of champions there was an endeavor to secure equality of age, size, and strength.[647] This equalization of chances was thoroughly carried out in Italy, where the law required them to be selected with that view.[648] Thus in the Veronese code of 1228, where, as has been seen, the champions were a recognized body, regulated and controlled by the state, no one could engage a champion before a duel had been judicially decreed. Then the magistrate was bound to choose gladiators of equal prowess, and the choice between them was given to the defendant; an arrangement which rendered the mutilation inflicted on the vanquished combatant only justifiable on the score of suspected treachery.[649] A Bolognese regulation of the thirteenth century was even fairer, and reduced the combat to an affair of chance in which the judgment of God had the fullest scope, for when the champions were in the lists a child placed inside of the garments of each a card bearing the name of his principal, and until the combat was ended no one knew which of them represented the plaintiff and which the defendant.[650] In Bigorre, the only restriction seems to have been that champions should be natives and not foreigners, and their payment was recognized as a matter of course.[651] By the Spanish law of the thirteenth century, the employment of champions was so restricted as to show an evident desire on the part of the legislator to discourage it as far as possible. The defendant had the right to send a substitute into the field, but the appellant could do so only by consent of his adversary. The champion was required to be of birth equal to his principal, which rendered the hiring of champions almost impossible, and not superior to him in force and vigor. Women and minors appeared by their next of kin, and ecclesiastics by their advocates.[652] In Russia, until the sixteenth century, champions were never employed, contestants being always obliged to appear in person. In 1550, the code known as the Sudebtnick at length permitted the employment of champions in certain cases.[653] * * * * *