became
necessary to cede the greater part of it to them. People were fighting
everywhere more or less--family against family--man to man. No road was
safe, the churches were burned, there was universal terror, and everyone
sought protection. The king had no longer strength to resist anyone, and
the counts made themselves kings. The sun of the realm was set, and one
had to look at the stars for light. As soon as the people perceived a
strong man-at-arms, resolute, defiant, well established in his wooden
keep, well fortified within the lines of his hedge, behind his palisade
of dead branches, or within his barriers of planks; well posted on his
hill, against his rock, or on his hillock, and dominating all the
surrounding country--as soon as they saw this each said to him, "I am
your man"; and all these weak ones grouped themselves around the strong
one, who next day proceeded to wage war with his neighbors. Thence
supervened a terrible series of private wars. Everyone was fighting or
thinking of fighting.

In addition to this, the still green memory of the grand figure of
Charlemagne and the old empire, and I can't tell what imperial
splendors, were still felt in the air of great cities; all hearts
throbbed at the mere thought of the Saracens and the Holy Sepulchre; the
crusade gathered strength of preparation far in advance, in the rage and
indignation of all the Christian race; all eyes were turned toward
Jerusalem, and in the midst of so many disbandments and so much
darkness, the unity of the church survived fallen majesty!

It was then, it was in that horrible hour--the decisive epoch in our
history--that the church undertook the education of the Christian
soldier; and it was at that time, by a resolute step, she found the
feudal baron in his rude wooden citadel, and proposed to him an ideal.
This ideal was chivalry!

That chivalry may be considered a great military confraternity as well
as an eighth sacrament, will be conceded. But, before familiarizing
themselves with these ideals, the rough spirits of the ninth, tenth, and
eleventh centuries had to learn the principles of them. The chivalrous
ideal was not conceived "all of a piece," and certainly it did not
triumph without sustained effort; so it was by degrees, and very slowly,
that the church succeeded in inoculating the almost animal intelligence
and the untrained minds of our ancestors with so many virtues.

In the hands of the church, which wished to mo