 The purpose of such oaths had the effect of the witness renouncing the mercy and imprecates the vengeance of Heaven if he did not speak the truth.Such oath had the idea of binding the conscience of the witness, and presupposes a religious sanction if the witness told a lie on oath.Such a requirement has been displaced now, in that the solemnity of the occasion when an oath is administered by a witness in a judicial proceeding, no longer implies a religious sanction, but a legal sanction.