vadiare legem
vadiare legem (vad-ee-air-ee lee-j[schwa]m), vb. [Law Latin “to wage law”] Hist. (Of a defendant in a debt action) to give security to make one’s law on a day assigned — that is, the defendant would pledge, upon giving the security, to do two things on the appointed day in court: (1) take an oath in open court that the debt was not owed, and (2) bring 11 compurgators who would swear that they believed what the defendant said.