It was, however, not only the number of compurgators required that affected the result, but the method by which they were chosen, and this gave rise to wide variations in practice. Originally, it is probable that the selection was left to the accused, who gathered them from among his kindred. This would lead almost inevitably to his acquittal, as forcibly pointed out by Hincmar in the ninth century. In objecting to admit the purgation of an offending priest with ecclesiastics of his own choice, he states that evil-minded men combined together to defeat justice and secure immunity for their crimes by serving each other in turn, so that when the accused insisted on offering his companions to the oath, it was necessary to make them undergo the ordeal to prove their sincerity.[116] His expressions indicate that the question of selection at that time was undecided in France, and the alternative numbers alluded to above show one of the methods adopted to meet the evident evils of the process. Other nations devised various expedients. The original Lombard law of King Rotharis gave to the plaintiff the privilege of naming a majority of the compurgators, the remainder being chosen by the defendant,[117] but even in this the solidarity of the family was recognized, since it was the duty of the plaintiff to select the nearest relatives of his adversary, provided they were not personally hostile to the accused.[118] This same spirit is shown even so late as 1116, in a charter by which Baldwin VII. of Flanders gratified the citizens of Ypres by substituting among them the process of compurgation for the ordeal and battle trial. According to this, the accuser selected four of the relatives of the accused to take the purgatorial oath; if they refused through known enmity, he was bound to select four other of the kindred, and if none such were to be found then four legal men sufficed.[119] The English law was the first to educe a rational mode of trial from the absurdity of the barbaric traditions, and there the process finally assumed a form which occasionally bears a striking resemblance to trial by jury—in fact, it insensibly runs into the latter, to the rise of which it probably contributed. By the laws of Canute, in some cases, fourteen men were named to the defendant, among whom he was obliged to find eleven willing to take the purgatorial oath with him.[120] The selection of these virtual jurors was probably made by the _gerefa_, or sheriff;[121] they could be challenged for suspicion of partiality or other competent cause, and were liable to rejection unless unexceptionable in every particular.[122] Very similar to this was the _stockneffn_ of the ancient Danish law, by which, in cases where the relatives were not called upon, thirteen men were chosen, a majority of whom could clear the accused by taking the oath with him. They were nominated by a person appointed for the purpose, and if the court