About This Text
From a Church edict. The terms of the ceasefire were issued by the clergy in Flanders negotiating for peace in God’s time among the local feudal lords and barons.
1063 | Thérouanne
Disarmament Treaty
Church rules.
Dearest brothers in the Lord, these are the conditions which you must observe during the time of the peace which is commonly called the Truce of God, and which begins with sunset on Wednesday and lasts until sunrise on Monday.
1. During those four days and five nights, no man or woman shall assault, wound, or slay another, or attack, seize, or destroy a castle, burg, or villa, by craft or by violence.
2. If anyone violates this peace and disobeys these commands of ours, he shall be exiled for thirty years as a penance, and, before he leaves the bishopric, he shall make compensation for the injury which he committed. Otherwise, he shall be excommunicated by the Lord God and excluded from all Christian fellowship.
3. All who associate with him in any way, who give him advice or aid, or hold converse with him, unless it be to advise him to do penance and to leave the bishopric, shall be under excommunication until they have made satisfaction.
4. If any violator of the peace shall fall sick and die before he completes his penance, no Christian shall visit him or move his body from the place where it lay, or receive any of his possessions.
5. In addition, brethren, you should observe the peace in regard to lands and animals and all things that can be possessed. If anyone takes from another an animal, a coin, or a garment during the days of the truce, he shall be excommunicated unless he makes satisfaction. If he desires to make satisfaction for his crime, he shall first restore the thing which he stole or its value in money and shall do penance for seven years within the bishopric. If he should die before he makes satisfaction and completes his penance, his body shall not be buried or removed from the place where it lay, unless his family shall make satisfaction for him to the person whom he injured.
6. During the days of the peace, no one shall make a hostile expedition on horseback except when summoned by the count; and all who go with the count shall take for their support only as much as is necessary for themselves and their horses.
Bodies of Confederate dead gathered for burial after the Battle of Antietam, Sharpsburg, Maryland, 1862. Photograph by Alexander Gardner. United States Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
7. All merchants and other men who pass through your territory from other lands shall have peace from you.
8. You shall also keep this peace every day of the week from the beginning of Advent to the octave of Epiphany and from the beginning of Lent to the octave of Easter, and from the feast of Rogations to the octave of Pentecost.
9. We command all priests on feast days and Sundays to pray for all who keep the peace and to curse all who violate it or support its violators.
10. If anyone has been accused of violating the peace and denies the charge, he shall take the communion and undergo the ordeal of hot iron. If he is found guilty, he shall do penance within the bishopric for seven years.
