Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL Subject_2 WINTER SESSION. - Anni 1973.
Anent Quakers refusing to Swear
1676.
July.
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Quæritur,—What is to be done with Quakers and Anabaptists, who are also called Mennonistæ, who refuse to swear? Whether they are to be holden as confessed, if they be parties, or compelled to depone, if they be led as witnesses? Joannes Bouritius, in Tractu de Officio Judicis, cap. nono, pag. 18, owns the affirmative, since their humorous peevishness is not to be indulged or encouraged by law, nor the truth therefore to be concealed, else they should be in a better case than the orthodox; he also shews, ibidem, the way of swearing Jews, viz. by causing them lay their hand on the Decalogue, and repeating the third command, Non assumes nomen Domini in vanum: With us, if these fanatic sectarians be content to declare the truth, as in the presence of God, (which many of them are willing to do,) the Lords accept of that as sufficient and equipollent to an oath; as in the case of Burnet, tutor of Leys.
