"Some authors have thought that jurymen were originally compurgators, called by a defendant to swear that they believed him innocent of the facts with which he was charged. . . But . . . compurgators were merely witnesses; jurymen were, in reality, judges. The former were called to confirm the oath of the party by swearing, according to their belief, that he had told the truth, (in his oath of purgation;) the latter were appointed to try, by witnesses, and by all other means of proof, whether he was innocent or guilty. Juries were accustomed to ascertain the truth of facts, by the defendant's oath of purgation, together with that of his compurgators. . . Both of them (jurymen and compurgators) were obliged to swear that they would tell truth. According to the simple idea of our forefathers, guilt or innocence was regarded as a mere matter of fact; and it was thought that no man, who knew the real circumstances of a case, could be at a loss to determine whether the culprit ought to be condemned or acquitted." 1 Millar's Hist. View of Eng. Gov., ch. 12, p. 332 - 4. Also, "The same form of procedure, which took place in the administration of justice among the vassals of a barony, was gradually extended to the courts eld in the trading towns." Same, p. 335. Also, "The same regulation, concerning the distribution of justice by the intervention of juries, . . .were introduced into the baron courts of the king, as into those of the nobility, or such of his subjects as retained their allodial property." Same, p. 337. Also, "This tribunal" (the aula regis, or king's court, afterwards divided into the courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer) "was properly the ordinary baron-court of the king; and, being in the same circumstances with the baron courts of the nobility, it was under the same necessity of trying causes by the intervention of a jury." Same, vol. 2, p. 292. Speaking of the times of Edward the First, (1272 to 1307,) Millar says: "What is called the petty jury was therefore introduced into these tribunals, (the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exhequer,) as well as into their anxiliary courts employed to distribute justice in the circuits; and was thus rendered essentially necessary in determining causes of every sort, whether civil, criminal, or fiscal." Same, vol. 2, p. 293-4. Also, "That this form of trial (by jury) obtained universally in all the feudal governments, as well as in that of Eng-1and, there can be no reason to doubt. In France, in Germany, and in other European countries, where we have any accounts of the constitution and procedure of the feudal courts, it appears that lawsuits of every sort concerning the freemen or vassals of a barony, were determined by the pares curiae (peers of the court;) and that the judge took little more upon him than to regulate the method of proceeding, or to declare the verdict of the jury." Same, vol. 1, ch. 12, p. 329.