Chapter 8 (157)
166 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
my health,' or 'by my children,' and suchlike. For in this way he binds these to God.
4. IN A SERMON ON PERJURY. Hence Augustine: "When someone says 'by my health,' he binds his health to God; when he says 'by my children,' he gives his children to God as pledges that whatever comes out of his mouth should fall upon their heads: if truth, truth; if falsehood, falsehood.''® And just as one who swears by these binds them to God, so one who swears by God calls him as witness. Therefore in every oath either
God is taken as witness, or a creature is bound and offered as a pledge to God, and so this is what swearing is, namely to take God as witness, or to give something to God as a pledge.
Chapter 8 (157) CONCERNING THOSE WHO SWEAR BY FALSE GODS. After these matters, it is asked whether one ought to rely on the promise of one who has sworn by demons or idols.—Concerning this, Augustine writes to Publicola and says: "I wish you to consider first whether, if a man has sworn by false gods and then failed to keep his promise, he does not seem to you to have sinned twice. And indeed he has sinned twice, because he swore by those by whom he should not, and did what he should not have done in violation of the promise which he had sworn. And so anyone who relies on the promise of one who is known to have sworn by false gods, and relies on it not for an evil purpose, but for a good one, does not associate himself with the sin of him who swore by demons, but with the good pact with which he kept his faith. Without any doubt, it is less bad to swear truly by false gods than to swear falsely by the true God. For the holier is that by which we swear, so much more punishable the perjury."'
Chapter 9 (158)
1. THAT AN OATH OR VOW WHICH IS CARELESSLY SWORN IS NOT TO BE
KEPT, NOR A PROMISE WHICH IS UNJUSTLY MADE. It remains now to see whether every oath is to be fulfilled. For if someone has sworn something against faith and charity, "whose observance might make for a worse outcome,"' it is rather to be changed than to be fulfilled —AMBROSE,
IN BOOK 1, ON OFFICES. Hence Ambrose: "It is sometimes contrary to duty to fulfil a sworn promise, as Herod did."*"
°Augustine, Sermo 180, c6 n7.
'Augustine, Epistola 47, n2.
'Bede, In Evangelia, bk 2 hom. 23.
>Cf Mt. 14, 7-11.
'Ambrose, De officiis, c50 n254.