ABJURATION, the act of forswearing, abjuring or renouncing upon oath; a denial upon oath; a renunciation upon oath. Chiefly a law term and used in the following senses: 1. In the United States when an alien wishes to become a citizen he must declare, among other things, that he doth absolutely and en tirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity which he owes to any foreign sover eign, etc., and especially by name the sover eign, etc., whereof he was before a citizen or subj ect.
2. An abjuration of the realm. During the Middle Ages the right of sanctuary was con ceded to criminals. A person fleeing to a church or churchyard might permanently es cape trial if, after confessing himself guilty before the coroner, he took an oath abjuring the kingdom: promising to embark, at an as signed port, for a foreign land, and never to return unless by the king's permission. By
this, however, he forfeited his goods and chat tels.
3. Special. An abjuration or renunciation of all imagined allegiance to the Jacobite line of rulers, after the English nation had given its verdict in favor of William and Mary.
The oath of abjuration was fixed by 13 Wm. III c. 16. By the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 48, one form of oath was substituted for the oaths of allegiance, supremacy and abjuration. For this form another was substituted by the Act 30 & 31 Vict. c. 75, § 5. This has in turn been superseded by the Promissory Oaths Act, 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72.
4. An abjuration, renunciation or retraction of real or imagined heresy or false doctrine. Thus the now abolished 25 Chas. II c. 2 en acted that certain tenets of the Church of Rome were to be solemnly renounced.