A Compurgation

<span class="ib-brac" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">(<span class="ib-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">now chiefly <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#historical" title="Appendix:Glossary" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">historical</a><span class="ib-brac" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">) Acquitting someone from a formal <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/charge" title="charge" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">charge</a> or <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/accusation" title="accusation" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">accusation</a> following the sworn <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/oath" title="oath" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">oaths</a> of a number of other people; <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/vindication" title="vindication" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">vindication</a><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Compurgation, also called <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">wager of law and <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">oath-helping, was a defence used primarily in medieval law. A defendant could establish his innocence or nonliability by taking an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath" title="Oath" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">oath</a>and by getting a required number of persons, typically twelve, to swear they believed the defendant's oath. From Latin, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">com = with, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">purgare = make clean, cleanse, excuse.<span class="mw-ref" id="cite_ref-1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: super; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161); counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"></a> Latin <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">com is also an intensifier<span class="mw-ref" id="cite_ref-2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: super; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161); counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;"></a> and turns a word into the superlative form, so compurgation, by etymology, means 'to thoroughly clean or excuse'.<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The wager of law was essentially a character reference, initially by kin and later by neighbours (from the same region as the defendant), often 11 or 12 men, and it was a way to give credibility to the oath of a defendant at a time when a person's oath had more credibility than a written record. It can be compared to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_wager" title="Legal wager" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">legal wager</a>, which is the provision of surety at the beginning of legal action to minimize frivolous litigation.<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Compurgation was found in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Germanic_law" title="Early Germanic law" class="mw-redirect" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">early Germanic law</a>, in early French law (<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">très ancienne coutume de Bretagne), in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_law" title="Welsh law" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">Welsh law</a>, and in the English <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_courts" title="Ecclesiastical courts" class="mw-redirect" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">ecclesiastical courts</a> until the seventeenth century. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law" title="Common law" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">common law</a> it was substantially abolished as a defence in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felonies" title="Felonies" class="mw-redirect" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">felonies</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutions_of_Clarendon" title="Constitutions of Clarendon" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">Constitutions of Clarendon</a> in 1164. The defence was still permitted in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_action" title="Civil action" class="mw-redirect" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">civil actions</a> for debt and vestiges of it survived until its statutory repeal at various times in common law countries: in England in 1833,<span class="mw-ref" id="cite_ref-Friedman_3-0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: super; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-Friedman-3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161); counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"></a>and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland" title="Queensland" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161);">Queensland</a> at some point before the Queensland Common Practice Act of 1867<span class="mw-ref" id="cite_ref-QCLPA_4-0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: super; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-QCLPA-4" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(107, 75, 161); counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;"></a>which makes direct reference to the abolition of wager of law.<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;">"Wager of Law, obsolete for centuries" was "a living fossil... a dead letter statute" and was repealed in England in 1833.