<216 MEDIAEVAL CIVILIZATION judge him publicly, they could condemn him only if he confessed, or if two witnesses swore that they had seen him commit the crime. 3. The trial was com- posed of a series of words and symbolic actions; noth- ing was written. Such was the old Germanic pro- cedure ; oral, public and favorable to the accused. The judges in the church had never ceased to apply the Roman method of procedure; on the contrary, in the lay tribunals were the knights and the bourgeois who judged themselves, and they followed the customs. But as the tribunals became filled with judges by pro- fession who had studied the Roman law, they began to employ the Roman methods. The procedure was written, was more systematized and more convenient for the one who acted as judge. It began to be said that the judge could not let crimes go unpunished; if no accuser appeared it was sufficient that some one should come and lodge information of the crime; so the judge, without waiting for an accusation, took official action, as they said, that is, fulfilled his duty as judge. He ordered the arrest of the man whom he suspected, then he sought to assure himself whether it was he who had committed the crime; he employed every means that he thought proper for throwing light upon it, inquests concerning the premises, deposi- tions, presumptive evidence, without being bound by any formality. But it was not sufficient that the judge alone should be convinced personally that the suspect was the true culprit; the custom did not per- mit condemnation until two witnesses had sworn that they were present at the commission of the crime or until the accused had himself confessed. As it was