The Oath
of the Black Legion
As spoken by Humphrey
Bogart in "Black Legion" (1937)
In the name of God and the Devil, one to
reward and the other to punish, and by the powers of light and darkness, good
and evil, here under the black arch of Heaven's avenging symbol, I pledge and
consecrate my heart, my brain, my body, and my limbs and swear by all the
powers of Heaven and Hell to devote my life to the obedience of my superiors
and that no danger or peril shall deter me from executin'
dere orders.
That I will exert every possible means in
my power for the extermination of the anarchist, the Roman hierarchy and their
abettors. I swear that I will die fighting those
whose serpent trail has winnowed the fair fields of our allies and
sympathizers.
I will show no mercy but strike with an avengin' arm as long as breath remains.
I further pledge my heart, my brain, my
body, my limbs never to betray a comrade and that I will submit to all the
tortures mankind can inflict and suffer the most horrible death rather than
reveal a single word of this, my oath, before violatin'
a single clause or implied pledge of this my obligation.
I will pray to an avengin'
God and an umerciful Devil to tear my heart out and
roast it over the flames of sulfur, and lastly may my soul be given into the
torment that my body be submerged into molten metal... and stifled into the
flames of Hell, and that this punishment may be meted out to me through all
eternity.
In the name of God, our creator, Amen.