Synod of Rouen. 1096.
Truce of God confirmed.
Other decrees. was a master of almost any kind. The kind of work which was needed is shown in the acts of a synod which had been gathered at Rouen by Archbishop William, while Robert still nominally ruled, almost immediately after the greater gathering at Clermont. Three Norman bishops had been at Clermont in person, Odo of Bayeux, Gilbert of Evreux, and Serlo of Seez. They brought back the decrees of the council to their brethren, who forthwith assembled to accept and enforce in their own province all that had been ordered at Clermont for the Church and the world in general. They confirmed the Truce of God[1] with all its enactments on behalf of the more useful and helpless members of society. They drew up an oath to be taken under pain of anathema by all men, which bound them to observe the Truce in their own persons, and to give the help of the temporal arm to the efforts of the ecclesiastical powers against those who should break it.[2] In those days at least peace could be had only through war, and the Truce of God itself became the occasion of more fighting against those who scorned its wholesome checks. Other anathemas were pronounced against robbers, false moneyers, and buyers of stolen goods, against those who gathered themselves together in castles for purposes of plunder, and against the lords who sheltered such men in their castles. Such castles were put under an interdict; no Christian rite might be done in them.[3] In going on to pronounce*
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 721 B. This decree heads the acts of the council; "Statuit synodus sancta, ut trevia Dei firmiter custodiatur," &c.
- ↑ Ib. C. All persons from twelve years of age are to swear that they will keep the Truce, and will help their several bishops and archdeacons, "ita ut, si me monuerint ad eundum super eos, nec diffugiam nec dissimulabo, sed cum armis meis cum ipso proficiscar, et omnibus, quibus potero, juvabo adversus illos per fidem sine malo ingenio, secundum meam conscientiam."
- ↑ Ib. D. "Hoc anathemate feriuntur falsarii et raptores et emptores prædarum, et qui in castris congregantur propter exercendas rapinas, et
