[Illustration: Fig. 299.--The Court of the Nobles.--Fac-simile of a
Miniature in an old Poetical Romance of Chivalry, Manuscript of the
Thirteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris.]
This right of revenge, besides being thus circumscribed as to locality,
was also subject to certain rules as to time. Sunday and the principal
feasts of the year, such as Advent, Christmas week, and from that time to
the Epiphany, from the Ascension to the Day of Pentecost, certain vigils,
&c., were all occasions upon which the right of revenge could not be
exercised. "The power of the King," says a clever and learned writer,
"partook to a certain degree of that of God and of the Saints; it was his
province to calm human passions; by the moral power of his seal and his
hand he extended peace over all the great lines of communication, through
the forests, along the principal rivers, the highways and the byways, &c.
The _Treve du Dieu_ in 1035, was the logical application of these humane
principles."
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