compurgation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sometimes the court decided offhand, sometimes compurgation was allowed immediately or on the next day, sometimes juries were formed and gave decisions.
From An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England by Edward Potts Cheyney
On the other hand, fines were to be assessed according to local custom; compurgation was retained for unimportant cases and inheritances were to remain divisible among all heirs male.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06 (From Barbarossa to Dante) by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
The assize ultimately evolved into the jury of verdict, which replaced ordeal, compurgation, and battle as the method of finding the truth.
From Our Legal Heritage by S. A. Reilly
The difficulties of taking evidence by compurgation increased daily.
From Henry the Second by Mrs. J. R. Green
They also introduced a barbarous system of trial, that by compurgation, i.e. exculpation by the oath of the defendant supported by a certain number of cojurantes, and that by ordeal, later called judicium Dei.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8 "France" to "Francis Joseph I." by Various
