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In the late Middle Ages, towns in the Rhine valley from Konstanz to Strasbourg created networks of relationships guaranteed by oath in order to build trust and solidarity between their inhabitants and secure their obedience to the authorities. Studying the collective swearing-in rituals like the Schwörtag and the more everyday oath-taking shows that the late medieval town was not a sworn community of equal citizens, but a highly hierarchical society, but that does not mean the oath had lost its value or was in decline. This book tries to examine the urban oath in the context of a political culture nourished by the law and practices of both the Church and the Empire and to consider how it was adapted to the literacy-based city government, in order to understand its political effectiveness.

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