Page:Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils.djvu/211

Rh '''in agriculture, as well as the animals with which they till the soil and that carry the seeds to the field, and also their sheep, shall at all times be secure. '''

'Text. ''We decree that the truce of God be strictly observed by all from the setting of the sun on Wednesday to its rising on Monday, and from Advent to the octave of Epiphany and from Quinquagesima to the octave of Easter. If anyone shall violate it and does not make satisfaction after the third admonition, the bishop shall direct against him the sentence of excommunication and in writing shall announce his action to the neighboring bishops. No bishops shall restore to communion the one excommunicated; indeed every bishop should confirm the sentence made known to him in writing. But if anyone (that is, any bishop) shall dare violate this injunction, he shall jeopardize his order. And since "a threefold cord is less easily broken" (Eccles. 4:12), we command the bishops, having in mind only God and the salvation of the people, and having discarded all tepidity, offer each other mutual counsel and assistance for firmly establishing peace; nor should they be swayed in this by the love or hatred of anybody. But if anyone be found to be tepid in this work of God, let him incur the loss of his dignity. '''

''Comment. ''The two foregoing decrees deal with the truce of God, of which something has already been said in canon 17 of the foregoing council. The successful reduction of the evils associated with that incessant private warfare which made Europe a battlefield overrun by armed bands without respect for anything, was not the work of a few days or a year. It was brought about by a slow and gradual process that was born in very humble beginnings on French soil, but expanded as time went on and as the forces of law and order multiplied. In canon 11, which is a renewal of the canons of Clermont and Reims, peace is assured at all times to priests, clerics, monks, travelers, merchants, and country people going to and returning from the market, churches, fields, and various other places.

'Text. We condemn that detestable, disgraceful, and insatiable rapacity of usurers which has been outlawed by divine and human' ___