the eastern practice of investiture by _a glove_. A remarkable instance of this ceremony is recorded. The unfortunate _Conradin_ was deprived of his crown and his life by the usurper _Mainfroy_. When having ascended the scaffold, the injured prince lamenting his hard fate, asserted his right to the crown, and, as a token of investiture, threw his _glove_ among the crowd, intreating it might be conveyed to some of his relations, who would revenge his death,--it was taken up by a knight, and brought to Peter, king of Aragon, who in virtue of this glove was afterwards crowned at Palermo. As the delivery of _gloves_ was once a part of the ceremony used in giving possession, so the depriving a person of them was a mark of divesting him of his office, and of degradation. The Earl of Carlisle, in the reign of Edward the Second, impeached of holding a correspondence with the Scots, was condemned to die as a traitor. Walsingham, relating other circumstances of his degradation, says, "His spurs were cut off with a hatchet; and his _gloves_ and shoes were taken off," &c. Another use of _gloves_ was in a duel; he who threw one down was by this act understood to give defiance, and he who took it up to accept the challenge.[70] The use of single combat, at first designed only for a trial of innocence, like the ordeals of fire and water, was in succeeding ages practised for deciding rights and property. Challenging by the _glove_ was continued down to the reign of Elizabeth, as appears by an account given by Spelman of a duel appointed to be fought in Tothill Fields, in the year 1571. The dispute was concerning some lands in the county of Kent. The plaintiffs appeared in court, and demanded single combat. One of them threw down his _glove_, which the other immediately taking up, carried off on the point of his sword, and the day of fighting was appointed; this affair was, however, adjusted by the queen's judicious interference.