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.

But experience having shown that this method of trial was tumultuary and uncertain, they corrected it by the idea of compurgation.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund

Trover gradually supplants detinue, in which there is compurgation.

From Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III by Reilly, S. A.

For civil suits there was a provision against ‘wager of battle,’ and the accused again cleared themselves by compurgation.

From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric by Hallett, Cecil Walter Charles

The Norman kings, indeed, had introduced into England a new method of deciding doubtful questions of property by the "recognition" of sworn witness instead of by the English process of compurgation or ordeal.

From Henry the Second by Green, Mrs. J. R.

It resembled neither the Roman trial, where the judges made the decision, nor the mediæval compurgation and ordeals, where God was supposed to pronounce the verdict.

From An Introduction to the History of Western Europe by Robinson, James Harvey