. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. hn, Bishop of Puy and Count of Velay (1305), holding in his right hand anaked sword as a token of secular jurisdiction. bishop and the chapter, the episcopal court or tribunal took cognizance of thecrimes, the offences, and misdemeanours against religion of which any citizenmight be guilty, and also of the heresies, blasphemies, breaking of images,glaring infractions of the commandments of God and of the Church, insultsand assaults of the priests, &c. And even in these cases, where the delin-quent could plea


. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. hn, Bishop of Puy and Count of Velay (1305), holding in his right hand anaked sword as a token of secular jurisdiction. bishop and the chapter, the episcopal court or tribunal took cognizance of thecrimes, the offences, and misdemeanours against religion of which any citizenmight be guilty, and also of the heresies, blasphemies, breaking of images,glaring infractions of the commandments of God and of the Church, insultsand assaults of the priests, &c. And even in these cases, where the delin-quent could plead nobility, and especially when he belonged to the higherclasses of feudalism, the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical tribunals could notreach him. As the nobility could always claim to be judged by their peers,there was rarely any infraction of this feudal principle, and then only wheresome diocesan bishop or metropolitan was powerful enough to substitute hisown will for the customary right. In nearly all the episcopal towns, the judgment of the prelate or of his FEUDALISM. 29. Fig. 27.—The Tree of Battles: Allegorical Figures representing the discord which exists hetweenthe various classes of society.—Reproduced from a Miniature of The Tree of Battles ofHonore Bouet, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Burgundian Library, Brussels). delegates was delivered from the square in front of the cathedral, or fromthe doorway of some exterior and adjacent chapel. This practice, maintained 30 FEUDALISM. during the first centuries of the Churchs existence, ceased when another formof justice, namely, civil justice, took its place. In order to avoid the conflictswhich must have ensued, and to furnish no pretext for popular disturbance,the ecclesiastical justice took refuge in some special place, generally calledthe Cour Vevesque, till at last the diocesan power, deprived of its temporalprerogatives within the boundary of the free towns, found itself obliged totransfer somewhere else


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Keywords: ., booksubjectcostume, booksubjectmiddleages, booksubjectmilitaryar