I Swear! Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

THE HISTORY OF OATH TAKING

From the beginning of time oaths were part of a major way of life. As a student of Christian history, I believe this is a moment to understand why oaths are so important, as well as how they came to be such an important tradition.

WHAT IS AN OATH?

Some philosophers and anthropologists define an oath as a ritual act, or more specifically a “speech act.”

An oath is one kind of speech act. Taking an oath expresses a specific intention to others, using words like “I promise to” or “I swear that.” The intention when taking an oath is not limited to the moment someone articulates the words of the oath.

Oath-taking is also about the intention in the future to commit to act in a certain way. One example is the vows taken by couples during their wedding in front of witnesses.

British philosopher John L. Austin called oaths “performative utterances.” The engaged couple, for example, declare their act of marrying each other by speaking their vows to each other. They make a deliberate choice of their own free will.

ROMAN SOLDIERS AND ALLEGIANCE

In antiquity, oaths were often demanded of religious and governmental leaders, as well as those in certain professions. In ancient Rome, oaths were also demanded of soldiers.

The most solemn military oath – directly invoking the Roman gods – was the “sacramentum.” By this oath, soldiers swore allegiance to their specific general or commanding consul and, later, to the emperor. Disobedience could earn severe punishments.

On some occasions, oath-breaking was tested by resorting to divine intervention. The virgin goddess Vesta was one of the most important in Roman religion. Her priestesses, the Vestals, or Vestal Virgins, therefore took an oath of chastity for their 30-year term of service tending to the ever-burning sacred fire of Rome, Vesta’s sacred hearth, as well as other rites.

Vestals accused of breaking that oath were judged by the high priest of Rome. Since a priestess was a sacred person, her blood could not be shed. If found guilty, the priestess was buried alive, with a lamp and a little food, and left to the judgment of Vesta. If any condemned Vestal were innocent, it was believed that surely the goddess would free her from her living death.

OATHS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

In medieval Europe, Christians continued to take oaths. The religious and secular worlds were closely interconnected for most of these centuries, and most oaths referred to Christian beliefs.

In the early Middle Ages, Christians took oaths in the name of God, often while holding a religious object like a relic of a saint or a book of the Gospels.

In most cases, oaths were not strictly person to person, but involved the wider community in some important way. Kings took coronation oaths, swearing to rule justly and safeguard the people of the kingdom; lesser nobles took oaths of fealty to greater nobles, often for protection and material advantage.

Religious leaders like bishops and abbots also became part of this oath-based system, since they, too, had secular jurisdiction over important tracts of land. Breaking an oath was believed to bring down the wrath of God in time, but other than that, upholding one’s personal honor and reputation within the local community was a key consideration.

Until the early 13th century, Christian rites would accompany the earlier Germanic practice of trial by ordeal. In these earlier centuries, most local people accused of a crime could be found not guilty by compurgation – that is, through oaths made by other respected members of the community testifying to the accused’s honest character.

In other cases, often involving strangers to the local community, the accused could be cleared only by a divine intervention.

After a night of fasting and prayer, the accused would undergo a physical ordeal, like carrying a heated block of iron over a set number of steps or by being thrown into a pond to sink or float.

If the accused did not develop blisters or was “accepted” by the water and sank, that was understood as God’s declaration of his innocence. As time went on, scholars and ordinary people increasingly criticized the reliability of trials by ordeal.

By the 13th century, the procedures of the court trial were defined and adopted, both in canon law – that is, the church law – and in secular law.

WHY OATHS MATTER

When drafting the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the Founding Fathers rejected some of the legal practices of the British system of law. One such rejection was of the “religious test.”

In Great Britain, all office holders had to affirm the religious doctrines of the Church of England. But in the independent United States, there was to be no such religious restriction placed on federal officeholders. Preserving religious liberty was a primary concern protected by the Constitution.