[29] Watt’s “The Law’s Lumber Room.” [30] XI Inter. Enc. _Sub. Nom._ _Peine forte et dure._ [31] Washburn, Jud. History, 142; I. Chandler, Cr. Trials, 122. [32] “Wonders of the Invisible World,” by Robt. Calef (1828), pp. 329, 333. [33] “The Spirits in 1692,” Putnam’s Magazine, for January and June, 1856, No. 7, p. 509. [34] Longfellow’s “New England Tragedies.” Tradition has it that Cory was pressed to death in an open field, between the Howard street burial ground and Brown street, in Salem. Nevins, “Witchcraft in Salem Village, in 1692,” p. 107. [35] 7 and 8 George III., c. 28. [36] I. Mass. 103. [37] 9 Mass. 402. [38] 3 Story, U. S. Laws, 2002 Sec. 14. [39] Fernandez vs. State, 7 Ala. 511; People vs. Thompson, 4 Cal. 238; Johnson vs. People, 22 Ill. 314; State vs. McCombs, 13 Iowa, 426; Commonwealth vs. Lannon, 95 Mass. 563, holding that the old rule in this state was changed by statute; Thomas vs. State, 6 Mo. 457; Link vs. State, 50 Tenn. (3 Heisk.) 252. [40] Act III., Scene I. [41] White’s “Law in Shakespeare,” sec. 40, p. 67. [42] Measure for Measure, Act V., Scene I. [43] Richard II., Act III., Scene IV. [44] Troilus and Cressida, Act III., Scene II. CHAPTER VII. WAGER OF LAW. Wager of law, in ancient England, was the practice whereby the defendant was allowed to make oath denying the charge of the complainant and supporting his oath by the oaths of a certain number of his friends or neighbors.[1] The term _wager of law_, comes from the Roman law _vadiatio legis_, from the defendant being put in pledges (_vadios_), to make oath on the day appointed.[2] The practice is traceable to the Mosaic law which provided that: “If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast, to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it; then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath not put his hands unto his neighbors’ goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.”[3] Under the Mosaic law, the rule of practice which now obtains in criminal cases, that the good character or reputation of the defendant is always proper for him to offer, in his own defense, upon the issue of the likelihood of his commission of a crime, was extended to include his right to actually acquit himself of the debt or other cause of action by his own oath, for if he would absolutely swear himself not chargeable and was a person of good reputation, he stood acquitted of the charge, in order to prevent an innocent man from being overcome by a multitude of false witnesses. This method of procedure, or similar practices obtained in ancient Babylon,[4] among the Romans and the northern nations, adjacent to the Roman Empire, as well as among the ancient Israelites.[5]