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The Hermetic Oath

Page created 11th May, Spring 1221

This vitally important oath is the cornerstone of the order of hermes, which could not exist without the security it, and the peripheral code based around it, provides.

In other words, if you do something against this; the quaesitors will probably try to kill you

As Bonisagus was the first to swear to it; it is always written down with his name.
When you swear it, you fill in your own anme and the date.

Of course, house Bonisagus swear to a slightly different oath (the difference is illustrated) and the quaesitoris are exempt from the paragraph on scrying; as long as they are 'doing so for the good of the order' At least, Phillippa claims this is so...

This, most important, of documents; can be found on page 234 of Fourth edition ars Magica.
If you haven't already; go and get a copy - it tels a budding magus everything he needs to forget.


I, Bonisagus, hereby swear my everlasting loyalty to the Order of Hermes, and its members.

I will not deprive, nor attempt to deprive any member of the Order of his magical power. I will not slay nor attempt to slay any member of the Order, except in duly executed and formally declared Wizards' War. I hereby understand that Wizards' War is an open conflict between two magi who may slay each other without breaking this oath, and that should I be slain in a Wizards' War, no retribution shall fall on he who slays me.

I will abide by the decisions made by fair vote at a tribunal. I will have one vote at tribunal, and I will use it prudently. I will respect as equal the votes of all others at tribunal.

I will not endanger the Order through my actions. Nor will I interfere with the affaires of mundanes andf thereby bring ruin on my sodales. I will not deal with devils, lest I imperil my soul, and the souls of my sodalis as well. I will not molest the faeries, lest their vengence catch my sodalis also.

I will not use magic to scry upon members of the Order of Hermes, nor shall I use it to peer into their affairs.

I will train apprentices who will swear to this code, and should any of them turn against the Order and my sodales, I shall be the first to strike them down and bring them to justice. No apprentice of mine shall be called a magus until he first swears to uphold this code.

-- depends on who you are --

I request that should I break this oath, I be cast out of the Order. If I am cast out of the Order, I ask my sodales to find me and slay me, that my life not continue in degradation and infamy.

The enemies of the Order are my enemies. The friends of the Order are my friends. The allies of the Order are my allies. Let us work together as one and grow hale and strong.

This oath I hereby swear on the third day of Pisces, in the nine hundred and fiftieth year of Aries. Woe to they who try to tempt me to break this oath, and woe to me if I succumb to the temptation.



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