North Eastern Europe - The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation - Volume 3 - Collected By Richard Hakluyt
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So When They Goe To The Field, They
Sweare Vpon The Crucifixe, That They Be Both In The Right, And That The One
Shall Make The Other To Confesse The Trueth Before They Depart Foorth Of
The Field:
And so they goe both to the battell armed with such weapons as
they vse in that countrey:
They fight all on foote, and seldome the parties
themselues do fight, except they be Gentlemen, for they stand much vpon
their reputation, for they wil not fight, but with such as are come of as
good an house as themselues. So that if either partie require the combate,
it is granted vnto them, and no champion is to serue in their room: wherein
is no deceit: but otherwise by champions there is. For although they take
great othes vpon them to doe the battell truely, yet is the contrarie often
seene: because the common champions haue none other liuing. And assoone as
the one partie hath gotten the victorie, he demandeth the debt, and the
other is carried to prison, and there is shamefully vsed till he take
order. There is also another order in the lawe, that the plaintife may
sweare in some causes of debt. And if the partie defendant be poore, he
shalbe set vnder the Crucifixe, and the partie plaintife must sweare ouer
his head, and when hee hath taken his othe, the Duke taketh the partie
defendant home to his house, and vseth him as his bond-man, and putteth him
to labour, or letteth him for hier to any such as neede him, vntill such
time as his friends make prousion for his redemption:
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