instances the prayer which constitutes the oath has a somewhat conventional form, and in the classical ages we find well-marked formulas. These are often references to deities, as “by Zeus!” “I call Zeus to witness” (ναὶ μὰ Δία: ἴστω Ζεύς); “by the immortal gods!” “I call to witness the ashes of my ancestors” (per deos immortales; testor majorum cineres). Sometimes a curse is invoked on himself by the swearer, that he may perish if he fail to keep his oath, as “the gods destroy me,” “let me perish if,” &c. (dii me perdant; dispeream si). An important class of Roman oaths invokes the deity to favour or preserve the swearer in so far as he shall fulfil his promise—“as the gods may preserve me,” “as I wish the gods to be propitious to me” (me ita di servent; ita deos mihi velim propitios). The best Roman collection is to be found in the old work of Brissonius, De Formulis et Solemnibus Populi Romani Verbis (Paris, 1583). Biblical examples of these classes of oaths are “as the Lord liveth” (1 Sam. xiv. 39, and elsewhere), “so do God to me, and more also” (2 Sam. iii. 35, and elsewhere).
The history of oaths in the early Christian ages opens a controversy which can hardly be said even yet to have closed. Under Christ’s injunction, “Swear not at all” (Matt. v. 34; also James v. 12), many Christians seem at first to have shrunk from taking oaths, and, though after a time the usual customs of judicial and even colloquial oaths came to prevail among them, the writings of the Fathers show efforts to resist the practice. Chrysostom perhaps goes furthest in inveighing against this “snare of Satan”: “Do as you choose; I lay it down as a law that there be no swearing at all. If any bid you swear, tell him, Christ has spoken, and I do not swear” (Homil. ix. in Act. Apostol.; see a collection of patristic passages in Sixt. Senens. Bibliothec. Sanct. vi. adnot. 26). The line mostly taken by influential teachers, however, was that swearing should indeed be avoided as much as possible from its leading to perjury, but that the passages forbidding it only applied to superfluous or trifling oaths, or those sworn by created objects, such as heaven or earth or one’s own head. On the other hand, they argued that judicial and other serious swearing could not have been forbidden, seeing that Paul in his epistles repeatedly introduces oaths (2 Cor. i. 23; Phil. i. 8; Gal. i. 10). Thus Athanasius writes: “I stretch out my hand, and as I have learned of the apostle, I call God to witness on my soul” (Apol. ad Imp. Const.; see Augustine, De Mend. 28; Epist. cl. iii. 9; cl. iv. 250; Enarr. in Psalm. lxxxviii. (4); Serm. 307, 319). This argument is the more forcible from Paul’s expressions being actually oaths in accepted forms, and it has also been fairly adduced that Christ, by answering to the adjuration of the high priest, took the judicial oath in solemn form (Matt. xxvi. 63). The passages here referred to will give an idea of the theological grounds on which in more modern times Anabaptists, Mennonites and Quakers have refused to take even judicial oaths, while, on the other hand, the laws of Christendom from early ages have been only directed against such swearing as was considered profane or otherwise improper, and against perjury. Thus from the 3rd or 4th century we find oaths taking much the same place in Christian as in non-Christian society. In the 4th century the Christian military oath by God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the majesty of the emperor is recorded by Vegetius (Rei Milit. Inst. ii. 5). Constantine’s laws required every witness in a cause to take oath; this is confirmed in Justinian’s code, which even in some cases requires also the parties and advocates to be sworn (Cod. Theod. xi. 39; Justin. Cod. iv. 20, 59). Bishops and clergy were called upon to take oath in ordination, monastic vows, and other ecclesiastical matters (see details in Bingham, Antiq. of Chr. Church, xvi. 7). By the middle ages oaths had increased and multiplied in Christendom far beyond the practice of any other age or religion. The Reformation made no change in principle, as is seen, for instance, in Art. xxxix. of the church of England: “As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James His apostle, so we judge, that Christian Religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the Prophet’s teaching, in justice, judgement and truth.”
The history of swearing in early Christendom would lead us to expect that the forms used would be adopted with more or less modification from Hebrew or Roman sources, as indeed proves to be the case. The oath introduced in the body of one of Constantine’s laws—“As the Most High Divinity may ever be propitious to me” (Ita mihi summa Divinitas Semper propitia sit)—follows an old Roman form. The Roman oath by the genius of the emperor being objected to by Christians as recognizing a demon, they swore by his safety (Tertull. Apol. 32). The gesture of holding up the hand in swearing has been already, spoken of. The Christian oath on a copy of the Gospels seems derived from the late Jewish oath taken holding in the hand the scroll of the law (or the phylacteries), a ceremony itself possibly adapted from Roman custom (see treatise “Shebuoth”. in Gemara). Among the various mentions of the oath on the Gospels in early Christian writers is that characteristic passage of Chrysostom in a sermon to the people of Antioch: “But do thou, if nothing else, at least reverence the very book thou holdest forth to be sworn by, open the Gospel thou takest in thy hands to administer the oath, and, hearing what Christ therein saith of oaths, tremble and desist” (Serm. ad pop. Antioch. Homil. xv.). The usual mode was to lay the hand on the Gospel, as is often stated in the records, and was kept up to a modern date in the oath in the university of Oxford, “tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis”; the practice of kissing the book, which became so Well established in England, appears in the middle ages (J. E. Tyler, Oaths, pp. 119, 151). The book was often laid on the altar, or (after the manner of ancient Rome) the swearer laid his hand on the altar itself, or looked towards it; above all, it became customary to touch relics of saints on the altar, a ceremony of which the typical instance is seen in the representation of Harold’s oath in the Bayeux tapestry. Other objects, as the cross, the bishop’s crosier, &c., were sworn by (see Du Cange, s.v. “Jurare”). An oath ratified by contact or inspection of a sacred object was called a “corporal” or bodily oath, as distinguished from a merely spoken or Written oath; this is Well seen in an old English coronation oath, “so helpe me God, and these holy euangelists by me bodily touched vppon this hooly awter.” The English word signifying the “sacred object” on which oath is taken is halidome (A.S. háligdôm; Ger. Heiligthum); the halidome on which oaths are now sworn in England is a copy of the New Testament. Jews are sworn on the Old Testament; the sacred books of other religions are used in like manner, a Mohammedan swearing on the Koran, a Hindu on the Vedas.
Among the oath-formulas used in Christendom, that taken by provincial governors under Justinian is typical of one class: “I swear by God Almighty, and His only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and the Most Holy Glorious Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, and by the Four Gospels which I hold in my hand, and by the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel,” &c. The famous oath of the kings Louis and Charles at Strassburg in 842 (A.D.) runs: “By God’s love and the Christian people and our common salvation, as God shall give me knowledge and power,” &c. Earlier than this, as in the oath of fealty in the capitularies of Charlemagne in 802, is found the familiar form “Sic me adjuvet Deus,” closely corresponding to above-mentioned formulas of pre-Christian Rome. This became widely spread in Europe, appearing in Old French “Si m’ait Dex,” German “So mir Gott helfe,” English “So help me God.” A remarkable point in its history is its occurrence in the “So help me Frey,” &c., of the old Scandinavian ring-oath already described. Among the Curiosities of the subject are quaint oaths of kings and other great personages: William Rufus swore “by that and that” (per hoc et per hoc), William the Conqueror “by the splendour of God,” Richard I. “by God’s legs,” John “by God’s teeth”; other phrases are given in Du Cange (l.c.), as “per omnes gentes,” “per coronam,” “par la sainte figure de Dieu,” “par la mort Dieu,” &c.
Profane swearing, the trifling or colloquial use of sacred oaths, is not without historical interest, formulas used being apt to keep up traces of old manners and extinct religions. Thus the early Christians were reproved for continuing to say “mehercle!” some of them not knowing that they were swearing by Hercules (Tertull. De idol. 20). Oaths by deities of pre-Christian Europe
