§ 105.1. =Knighthood and the Peace of God.=--Notwithstanding its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens, and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. In A.D. 1034 the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. In A.D. 1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. At a later council at Narbonne in A.D. 1054, Advent to Epiphany, Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists, in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont, A.D. 1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France, and at the 3rd Lateran Council in A.D. 1179 Alexander III. raised it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church. § 105.2. =Popular Customs.=--Superstition resting on old paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the subjects of blasphemous parodies. On =Fool’s Festival= on New Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous manner. Of a similar nature was the _Festum innocentum_ (§ 57, 1) enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the so-called =Feast of Asses= was celebrated. At Rouen dramatic representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given; at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy. After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under the name of =Calends=, because their gatherings were on the Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives. This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings degenerated into riotous carousings.