A phenomenology of jurisprudence

"How obstinate was the attachment to bygone forms may be understood, when we see even the comparatively precocious civilizations of a city like Lille preserve the compurgatorial oath as a regular procedure until the middle of the fourteenth century, even though the progress of enlightenment had long rendered it a mere formality, without serious meaning. Until the year 1351, the defendant in a civil suit was obliged to substantiate the oath of denial with two conjurators of the same sex, who swore to its truth, with some slight expression, indeed, of reserve. The minutest regulations were enforced as to this ceremony, the position of every finger being determined by law, and though it was the veriest formality, serving merely as an introduction to the taking of testimony and the legal examination of the case, yet the slightest error committed by either party lost him the suit irrecoverably." (p. 69)

From Henry C. Lea's "Superstition and Force: Torture, Ordeal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval Law"