God.[32] Continued contact with the remains of Roman civilization strengthened the custom, and its development was to a great extent due to the revival of the study of the imperial jurisprudence in the twelfth century.[33] The primitive principle is well expressed in the Frisian code, where the pleader says, “I swear alone, if thou darest, deny my oath and fight me,”[34] where the oath is only the preliminary to proof by the judgment of God. The exceptions to this in the early legislation of the barbarians are merely special immunities bestowed on rank. Thus in one of the most primitive of the Anglo-Saxon codes, which dates from the seventh century, the king and the bishop are permitted to rebut an accusation with their simple asseveration, and the thane and the mass-priest with a simple oath, while the great body both of clerks and laymen are forced to clear themselves by undergoing the regular form of canonical compurgation which will be hereafter described.[35] So, in the Welsh legislation, exemption from the oath of absolution was accorded to bishops, lords, the deaf, the dumb, men of a different language, and pregnant women.[36] Instances of class-privileges such as these may be traced throughout the whole period of the dark ages, and prove nothing except the advantages claimed and enjoyed by caste. Thus, by the law of Southern Germany, the unsupported oath of a claimant was sufficient, if he were a person of substance and repute, while, if otherwise, he was obliged to provide two conjurators,[37] and in Castile, the _fijodalgo_, or noble, could rebut a claim in civil cases by taking three solemn oaths, in which he invoked on himself the vengeance of God in this world and the next.[38] So far, indeed, were the Barbarians from reposing implicit confidence in the integrity of their fellows that their earliest records show how fully they shared in the common desire of mankind to place the oath under the most efficient guarantees that ingenuity could devise. In its most simple form the oath is an invocation of some deity or supernatural power to grant or withhold his favor in accordance with the veracity of the swearer, but at all times men have sought to render this more impressive by interposing material objects dear to the individual, which were understood to be offered as pledges or victims for the divine wrath. Thus, among the Hindus, the ancient Manava Dharma Sastra prescribes the oath as satisfactory evidence in default of evidence, but requires it to be duly reinforced— “In cases where there is no testimony, and the judge cannot decide upon which side lies the truth, he can determine it fully by administering the oath. “Oaths were sworn by the seven Maharshis, and by the gods, to make doubtful things manifest, and even Vasishtha sware an oath before the king Sudama, son of Piyavana, when Viswamitra accused him of eating a hundred children.