" 3 Blacks,one 345, note.
I apprehend that this trial was never forced upon accused persons,
but was only allowed to them, as an appeal to God, from the
judgment of a jury. [24]
The trial by compurgators was one in which, if the accused could
bring twelve of his neighbors, who would make oath that they
believed him innocent, he was held to be so. It is probable that this
trial was really the trial by jury, or was allowed as an appeal from
a jury. It is wholly improbable that two diferent modes of trial, so
nearly resembling each other as this and the trial by jury do, should
prevail at the same time, and among a rude people, whose judicial
proceedings would naturally be of the simplest kind. But if this
trial really were any other than the trial by jury, it must have been
nearly or quite extinct at the time of Magna Carta; and there is no
probability that it was included in "legem terrae."
[24] Hallam says, "It appears as if the ordeal were permitted to
persons already convicted by the verdict of a jury.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114