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 IQO Readings in European History unlawful for any one to associate with him. In the case of boys who have not yet completed their twelfth year, the hand ought not to be cut off ; but only in the case of those who are twelve years or more of age. Nevertheless, if boys fight, they shall be whipped and prevented from fighting. It is not an infringement of the peace if any one orders his delinquent slave, pupil, or any one in any way under his charge, to be chastised with rods or sticks. It is also an exception to this constitution of peace if the lord king pub- licly orders an expedition to attack the enemies of the king- dom, or is pleased to hold a council to judge the enemies of justice. The peace is not violated if, during the times specified, a duke, or other counts, magistrates, or their sub- stitutes, hold courts and inflict punishment legally on thieves, robbers, and other criminals. The statute of this noble peace is especially enacted for the safety of those engaged in feuds ; but after the end of the peace they are not to dare to rob and plunder in the villages and houses, since the laws and penalties enacted before the institution of the peace are still legally valid to restrain them from crime, and, moreover, because robbers and highwaymen are excluded from this divine peace, and indeed from any peace. If any one attempt to oppose this pious institution and is unwilling to promise peace to God with the others, or to observe it, no priest in our diocese shall presume to say a mass for him, or shall take any care for his salvation ; if he is sick, no Christian shall dare to visit him; on his deathbed he shall not receive the eucharist, unless he repents. The supreme authority of the peace pledged to God and generally extolled by all will be so great that it will be observed not only in our times, but forever among our posterity, because if any one shall presume to infringe or violate it, either now or ages hence, until the end of the world, he is irrevocably excommunicated by us. The responsibility for carrying out the above-mentioned penalties against the violators of the peace rests no more with the counts, local judges, or officials than with the whole