| slovo | definícia |
Compurgator
(gcide) | Compurgator \Com"pur*ga`tor\, n. [LL.]
One who bears testimony or swears to the veracity or
innocence of another. See Purgation; also Wager of law,
under Wager.
[1913 Webster]
All they who know me . . . will say they have reason in
this matter to be my compurgators. --Chillingworth.
[1913 Webster] |
COMPURGATOR
(bouvier) | COMPURGATOR. Formerly, when a person was accused of a crime, or sued in a
civil action, he might purge himself upon oath of the accusation made
against him, whenever the proof was not the most clear and positive; and if
upon his oath he declared himself innocent, he was absolved.
2. This usage, so eminently calculated to encourage perjury by
impunity, was soon found to be dangerous to the public safety. To remove
this evil the laws were changed, by requiring that the oath should be
administered with the greatest solemnity; but the form was soon disregarded,
for the mind became. easily familiarized to those ceremonies which at first
imposed on the imagination, and those who cared not to violate the truth did
not hesitate to treat the form with contempt. In order to give a greater
weight to the oath of the accused, the law was again altered so as to
require that the accused should appear before the judge with a certain
number of his neighbors, relations or friends, who should swear that they
believed the accused had sworn truly. This new species of witnesses were
called compurgators.
3. The number of compurgators varied according to the nature of the
charge and other circumstances. Encyclopedie, h.t.. Vide Du Cange, Gloss.
voc. Juramentum; Spelman's Gloss. voc. Assarth; Merl. Rep. mot Conjurateurs.
4. By the English law, when a party was sued in debt or simple
contract, @detinue, and perhaps some other forms of action, the defendant
might wage his law, by producing eleven compurgators who would swear they
believed him on his oath, by which he discharged himself from the action in
certain cases. Vide 3 Bl. Com. 341-848; Barr. on the Stat. 344; 2 Inst. 25;
Terms de la Ley; Mansel on Demurrer, 130, 131 Wager of Law.
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| | podobné slovo | definícia |
Compurgator
(gcide) | Compurgator \Com"pur*ga`tor\, n. [LL.]
One who bears testimony or swears to the veracity or
innocence of another. See Purgation; also Wager of law,
under Wager.
[1913 Webster]
All they who know me . . . will say they have reason in
this matter to be my compurgators. --Chillingworth.
[1913 Webster] |
Compurgatorial
(gcide) | Compurgatorial \Com*pur`ga*to"ri*al\, a.
Relating to a compurgator or to compurgation. "Their
compurgatorial oath." --Milman.
[1913 Webster] |
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