Morals of the Church
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point — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Point VII. On the Effects of a Contract Confirmed by Oath

¶1.

It suffices, but it is also useful, to apply to a contract the things which elsewhere (n. 689) we said about an oath added to an act taken more generally.

The Effects of a Contract Confirmed by Oath

858.

I. An oath added to an invalid contract does not render it valid;1 nor, when added to a rescindable contract, does it render that contract non-rescindable; since an oath does not change the nature of the contract, according as that nature exists of itself or from law. Refer here these words of can. 1318, § 2: "But if an oath is added to an act directly tending to the damage of others or to the prejudice of the public good or of eternal salvation, the act obtains no firmness from this."

II. An oath added to an invalid contract does not induce an obligation, because an oath added to an act follows the nature and conditions of the act to which it is added (can. 1318, § 1), or because the accessory follows the principal (St. Alphonsus, III, 180).2

III. An oath added to a valid contract adds the obligation of religion to the obligation of the contract; nevertheless it begins and ceases to oblige with the contract to which it is added. The former is clear both from Sacred Scripture3 and from can. 1317, § 1, as well as from the things said about an oath in the treatise on the second precept (n. 689). The latter is drawn out from the fact that, as was said, an oath added to an act follows the nature and conditions of the act to which it is added.

1 With respect to Roman Law, many judge that a contract invalid per se by positive law is convalidated by an added oath. Others extended the same to Canon Law (cf. St. Alphonsus, III, 177); but these things no longer seem to have force in Canon Law (cf. book III, chapter II, on the oath, coll. 6, 6°).

2 Nevertheless it is not repugnant that, by an oath added to an invalid contract, an obligation be induced; for strictly speaking someone can oblige himself independently of the value of the act to which the oath is added. But these things are nearly hypothetical.

3 Matt. 5:33.

The Effects of a Contract Confirmed by Oath

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