Bracton advises us that it was not necessary that the compurgators should be of the same rank as the principal, provided they were trustworthy citizens,[18] and, when treating of the wager of law, in actions by tenants, he states that the land was not to be taken out of the tenant’s possession before the tenant had waged his law, nor if he failed in waging it.[19] And he states that the tenant could not wage his law by means of an attorney, constituted for that purpose, but was allowed to urge this plea, only by and through himself, personally.[20] In Bracton’s day, wager of law was the normal mode of defense and it was then the ordinary procedure for establishing that one had never been lawfully summoned to appear in court;[21] that a defendant had not deprived a guardian of the lawful possession of his ward;[22] that the defendant was not guilty of a breach of a covenant;[23] that the defendant had not wrongfully detained or distrained the plaintiff’s cattle or other animals,[24] and during this period it was even allowed by way of defense in an action of trespass.[25] According to Bracton, however, compurgation was not allowed to dispute evidence of offenses which were apparent to the senses, such as waste, which could be observed, as a physical condition, by any man, for if compurgation were allowed in such cases, the oath of compurgators would be allowed to overcome the evidence of our senses, which would place a premium on perjury and destroy the best evidence by mere secondary proof.[26] The wager of law was not confined entirely to the defendant, however, for according to this author, if the defendant set up an affirmative defense, the plaintiff, by way of reply, was allowed to deny the affirmative defense and to establish his avoidance of the special defense pleaded by the aid of oath-helpers.[27] During the reign of Edward III., the right of a defendant to wage his law, was guaranteed in all cases where the right existed in the time of Edward I., the object of the statute being that “many people were grieved and attached by their bodies in the city of London, at the suit of citizens, surmising that they were debtors, and could be proved so by their papers, though they had no deed or tally to produce them,” it was therefore enacted that “every man should be received _to his law_, by people of his condition against such papers, and the creditor should not put the party to plead to the inquest unless he chose,”[28] so the wager of law was thus preserved to the citizens of London, against mere papers, or verbal testimony as firmly as it was previously practiced in the common law courts.[29] But it was provided by statute, during the same reign, that the fines payable before the justices, should be in the presence of the pledges, in all cases, civil or criminal, and the pledges were to be advised of the sum of the fine, before they departed.[30]