84. Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws, xxviii. c. 14), who
understands 'why' the judicial combat was admitted by the
Burgundians, Ripuarians, Alemanni, Bavarians, Lombards,
Thuringians, Frisons, and Saxons, is satisfied (and Agobard
seems to countenance the assertion) that it was not allowed
by the Salic law. Yet the same custom, at least in cases of
treason, is mentioned by Ermoldus Nigellus (1. iii. 543, in
tom. vi. p. 48) and the anonymous biographer of Lewis the
Pious (c. 46, in tom. vi. p. 112), as the "mos antiquus
Francorum more Francis solito," etc., expressions too
general to exclude the noblest of their tribes.