GOD'S TRUCE, a mutual agreement be tween territorial nobles confirmed and sanc tioned by the Church by which war and violence were to be abstained from for a certain period. In the 9th and 10th centuries the empire of Charlemagne had become broken up into small territories, dukedoms, baronies, counties. The right of private war was a settled principle of the times and dissensions were frequent and bitter. The peasantry and farmers especially were sufferers from the ravages of this petty warfare. Even the monasteries, cathedral col leges and seats of learning were not left in peace and everything threatened anarchy and dissolu tion. It was at this point that the Church stepped in, as the minister of justice and the guardian of moral order. Stern ecclesiastical penalties were fulminated against all who in the reckless feudal warfare should disturb the peace of churches, priests and tillers of the soil. The Truce of God was instituted and by its provisions no fighting men should go forth to war on certain days. The little border province of Roussillon was the place where this truce was first agreed upon in the year 1027.
Fourteen years later the movement had spread over the whole of France and later it extended to Germany, Italy, Spain and England. The Truce of God in 1041 provided that peace was to last from Wednesday evening to Monday morning of each week; there was to he no war during Advent and Lent nor on certain speci fied saints' days and holy days; the punishments for contumacy and disobedience were money fines, banishment for a long term of years and excommunication; protection was specially ex tended to all women, pilgrims, priests, travelers, merchants and agriculturists and also to the farm implements and live stock of the peas antry. The Peace of God was confirmed by several councils of the Church, more especially by that of Clermont (1095), when Urban II proclaimed its universal extension throughout Christendom. In spite of its high ecclesiastical sanctions, the peace was often broken with im punity. The centralizing of power in strong kingships, which took place in the 13th century, naturally led to the more speedy subjugation of internal wars.