Crucifix

The crucifix was the focal object of the oath-taking before Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris fought their judicial duel. Set on an altar at the center of the field, it linked the men’s formal declarations to Christ’s Passion and helped frame the combat as a judgment under divine authority. Its role was not ornamental: the combatants touched and kissed it while binding themselves by oath to the justice of their causes and the truth of their words.

Place in the pre-combat ceremony

After the rules had been proclaimed, priests brought an altar onto the field. It was five feet long, three feet wide, and two feet high, covered in gold cloth; a silver crucifix and a prayer book opened to an image of Christ’s Passion were placed upon it. The altar stood at the center of the proceedings, turning the field from a regulated public arena into a consecrated setting for the oaths.

The religious objects evoked Christ’s trial, judgment, and execution. The ceremony thus presented the duel as more than a contest between two men: it was supposed to expose guilt through a verdict attributed to God. The crucifix made that claim visible, even though the outcome itself remained uncertain until the combat was fought.

The oaths and the object’s use

The crucifix figured in the formal oaths sworn before the battle. In the second oath, Carrouges and Le Gris knelt facing one another across the altar, placed their bared hands on the crucifix, and swore that their own causes were just and their statements true. They invoked the peril of their souls if they lied, denied carrying magical charms on themselves or their horses, and each kissed the crucifix.

The third oath bound them directly to one another. Still kneeling face-to-face, with their visors open, they touched the crucifix with their right hands while clasping each other’s bare left hands; the marshal held their joined hands in his open palm. Carrouges swore that his accusations were true and his cause just, while Le Gris answered that Carrouges’s cause was evil and that his own defense was just. The crucifix therefore accompanied opposing claims, not a shared confession: each man called upon the same sacred object to attest to his innocence and the justice of his case.

Removal and significance

Once the ceremonies were complete and the combatants had returned to their chairs, the priests hurriedly removed the altar, crucifix, and prayer book. Attendants swept smooth the sand where the altar had stood, restoring the field as a fighting space before the duel began. The removal marked a transition from sworn claims to physical combat, while ensuring that no sacred objects remained on the ground during the fight.

The crucifix’s part in the ritual reveals how religious authority was woven into the duel’s public and legal meaning. It lent solemnity to the oaths and supported the idea that the outcome would disclose divine judgment. Yet the object could not itself settle which claim was true: both opponents swore upon it, and the decisive verdict was made legible only through the duel’s result.