waters to repair the evil which they had wrought under the impulsion of the devil. The river forthwith returned to its old channel, and next morning the multitude which assembled to witness the combat were astounded to see the miracle. The godless men who had seized on the possessions of the church humbly sought pardon for their sin, and the abbey remained in quiet enjoyment of its rights.[478] The scandal of maintaining the claims of the church by carnal weapons and bloodshed was not soon suppressed. In 1112 we find a certain Guillaume Maumarel, in a dispute with the chapter of Paris concerning some feudal rights over the domain of Sucy, appearing in the court of the Bishop of Paris for the purpose of settling the question by the duel, and though the matter was finally compromised without combat, there does not seem to have been anything irregular in his proceeding.[479] So, about the same period, in a case between the abbey of St. Aubin in Anjou and a neighboring knight, involving some rights of property, the monks not only challenged their adversary, but the duel was held in the seignorial court of another monastery;[480] and in 1164, we find a duel decreed at Monza, by the Archbishop of Cologne as chancellor of Italy, between an abbey and a layman of the vicinity.[481] That such cases, indeed, were by no means uncommon is shown by their special prohibition in 1195 by Celestin III.[482] Yet, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of the Holy See, it was almost impossible for the church to exempt itself from the universal liability. Though in 1174 Louis VII. granted a special privilege of exemption to the church of Jusiers and its men, on the ground that he was bound to abrogate all improper customs,[483] still no general reform appears to have been practicable. An important step was gained when in 1176 Henry II., as a concession to the papacy, agreed that ecclesiastics should not be forced to the duel,[484] but this did not extend to the Scottish Marches, where by law an ecclesiastic was as liable as a layman to personal appearance in the lists; if he presented a champion he was held in custody till the event of the duel, when, if the champion was defeated, his principal was promptly beheaded. Innocent III. sternly prohibited this in 1216, but ineffectually, as is seen by a complaint of the English clergy, in 1237, in which they mention the case of the Prior of Lide, who had thus recently suffered the penalty. This was equally fruitless, for the _Leges Marchiarum_, enacted in 1249, declare that exemption from battle is confined to the persons of the kings and of the Bishops of St. Andrews and Durham.[485]