number of bishops as his compurgators;[75] and it is a striking example of the weight accorded to the procedure that, although the assumed fault of the victims had been their devotion to the imperial party, and though the pope had by force of arms prevented any pursuit of the murderers, the emperor was powerless to exact satisfaction, and there was nothing further to be done. Pope Pascal stood before the world an innocent man. It is true that, in the tenth century, Atto of Vercelli complains bitterly that a perverse generation refused to be satisfied with the single oath of an accused priest, and required him to be surrounded by compurgators of his class, which that indignant sacerdotalist regarded as a grievous wrong.[76] As the priesthood, however, failed in obtaining the entire immunity for which they strove during those turbulent times, the unquestioned advantages which compurgation afforded recommended it to them with constantly increasing force. Forbidden at length to employ the duel in settling their differences, and endeavoring, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, to obtain exemption from the ordeal, they finally accepted compurgation as the special mode of trial adapted to members of the church, and for a long period we find it recognized as such in all the collections of canons and writings of ecclesiastical jurists.[77] From this fact it obtained its appellation of _purgatio canonica_, or canonical compurgation. CHAPTER IV. SELECTION OF COMPURGATORS. As already remarked, the origin of the custom is to be traced to the principle of the unity of families. As the offender could summon his kindred around him to resist an armed attack of the injured party, so he took them with him to the court, to defend him with their oaths. Accordingly, we find that the service was usually performed by the kindred, and in some codes this is even prescribed by law, though not universally.[78] This is well illustrated in the Welsh laws, where the _raith_, or compurgation, was the basis of almost all procedure, and where consequently the system was brought to its fullest perfection. Complicated rules existed as to the proportion of paternal and maternal kindred required in various cases, and the connection between the _wer-gild_ and the obligation of swearing in defence of a kinsman was fully recognized—“Because the law adjudges the men nearest in worth in every case, excepting where there shall be men under vows to deny murder,” therefore the compurgators were required to be those “nearest to obtain his worth if killed.”[79] Under these circumstances, the _raith-man_ could be objected to on the score of not being of kin, when the oaths of himself and his principal were received as sufficient proof of relationship;[80] and the _alltud_, or foreigner, was not entitled to the raith unless he had kindred to serve on it.[81] How the custom sometimes worked in practice among the untameable barbarians is