Les livres juratoires des consulats languedociens

Abstract

“Oath books” in Languedocian Consulates. The expression “livre juratoire” (oath book) does not appear in dictionaries even though it was currently employed in Southern France. The use of these books is connected to the rise of the municipal system. Councils and magistrates of the city were at that time compelled to take a promissory oath. During the 13th century, this swearing took the form of an oath taken on the Four Gospels or of an oath sworn on the image of Christ on the Cross, so that in some oath books, the picture of the Crucifiction was substituted for the Gospels or else associated with them. The oath books that remain have been frequently altered and prove to be composite. Many of them present long quotations from the Gospels. The oldest figuration of the Passion appear in the 13th century. In the oath books have been copied some documents which founded the autonomy of the communities, as if the authority of divine word or the image of divinity itself had made these documents sacred, giving them an inviolate nature.