ABSTRACT
BUT it makes me profoundly unhappy to say that this peaceful manner of feasting or meeting together has often been disturbed when the plague has intensified, even more often by the high price of corn and by war, and most often by the ill-will and spite of false Christians and the loathsome machinations of heretics. Nevertheless the custom has never been entirely abolished. Therefore, although through the suspicion of tyrants, than which nothing is more common, the people at large are everywhere debarred from general meetings and communication and are thus not allowed to come together in one place, they still find at one time or another convenient opportunity for throwing off a cruel, violent domination and the unbearable yoke of servitude by the use of effective weapons and policies. So it is that they may get together at a country law-court, or to take part in marriage feasts or funeral processions, or on market days; or they may gather for communal hunts to rid themselves of dangerous animals, by order of the governor or compelled by general necessity, or to drive a foe from their shores. 1
