The Military Orders of the Middle Ages (ePub)

In a rude and primitive condition of mankind might constitute right and strength and daring give rank. The aristocracy, therefore, will consist of the warriors while the weak, the young, the old and the women will occupy an inferior position. An uncivilized race is always at war. A system of mutual fear, hatred and injury seems to be the normal condition of savage man, in all ages and in every part of the world. As civilization progressed in Europe and Asia, the use of the horse in battle led to another distinction. The warrior who fought on horseback was superior to him who fought on foot; hence the title of knight or chevalier, the soldier who fought on horseback, a cheval. But though these facts may be noticed as general principles, the system of Chivalry or Knighthood properly so called can hardly be said to have existed till about the eleventh century. The Roman and Greek civilizations were gone. The hordes of northern tribes had swept over Europe one after another, and with reckless waste had not merely sacked towns and murdered their inhabitants, but had leveled the noble monuments of antiquity, destroyed cities and temples, burned libraries and reduced the fairest and most civilized countries in the world to silent deserts. Impenetrable forests took the place of cornfields and vineyards and wild beasts roamed where the arts and sciences had been cultivated for centuries.
                        The strong will and powerful arm of Charlemagne had done something for the reconstitution of society, and the spread of Christianity was slowly working out its great and noble purposes. But in the mean time something that was not far removed from anarchy reigned. Each chief settled in some fortified place and with his dependents defended himself as best he could against all comers. Everyman’s hand was against his neighbor. Every one sallied out when he chose and attacked some one else, either to be slain in battle, or to return laden with booty. Merchants v/ere waylaid, and their goods carried off to the stronghold, castles were surprised, the men killed in fair fight, the women made prisoners.
                        It was to remedy these miseries, and to introduce order and mutual trust, respect for the rights of others and mercy to the weak that, chiefly by the influence of Christianity, the system of Chivalry or Knighthood was created...