DUODECIMA MANUS

duodecima   manus   (d[y]oo-oh-des-<<schwa>>-m<<schwa>>   man-<<schwa>>s).   [Latin]

Twelve men.

“The manner of waging and making law is this. He that has waged, or given security, to make

his law, brings with him into court eleven of his neighbours: … for by the old Saxon constitution

every  man’s  credit in  courts  of  law  depended  upon  the  opinion  which  his neighbours  had  of  his

veracity.  The  defendant then, standing at the end  of the  bar, is admonished by the judges of the

nature and  danger  of a false oath….  And thereupon  his eleven  neighbours or  compurgators shall

avow  upon  their  oaths that  they  believe  in  their  consciences that  he  saith  the  truth  ….  It is  held

indeed by later authorities … that fewer than eleven compurgators will do: but Sir Edward Coke is

positive  that  there  must  be  this  number  …  for  as  wager  of  law  is  equivalent  to  a  verdict  in  the

defendant’s favor, it ought to be established by the same or equal testimony, namely, by the oath of

twelve  men.  And  so  indeed  Glanvil  expresses  it,  …  ‘jurabit  duodecima  manu’….”  3  William[Blacks Law 8th]

Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 343 (1768). [Blacks Law 8th]