us 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period II. 



Chiircli was very intimate. This is shown by the reli- 

 gious character of all the ceremonies of investiture, the 

 vigils in the chapel, the early mass, the bath, the symbol 

 of baptism, the blessing of the arms, the sermon, &c. 

 The knights were taught to consider their first duty that 

 of maintaining the gospel by their swords, and at one 

 time it was customary for them to hold their unsheathed 

 weapons upright before them, during that portion of 

 divine service when the gospel was being read, intimating 

 thereby their willingness to defend their faith at the 

 point of the sword. The cause of this curious connection 

 of religion with a military order is evidently to be found 

 in the desire of the priesthood to turn to the advantage 

 of the Church a popular idea that was exerting a very 

 powerful influence. 



The other guiding sentiment, that of love, can have 

 its origin traced to the early habits of the Germans, who 

 were remarkable for the extraordinary respect with which 

 they treated the women of their tribes.* The increase of 

 wealth in the hands of the nobility, and the luxurious 

 and cultivated habits of social life, which are the natural 

 results of riches, tended also to give the ladies greater 

 influence, as their means and position gave them every 

 opportunity of acquiring all the refinements in dress, in 

 conversation, and in manners, which have so much effect 

 in securing the admiration and respect of the stronger 

 sex.^ There is also an instinctive desire among men to 

 display their superior strength, courage, and dexterity 

 before the objects of their admiration. The influence of 

 love thus naturally soon became paramount in an order 

 whose animating sentiment was the ambition of ac- 

 quiring personal renown by deeds of arms in action and 

 daring adventures in the field. 



At first religion was the prevailing sentiment, and the 

 efiect was perceived in the Crusades, and for a long 

 period this influence was powerfully felt in the order. 

 The exaggerated ideas of love which afterwards became 

 so common among the knights began to show themselves 

 as the feeling in favour of the Crusades died out, and 



' Tacitus, Germany, ch. viii. ^ Hallam, iii. 396. 





