In trial by compurgation, the accused person swore a solemn oath on some holy relics that he was innocent of the crime of which he had been charged. The accused then had to produce twelve compurgators, "oath-helpers", who swore by the Lord that "the oath is clean and unperjured which the man hath sworn". If the accused could produce twelve such compurgators, he was automatically freed. As

The compurgators were in no sense acting as witnesses to the fact; they were required to know nothing of the facts of the alleged crime and were mereley witness to the character of the accused who alleged their belief in his innocence.

This system would offer little hope to a prisoner who was unpopular, of a bad character or a stranger to the district where he was accused.

If the required number of compurgators could not be mustered by the prisoner, his oath was said to be "burst" and he had to endeavour to establish his innocence by an appeal to the Almighty who was considered to prove the guilt or innocence of the accused in both the trial by ordeal and trial by wager of battle.

Trial by ordeal is an ancient idea which predates Christianity; it is mentioned in the Old Testament and was practised among the Ancient Greeks. The underlying principle behind trial by ordeal was that the Almighty (or, before the Christian era, some other superior supernatural force) would prove the guilt or innocence of the accused.

In wager of battle the accused was challenged by his accuser to single combat both in civil and criminal cases and Divine intervention was believed to decide the outcome. If either party could afford to do so, he could elect to have his place in the combat taken by a champion.

In civil cases, the loser had to pay a fine, in criminal cases the combattant who did not resist until the end of the day was promptly hanged if not killed in the combat.

Trial by Wager of Battle was always unpopular and rapidly fell out of use although it was strangely revived as late as 1817; the brother of a girl who had been murdered charged the alleged murderer who pleaded not guilty to the charge and declared himself ready to defend the plea by Wager of Battle. The accused's challenge was not accepted by his accuser and Wager of Battle was finally abolished in 1819.

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History of English Law
  by Pollock and Maitland, 1895

Constitutional History vol. 1
  by W Stubbs, 1897