The principle of the jury was, therefore, not confined to its mere application as a mode of trying contested facts, whether in civil or criminal cases; and, both in its form and in its consequences, it had a very material influence upon the general constitution of the realm. * * The main-spring of the machinery of remedial justice existed in the franchise of the lower and lowest orders of the political hierarchy. Without the suffrage of the yeoman, the burgess, and the churl, the sovereign could not exercise the most important and most essential function of royalty; from them he received the power of life and death; he could not wield the sword of justice until the humblest of his subjects placed the weapon in his hand."--_1 Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Constitution_, 274-7. Coke says, "The court of the county is no court of record,[52] _and the suitors are the judges thereof_."--_4 Inst._, 266. Also, "The court of the Hundred is no court of record, _and the suitors be thereof judges_."--_4 Inst._, 267. Also, "The court-baron is a court incident to every manor, and is not of record, _and the suitors be thereof judges_."--_4 Inst._, 268. Also, "The court of ancient demesne is in the nature of a court-baron, _wherein the suitors are judges_, and is no court of record."--_4 Inst._, 269. Millar says, "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 the 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 held in the _trading towns_."--_Same_, p. 335. Also, "The same regulations, 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.