Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/393

 The German hivasions. 331 barbarian conquests, the members of the various German tribes appear to have been judged by the laws of the particular people to v^hich they belonged. The older inhabitants of the Empire, on the contrary, continued to have their lawsuits decided according to the Roman law. The German laws did not provide for trials, either in the Medieval Roman or the modern sense of the word. There was no attempt to gather and weigh evidence and base the decision upon it. Such a mode of procedure was far too elaborate for the simple- minded Germans. Instead of a regular trial, one of the parties to the case was designated to prove that his side of the case was true by one of the following methods : 1. He might solemnly swear that he was telling the truth Compurga- and get as many other persons of his own class as the court required, to swear that they believed that he was telling the truth. This was called comp2irgatio7i. It was believed that God would punish those who swore falsely. 2. On the other hand, the parties to the case, or persons v^agerof representing them, might meet in combat, on the supposition that Heaven would grant victory to the right. This was the so-called wager of battle. 3. Lastly, one or other of the parties might be required to Ordeals submit to the ordeal in one of its various forms : He might plunge his arm into hot water, or carry a bit of hot iron for some distance, and if at the end of three days he showed no ill effects, the case was decided in his favor. Or he might be ordered to walk over hot plowshares, and if he was not burned, it was assumed that God had intervened by a miracle to establish the right. ^ This method of trial is but one example of the rude civilization which displaced the refined and elaborate organization of the Romans. The account which has been given of the conditions in the Roman Empire, and of the manner in which the barbarians 1 Professor Emerton gives an excellent account of the Germanic ideas of law in his Introduction to the Middle Ages, pp. 73-91.