The authors who were desirous of distinguishing them selves by a proficiency in this new science, went about the matter with all the coolness and precision so necessary in juridical writings. They entered into the most minute details concerning the nature of insults, the very mention of which can excite in us nothing but laughter. They ex amined them according to all the rules of logic, and ar ranged every thing which concerned them by the Aristo telic predicaments.
The various modes of giving and returning the lie, formed another most ample subject of decisions ; for there were affirmative lies, and negative lies ; lies universal, particular, conditional, absolute, positive, privative, cer tain, and doubtful.* Each of these species had its subdi visions: there was one," demente general pour la personne ;" a second, "flour l'injure ; and a third, regardant l'injure et la Personne." Honour was a thing very difficult to be defined ; for they had to weigh exactly the cause efficient, the cause formal, the material, and the final ; insomuch that there were twenty different modes of defining it, each supported by one set, and condemned by all the rest. It is not to be wondered at after this, that the business of duels was treated of in the most lengthy manner : it was necessary to hold the balance even among no less than fifty formulas of cartels. In a thousand situations, the challenge was to be accepted—in many, there were tlfficulties wheiner it should be accepted or refused. Out of the equality or inequality of conditions and of persons, arose an infinite variety of speculations and specialties.t The very existence of such a science is suffi cient to spew to what a dangerous extreme the derange ment of the human faculties may be carried, under the grave shelter of academic formalities ; into what a total absurdity of principle, and into what a lamentable, yet ludicrous, train of actions and manners must not they have fallen, who had learned to regard, as oracles of wisdom, the hair-brained and drivelling professions of this chivalric science.
As an instance of the height to which this infatuation was carried, it may he mentioned, that, in the year 1450, Pozzo, one of the first jurisconsults of his clay, published decisions touching this science, not only in Latin, but in Italian also, ut nano rerun) tam gravium ignorantiam mulare possit,") by which his fame became extended throughout the whole of Europe. This author cited not
only the maxims of the Greek and Roman writers as his authorities, but had the assurance to quote the martyrs and the fathers as defenders and practitioners of duelling. He asserted that God himself had sanctioned the duel be tween Cain and Abel.* He entered into a serious disqui sition as to which of the combatants ought to be held victor, in case one had lost an eye, and the other a nose. He sought out different expedients for saving the honour of a person whn died after the challenge, but before the day of contest ; but the which he gave the preference was this, that a relation should occupy the place of the defunct, to prove that he had not died of fear. As he was a stick ler for fighting on equal terms, he contended, that a ro bust and healthy appellant should be sweated, bled, and purged, till he had attained a degree of gracility and feeble ness equal to those of the respondent. IF one party wanted an eye, the other must wear a patch ; if one was lame, the other must have a leg tied up behind, &c. &c. Pozzo is only one out of an enormous list of similar writers to be found in Ducange. In all of these authors we findforms of prayer proper for duels. The combatants uniformly prepared themselves by taking the sacrament. The religious orders attended all duels in pompous array ; and their masters, priors, &c. were commonly appointed umpires of the fight. The pernicious influence which all this had upon the man ners of Europe is still but too apparent, in the subsistence of a practice which could only have originated in a bar barous and credulous age. The belief in the interference of providence in all duels, (the only apology for duelling that could ever have had a shadow of reason on its side,) is now no more ; and we therefore surpass our ancestors in the absurdity of our conduct, in the same proportion that we have the advantage over them in the justice of our opinions.