God's Truce
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for God's Truce. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a peculiar military agreement of the feudal ages. From the article on FEUDALISM the reader may learn how Western Europe was cut up into petty territories, often no larger than a good sized farm, each with its castle or stronghold. There was no central authority strong enough to control the feudal chieftains. Night assaults and forays were of common occurrence. Knights with their followers fell upon their neighbors with no more ceremony than would be observed by bands of Indians in the New World. The country was in a horrible condition. Neither life nor property was safe. The church authorities undertook to improve matters. For a time efforts were made without success to forbid violence entirely. In 1041 what is known in history as God's Truce was proclaimed in Aquitaine, whereby, during Advent and Lent, and at all other times from sunset of Wednesday until sunrise Monday morning, all defenseless persons, priests, monks, nuns, women, merchants, pilgrims, and tillers of the soil were free from apprehension of violence on penalty of excommunication. This singular proclamation met with popular favor and spread to all parts of France and central Germany. Even unprincipled adventurers owned its force and felt bound by a sort of scruple akin to the gambler's honor to abstain from violent acts during the days and hours specified.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in the Middle Ages, a means introduced by the Church to check in some measure the hostile spirit of the times, by establishing certain days or periods during which all private feuds were to cease. It seems to have taken its rise about latter part of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century. At first the Church forbade all feuds on those days of the week which were especially consecrated by the death and resurrection of Christ; namely, from Thursday evening to Monday morning. Afterward the period was extended so as to include the whole of Thursday and from the beginning of Advent to the Epiphany, and certain other times and saints' days. The precincts of churches, convents, and graveyards were also interdicted from any hostile encounters.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The basic facts have held up: the Truce of God (Treuga Dei) did suspend feuding from Wednesday or Thursday evening to Monday morning and through Advent and Lent, and the Second Lateran Council of 1139 made it law for the whole Latin Church. What has shifted is the framing. Aiton's 1910 date of 1041 in Aquitaine is now usually pushed back to the Council of Toulouges in Roussillon in 1027, and the Truce is treated as the later phase of the broader Peace of God movement begun at Charroux in 989. Historians since the 1990s have also picked apart the backdrop both entries assume — the picture of total "feudal anarchy" is now contested, as is the word "feudalism" itself, and enforcement of the Truce is thought to have been far patchier than Aiton's confident line about adventurers feeling honor-bound to observe it.
Written for this edition, 2026.