After the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes and kingdoms rose to dominance. Tribes generally had no courts or judges to hear lawsuits; public assemblies handled administrative, military, political, and judicial affairs alike. Under such circumstances, the judicial systems of the Germanic states were relatively chaotic and primitive. The Visigothic Kingdom, being deeply influenced by Roman culture, established rules concerning witnesses, testimony, and documentary evidence, while the other kingdoms and tribes relied primarily on oaths as evidence.
During Rome's conquests, Druidism was wiped out. Druids served not only as priests but also as judges and the like. Apart from Northern England, which Rome had yet to conquer, Druids were nowhere to be found.
Influenced by Ancient Roman culture, the Church absorbed a great deal of Roman Law. Yet until Roman I, episcopal jurisdiction was mainly limited to religious affairs and rarely extended into secular matters. In 333, the Roman Empire granted the Church judicial authority, allowing it to hear ordinary civil cases. All criminal cases were to be tried by the Church; if the Church found the accused guilty, it would first strip them of their Church membership before sending them to a secular court.
Though the Germanic tribes that followed possessed formidable military strength, their legal development was exceedingly weak. After conquering Carthage, the Romans even scattered salt over Carthaginian land. Meanwhile, Article 22 of Table Eight of the Twelve Tables stipulated that if a witness refused to testify, they would be declared "infamous," forever losing the right to testify and the right to call others to testify on their behalf. Article 23 of Table Eight stipulated that those who gave false testimony would be "thrown from the Tarpeian Rock to their deaths."
Ancient Greece was different. In the people's courts, bribing witnesses—or even bribing plaintiffs