some other mode of trial than that by jury.

The answer is, that, at the time of Magna Carta, it is not probable,
(for the reasons given in the note,) that legem terrae authorized, in
criminal cases, any other trial than the trial by jury; but, if it did, it
certainly authorized none but the trial by battle, the trial by ordeal,
and the trial by compurgators. These were the only modes of trial,
except by jury, that had been knownin England, in criminal cases,
for some centuries previous to Magna Carta. All of them had
become nearly extinct at the time of Magna Carta, and it is not
probable that they were included in "legem terrae," as that term is
used in that instrument. But if they were included in it, they have
now been long obsolete, and were such as neither this nor any
future age will ever return to. [23]

For all practical puposes of the present day, therefore, it may be
asserted that Magna Carta allows no trial whatever but trial by
jury.

Whether Magna Carta allowed sentence to be fixed otherwise than
by the jury.

Still another question arises on the words legem terrae, viz.,
whether, in cases where the question of guilt was determined by
the jury, the amount of punishment may not have been fixed by
legem terrae, the Common Law, instead of its being fixed by the
jury.

I think we have no evidence whatever that, at the time of Magna
Carta, or indeed at any other time, lex terrae, the common law,