| The early methods of trial were compurgation or trial by ordeal or wager of law. |
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| Kichynman claimed he had already cleared himself of this charge through compurgation. |
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| The Anglo-Saxon preference for compurgation, as proof of guilt or innocence, persisted and only gradually gave way to trial by jury. |
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| In the absence of positive evidence of guilt, and sometimes despite of it, the accused was bound to clear himself by compurgation or by the ordeal. |
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| Each party had to state his case under oath, and doubts as to the guilt or innocence of the accused person were resolved by either compurgation or ordeal. |
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| Once a case came to court, the method used to come to a decision was usually by compurgation. |
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| A more humane medieval method, and a step toward modern concepts, was compurgation, in which the friends and families of a disputant took oaths not on the facts but on the disputant's character. |
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| In judicial procedure, a system of compurgation prevailed, as well as the wager of battle. |
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| Compurgation was practiced until the 16th century in criminal matters and into the 19th century in civil matters. |
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| Compurgation, also called Wager Of Law, in early English law, method of settling issues of fact by appeal to a type of character witness. |
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