[374] The practice of private wars; for an account of which, see Robertson’s Hist. of Charles V. vol. i.
[375] If orders could not be completely conferred on Saturday, the ceremony might be performed on Sunday; and the parties continuing to fast the two days were considered as one only.—Durand.
[376] The Truce of God, was so called from the eagerness with which its first proposal was received by the suffering people of every degree: during the time it endured, no one dared infringe it, by attacking his fellows. See Du Cange: and Robertson’s Charles V. vol. i. It was blamed by some bishops as furnishing an occasion of perjury, and was rejected by the Normans, as contrary to their privileges. The Truce of God was first established in Aquitaine, 1032.
[377] There are other orations, said to have been delivered by Urban in this council, remaining; and L’Abbe (Concil. T. x.) has printed one from a Vatican MS.; but they are all very inferior to Malmesbury.
[378] He alludes to St. Augustine and the fathers of the African church.
[379] This gratuitous insult on a brave and noble people is unworthy a writer like William of Malmesbury; but the monkish historians were as deficient in taste as in style. The cloister was a useful seminary to teach the plodding accuracy which is required to write a chronicle; but for elevation of mind and diffusion of liberal sentiment, it was as inefficient as it is still.
[380] The rustic, observes Guibert, shod his oxen like horses, and placed his whole family on a cart; where it was amusing to hear the children, on the approach to any large town or castle, inquiring, if that were Jerusalem. Guib. Novigent. Opera, p. 482.
[381] Fulcher says, those who assumed the cross were estimated at that number; but that multitudes returned home ere they passed the sea. Fulcherius Carnotensis ap. Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 387.
[382] However repugnant this representation may be to the generally received opinion, it is that of an eye-witness, when describing the army assembled at Constantinople. Fulch. Carnot. p. 389.
[383] It should probably be the Elbe, as he appears to describe the people of northern Germany.