CHAPTER IV 



CHIVALRY AND PLATONIC LOVE 



That social and religious movements may work for 

 good not only without the concurrence, but even in 

 opposition to the aims and intentions of their promoters, 

 is shown by the growth of the great mediaeval institu- 

 tion of chivalry. Chivalry was an offshoot of Christian- 

 ity, being in the first instance a device by the clergy to 

 utilise for the defence of the Church the turbulent 

 militarism of the feudal system. But if religious in 

 its origin, it soon developed a spirit of its own which 

 was not only foreign to ecclesiasticism, but ultimately 

 became hostile to it. The hardships inflicted upon 

 women by the Church in the shape of a general un- 

 settlement of the domestic relations were mainly 

 instrumental in effecting this change of purpose in 

 chivalry. Not only did the mediaeval Church declare 

 that woman was in some sort an unclean thing, or at 



