Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/508

Rh centuries in the course of the protracted feuds between Frankish and Swabian Emperors, on the one hand, and their various vassals on the other. When Frederick Barbarossa went down on his knees, according to tradition, when imploring Henry the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria to stand by him against the rebel Italians, it would have been difficult to say that the Emperor was the sovereign and the duke a mere subject.

A most important consequence of this acknowledgment of sovereign rights on the part of vassals of the Crown lay in the fact that the latter could resort to actual war, when asserting claims or defending infringed interests. The endeavours, which were made by the Church, by royal suzerains and by the barons themselves to restrict and suppress private warfare, are in themselves characteristic of what we should call the anarchy of the times. The end of the tenth century witnessed many attempts to put an end to private wars in France. In consequence of terrible epidemics and bad harvests, which were regarded as signs of divine wrath and incitements to repentance, the magnates of central and northern France met, agreed to renounce private war, and confirmed this resolve by solemn oaths. Gerard, Bishop of Cambrai, objected to this as political; he was much abused by the other members of the congress for holding aloof, and yet, as the chronicler remarks, events proved that he was right, "vix enim paucissimi crimen perjurii evaserunt."

It soon became evident that it was impossible to suppress the pernicious custom entirely. The Truce of God, treuga Dei, made its appearance in completion of the Peace of God. The time from Thursday night to Monday morning was considered a time of truce on account of the memories of the Lord's sufferings and resurrection. Churches and churchyards were naturally considered as hallowed and therefore neutral territory. In the South, olive-trees were declared to be exempt from destruction by reason of their vital importance in the economy of the country. The movement for "truce" attained material results under the guidance of the Church in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and it became even more effective in the thirteenth, when political potentates took it up. Still, even St Louis did not insist on a complete abandonment of the practice of private war by his vassals: he only enforced from all those, who resorted to the last argument of war, submission to certain rules as to its declaration, the beginning of hostilities, their course and so on; the quarantaine le Roi was a code as to usage in private war.

To Germany some order was brought by powerful leagues between princes and knights on the one hand, cities on the other. Such leagues were offensive and defensive alliances, and ultimately had recourse to force of arms in order to maintain their position. But as all extensive armaments are apt to do, they prevented the danger and disorder of petty collisions. It was only towards the end of the Middle Ages that