Perhaps, however, the best-known ordeal was that which was worked out with a heated iron bar or ring.[190] This generally weighed three pounds, and had to be carried—they were always personal and picturesque in the middle ages—for a distance of nine times the length of the bearer’s foot.[191] His hand was then bound up and left alone for three days.[192] At the end of these it was examined, and if found clean and free from suppuration[193] the accused was acquitted. Doubtless, in deeply superstitious times the ordeals, with their solemn prayers and incantations, were fairly effective. But yet they do not seem to have been altogether trusted, at any rate in the later period,[194] since even those who passed successfully through them were obliged to quit the country within forty days.[195] Most people, however, who underwent ordeals had been arraigned by twelve knights of the county (who thus resembled a Grand Jury) and were already under grave suspicion;[196] the ordeal, then, could only say not proven. Moreover, it would appear from various sources that the tests and trials were frequently tampered with,[197] the elaborate ritual giving plenty of opportunity;[198] at least one king scoffed at priestly acquittals.[199] After incurring the disapproval of many Popes, the ordeals were condemned at the fourth Council of Lateran in 1215, and by the eighteenth canon priests were forbidden to pronounce their blessing upon them.[200] The ordeals were abolished in England in the reign of Henry III. and the juries took their place.[201] Another species of ordeal, and certainly another means of escape from the criminal law, was the wager of battle. This very ancient mode of trial[202] was introduced into England by the Normans under William I. If a man made a charge against another, and proofs of guilt were not obvious and overwhelming, the latter could demand trial by battle,[203] unless the complainant were over sixty years old or were sick and infirm,[204] or laboured under some physical disability,[205] in which case he might choose the ordeal.[206] Priests, infirm persons, and women might have champions to represent them.[207] The knights fought with their usual weapons,[208] the plebeians with staves forty-five inches long, which were tipped with iron heads shaped like rams’ horns.[209] They were to be bareheaded, barefooted, and close-shaven; and so they fought till death or surrender,[210] at first with the clubs, and afterwards, failing them, in hideous grapple, killing as best they could. If the accuser were defeated he could be committed to gaol as a calumniator,[211] but was not to lose life or limb; he was, however, fined sixty shillings and lost civil rights.[212]