a further regulation, according to which, under the Gwentian code, in an accusation of theft, with positive evidence, the thief was directed to clear himself with twenty-four raith=men of his own _cantrev_ or district, in equal number from each _cymwd_ or sub-district.[89] Under a different social organization, it is evidently impossible that a kindred sufficiently large could have been assembled in the most numerous families, and even when the requirements were more reasonable, the same difficulty must frequently have occurred. This is recognized in the Danish laws of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where the conjuratorial oaths of kindred, known as _neffn i kyn_, were requisite, unless the accused could swear that he had no relations, in which case he was allowed to produce twelve other men of proper character, _lag feste men_.[90] In a constitution of Frederic II. in 1235, the compurgators are required to be of the same class as their principal, and to be _sinodales homines_, men of undoubted character.[91] Thus the aid of those not connected by ties of blood must often have been necessary, and as it was a service not without danger, as we shall see hereafter, it is not easy to understand how the requisite number was reached. In certain cases, no doubt, the possibility of obtaining those not bound by kindred to undertake the office is traceable to the liability which in some instances rested upon a township for crime committed within its borders;[92] while the system of guilds in which the members shared with each other a responsibility resembling that of kinship rendered participation in the oath of denial almost a necessity when a comrade was prosecuted.[93]