This was a primeval custom, even in civil cases. In the ancient laws of the Alamanni, when there was controversy as to the ownership of land, the contestants brought to the court of the district some earth and branches of trees from the disputed property. These were wrapped and sealed and placed in the lists, where the combatants touched the bundle with their swords and called upon God to grant victory to the right; the land passed to the victor and the defeated party was fined twelve sous for having made an unjust claim.[524] The tendency, as civilization advanced, was to render the penalty more severe. Thus, in 819, Louis le Débonnaire decreed that, in cases where testimony was evenly balanced, one of the witnesses from each side should be chosen to fight it out, the defeated champion suffering the usual penalty of perjury—the loss of a hand; while the remaining witnesses on the losing side were allowed the privilege of redeeming their forfeited members at the regular legal rate.[525] William the Conqueror imposed a fine of forty sous on the losing side impartially;[526] this was increased to sixty sous by the compilation known as the laws of Henry I.;[527] and the same regulation is stated by Glanville, with the addition that the defeated person was forever disqualified as a witness or champion;[528] but in practice the amount seems to have been indefinite, for in the Pipe Rolls the fines levied for _recreantise_ vary from one mark to a hundred.[529] In a case occurring in 1221 where the defendant was victorious the record simply states that the appellant was ordered into custody;[530] while in the time of Edward II. the loser, except in cases of felony, paid to the victor forty sous besides a small gratification under the name of _ruaille_, in addition to the loss of the suit.[531] By the Lombard customs, early in the eleventh century, the appellant, if vanquished, had the privilege of redeeming his hand; the defendant, if defeated, lost his hand, and was of course subject in addition to the penalties of the crime of which he was proved guilty.[532] About the same time the Béarnese legislation is more merciful, a fine of sixty-six sous Morlaas being imposed impartially on the losing party.[533] In process of time this system was abandoned in some countries. The English law of the thirteenth century admitted the justice of the _lex talionis_ in principle, but did not put it in practice, a vanquished appellant in capital cases being merely imprisoned as a calumniator, while the defendant, if defeated, was executed and his property confiscated.[534] The same distinction is to be found in the contemporary custom of Normandy.[535] So, by the code in force in Verona in 1228, the Podestà in criminal cases had the power of ordering the duel, and of punishing at his pleasure the accuser if vanquished—the accused when convicted of course undergoing the penalty of his crime.[536] Towards the end of the thirteenth century, however,