Oath

An Oath is a declaration to offer the maximum personal guarantee about the truth of a fact or the fulfillment of a purpose.

Also:

Oath, from the Latin iuramentum, is the affirmation or denial of something, generally putting first witness(es) of maximum significance: before God, before My Parents, before My Children...; or, offering garment(s) of maximum value: for My Country, for My Flag, for My Life, for My Health, for My Honor... An oath, therefore, is a promise or a declaration invoking something or someone of utmost personal importance.

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In primitive times the oath for simplicity and cordiality among men was unknown^{[citation needed]}. The oaths were born at the same time that the men deceived themselves. Hesiod said: «Discord, daughter of Night, carries with it quarrels, lies, confusion, captious words and finally the oath».

Pythagoras and his disciples believed that the oath had to be sought within the Divinity itself, since they believed that everything that subsists in nature is found in God and from eternity God had voluntarily determined to make Creation, in which act he bound himself, by an oath to himself, to keep it in a certain order. They claimed that this oath was the model of those that had been taken in all times.

In Egypt, man divinizes his passions and vices, the oath followed the fate of religion and the Egyptians not only swore by their gods Isis and Osiris in human form, by the Sacred Bull Apis and the crocodile Sobek, but also for garlic and other herbs and legumes, easy deities, which they planted and harvested in their gardens.

In their oaths, the Persians used the sun as a revitalizing star as a witness.

The Scythians swore by the air as the principle of life and image of freedom and by the iron of their weapons as one of the main causes of death as a warrior people that they were.

"Juramento de los Horacios", work by Jacques Louis David

The Greeks and Romans swore by all their gods both their own and those imported from their conquests and they turned to the demigods and swore by Castor and Pollux, Hercules, etc.

But those who presided over their oaths the most were the goddess Fidelity and the god Fidius. They also swore in these towns by the head as the main part of the body and seat of intelligence and by the ich bin dummura for the persons of the emperors, for their life, for their genius, fortunately, for its stability but In the Judeo-Christian tradition, in the Old Testament we find the four oaths formulated in simple terms and in which it is promised under the faith of man or God alone is invoked without a mixture of idolatry; Such are Abraham's to the king of Sodom, Abraham's to King Abimelech, Eliezer's to Abraham himself, and Jacob's to Laban.

With the advent of Christianity, the Cross means a divine symbol between the Old Testament and the New Testament and the oath was already considered in its genuine point of view and the oath has as much force as everything that recognizes its origin and base in the very source of all truth and all justice.

The Christians of the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries gave it an unlimited application, understanding it among the judicial tests that they designated with the mercy of the Judgment of God. The test of the oath also called ordeal or canonical purge was done in various ways.

In Spain the one that was verified by placing the hand on the tombs or altars of the saints was in use, so that they themselves could be witnesses of the truth or avengers of the perjurer.

It was used both to confirm a contract and to purge evidence or suspicion of a crime and to justify some right.

For this purpose there were certain churches called juraderas such as San Vicente de Ávila, Santa Gadea de Burgos and others, and there was a pious tradition that the perjurer's right hand withered.

The Catholic Monarchs abolished these practices but without unearthing the oath of judicial acts as proof and consolidation of the word.

The oath as a public and solemn act

Arnold Schwarzenegger swears as an American citizen. U.S.

The military takes an oath of loyalty in their institutions

The oath has been taken as a public and solemn act since the most remote times by Christian monarchs upon receiving the investiture of their supreme dignity, in order to ensure compliance with their political duties regarding to the people, whose government and protection were entrusted to them, as well as by the subjects in public assemblies as a guarantee of fidelity to the monarch. In the Spanish Courts, the oath has been used since the early days of its institution in the act of opening debates for the formation and reform of laws or dealing with any serious matter of general interest, linking conscience to the management of property.

In Castile, since ancient times, it has been customary to convene the courts when a new sovereign occupied the throne so that the prelates, magnates and attorneys of some major cities who had a vote in them could take the oath of fidelity and obedience, and they should pay homage to the one who was going to take care of the fate of the kingdom.

This occurred not only at the beginning of each reign but also when the prince or princess who was responsible for the succession of the kingdom was born, first according to custom and then according to the fundamental laws of the monarchy.

The Goths never had any idea of what came to be called ancestry long after their rule had passed.

Its monarchy was elective and when the reigning monarch died, the prelates and noblemen met to choose the one who was to succeed him by vote and general consent, if he had been appointed.

There were attempts by some Gothic princes aimed at perpetuating the crown of their family (Leovigildo had his son Recaredo as his partner in command, Wamba renounced the crown in favor of Ervigio, etc.), but in all these cases it was left to except the right to choose a sovereign.

It must be taken as historical truth that after the battle of Guadalete and the rise of Don Pelayo, King of Asturias, the hereditary monarchy began.

But reason moves to the contrary since there is no historical document to prove it and the reform of that political constitution of the Goths was made little by little and by force of events that could not but produce alterations in the old state social.

Thus, as the monarchy of Asturias was Visigothic, as the laws of the councils inserted in the Fuero Juzgo had not been repealed and as it was desired that the sons and closest relatives of the reigning prince succeed him in the kingdom, it was considered effective means to ensure their succession to have them recognized as successors. For this, they took the oath of fidelity and obedience in advance.

This is the origin of the oath or swears of the princes of Spain (Adosinda, wife of Silo, had her nephew Don Alfonso recognized in advance as his immediate successor; King Casto called courts to declare the immediate succession in favor of his cousin Don Ramiro; Ordoño I was associated with the government and recognized by king during his parents' lifetime).

The oath applied in the law

The oath is divided into assertory and promissory and both can be simple or solemn, judicial or extrajudicial.

In relation to legal business, it may concern either the persons of the litigants or the decision of the business itself. Under the first aspect it is divided into oath of slander, oath of malice and oath to tell the truth. Under the second aspect in judgment decision-making oath, in consideration or decision-making oath in the lawsuit and supplementary oath.

• For oath or affirmative is understood as the one who affirms or denies the truth of some past or present fact.

• For Promised oath the one that refers to saying at times in a hidden way to future facts. It takes place in the contracts as long as the sworn is not incapable of fulfilling the jury and the state of the things on which it is sworn is not emptied and the other party is also promised.

• Simple vow is the one who is made by the sole invocation of the name of God. Solemn vow that in which this same invocation is made before a person constituted in dignity and with certain formulas of words or ceremonies for their greater validation.

• Juramento de calumnia the one that the author and the oath do in judgment when initiating the action or proposing the exception to corroborate that they do not do so for slander or to veto their adversary, but because they believe that justice assists them with five particular points that the former legislators understood in the following Latin phrases: Illud juretur, quod lis sibi just videtur; Et si queretur, verum non inficietur; Nil promittetur; nec false probatio detur; Ut lis tartur, dilatio nulla petetur.

• Juramento de malicia It is the one that every litigant should lend whenever he asks for it to confirm that it does not proceed with malice or deceit at some point or issue on which to see the dispute in a particular way.

• I swear to tell the truth is the one by which a person is forced to manifest what he knows about the fact or business that he is asked of. The litigants, the opposites, the experts, the witnesses.

• Decision-making It is the one that the one part differs or offers the other by obliging itself to go through what it is jure, ending its differences.

• Juramento decisionrio de pleito takes place in all kinds of disputes but with restrictions.

• Estimated decision-making in the pleito in litemin the time of the Romans is the one who for lack of other evidence requires the judge to the actor about the value or estimation of the thing he demands to determine the amount in which he is to condemn the reus. It is divided in real, on the condition and on the injury.

Different ways of receiving the oath depending on the religion you confess

• In the Catholic religion secular Catholic is sworn by God our Lord and a sign of the cross forming it at the same time with the right hand.

• To regular ecclesiastical in verb priestess or by the sacred orders he has received. According to her condition, making her put her right hand on her chest. The same is the bishops but the Gospels.

• To the religious for the habit you saw.

• To the Knight of Military Order, by God and by the Cross of his habit that leads to the chest and which he will also touch with the right hand.

• To the military, under the word of honour and having his hand on the cross of his sword.

• To the schismatic by God Almighty, by the Holy Gospels and by what He believes of the Old and New Testament.

• To the practitioner of the Hebrew religion, by one Almighty God, who created heaven and earth by bringing it out of nothing and by the law of Moses.

• The practitioner of the Islamic religion, by Allah, by Muhammad and by the sacred Koranhaving his face turned to the East.

• In pagan religions by the gods or goddess I can believe in.

Complementary bibliography

Complementary bibliography of documents that use the oath are the following: