arose from a German custom which was idealized by the
Christian church; and chivalry was more an ideal than an institution. It
was "the Christian form of the military profession; the knight was the
Christian soldier." True, the profession and mission of the church meant
the spread of peace and the hatred of war, she holding with her Master
that "they who take the sword shall perish with the sword." Her thought
was formulated by St. Augustine: "He who can think of war and can
support it without great sorrow is truly dead to human feelings." "It is
necessary," he says, "to submit to war, but to wish for peace." The
church did, however, look upon war as a divine means of punishment and
of expiation, for individuals and nations. And the eloquent Bossuet
showed the church's view of war as the terrestrial preparation for the
Kingdom of God, and described how empires fall upon one another to form
a foundation whereon to build the church. In the light of such
interpretations the church availed herself of the militant auxiliary
known as chivalry.

Along with the religious impulse that animated it, chivalry bore,
throughout its purer course, the character of knightliness which it
received from Teutonic sources. How the fine sentiments and ennobling
customs of the Teutonic nations, particularly with respect to the
gallantry and generosity of the male toward the female sex, grew into
beautiful combination with the rule of protecting the weak and
defenceless everywhere, and how these elements were blended with the
spirit of religious devotion which entered into the organization and
practices of chivalry, forms one of the most fascinating features in the
study of its development; and this gentler side, no less than its
sterner aspects, is faithfully presented in the brilliant examination of
Gautier. And the heroic sentiment and action which inspired and
accomplished the sacred warfare of the Crusades are not less admirably
depicted in these pages; while in his summary of the decline of chivalry
Gautier has perhaps never been surpassed for penetrating insight and
lucid exposition.)

There is a sentence of Tacitus--the celebrated passage in the
_Germania_--that refers to a German rite in which we really find all the
military elements of the future chivalry. The scene took place beneath
the shade of an old forest. The barbarous tribe is assembled, and one
feels that a solemn ceremony is in preparation. Into the midst of the
assembl