[54] Fleta, Lib. II. cap. lxiii. § 12. The Moslem jurisprudence has a somewhat similar provision for accusatorial oaths in the Iesameh by which a murderer can be convicted, in the absence of testimony or confession, by fifty oaths sworn by relatives of the victim. Of these there must be at least two, and the fifty oaths are divided between them in proportion to their respective legal shares in the Deeyeh, or blood-money for the murder.—Du Boys, Droit Criminel des Peuples Modernes, I. 269.—Seignette, Code Mussulman, Constantine, 1878, p. lvi.
[55] Fredegarii Chron. cap. xcvii.
[56] Excerpt. de Libro Davidis No. xvi. (Haddan and Stubbs, I. 120).
[57] Si in manu episcopi ... aut in cruce consecrata perjurat III. annos pœniteat. Si vero in cruce non consecrata perjurat, I. annum pœniteat; si autem in manu hominis laici juraverit nihil est.—Theodori Cantuar. Pœnit. cap. xxiv. § 2. (Thorpe, Ancient Laws, vol. II. p. 29.) Cf. Haddan and Stubbs, III. 423; Wasserschleben, Bussordnungen, pp. 190, 226.
[58] Pœnitent. Pseudo-Gregor. III. vii. (Wasserschleben, p. 539).
[59] Pœnitent. Cummeani cap. V. § 3 (Wasserschleben, p. 477).—Gratiani Decr. c. 2. Caus. XXII. Q. v. In the fourteenth century this was repeated in the penitential canons of Astesanus (§ 23), which continued until the Reformation to be a recognized authority in the confessional. Astesanus, however, explains that the obligation is equal to God, but unequal as regards the church, whence the difference in the penance.—Astesani Summa de Casibus Conscientiæ, P. I. Lib. I. Tit. xviii.
[60] Anomalous Laws, Book IX. chap. v. § 3; chap. xxxviii. § 1 (Owen, II. 233, 303). The definition of relics, however, was somewhat vague—“There are three relics to swear by: the staff of a priest; the name of God; and hand to hand with the one sworn to.” Bk. XIII. ch. ii. § 219 (Ibid. II. 557).
[61] Regino de Eccles. Discip. Lib. I. cap. ccc. See also Jur. Provin. Saxon, Lib. III. c. 41. Notwithstanding the laxity of these doctrines, it is not to be supposed that the true theory of the oath was altogether lost. St. Isidor of Seville, who was but little anterior to Theodore of Canterbury, well expresses it (Sententt. Lib. II. cap. xxxi. § 8): “Quacunque arte verborum quisque juret, Deus tamen, qui conscientiæ testis est, ita hoc accipit, sicut ille cui juratur intelligit,” and this, being adopted in successive collections of canons, coexisted with the above as a maxim of ecclesiastical law (Ivon. Decret. P. XII. c. 36.—Gratian. c. 13, Caus. XXII. Q. ii.).
[62] Helgaldi Vit. Roberti Regis.
[63] Augustin. Epist. 78, §§ 2, 3 (Ed. Benedict.).