for those who served as oath helpers and because there was also a possibility of legal sanctions (penalties), individuals might refuse to give oaths for persons with bad reputations. One reason for the long survival of the practice was that 'wagers in law' were often considered better evidence than account books in cases of debt." Welsh law allowed for a form of compurgation called assach, which required not 12 but 300 compurgators. A statute from 1413 (I Henry V., c. 5), refers to the then late rebellion in Wales and complains that the Welshmen are still taking revenge for the deaths of their kinsmen against the king's faithful lieges. Some of such lieges they keep in prison until they have paid ransom, or until they have purged themselves of the death of the said rebels. Abolition The taking of oaths was an eminently unsatisfactory way of arriving at the merits of a claim, and it is therefore not surprising to find that the policy of the law was in favour of its restriction rather than of its extension. Thus it was not permitted where the defendant was not a person of good character, where the king sued, where the defendant was the executor or administrator of the person alleged to have owed the debt, or in any form of action other than those named, even though the cause of action were the same. The Lateran Council of 1215 effectively abolished trial by ordeal in Catholic countries (which England was at the time) by forbidding priests from taking part, thus robbing it of its legitimacy. Trial by battle was abolished in 1819 and wager of law was abolished in 1833, although both had fallen into disuse before their formal abolition. Wager of law was used as late as 1829, when the Rev. Fearon Jenkinson of Gnosall, Staffordshire used it against a Stafford ironmonger who claimed he was owed money by him. Jenkinson and his compurgators did not appear on the date. Wager of law survived to recent centuries and in many jurisdictions it has been abolished by statute. It was abolished in New South Wales in 1841 by the Advancement of Justice Act 1841 (both Victoria and Queensland were still part of New South Wales at this time). This was re-enacted after separation of Queensland from New South Wales in the Queensland Common Law Practice Act 1867, but was strictly unnecessary,