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in close ranks, so well calculated to withstand the furious onset of
their Hungarian foe. The discipline necessary for carrying these new
military tactics into practice among a nobility habituated to license
could alone be enforced by motives of honor, and Henry accordingly
formed a chivalric institution, which gave rise to new manners and to an
enthusiasm that imparted a new character to the age. The tournament--
from the ancient verb _turnen_, to wrestle or fight, a public contest in
every species of warfare, carried on by the knights in the presence of
noble dames and maidens, whose favor they sought to gain by their
prowess, and which chiefly consisted of tilting and jousting either
singly or in troops, the day concluding with a banquet and a dance--was
then instituted. In these tournaments the ancient heroism of the Germans
revived; they were in reality founded upon the ancient pagan legends of
the heroes who carried on an eternal contest in their Walhalla, in order
to win the smiles of the Walkyren, now represented by earth's well-born
dames.

The ancient spirit of brotherhood in arms, which had been almost
quenched by that of self-interest, by the desire of acquiring feudal
possessions, by the slavish subjection of the vassals under their
lieges, and by the intrigues of the bishops, who intermeddled with all
feudal matters, also reappeared. A great universal society of Christian
knights, bound to the observance of peculiar laws, whose highest aim was
to fight only for God--before long also for the ladies--and who swore
never to make use of dishonorable means for success, but solely to live
and to die for honor, was formed; an innovation which, although merely
military in its origin, speedily became of political importance, for, by
means of this knightly honor, the little vassal of a minor lord was no
longer viewed as a mere underling, but as a confederate in the great
universal chivalric fraternity. There were also many freemen who
sometimes gained their livelihood by offering their services to
different courts, or by robbing on the highways, and who were too proud
to serve on foot; Henry offered them free pardon, and formed them into a
body of light cavalry. In the cities the free citizens, who were
originally intended only to serve as foot soldiery, appear ere long to
have formed themselves into mounted troops, and to have created a fresh
body of infantry out of their artificers and apprentices. It is certai