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The Medieval Church · 989 onward
The Canons of the Peace of God
The Councils of Charroux and Le Puy
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What it is
Councils of bishops, backed by crowds and relics, excommunicate anyone who robs a church, strikes an unarmed cleric, or seizes a peasant's livestock.
Why it lasted
The first organised attempt in Europe to limit private warfare by placing whole classes of people under the church's protection.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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