CERTIFICATE
CERTIFICATE, practice. A writing made in any court, and properly authenticated, to give notice to another court of anything done therein; or it is a writing by which an officer or other person bears testimony that a fact has or has not taken place.
2. There are two kinds of certificates; those required by the law, and those which are merely voluntary. Of the first kind are certificates given to an insolvent of his discharge, and those given to aliens, that they have been naturalized. Voluntary certificates are those which are not required by law, but which are given of the mere motion of the party. The former are evidence of the facts therein mentioned, while the latter are not entitled to any credit, because the factscertified, may be proved in the usual way under the solemnity of an oath or affirmation. 2 Com. Dig. 306; Ayl. Parerg. 157; Greenl. Ev. 498.