The Truce of God

The Truce of God

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Title: The Truce of God A Tale of the Eleventh Century
Author: George Henry Miles
Release Date: March 8, 2005 [EBook #15289]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE TRUCE OF GOD
A Tale of the Eleventh Century By George Henry Miles
With an Introduction By John C. Reville, S.J., Ph.D.
New York Joseph F. Wagner, Inc. London: B. Herder

CONTENTS
CHAP. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.

INTRODUCTION
"The Truce of God" by our American novelist and dramatist, George
Henry Miles, is not only a romantic and interesting story, it recalls one
of the most striking achievements of the Middle Ages.
After the tide of barbarian invasion, Goths and Vandals, Heruli,
Burgundians and Franks had swept away the edifice of Roman
civilization, had it not been for the regenerating influence of
Christianity, another empire as cruel would have risen on the ruins of
Rome. No other power would then have ruled but the sword. The sword
was king, and received the worship of thousands. Now and then a ruler
appeared like Theodoric, Charlemagne, the Lombard Luitprand, who
used the sword on the whole for just and beneficent ends. And because
these warrior kings, even in the midst of their conquests, brought some
of the blessings of peace to their subject peoples, these peoples
welcomed their sway. Peace was, then as now, one of the world's
needs.
Although the eighth, ninth and succeeding century were not without
their brighter sides and were not those totally Dark Ages they have
been represented by the enemies of the Church, nevertheless, seeds of
evil passions, which in spite of her endeavors the Church had been
unable completely to stifle, lingered in the hearts of those
strong-limbed, strong-passioned Teutonic races which had succeeded to
the tasks and responsibilities of pagan Rome. Those races did not have
Rome's organizing power. By force, it is true, in a great measure, but
force intelligently applied, but also by patience, by an instinct for
justice and for order, Rome had welded her vast empire into a coherent
whole. Rome really, and effectively ruled. She had authority, she had
prestige, she was respected and feared, until the fatal day when, for her
vices and tyranny, she began to be hated. That day her fate was sealed.
The Teutonic races lacked the power of organization. They were strong
and comparatively free from the vices of Rome; they had a rude sense
of justice. But that very sense and instinct for that one essential of
ordered life drove the individual to take the execution of the law and of
justice into his own hands and to claim his rights at the point of the
sword. The result can be easily imagined. The sword was never for a
long time thrust back into the scabbard. Incessant wars, not at the

bidding of the ruler, nor sanctioned by the voice of public authority or
for the public welfare, but for private ends, for revenge, for greed and
booty, were waged throughout the length and breadth of Europe.
The civil government, or the empty simulacrum that went under the
name, seemed powerless, for the simple reason that the strong arm of
either a Charlemagne or a Charles Martel too seldom appeared to check
the culprits, or because the civil government itself only added fuel to
the flame, by the encouragement it gave to license and violence by its
own evil example.
But society had to protect itself. Conscious of its danger, and that it was
doomed to destruction, if some remedy were not found, it evolved in
the tenth and the following century, not an absolutely efficacious
remedy, but one which enabled it to pass in comparative safety that
dangerous period and carried European civilization to the full glories of
the age of Dante, St. Louis and the Angel of the Schools. The remedy
was feudalism.
That institution has been misunderstood. It was called forth by special
needs, and when the conditions which it met in an almost providential
manner changed, it quietly passed away. But it rendered an important
and never-to-be forgotten service to war-torn Europe. Feudalism can
scarcely be called a complete and rounded system. For it was
constantly undergoing modification. It was not the same north as south
of the Loire. It