Oath

An external pledge or asseveration, made in verification of statements made or to be made, coupled with an appeal to a sacred or venerated object, In evidence of the serious and reverent state of mind of the party or with an invocation to a supreme being to witness the words of the party and to visit him with punishment lf they be false. See O'Reilly v. People, 86 N. Y. 154, 40 Am. Rep. 525; Atwood v. Welton, 7 Conn. 70; Clinton v. State, 33 Ohio St. 32; Brock v. Milligan. 10 Ohio, 123; thicker v. Burness, 2 Ala. 354. A religious asseveration, by which a person renounces the mercy and imprecates the vengeance of heaven, lf he do not speak the truth. 1 Leach, 430.

— Assertory oath. One relating to a past or present fact or state of facts, as distinguished from a "promissory" oath which relates to future conduct; particularly, any oath required by law other than in judicial proceedings and upon induction to office, such, for example, as an oath to be made at the custom-house relative to goods imported.

— Corporal oatb. See Corporal.

— Decisory oatb. In the civil law. An oath which one of the parties defers or refers back to the other for the decision of the cause.
—-Extrajudicial oatb. One not taken in any judicial proceeding, or without any authority or requirement of law, though taken formally bsfore a proper person.

— Judicial oath. One taken in some judicial proceeding or in relation to some matter connected with judicial proceedings.

— Oath against bribery. One which could bave'been administered to a voter at an election for members of parliament. Abolished in 1854. Wharton.-

— Oath ex officio. The oath by which a clergyman charged with a criminal offense was formerly allowed to swear himself to be innocent; also the oath by which the compurgators swore that they believed in his innocence. 3 Bl. Comm. 101, 447; Mozley & Whitley.

— Oath in litem. In the civil law. An oath permitted to be taken by the plnintiff, for the purpose of proving the value of the subject-matter in controversy, when there was no other evidence on that point, or when the defendant fraudulently suppressed evidence which might have been available.

— Oath of allegiance. An oath by which a person promises and binds himself to bear true allegiance to a particular sovereign or government, e. g., the United States; administered generally to high public officers and to soldiers and sailors, also to aliens applying for naturalization, and, occasionally, to citizens generally as a prerequisite to their suing in the courts or prosecuting claims before government bureaus. See Rev. St. U. S. §§ 1756, 2165, 3478 (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, pp. 1202, 1329, 2321), and section 5018.

— Oath of calumny. In the civil law. An oath which a plaintiff was obliged to take that he was not prompted by malice or trickery in commencing his action, but that he had bona fide a good cause of action. Poth. Pand. lib. 5, tt. 16, 17, s. 124.

— Oath-rite. The form used at the taking of an oath.

— Official oath. One taken by an officer when he assumes charge of his office, whereby he declares that he will faithfully discharge the duties of the same, or whatever else may be required by statute in the particular case.

— Poor debtor's oath. See that title.

— Promissory oaths. Oaths which bind the party to observe a certain course of conduct, or to fulfill certain duties, in the future, or to demean himself thereafter in a stated manner with reference to specified objects or obligations; such, for example, as the oath taken by a high executive officer, a legislator, a judge, a person seeking naturalization, an attorney at law. Case v. People, 6 Abb. N. C. (N. Y.) 151

— Purgatory oath. An oath by which a person purges or clears himself from presumptions, charges, or suspicions standing against him, or from a contempt.

— Qualified oath. One the force of which as an affirmation or denial may be qualified or modified by the circumstances under which it is taken or which necessarily enter into it and constitute a part of it; especially thus used in Scotch law.

— Solemn oath. A corporal oath. Jackson v. State, 1 Ind. 184.

— Suppletory oath. In the civil and ecclesiastical law. The testimony of a single witness to a fact is called "half-proof," on which no sentence can be founded; in order to supply the other half of proof, the party himself (plaintiff or defendant) is admitted to be examined in his own behalf, and the oath administered to him for that purpose is called the "suppletory oath," because it supplies the necessary quantum of proof on which to found the sentence. 3 Bl. Comm. 370. This term, although without application in American law in its original sense, is sometimes used as a designation of a party's oath required to be taken in authentication or support of some piece of documentary evidence which he offers, for example, his books of account.

— Voluntary oath. Such as a person may lake in extrajudicial matters, and not regularly in a court of justice, or before an officer invested with authority to administer the same. Brown