compurgatorn.
/ˈkɒmpəːɡeɪtə/, /kəmˈpəːɡətə/, U.S. /ˈkɑmpərˌɡeɪdər/ 1. A witness to character who swore along with the person accused, in order to the acquittal of the latter.Originally a term of the Canon Law, appearing first, according to Du Cange, in the writings of Pope Innocent III (1198–1216), xvi. Ep. 158, and c. ix. and xiii. de Purgatione Canonica; it occurs in the Corpus Juris Canonici, in Decret. Greg. IX (1227–41) v. Tit. xxiv. c. v, vii. Earlier Latin names, referring to the laws of the Northern nations, were Sacramentales (Laws of Alemanns, Frisians, Longobards, etc.); Consacramentales (Capitula of Charlemagne, Laws of Cnut, and of Hen. I, c. 64, 66, 87); Sacramentarii (Pope John VIII, 872, 882); Juratores, Conjuratores (Salic & Alem. Laws, etc., etc.). In England the term compurgator appears to have been used only in ecclesiastical law until the 17th and 18th centuries, when legal antiquaries and historians began to apply it retrospectively in sense 1b.
a. In Canon Law, Applied to witnesses who either swore to the credibility of the accused when he purged himself by oath, or otherwise swore to his innocence or orthodoxy, so as to clear him from a charge.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > ecclesiastical discipline > court > [noun] > witness
compurgator1533
c1340 Abp. Stratford in Lyndewode Const. Prov. v, Tit. 14 Pro graviori siquidem ut pro Adulterio vel majori ultra duodecimæ manus Compurgatorum numerum non imponant.]
1533 T. More Debellacyon Salem & Bizance ii. xv. f. xxxvv That thordynary sholde not putte some man to that kynde of purgacion which yf he dyd, were he neuer so noughty, he shold be sure of compurgatours.
1551 T. Cranmer Answer S. Gardiner 286 Where you take upon you..to pourge your selfe of Papistry by me and Zuinglius, if you haue no better compurgators then vs two, you be like to faile in your purgation.
1641 Terms de la Ley 195 When one shall wage his Law, He shall bring with him vj. viij. or xij. of his neighbours..to sweare with him, much like unto the oath which they make which are used in the civill Law, to purge others of any crime laid against them, which are called compurgators.
1731 S. Chandler tr. P. van Limborch Hist. Inquisition II. 208.
1763 R. Burn Eccl. Law II. 285 By his own oath affirming his innocency, and the oaths of twelve compurgators as to their belief of it.
b. In reference to Old English times (and more generally to ancient Teutonic law), the usual term, with modern historians, for the ‘oath-helpers’ whom a person on trial was allowed to call in to swear that, to their belief, as neighbours of the accused and acquainted with his character, he was speaking truth in making oath of his innocence. Also, sometimes applied by modern legal writers to the same persons in Wager of Law.A native name for the consacramentales (German eides-helfer) is found only in the oldest Kentish Laws, viz. ǽwda, plural ǽwdan (Law of Hloðhære and Eadric 2, 4; Law of Wihtræd 23) evidently a derivative of ǽwe ‘law’. Elsewhere they appear merely as ‘his geferan’ his fellows, ‘þa þe him midstandað’. In Old High German gieido (Hildeb. in Grimm) from eid oath: cf. the latinized ‘cum aidis suis’ in Laws of the Longobards c. 364. The oath of the ǽwdan was ‘On þone Drihten, se áð is clǽne and unmǽne þe N. swór’ (Schmid, Gesetze 406).
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society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > judging > clearing oneself > [noun] > compurgation > compurgator
underswearer1724
cojuror1735
compurgator1747
oath-helper1876
1747 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. I. 367 Compurgators, who swore to their belief of the truth of what the criminal deposed himself.
1761 D. Hume Hist. Eng. to Henry VII I. App. 101 Compurgators, who..expressed upon oath that they believed the person spoke true.
1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. xxii. 343 The manner of making and waging law..And thereupon his eleven neighbours or compurgators shall avow upon their oaths that they believe in their consciences that he saith the truth; so that himself must be sworn de fidelitate, and the eleven de credulitate.
1809 T. E. Tomlins Jacob's Law-dict. at Wager
1860 C. Innes Scotl. in Middle Ages 183.
1876 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest V. xxiv. 452 The compurgators of our oldest law were not a jury in the modern sense, but they were one of the elements out of which the jury rose.
1881 19th Cent. 386 The compurgators were simply witnesses to character..but the effect of their unanimous declaration of belief in his innocence was precisely that of a verdict of ‘not guilty’ by a jury.
2. In more general application: One who testifies to or vindicates another's innocence, veracity, or accuracy; one who vouches for, or clears from any charge. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > duty or obligation > moral or legal constraint > immunity or exemption from liability > justification > [noun] > exculpation > one who
compurgator1609
whitewasher1862
1609 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. (ed. 2) Compurgator, one that comes to purge or free another.
1639 J. Shirley Ball iii. sig. F2 And yet because you shannot trouble friends To be compurgators, Ile be satisfied; If you will take your owne oath that you are.
1641 Argument Law in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) V. 75 By a statute there [i.e. in Ireland] made in the fifth year of Edward IV, there is provision made..that the party committed, if he can procure twenty-four compurgators, shall be bailed, and let out of prison.
1656 R. Sanderson 20 Serm. 92 He calleth God in to be his compurgator.
1681 T. A. Religio Clerici 202 Urging necessity and impossibility, as Compurgators for their habitual wicked practices.
a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 554 Lord Russel defended himself by many compurgators, who spoke very fully of his great worth.
1854 H. Rogers Ess. (1860) II. 52 We can claim as his Compurgators Dugald Stewart, Brown, Reid, and Sir W. Hamilton.
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18.. D. Bannatyne's Scrap-bk. in New Statist. Acct. Scotl. (1845) VI. 229 [Glasgow] Influenced by this regard for the Sabbath, the magistrates employed persons termed ‘compurgators’, to perambulate the city on the Saturday nights..Another office of these compurgators was to perambulate the streets..during the time of divine service on Sunday, and to order every person they met..to go home.
1854 H. MacDonald Rambles round Glasgow No. 1 (1856) 20.
1868 Reprint Jones's Glasgow Directory 1787 Pref. 9.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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