SACRAMENTUM DECISIONIS
sacramentum decisionis (sak-r<<schwa>>-men-t<<schwa>>m di-sizh-ee-oh-nis). [Latin “the
oath of decision”] Civil law. The offer by one party to accept the opposing party’s oath as decisive
of the issues involved in a lawsuit. Pl. sacramenta decisionis.
“The defendant or person accused was … to make oath of his own innocence, and to produce
a certain number of compurgators, who swore they believed his oath. Somewhat similar also to
this is the sacramentum decisionis, or the voluntary and decisive oath of the civil law; where one
of the parties to the suit, not being able to prove his charge, offers to refer the decision of the cause
to the oath of his adversary: which the adversary was bound to accept, or tender the same proposal
back again; otherwise the whole was taken as confessed by him.” 3 William Blackstone,
Commentaries on the Laws of England 342 (1768). [Blacks Law 8th]