Peace and Truce of God 563Simons, eds., Patronage, Art, and Society in Renaissance
Italy(New York: Oxford University Press, 1987); June
Hall McCash, The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996).
Paul the Deacon(Paulus Levita, Warnefrid)(ca. 720–
ca. 800)historian, grammarian, poet, deacon, monk at
Monte Cassino
Paul was a member of one of the oldest LOMBARDfamilies
long settled in Friuli by King ALBOIN, the first king of the
Lombards in Italy. At Pavia, he was educated in the court
of the Lombard king Ratchis (r. 744–749). He was
instructed in letters, and learned LATIN. He also received
some education in Greek. At Ratchis’s court, he heard
about the old exploits of the Lombards, which he
recorded at the end of his life in his best known work,
the History of the Lombards.He became a deacon, of the
Church of Aquileia and perhaps a notary and adviser of
the Lombard king Desiderius (r. 757–774). He taught the
royal children.
After 774, when CHARLEMAGNEconquered the Lom-
bards, Paul became a monk at MONTECASSINO. In 776,
his brother participated in a revolt against the FRANKS, for
which he was despoiled of his patrimony and banished to
Francia. In about 782, Paul visited Charlemagne’s court
at AACHEN, likely brought there by the grammarian Peter
of Pisa (d. ca. 800). While there between 782 and 786,
Paul tried to help his brother and worked among the
Frankish and other clerics working on a reform educa-
tion. Back at Benevento again in 786–787 and after the
death of the duke of Benevento, Paul returned to Monte
Cassino, where he died about 800.
LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENTSIn a clear and cultivated Latin, he composed a commen-
tary on Donatus (fl. fourth century), a summary of Fes-
tus’s (fl. ca. 200) dictionary, a homiliary composed at
Charlemagne’s request, a commentary on the Benedic-
tine Rule, a Roman history, a history of the bishops of
Metz, and a hagiographical life of Pope GREGORYI. He is
best known for his epic history of the Lombards from
their origins in 586 to the death of King LIUTPRANDin
744, written while he was at Monte Cassino. In it he
emphasized the triumph of Christianity over Lombard
PAGANISM.
Further reading:Paul, the Deacon, History of the
Langobards,trans. William Dudley Foulke (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania, 1907); Walter A. Goffart, The
Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes,
Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon(Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988).
Peace and Truce of God The Peace of God, or in
Latin Pax Dei,was a movement with a moral vision and
concern for community that began in southern FRANCEin
the late 10th century and spread to most of CHRISTENDOM.
Its influence was apparent until at least the 13th century.
Its ideals involved lay and ecclesiastical legislation that
regulated WARFAREand tried to establish a social and
political peace under the influence of Christianity.
The Peace and Truce of God was a popular religious
movement, coinciding with the collapse of the government
of the CAROLINGIAN FAMILY AND DYNASTYand the violence
of the rise of the CAPETIAN DYNASTYin the 10th century,
events that generated violence at the local level because of
the absence of effective central government. Church coun-
cils or meetings of bishops and other clerics with some
powerful LAITYwere called to stem the rising level of disor-
der from which all of society was suffering. The resulting
synodal legislation in France was designed to protect
unarmed civilians, such as churchmen, peasants, MER-
CHANTS, and pilgrims; and to control the behavior of war-
riors, who were henceforth obliged to swear an OATHon
RELICSin the presence of others. The new controls relied
on noncoercive spiritual sanctions such as EXCOMMUNICA-
TION, the INTERDICT, and the anathema rather than any
royal administration of justice. The success of these mea-
sures depended on the combined force of a perceived
divine will and popular pressure expressed sometimes in
miraculous events. In the 11th century, princes and kings
joined the Peace and Truce of God. It was especially effec-
tive in 1033, the supposed anniversary of Christ’s passion
and DEATH. Peace leagues grew up. Peasants and lower-
level clerics joined nobility in this effort to maintain peace.TREUGA DEI
By the 1040s the Truce of God (Treuga Dei) continued to
be a center of legislative efforts at control. Aimed at the
nobility, involved a voluntary relinquishing of arms at
certain times, seeking to limit feuds and private warfare,
forming a temporary link between the earlier peace
movements and the development of public institutions
that could effectively control violence. These truces spec-
ified collective peace at specific times: every week from
Wednesday evening to Monday and on numerous other
Christian feast days the rest of the time. It was sometimes
effective. There were attempts to follow its guidelines
even during civil wars in ENGLANDand the HOLYROMAN
EMPIRE. Monarchs resorted to such truces to control
unruly nobles in the 12th century. Canonists, such as IVO
OFCHARTRES, and popes, such as ALEXANDERIII, tried to
promote it and give it some kind of canonical underpin-
ning, but popular enthusiasm for it began to wane as the
strength and coercive power of central governments and
other institutions increased.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, ambitious and violent
nobles found alternatives for their bellicose energies—
they could go off on Crusade and “ethically” combat
Muslims or only too often whomever they encountered,
including JEWSand other Christians. Even the religiously
inspired peasants, once attracted to oppose these local