Classical and Pagan Precedents
Romans in the pagan traditions commonly used a similar phrase "peace of the gods", meaning when the gods were at peace, when the gods were not causing trouble, such as earthquakes or war, otherwise known as Ira Deorum (The Wrath of the Gods). The object of Roman religion was to secure the cooperation, benevolence, and "peace" of the gods, hence Pax Deorum.
The eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon, interpreting Tacitus, Germania §40, detected a parallel among the pagan German tribes who worshipped a goddess of the earth (identified by modern scholars with Nerthus) who in Gibbon's interpretation resided at the island of Rügen, who annually travelled to visit the tribes. "During her progress the sound of war was hushed, quarrels were suspended, arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had an opportunity of tasting the blessings of peace and harmony. The truce of God, so often and so ineffectually proclaimed by the clergy of the eleventh century, was an obvious imitation of this ancient custom."
Read more about this topic: Peace And Truce Of God
Famous quotes containing the words classical, pagan and/or precedents:
“Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building—like Tower Bridge—or a classical front put on a steel frame—like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living—not something added, like sugar on a pill.”
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A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
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