The Profession of Abbots, 4. (Bec Abbey, 12th Century)

The Profession of Abbots, 4

Written by a monk at Bec Abbey in the 12th Century.

Source: Ed.: Giles Constable. Three treatises from Bec on the nature of monastic life, p. 111-113. Trans.: Bernard S. Smith.  Medieval Academy of America, No. 109. University of Toronto Press, 2008.

Whatever oaths are in fact required from bishops are certainly not to be approved, because they are not canonical. For in no way, either under the cloak of obedience or on any other pretext, should an oath be extorted from the priests of Christ our Lord. If we read that Abraham made his servant swear on his thigh, if we read: The Lord hath sworn and He will not repent, if according to Paul an oath for confirmation is the end of all their controversy, and in the Acts of the Apostles some of them gave their right hands of fellowship, these and similar examples do not impel us to swear, simply because a ceremony seems to be latent in them. Moreover, whenever we swear an oath in our ceremonies there is implicit either a demand or a requirement or penitence or something secular. And so the simple purity of the church is jeopardized whenever a needless novelty in swearing oaths is interpolated. Even the Holy Spirit is called on in dread as witness by Moses: thou shalt not swear in the name of the Lord lest you perish. And the Lord says in the Gospel: Thou shalt not swear either by heaven or by the earth but let your speech be Yea, Yea: No, No. Whatever is over and above these is of evil. Cornelius, pope and martyr, also warns us in his decretals about this: We have not known at all that an oath has been demanded from the highest prelates or other priests unless for the true faith, nor have we ascertained that they have sworn voluntarily. The most holy James the apostle, prohibiting oaths, said: But above all things my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, by the earth, nor by any other oath. But let your speech be Yea, or No. Hence the sacraments exist because of men’s lack of faith, to restrain their irreverence. Those of this kind are irregular as far as bishops are concerned.