COMPURGATION (Lat. compurgatio, purl fication, from compurgare, to purify, from con-, together ± pit/ware, to purge, from purns, pure afiere, to perform). An ancient method of proof in legal proceedings. It consisted in the purgation, that is, the purging or clearing, of a defendant by the sworn oaths of a certain num ber of persons who knew lihn. The procedure was singular in this, that the witnesses swore, not to their knowledge of the fact in issue, but to their faith in the defendant. The importance of the practice consists•in the fact that it was a device of primitive law for mitigating the harshness of ordinary legal procedure. Thus, if the issue was one that would ordinarily sub ject the defendant to trial by battle or the horrors and uncertainties of the ordeal, he was permitted to 'wage his law,' i.e. to give security to appear and abide by the results of a regular trial. Under ordinary circumstances, the oath of the defendant, supported by those of his eleven compurgators, was conclusive and result ed in dealing him. The procedure was avail able, in many forms of civil suit and in criminal proceedings, when. the accused was on trial for
the first time. Conipurgation was employed as a part of the regular proeedure of the ecclesi astical courts throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. It existed among the Anglo-Saxons, and was in use in the courts of the common law in England until it was gradually superseded by the jury system. Though long obsolete, it was revived in England in an action of debt as late as 1824. (Bing v4. Williams, 8 Barn. and Cress. 5387.) It was not until 1833 that it was finally abolished by act of Parliament (2 and 3 Will. IV. eh. 42, § 13). It never existed in the legal procedure of the United States or of the English Colonies in America. See JURY; OATH; PROOF; WITNESS. The procedure is elaborately discussed by Blackstone, Commen furies on the Laws of England. See also lnderwiek, The King's Peace: A Historical Sketch of English Law Courts (London, 1895) Stephen, History of the Criminal Law of Englond (London, 1883) I'olloek and :Maitland, History of English Law (2d ed. Boston, 1S99).