taking of an oath, its truth alone was sufficient. Hence even on the most trivial occasions they did not hesitate to make frequent use of oaths, and to exact them from others. This practice the Redeemer condemns and reprobates; teaching that an oath is never to be taken, unless necessity require so solemn a pledge. Oaths have been instituted as remedies for human frailty; and bespeaking, as it does, the inconstancy of him who takes, or the contumacy of him who exacts it, and who refuses to yield his assent without it, an oath has its source in the corruption of our nature, and can therefore be justified by necessity alone.
But to explain the words of the Redeemer When our Lord says: " Let your speech be yea, yea; no, no," [1] he evidently forbids the habit of swearing in familiar conversation and on trivial matters: he therefore admonishes us particularly against an habitual propensity to swearing; and this admonition the pastor will impress deeply and repeatedly on the minds of the faithful. That countless evils grow out of the unrestrained habit of swearing is a melancholy truth supported by the evidence of Scripture, and the testimony of the Holy Fathers. Thus we read in Ecclesiasticus: " Let not thy mouth be accustomed to swearing; for in it there are many falls;" [2] and again: "A man that sweareth much shall be filled with iniquity, and a scourge shall not depart from his house." [3] In the works of St. Basil, and also in the treatise of St. Augustine against lying, the pastor will find abundant matter on this subject. [4]
Having hitherto explained the positive, we now come to explain the negative part of the commandment. By it we are forbidden to take the name of God in vain; and he who, not guided by prudent deliberation, but hurried on by rashness, dares to take an oath, is guilty of a grievous sin. This the very words of the commandment declare: " Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." In these words the Almighty would seem to assign the reason why a rash oath is so grievous a crime: It derogates from the majesty of him whom we profess to recognise as our Lord and our God. This commandment, therefore, forbids to swear falsely, because he who does not hesitate to appeal to God to witness falsehood, offers a grievous injury to the divine Majesty, charging him either with ignorance, as though the truth could be concealed from his all-seeing eye, or with injustice and depravity, as though the Eternal Truth could bear testimony to falsehood.
Amongst false swearers are to be numbered not only those who affirm as true what they know to be false, but also those who swear to what is really true, believing it to be false. [5] The essence of a lie consists in speaking contrary to one's conviction; and such persons, therefore, as swear to what they be lieve to be false, are evidently guilty of a lie, and therefore of perjury. On the same principle, he who swears to that which
