of criminal cases.[224] In the early part of the sixteenth century, Maximilian I. did much to diminish the use of the compurgatorial procedure,[225] but that he failed to eradicate it entirely is evident from a constitution issued by Charles V. in 1548, wherein its employment is enjoined in doubtful cases in a manner to show that it was an existing resource of the law, and that it retained its hold upon public confidence, although the conjurators were only required to swear as to their belief in the oath of their principal.[226] In the Netherlands it likewise maintained its position. Damhouder, writing in 1554, after describing its employment in the Courts Christian, adds that by their example it was occasionally used also in secular tribunals.[227] In Scotland, as late as the middle of the fourteenth century, its existence is proved by a statute which provides that if a thief escaped from confinement, the lord of the prison should clear himself of complicity with the evasion by the oaths of thirty conjurators, of whom three were required to be nobles.[228] The Scandinavian nations adhered to the custom with even greater tenacity. In the code of Haco Haconsen, issued towards the close of the thirteenth century, it appears as the basis of defensive procedure in almost all criminal cases, and even in civil suits its employment is not infrequently directed, the number of conjurators being proportioned to the nature of the crime or to the amount at stake, and regulations for administering the oath being given with much minuteness.[229] In Denmark it was not abolished until near the middle of the seventeenth century, under Christiern IV., after it had become a crying abuse through the habit of members of families, and even of whole guilds, entering into formal engagements to support each other in this manner.[230] The exact date of its abrogation is a matter of uncertainty, and the stubbornness with which the people clung to it is shown by the fact that even in 1683 Christiern V., in promulgating a new code, found it necessary formally to prohibit accused persons from being forced to provide conjurators.[231] In Sweden, its existence was similarly prolonged. Directions for its use are contained in the code which was in force until the seventeenth century;[232] it is constantly alluded to in the laws of Gustavus Adolphus;[233] and an edict of Charles XI. in 1662 reproves the readiness with which men were everywhere prompt to serve as compurgators, and requires the judges, before admitting them, to investigate whether they are proper persons and what are their reasons to believe in the innocence of their principal.[234] By this time, therefore, though not yet witnesses, they were becoming assimilated to them.