Transcript

27 - Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot · Popular History of France from the Earliest Times

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Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of Volume one of A Popular History
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Speaker 1: of France from the Earliest Times. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Volume
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Speaker 1: one of A Popular History of France from the Earliest
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Speaker 1: Times by Francois Riiseeau, translated by Robert Black, Chapter fourteen,
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Speaker 1: the Kapetions to the time of the Crusades, Part two,
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Speaker 1: the most complete amongst the chroniclers of the time, Orderic
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Speaker 1: Vital says, touching this marriage at Anziers of Bertrade's two husbands,
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Speaker 1: this clever woman had, by her skillful management, so perfectly
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Speaker 1: reconciled these two rivals, that she made them a splendid feast,
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Speaker 1: got them both to sit at the same table, had
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Speaker 1: their beds prepared the ensuing night in the same chamber,
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Speaker 1: and ministered to them according to their pleasure. The most
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Speaker 1: judicious of the historians and statesmen of the twelfth century,
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Speaker 1: the Abbe Sugar, that faithful minister of Louis the fat,
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Speaker 1: who cannot be suspected of favoring Trod, expresses himself about
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Speaker 1: her in these terms. This sprightly and rarely accomplished woman
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Speaker 1: well versed in the art familiar to her sex of
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Speaker 1: holding captive the husbands they have outraged, had acquired such
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Speaker 1: an empire over her first husband, the Count of Anjou,
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Speaker 1: in spite of the affront she had put upon him
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Speaker 1: by deserting him, that he treated her with homage as
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Speaker 1: his sovereign, often sat upon a steel at her feet,
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Speaker 1: and obeyed her wishes by a sort of enchantment. These
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Speaker 1: details are textually given as the best representation of the
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Speaker 1: place occupied in the history of that time by the
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Speaker 1: morals and private life of the kings. It would not
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Speaker 1: be right, however, to draw therefrom conclusions as to the
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Speaker 1: abasement of Capitan royalty in the eleventh century with too
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Speaker 1: great severity. There are irregularities and scandals which the great
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Speaker 1: qualities and the personal glory of princes may cause to
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Speaker 1: be not only excused but even forgotten. Though certainly the
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Speaker 1: three Capecians who immediately succeeded the founder of the dynasty
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Speaker 1: offered their people no such compensation. But it must not
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Speaker 1: be supposed that they had fallen into the flight of
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Speaker 1: the sluggard Merovingians or the last carlov Indians wandering almost
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Speaker 1: without a refuge. A profound change had come over society
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Speaker 1: and royalty in France, in spite of their political mediocrity
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Speaker 1: and their indolent licentiousness. Robert Henry the First and Philip
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Speaker 1: the First were not in the eleventh century insignificant personages
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Speaker 1: without authority or practical influence, whom their contemporaries could leave
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Speaker 1: out of the account. They were great lords, proprietors of
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Speaker 1: vast domains, wherein they exercised over the population, and almost
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Speaker 1: absolute power they had. It is true about them rivals,
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Speaker 1: large proprietors and almost absolute sovereigns like themselves, sometimes stronger
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Speaker 1: even materially than themselves, and more energetic or more intellectually able,
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Speaker 1: whose superiors. However, they remained on two grounds. As suzerains
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Speaker 1: and as kings, their court was always the most honored,
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Speaker 1: and their alliance very much sought after. They occupied the
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Speaker 1: first rank in feudal society, and a rank unique in
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Speaker 1: the body politic, such as it was slowly becoming in
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Speaker 1: the midst of reminiscences and traditions of the Jewish monarchy,
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Speaker 1: of Barbaric kingship and of the Roman Empire. For a while,
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Speaker 1: resuscitated by Charlemagne. French kingship in the eleventh century was
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Speaker 1: sole power invested by the triple character Germanic, Roman, and religious.
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Speaker 1: Its possessors were, at the same time the chieftains of
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Speaker 1: the conquerors of the soil, the successors of the Roman
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Speaker 1: emperors and of Charlemagne, and the Laic delegates and representatives
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Speaker 1: of the God of the Christians. Whatever were their weaknesses
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Speaker 1: and their personal shortcomings, they were not the mere tutelaries
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Speaker 1: of a power in decay, and the kingly posts was
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Speaker 1: strong and full of blossoms, as events were not slow
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Speaker 1: to demonstrate. And as with the kingship, so with the
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Speaker 1: community of France in the eleventh century, in spite of
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Speaker 1: its dislocation into petty, incoherent and turbulent associations, it was
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Speaker 1: by no means in decay. Irregularities of ambition, hatreds and
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Speaker 1: quarrels and neighbors and relatives outrages on the part of
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Speaker 1: princes and peoples were incessantly renewed. But energy of character,
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Speaker 1: activity of mind, indomitable will, and zeal for the liberty
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Speaker 1: of the individual were not wanting, and they exhibited themselves
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Speaker 1: passionately and at any risk, at one time by brutal
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Speaker 1: and cynical outbursts, which were followed occasionally by ferment, repentance
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Speaker 1: and expiation, at another by acts of courageous wisdom and
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Speaker 1: disinterested piety. At the commencement of the eleventh century, William
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Speaker 1: the third, Count of Portiers and Duke of Aquitaine was
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Speaker 1: one of the most honored and most potent princes of
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Speaker 1: his time. All the sovereigns of Europe sent embassies to
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Speaker 1: him as their peer. He every year made, by way
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Speaker 1: of devotion, a trip to Rome, and was received there
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Speaker 1: with the same honors as the Emperor. He was fond
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Speaker 1: of literature and gave up to reading the early hours
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Speaker 1: of the night, and scholars called him another Masennus. Unaffected
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Speaker 1: by these worldly successes, he intermingled with so much toil
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Speaker 1: and so many miscalculations. He refused the crown Italy when
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Speaker 1: it was offered to him at the death of the
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Speaker 1: Emperor Henry the Second, and he finished, like Charles the
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Speaker 1: Fifth some centuries later, by going and seeking in a
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Speaker 1: monastery isolation from the world and repose. But in the
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Speaker 1: same domains, and at the end of the same century
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Speaker 1: his grandson, William the seventh, was the most vagabondish, dissolute,
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Speaker 1: and violent of princes, and his morals were so scandalous
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Speaker 1: that the Bishop of Poitiers, after having warned him to
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Speaker 1: no purpose, considered himself forced to excommunicate him. The Duke
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Speaker 1: suddenly burst into the church, made his way through the
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Speaker 1: congregation sword in hand, and seized the prelate by the hare, saying,
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Speaker 1: thou shalt give me absolution or die. The bishop demanded
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Speaker 1: a moment for reflection, profited by it to pronounce the
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Speaker 1: form of excommunication, and forthwith bowing his head before the Duke, said,
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Speaker 1: and now strike, I love thee. Not well enough to
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Speaker 1: send thee to paradise, answered the Duke, and he confined
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Speaker 1: himself to depriving him of his see. For fury the
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Speaker 1: Duke of Aquitaine sometimes substituted insolent mockery. Another Bishop of Angulm,
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Speaker 1: who was quite bald, likewise exhorted him to mend his ways.
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Speaker 1: I will mend, quoth the Duke, when thou shalt comb
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Speaker 1: back thy hair to thy pate. Another great lord of
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Speaker 1: the same century fulch the Black Count of Anjou, at
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Speaker 1: the close of an able and glorious lifetime, had resigned
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Speaker 1: to his son, Geoffrey Martel, the administration of his countship.
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Speaker 1: The son, as haughty and harsh towards his father, as
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Speaker 1: towards his subjects, took up arms against him and bade
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Speaker 1: him lay aside the outward signs which he still maintained
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Speaker 1: of power. The old man, in his wrath, recovered the
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Speaker 1: vigor and ability of his youth, and strove so energetically
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Speaker 1: and successfully against his son that he reduced him to
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Speaker 1: such subjugation as to make him do several miles crawling
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Speaker 1: on the ground, says the Chronicle, with a saddle on
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Speaker 1: his back, and to come and prostrate himself at his feet.
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Speaker 1: When fulch had his son thus humbled before him, he
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Speaker 1: spurned him with his foot, repeating over and over again.
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Speaker 1: Nothing but thou art beaten, thou art beaten, I beat
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Speaker 1: said Geoffrey. But by thee only because thou art my father,
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Speaker 1: to any other, I am invincible. The anger of the
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Speaker 1: old man vanished at once. He now thought only how
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Speaker 1: he might console his son for the affront put upon him,
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Speaker 1: and he gave him back his power, exhorting him only
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Speaker 1: to conduct himself with more moderation and gentleness towards his subjects.
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Speaker 1: All was inconsistency. In contrast with these robust, rough hasty souls,
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Speaker 1: they cared little for belying themselves when they had satisfied
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Speaker 1: the passion of the moment. The relations existing between the
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Speaker 1: two great powers of the period, the Laic lords and
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Speaker 1: the monks, were not less bitter or less unstable than
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Speaker 1: amongst the layaks themselves. And when artifice, as often happened,
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Speaker 1: was employed, it was by no means to the exclusion
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Speaker 1: of violence. About the middle of the twelfth century, the
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Speaker 1: Abbey of Tournas in Burgundy had at Luhan's a little
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Speaker 1: port where it collected salt tax, whereof it every year
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Speaker 1: distributed the receipts to the poor. During the first week
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Speaker 1: in Lent, Gerrard, Count of Macon tablished a like toll
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Speaker 1: a little distance off. The monks of Tornois complained, but
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Speaker 1: he took no notice. A long while afterwards he came
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Speaker 1: to Tornois with a splendid following, and entered the church
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Speaker 1: of Saint Philibert. He had stopped all alone before the
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Speaker 1: altar to say his prayers when a monk, cross in
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Speaker 1: hand issued suddenly from behind the altar, and placing himself
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Speaker 1: before the Count, How hast thou the audacity? He said,
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Speaker 1: to enter my monastery in mine house, thou that dost
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Speaker 1: not hesitate to rob me of my dues? And taking
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Speaker 1: Gerard by the hair, he threw him on the ground
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Speaker 1: and belabored him heavily. The Count, stupefied in contrite, acknowledged
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Speaker 1: his injustice, took off the toll that he had wrongfully
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Speaker 1: put on, and, not content with this reparation, sent to
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Speaker 1: the Church of Tournois a rich carpet of golden and
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Speaker 1: silken tissue. In the middle of the eleventh century Adamer
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Speaker 1: the second Viscount of Limage, had in his city a
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Speaker 1: coral of quite a different sort with the monks of
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Speaker 1: the Abbey of Saint Martial. The abbey had fallen into
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Speaker 1: great looseness of discipline and morals, and the Viscount had
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Speaker 1: at heart its reformation. To this end, he entered into
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Speaker 1: concert at a distance with Hugh, Abbot of Clooney, at
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Speaker 1: that time the most celebrated and the most respected of
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Speaker 1: the monasteries. The Abbot of Saint Marshal died. Ademar sent
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Speaker 1: for some monks from Clooney to come to Limoges, lodged
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Speaker 1: them secretly near his palace repaired to the abbey of
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Speaker 1: Saint Marshal, after having had the chapter convoked, and called
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Speaker 1: upon the monks to proceed at once to the election
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Speaker 1: of a new abbot. A lively discussion upon this point
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Speaker 1: arose between the viscount and the monks. We are not ignorant,
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Speaker 1: said one of them to him, that you have sent
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Speaker 1: for brethren from Clooney in order to drive us out
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Speaker 1: and put them in our places, but you will not succeed.
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Speaker 1: The Viscount was furious, seized by the sleeve the monk
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Speaker 1: who was in vaging, and dragged him by force out
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Speaker 1: of the monastery. His fellows were frightened and took to flight,
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Speaker 1: and Ademar immediately had the monks from Clooney sent for
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Speaker 1: and put them in possession of the abbey. It was
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Speaker 1: a ruffianly proceeding, but the reform was popular in the
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Speaker 1: motion was effected. These trifling matters are faithful samples of
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Speaker 1: the dominant and fundamental characteristic of French society during the tenth, eleventh,
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Speaker 1: and twelfth centuries, the true epoch of the Middle Ages.
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Speaker 1: It was chaos and fermentation within the chaos, the slow
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Speaker 1: and rough, but powerful and productive fermentation of unruly life.
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Speaker 1: In ideas, events, and persons, there was a blending of
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Speaker 1: the strongest contrasts. Manners were rude and even savage, yet
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Speaker 1: souls were filled with lofty and tender aspirations. The authority
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Speaker 1: of religious creeds, at one time was on the point
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Speaker 1: of extinction, yet at another shone forth gloriously in opposition
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Speaker 1: to the arrogance and brutality of mundane passions. Ignorance was profound,
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Speaker 1: and yet here and there, in the very heart of
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Speaker 1: the mental darkness gleamed bright centers of movement and intellectual labor.
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Speaker 1: It was the period when Abelard, anticipating freedom of thought
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Speaker 1: and of instruction, drew together upon Mount Saint Genevieve thousands
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Speaker 1: of hearers anxious to follow him in the study of
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Speaker 1: the great problems of nature and of the days destiny
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Speaker 1: of men and the world. And far away from this throng,
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Speaker 1: in the solitude of the abbey of b Saint Anselm,
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Speaker 1: was offering to his monks a Christian and philosophical demonstration
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Speaker 1: of the existence of God. Faith seeking understanding Fetus Quorn's
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Speaker 1: intellectuan as he himself used to say. It was the
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Speaker 1: period too, when, distressed at the licentiousness which was spreading
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Speaker 1: throughout the church as well as lay society, two illustrious monks,
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Speaker 1: Saint Bernard and Saint Norbert, not only went preaching everywhere
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Speaker 1: reformation of morals, but labored at and succeeded in establishing
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Speaker 1: for monastic life a system of strict discipline and severe austerity. Lastly,
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Speaker 1: it was the period when in the Laic world was
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Speaker 1: created and developed the most splendid fact of the Middle Ages, knighthood,
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Speaker 1: that noble soaring of imaginations and souls towards the ideal
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Speaker 1: of Christian virtue and soldierly honor. It is impossible to
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Speaker 1: trace in detail the origin and history of that grand fact,
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Speaker 1: which was so prominent in the days to which it belong,
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Speaker 1: and which is so prominent still in the memories of men.
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Speaker 1: But a clear notion ought to be obtained of its
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Speaker 1: moral character and its practical worth. To this end, a
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Speaker 1: few pages shall be borrowed from Guiseau's History of the
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Speaker 1: civilization in France. Let us first look on the admission
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Speaker 1: of a knight, such as took place in the twelfth century.
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Speaker 1: We will afterwards see what rules of conduct were imposed
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Speaker 1: on him, not only according to the oaths which he
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Speaker 1: had to take on becoming a knight, but according to
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Speaker 1: the idea formed of knighthood by the poets of the day,
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Speaker 1: those interpreters not only of actual life, but of men's
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Speaker 1: sentiments also. We shall then understand without difficulty what influence
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Speaker 1: must have been exercised in the souls and lives of
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Speaker 1: men by such sentiments and such rules. However, great may
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Speaker 1: have been the discrepancy between the knightly ideal and the
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Speaker 1: general actions and passions of contemporaries. The young man, the esquire,
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Speaker 1: who aspired to the title of knight, was first stripped
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Speaker 1: of his clothes and placed in a bath, which was
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Speaker 1: symbolical of purification. On leaving the bath, he was clothed
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Speaker 1: in a white tunic, which was symbolical of purity, and
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Speaker 1: a red robe, which was symbolical of the blood he
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Speaker 1: was bound to shed in the service of the faith,
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Speaker 1: and a black sagum or close fitting coat, which was
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Speaker 1: symbolical of the death which awaited him as well as
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Speaker 1: all men. Thus purified in clothes, the candidate observed for
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Speaker 1: four and twenty hours a strict fast, when evening came,
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Speaker 1: he entered church and there passed the night in prayer,
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Speaker 1: sometimes alone, sometimes with a priest and sponsors who prayed
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Speaker 1: with him. Next day, his first act was confession. After confession,
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Speaker 1: the priest gave him the communion. After the communion, he
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Speaker 1: attended a Mass of the Holy Spirit, and generally a
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Speaker 1: sermon touching on the duties of knights and of the
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Speaker 1: new life. He was about to enter on the sermon
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Speaker 1: over the candidate advanced to the altar with the Knight's
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Speaker 1: sword hanging from his neck. This the priest took off,
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Speaker 1: blessed and replaced upon his neck. The candidate then went
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Speaker 1: and knelt before the Lord, who was to arm him Knight.
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Speaker 1: To what purpose? The Lord asked him, do you desire
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Speaker 1: to enter the order? If to be rich, to take
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Speaker 1: your ease, and to be held in honor, without doing
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Speaker 1: honor to knighthood, you are unworthy of it and would
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Speaker 1: be to the order of knighthood you received what the
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Speaker 1: semoniacal clerk is to the prelacy. On the young man's reply,
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Speaker 1: promising to acquit himself well of the duties of knight,
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Speaker 1: the Lord granted his request, then drew near knights and
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Speaker 1: sometimes ladies to reclothe the candidate in all his new array,
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Speaker 1: and they put on him the spurs, the hauberk or
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Speaker 1: coat of mail, the curists, the armlets and gauntlets, and
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Speaker 1: the sword. He was what was then called a dubbed,
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Speaker 1: that is adopted. According to Ducange, the Lord rose up,
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Speaker 1: went to him and gave him the accolade or acolyee,
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Speaker 1: three blows with the flat of the sword on the
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Speaker 1: shoulder or nape of the neck, and sometimes a slap
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Speaker 1: with the palm of the hand on the cheek, saying,
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Speaker 1: in the name of God, Saint Michael and Saint George,
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Speaker 1: I make thee Knight, and he sometimes added, be valiant,
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Speaker 1: bold and loyal. The young man, having been thus armed,
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Speaker 1: Knight had his helmet brought to him. A horse was
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Speaker 1: let up for him. He leaped on its back, generally
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Speaker 1: without the help of the stirrups, and Kara coled about,
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Speaker 1: brandishing his lance and making his short flash. Finally he
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Speaker 1: went out of church, and Kara called about in the
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Speaker 1: open at the foot of the castle, in the presence
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Speaker 1: of the people eager to have their share in the spectacle.
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Speaker 1: Such was what may be called the outward and material
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Speaker 1: part in the admission of knights. It shows a persistent
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Speaker 1: anxiety to associate religion with all the phases of so
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Speaker 1: personal an affair. The sacraments, the most august feature of Christianity,
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Speaker 1: are mixed up with it, and many of the ceremonies
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Speaker 1: are as far as possible, assimilated to the administration of
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Speaker 1: the sacraments. Let us continue our examination. Let us penetrate
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Speaker 1: to the very heart of knighthood, its moral character, its ideas,
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Speaker 1: the sentiments which it was the object to impress upon
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Speaker 1: the night. Here again the influence of religion will be
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Speaker 1: quite evident. The knight had to swear to twenty six articles.
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Speaker 1: These articles, however, did not make one single formula, drawn
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Speaker 1: up at one and the same time, and altogether they
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Speaker 1: are a collection of oaths required of knights at different epochs,
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Speaker 1: and in more or less complete fashion, from the eleventh
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Speaker 1: to the fourteenth century. The candidate swore one to fear
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Speaker 1: reverence and serve God religiously, to fight for the faith
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Speaker 1: with all their might, and to die a thousand deaths
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Speaker 1: rather than ever renounce Christianity. Two to serve their sovereign
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Speaker 1: Prince faithfully and to fight for him and fatherland right valiantly.
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Speaker 1: Three to uphold the rights of the weaker, such as widows, orphans,
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Speaker 1: and damsels in fair quarrel, exposing themselves on that account
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Speaker 1: according as need might be, provided it were not against
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Speaker 1: their own honor or against their king or lawful prince. Four.
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Speaker 1: That they would not injure any one maliciously or take
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Speaker 1: what was another's, but would rather do battle with those
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Speaker 1: who did so. Five That greed, pay gain, or profit
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Speaker 1: should never constrain them to do any deed, but only
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Speaker 1: glory and virtue. Six. That they would fight for the
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Speaker 1: good and advantage of the common weal. Seven, That they
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Speaker 1: would be bound by and obey the orders of their
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Speaker 1: generals and captains who had a right to command them. Eight.
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Speaker 1: That they would guard the honor, rank, and order of
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Speaker 1: their comrades, and that they would neither by arrogance nor
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Speaker 1: by force, commit any trespass against any one of them. Nine.
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Speaker 1: That they would never fight in companies against one and
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Speaker 1: that they would eschew all tricks and artifices. Ten, that
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Speaker 1: they would wear but one sword unless they had to
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Speaker 1: fight against two or more. Eleven That in turney or
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Speaker 1: other sportive contest, they would never use the point of
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Speaker 1: their swords. Twelve That being taken prisoner in attorney, they
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Speaker 1: would be bound on their faith and honor to perform
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Speaker 1: in every point the conditions of capture, besides being bound
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Speaker 1: to give up to the victors their arms and horses
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Speaker 1: if it seemed good to take them, and being disabled
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Speaker 1: from fighting in more or elsewhere without their leave. Thirteen.
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Speaker 1: That they would keep faith involubly with all the world,
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Speaker 1: and especially with their comrades, upholding their honor and advantage
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Speaker 1: wholly in their absence. Fourteen That they would love and
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Speaker 1: honor one another, and aid and succor one another whenever
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Speaker 1: occasion offered. Fifteen That having made vow or promise to
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Speaker 1: go on any quest or novel adventure, they would never
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Speaker 1: put off their arms, save for the knight's rest. Sixteen
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Speaker 1: That in pursuit of their quest or adventure, they would
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Speaker 1: not shun bad and perilous passes, nor turn aside from
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Speaker 1: the straight road for fear of encountering powerful knights or monsters,
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Speaker 1: or wild beasts, or other hindrance, such as the body
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Speaker 1: and courage of a single man might tackle. Seventeen That
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Speaker 1: they would never take wage or pay from any foreign prints.
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Speaker 1: Eighteen that in command of troops of men at arms,
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Speaker 1: they would live in the utmost possible order and discipline,
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Speaker 1: and especially in their own country, where they would never
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Speaker 1: suffer any harm or violence to be done. Nineteen. That
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Speaker 1: if they were bound to escort Dame or damsel, they
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Speaker 1: would serve her, protect her, and save her from all
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Speaker 1: danger and insult or die in the attempt. Twenty That
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Speaker 1: they would never offer violence to Dame or damsel, though
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Speaker 1: they had won her by deeds of arms, against her
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Speaker 1: will and consent. Twenty one, That being challenged to equal combat,
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Speaker 1: they would not refuse without wound, sickness, or other reasonable hindrance.
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Speaker 1: Twenty two That having undertaken to carry out any enterprise,
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Speaker 1: they would devote to it night and day, unless they
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Speaker 1: were called away for the service of their king and country.
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Speaker 1: Twenty three. That if they made a vow to acquire
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Speaker 1: any honor, they would not draw back without having attained
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Speaker 1: either it or its equivalent. Twenty four That they would
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Speaker 1: be faithful keepers of their word and pledged faith, And
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Speaker 1: that having become prisoners in fair warfare, they would pay
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Speaker 1: to the uttermost the promised ransom, or return to prison
19:45
Speaker 1: at the day and hour agreed upon on pain of
19:47
Speaker 1: being proclaimed infamous and perjured, twenty five that on returning
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Speaker 1: to the court of their sovereign, they would render a
19:54
Speaker 1: true account of their adventures, even though they had sometimes
19:57
Speaker 1: been worsted to the King and the registrar of the orders,
20:00
Speaker 1: on pain of being deprived of the order of knighthood,
20:03
Speaker 1: and twenty six that above all things they would be faithful, courteous,
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Speaker 1: and humble, and would never be wanting to their word
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Speaker 1: for any harm or loss that might accrue to them.
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Speaker 1: It is needless to point out that in this series
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Speaker 1: of oaths, these obligations imposed upon the knights, there is
20:19
Speaker 1: a moral development very superior to that of the laic
20:21
Speaker 1: society of the period. Moral notions so lofty, so delicate,
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Speaker 1: so scrupulous, and so humane, emanated clearly from the Christian clergy.
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Speaker 1: Only the clergy thought thus about the duties and the
20:34
Speaker 1: relation of mankind, and their influence was employed in directing
20:37
Speaker 1: towards the accomplishment of such duties, towards the integrity of
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Speaker 1: such relations. The idea and customs engendered by knighthood. It
20:46
Speaker 1: had not been instituted with so pious and deep a
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Speaker 1: design for the protection of the weak, the maintenance of
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Speaker 1: justice and the reformation of morals. It had been, at
20:54
Speaker 1: its origin and in its earliest features, a natural consequence
20:58
Speaker 1: of feudal relations and warlike life, a confirmation of the
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Speaker 1: bonds established and the sentiments aroused between different masters in
21:05
Speaker 1: the same country and comrades with the same destinies. The
21:09
Speaker 1: clergy promptly saw what might be deduced from such a fact,
21:12
Speaker 1: and they made of it a means of establishing more
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Speaker 1: peacefulness in society and in the conduct of individuals, a
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Speaker 1: more rigid morality. This was the general work they pursued,
21:22
Speaker 1: and if it were convenient to study the matter more closely,
21:25
Speaker 1: we might see in the canons of councils from the
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Speaker 1: eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, the Church exerting herself to
21:31
Speaker 1: develop more and more in this order of knighthood, this
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Speaker 1: institution of an essentially warlike origin, the moral and civilizing
21:38
Speaker 1: character of which a glimpse has just been caught in
21:41
Speaker 1: the documents of knighthood itself. In proportion. As knighthood appeared
21:45
Speaker 1: more and more in this simultaneously warlike religious and moral character,
21:50
Speaker 1: it more and more gained power over the imagination of
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Speaker 1: men and just as it had become closely interwoven with
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Speaker 1: their creeds, it soon became the ideal of their thoughts,
21:59
Speaker 1: the source of their noblest pleasures. Poetry, like religion, took
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Speaker 1: hold of it from the eleventh century onwards. Knighthood, its ceremonies,
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Speaker 1: its duties, and its adventures were the mind from which
22:11
Speaker 1: the poets drew in order to charm the people, in
22:14
Speaker 1: order to satisfy and excite at the same time that
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Speaker 1: yearning of the soul, that need of events more varied
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Speaker 1: and more captivating, and of emotions more exalted and more
22:23
Speaker 1: pure than real life could furnish. In the springtime of communities.
22:27
Speaker 1: Poetry is not merely a pleasure and a pastime for
22:30
Speaker 1: a nation. It is a source of progress. It elevates
22:34
Speaker 1: and develops the moral nature of men, at the same
22:36
Speaker 1: time that it amuses them and stirs them deeply. We
22:39
Speaker 1: have just seen what oaths were taken by the knights
22:42
Speaker 1: and administered by the priests. And now here is an
22:45
Speaker 1: ancient ballad by Eustache des Champ, a poet of the
22:48
Speaker 1: fourteenth century, for on which it will be seen that
22:50
Speaker 1: poets impressed upon knights the same duties and the same virtues,
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Speaker 1: and that the influence of poetry had the same aim
22:56
Speaker 1: as that of religion. One tend your lives, ye who
23:01
Speaker 1: would feign the order of the knights. Obtain devoutly, watch devoutly,
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Speaker 1: prey from pride and sin. Oh turn away, shun all
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Speaker 1: that space the church defend, be the widows and the
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Speaker 1: orphan's friend. Be good and leal, take nought by might,
23:16
Speaker 1: Be bold, and guard the people's right. This is the
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Speaker 1: rule for the gallant knight. Two. Be meek of heart,
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Speaker 1: work day by day, tread ever, tread the knightly way,
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Speaker 1: make lawful war, long traveled air, turney and joust for lady,
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Speaker 1: fair to everlasting honor, Cling that none the barbs of
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Speaker 1: blame may fling. Be never slack in work, or fight,
23:38
Speaker 1: be ever least in self sown sight. This is the
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Speaker 1: rule for the gallant knight. Three. Love the liege lord
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Speaker 1: with might, and main his rights above all else. Maintain
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Speaker 1: be open handed, just and true the paths of upright men.
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Speaker 1: Pursue no deaf heir to their precepts. Turn the prowess
23:57
Speaker 1: of the valiant. Learn that ye may do things great
24:00
Speaker 1: and bright, as did Great Alexander Height. This is the
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Speaker 1: rule for the gallant knight. A great deal has been
24:08
Speaker 1: said to the effect that all this is sheer poetry,
24:10
Speaker 1: a beautiful chimera, without any resemblance to reality. Indeed, it
24:15
Speaker 1: has just been remarked here that the three centuries under consideration,
24:19
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages were, in point of fact, one of
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Speaker 1: the most brutal, most ruffianly epochs in history, one of
24:25
Speaker 1: those wherein we encounter most crimes and violence, wherein the
24:29
Speaker 1: public peace was most incessantly troubled, and wherein the greatest
24:32
Speaker 1: licentiousness in morals prevailed. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that
24:37
Speaker 1: side by side with these gross and barbarous morals this
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Speaker 1: social disorder, there existed knightly morality and knightly poetry. We
24:46
Speaker 1: have moral records confronting ruffianly deeds, and the contrast is
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Speaker 1: shocking but real. It is exactly this contrast which makes
24:53
Speaker 1: the great and fundamental characteristic of the Middle Ages. Let
24:57
Speaker 1: us turn our eyes towards other communities, towards the earliest stages,
25:01
Speaker 1: for instance, of Greek society, towards that heroic age of
25:04
Speaker 1: which Homer's poems are the faithful reflection. There is nothing
25:08
Speaker 1: there like the contrast by which we are struck in
25:10
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, we do not see that at the
25:13
Speaker 1: period and amongst the people of the Homeric poems, there
25:17
Speaker 1: was abroad in the air, or had penetrated into the
25:19
Speaker 1: imaginations of men, any idea more lofty or more purer
25:23
Speaker 1: than their everyday actions. The heroes of Homer seem to
25:26
Speaker 1: have no misgiving about their Britishness, their ferocity, their greed,
25:30
Speaker 1: their egotism. There is nothing in their souls superior to
25:34
Speaker 1: the deeds of their lives. In the France of the
25:37
Speaker 1: Middle Ages, on the contrary, though practically crimes and disorders,
25:41
Speaker 1: moral and social evils abound. Yet men have in their
25:44
Speaker 1: souls and their imaginations loftier and purer instincts and desires.
25:48
Speaker 1: Their notions of virtue and their ideas of justice are
25:50
Speaker 1: very superior to the practice pursued around them, and amongst themselves.
25:55
Speaker 1: A certain moral ideal hovers above this low and tumultuous
25:58
Speaker 1: community acts the notice and obtains the regard of men
26:02
Speaker 1: in whose life it is but very faintly reflected. The
26:05
Speaker 1: Christian religion undoubtedly is, if not the only, at any rate,
26:09
Speaker 1: the principal cause of this great fact, For its particular
26:12
Speaker 1: characteristic is to arouse amongst men a lofty moral ambition,
26:16
Speaker 1: by keeping constantly before their eyes a type infinitely beyond
26:19
Speaker 1: the reach of human nature, and yet profoundly sympathetic with it.
26:24
Speaker 1: To Christianity. It was that the Middle Ages owed knighthood,
26:27
Speaker 1: that institution which, in the midst of anarchy and barbarism,
26:31
Speaker 1: gave a poetical and moral beauty to the period. It
26:34
Speaker 1: was feudal knighthood in Christianity together which produced the two
26:38
Speaker 1: great and glorious events of those times, the Norman conquest
26:41
Speaker 1: of England and the Crusades. End of Chapter fourteen