The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-01-08
A PLEA FOR PEACE
CONTINUED from Page 2.)

OAA TAk0 "a i
nelghboring town where they informed
the authorities of what they had seen.
A posse went to the hut and found no
less than forty-seven skeletons of men,
women and children who had been
Killed by the hermit and their flesh
either eaten by him or sold to persons
perishing for want of other food. The
execution of this monster, Glaber tells
us he himself witnessed.
In this crisis, when under the double
scourge of famine and war, population
declined so rapidly that its extinction
seemed inevitable, the Church pro.
ceeded to invoke the moral forces of
which She is custodian for preserva-
tion OF the race. She forbade every
man under the severest ecclesiastical
penalties from attempting or perpe.
trating any violence against other men.
Overawed by the terrible conditions in
which they found themselves the great
ones of the earth obeyed her prohibit
ton. The peace which followed was
declared to be the Peace of God. The
man who violated it was pronounced
anathema, outlawed for all human asso-
citation, refused even the right of sane
tuary which was denied to no other hu.
man being.
Glaber says that Immediately, as if
to show Gods approval of this peace,
the seasons again became propitious,
and for three years prosperity such as
no man could recall smiled upon the
earth. Indeed the blessings which
crowned this peace were so abundant
that cupidity was reawakened among
the powerful, and it proved too strong
for the resolutions of morality and the
restraints of religion.
But its beneficent results were not
forgotten. The Church which had
found Herself unable to maintain per-
manently the Peace of God by appeals
to the temporal interests of men, sue
ceeded a few years later in establish
ing the Truce of God by appeals to the
spiritual faith of men. She began by
prohibiting all men from engaging in
war or deeds of violence between noon
on Saturday, the eve of Our Lords
Resurrection. and six o'clock on the
following Monday. This prohibition
having proved effective, the Church
soon extended it first from Wednesday,
the eve of Our Lords betrayal, till
Monday morning, and afterwards to
include the whole of Lent and Advent,
the Ember Days and the period be-
tween the vigil of each great festival
and the day following the close of its
Octave, so that less than one-third of
the year remained what might be
called an open season. for fighting.
This Truce of God was quite gener-
ally observed throughout Europe. I'm
der its influence the energies of men
no longer wholly absorbed in war
turned to industry. And when at the
end of that century Pope Urban II
preached the First Crusade he simply
proclaimed anew the Truce of God
among all Christian princes, forbidding
them to engage in wars among them.
selves and urging them to unite for
liberation Of the land which had been
sanctified by the footsteps of Our d.
vine Redeemer from the polluting DOM
ination of the infidel who had seized it..
The Crusades failed in effecting the
immediate object for which they were
organized, but they constituted a move
ment that changed the whole aspect Of
the world. The necessity of providing
the Crusading armies with means of
transportation and subsistence led to
a revival of industry. Communes were
founded. manufactures established, the
arts cultivated. This whole industrial
civilization of ours had its origin in
that movement which established
peace among Christian nations, not
for the benefit of any country, but for
the benefit of all men, and, therefore,
for the glory of Almighty God.
Chivalry was the lay force by which
the Popes during the Eleventh Cen
fury succeeded in imposing for few
years the Peace of God and for many
years the Truce of God on a military
age. Today, in the Twentieth Gen.
fury, this new Chivalry Of ours, this
Knighthood of Columbus, is the first
lay force to answer the Pope's attempt
to re-establish and make permanent
the Peace of God in this industrial
age. And If the Peace of God was
actually established, even for few
years, in an age when rapine and con-
quest were supposed to be the only
pathway to prosperity and arms the
only calling that honorable men could
follow, who shall say that the Peace
Of God cannot be re-established and
made permanent now in this age when
men have enjoyed the extraordinary
prosperity which has been the fruit of
peace long unbroken; and when not
merely our own Order, but all the
moral forces of Christendom are rang
ing themselves behind the Pontiff, who
is the Prince Of Peace, in his efforts
to end this war and make its recur.