The Peace of God

Geoffrey Koziol argues for the validity of a range of contradictory interpretations of the Medieval Peace of God movement.

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The Peace of God was one of the most important, and one of the most contested, movements of the entire Middle Ages. It has been seen as either radically innovative or fundamentally traditional; as strongly millenarian or not millenarian at all; as the first great popular movement in European history or as an instrument by which elites consolidated their power. In this book, Geoffrey Koziol argues that all such differing viewpoints have some basis in fact, partly because specific instantiations of the Peace of God varied greatly, but also because from its very beginning the movement brought to the fore the contradictions inherent in earlier ideas and rituals of peace and peace-making.