use, and even for women, without the alternative of the combat, to which it appears this people were entire strangers?  What presumption can arise from the event of the water ordeal, in which no callosity of hands, no bravery, no skill in arms, could be in any degree serviceable?  The causes of both may with more success be sought amongst the superstitious ideas of the ancient Northern world.  Amongst the Germans the administration of the law was in the hands of the priests or Druids.[64] And as the Druid worship paid the highest respect to the elements of fire and water, it was very natural that they who abounded with so many conjurations for the discovery of doubtful facts or future events should make use of these elements in their divination.  It may appear the greater wonder, how the people came to continue so long, and with, such obstinacy, after the introduction of Christianity, and in spite of the frequent injunctions of the Pope, whose authority was then much venerated, in the use of a species of proof the insufficiency of which a thousand examples might have detected.  But this is perhaps not so unaccountable.  Persons were not put to this trial, unless there was pretty strong evidence against them, something sufficient to form what is equivalent to a corpus delicti; they must have been actually found guilty by the duodecemvirale judicium, before they could be subjected in any sort to the ordeal.  It was in effect showing the accused an indulgence to give him this chance, even such a chance as it was, of an acquittal; and it was certainly much milder than the torture, which is used, with full as little certainty of producing its end, among the most civilized nations.  And the ordeal without question frequently operated by the mere terror.  Many persons, from a dread of the event, chose to discover rather than to endure the trial.  Of those that did endure it, many must certainly have been guilty.  The innocency of some who suffered could never be known with certainty.  Others by accident might have escaped; and this apparently miraculous escape had great weight in confirming the authority of this trial.  How long did we continue in punishing innocent people for witchcraft, though experience might, to thinking persons, have frequently discovered the injustice of that proceeding! whilst to the generality a thousand equivocal appearances, confessions from fear or weakness, in fine, the torrent of popular prejudice rolled down through so many ages, conspired to support the delusion.

[Sidenote:  Compurgation.]

To avoid as much as possible this severe mode of trial, and at the same time to leave no inlet for perjury, another method of clearing was devised.  The party accused of any crime, or charged in a civil complaint, appeared in court with some of his neighbors, who were called his Compurgators; and when on oath he denied the charge, they swore that they believed his oath to be true.[65] These compurgators were at first to