The Roman law studied at Bologna was not at first in force anywhere. In southern Europe, a much simplified system of Roman law had partly survived, but in most of Europe the law up to about 1200 remained largely the customary law of the Germanic tribes. The methods of proof by ordeal did not survive the rationalist mood of the twelfth century. Popular belief waned as ordeal by battle was sometimes replaced by contests of hired champions,63 a procedure whose faults are especially evident, though the concept is not entirely unknown to modern law.
