Page 144 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

peace projects 1445

We make war that we may live in peace.
• Aristides (fifth century bce)

or’s? Both Pierre Dubois (c. 1255–c. 1312) and Dante and too many cultures scattered over too large a territory.
Alighieri (1265–1321), each of whom wrote a peace Dubois then put forward a new kind of union: a council
project at the beginning of the fourteenth century, took formed by the sovereigns of Europe that would act as a
sides against the bishop of Rome. Dante, in De Mon- courtofarbitration.Memberswhorefusedtosubmitadis-
archia (1310), favored the emperor. In his hierarchical puteortoobeythecourt’sdecisionswouldthenfacesanc-
view of the world, the prince above all princes—the tions, from excommunication to economic and military
“Monarch”—was the only one capable of bringing peace actions. The pope, in charge of pronouncing the culprit
to Christendom. In the same way the ancient Roman excluded from the Christian community, was left with a
empire gave the world the Pax Romana, imperial dom- moralpower.ThekingofFrance,ontheotherhand,would
ination that would bring lasting peace. assume the council leadership by executing the sanctions.
Dubois, who wrote under the patronage of the French Dubois’s scheme was obviously designed to enable
king Philip IV, adopted a more innovative stance. His Philip IV to encroach upon the powers of the pope and
work De Recuperatione Terrae Sanctae (1305) focused on his fellow kings. Peace was at best the second of
the Christian crusade to recover the Holy Land.To meet Dubois’s concerns. Nevertheless, this fourteenth-century
this goal, Dubois claimed that European kings should plan contained the basic elements of virtually all further
stop quarreling and renounce warring against each other. peace projects: the formation of a council or a union of
Unlike Dante, he opposed the imperial solution on the independent entities, a set of procedures for settling dis-
grounds that Christendom consisted of too many men putes, and a coercive device.

Masked protestors, symbolizing victims, protest to have General Augusto Pinochet
returned to Chile to answer war crimes charges.