Judicial duels, or combats by individuals, according to forms of law, obtained among the ancient Goths, in Sweden,[8] and this form of “searching out hidden truths,” as Selden observes, was practiced by the Russians, Hungarians, Almains and Normans.[9] History records that the Emperor Otho, A. D. 983, at Verona, held a diet at which were assembled many lords and princes from France, Germany and Italy and in order to discourage perjury in judicial trials, the convention substituted the trial by battle in all cases, in lieu of the oaths or testimony of witnesses.[10] In the early feudal ages, “when knighthood was in flower,” chivalry played no small part in the growth and development of the fixed rules governing the trial by battle.[11] Chivalry has always been in the world, but it finds expression according to the customs obtaining in the different stages of man’s growth and development. Because fighting was then the order of the day, in the olden times, knights were sacrificed by personal combat, for their ladies faire. When trial by battle was on the decline, Sir Walter Raleigh expressed the spirit of chivalry of that period, by spreading his cloak upon the ground for his queen to walk upon. And in this our twentieth century, with the progress of the race,—be it ever recorded to the credit of the manhood of the period—this same spirit was exemplified by the splendid lesson of hundreds of noble men heroically accepting the terrors of a mighty sea, in order to rescue the women and children from a sinking ship.[12] The deeds of knighthood, in the England of the middle ages, came to be gauged according to fixed and settled rules and customs and finally the _Court of Honor_, was recognized, the same as the court of civil procedure, for the trial of affairs of honor, for, says Blackstone: “This court of chivalry, can order reparation at the point of honor.”[13] The proceedings of this court were by petition, in a summary manner, and the trial, instead of by a jury, as at the present day, with witnesses, was by individual combat.[14] The _Court of Honor_ was not a court of record and it could not imprison, but the marshalling of arms, was then the pride of the best families of the kingdom and the success in these affairs of honor, because of the spirit of chivalry of the times, was just as much guarded as was the attainment of justice through the procedure of the civil courts. Heralds and knights seconded and backed up the appeals of the principals in such encounters and the sacrifice of the individual in these mortal combats was regarded as a trifle, compared to the preservation of the family name and honor and since his attainder and the corruption of his blood and family name depended upon his success in the combat, the wager of battle was welcomed, as the only vindication of one’s manhood and honor.