The oaths and ceremonies by which reconciled enemies attempted to
guard themselves against a relapse, are sometimes utterly horrible.
When the parties of the 'Nove' and the 'Popolari' met and kissed one
another by twos in the cathedral at Siena on New Year's Eve, 1494, an
oath was read by which all salvation in time and eternity was denied to
the future violator of the treaty--'an oath more astonishing and
dreadful than had ever yet been heard.' The last consolations of
religion in the hour of death were to turn to the damnation of the man
who should break it. It is clear, however, that such a ceremony rather
represents the despairing mood of the mediators than offers any real
guarantee of peace, inasmuch as the truest reconciliation is just that
one which has least need of it.
This personal need of vengeance felt by the cultivated and highly
placed Italian, resting on the solid basis of an analogous popular
custom, naturally displays itself under a thousand different aspects,
and receives the unqualified approval of public opinion, as reflected
in the works of the novelists. All are at one on the point that, in the
case of those injuries and insults for which Italian justice offered no
redress, and all the more in the case of those against which no human
law can ever adequately provide, each man is free to take the law into
his own hands.
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