The Detection Club was founded in 1928 - Sayers was one of the founding members. Membership is much coveted and by invitation only. A writer must be sponsored by two other members and approved by the existing members. Membership numbers are small, with the leading detective novelists of the day generally included.

The oath is administered by the club president whose title is The Ruler.

OATH

The Ruler shall say to the Candidate:

M.N., is it your firm desire to become a Member of the Detection Club?

Then the Candidate shall answer in a loud voice:

That is my desire.

Ruler:

Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them, using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo-Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence or the Act of God?

Candidate:

I do.

Ruler:

Do you solemnly swear never to conceal a vital clue from the reader?

Candidate:

I do.

Ruler:

Will you honour the King's English?

Candidate:

I will.

Then the ruler shall ask:

M.N. is there anything you hold sacred?

Then the Candidate having named a Thing which he holds of peculiar sanctity the Ruler shall ask:

M.N., do you swear by (here the Ruler shall name the Thing which the Candidate has declared to be his Peculiar Sanctity) to observe faithfully all these promises which you have made, so long as you are a Member of the Club?

But if the Candidate is not able to name a Thing which he holds sacred, then the Ruler shall propose the Oath in this manner following:

M.N., do you as you hope to increase Sales, swear to observe faithfully all these promises which you have made, so long as you are a Member of the Club?

Then the Candidate shall say:

All this I solemnly do swear. And I do furthermore promise and undertake to be loyal to the Club, neither purloining nor disclosing any plot or secret communicated to me before publication by any Member, whether under the influence of drink or otherwise.

Then shall the Ruler say to the Company:

If there be any member present who objects to the Proposal let him or her so declare.

If there be any Objector, the Ruler shall appoint a time and place for the seemly discussion of the matter and shall say to the Candidate and to the Company:

Forasmuch as we are hungry and that there may no unseemly wrangling amongst us, I invite you, M.N., to bee our Guest to-night, and I hold you to the solemn promise which you have given as touching the theft or revelation of plots and secrets.

But if there be no Objector, then shall the Ruler say to the Members:

Do you acclaim M.N. as a Member of our Club?

Then the Company's Crier, or the Member appointed thereto by the Secretary, shall lead the Company in cries of approval as are within his compass or capacity. When the cries cease, whether for lack of breath or for any other cause, the Ruler shall make this declaration:

M.N., you are duly elected a Member of the Detection Club, and if you fail to keep our promise, may other writers anticipate your plots, may your publishers do you down in your contracts, may strangers sue you for libel, may your pages swarm with misprints and may your sales continually diminish. Amen.

Then the Candidate, and after him all the Members present, shall say: Amen.

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