At the beginning of a suit both the plaintiff and the accused shall swear an oath against calumny.

Since we hate slanderers and oppose them with the greatest effort and care, and want above all to repress the desire of those who easily and rashly proceed to litigation, we have felt it necessary to pass the present law, by which we ordain that neither the plaintiff nor the accused shall be admitted to the deliberations of a suit in ecclesiastical causes (for even in these there is often a lot of slandering) unless each of them takes the oath against calumny at the beginning of the suit itself.

When a judge is first admitted to his office, he shall swear an oath against calumny.

Although a judge does not have to swear an oath against calumny in individual causes, he must nevertheless swear this kind of oath with respect to all the causes which he shall ever handle, at the beginning of his term of office as a judge.

The form of swearing an oath.

Both the plaintiff and the accused, when they swear the oath against calumny, shall cover include the following in particular: that they think that they have a just cause; that they do not want to slander anyone during the entire course of the action (which is about to follow); that they have paid nothing and will pay nothing either by themselves or through others, either to the judge or to others by whom judgment is administered, in order to bribe them; that they do not want to evade the issues or devise tricks in the proofs, or introduce delays either to cheat the other party or to drag out the proceedings; and finally that they will faithfully answer all the questions which may be put to them in the judgment (provided that they are pertinent to the cause).