d generosity
of private persons afforded. The same spirit of enterprise which had
prompted so many gentlemen to take arms in defence of the oppressed
pilgrims in Palestine, incited others to declare themselves the patrons
and avengers of injured innocence at home. When the final reduction of
the Holy Land under the dominion of infidels put an end to these foreign
expeditions, the latter was the only employment left for the activity
and courage of adventurers. To check the insolence of overgrown
oppressors; to rescue the helpless from captivity; to protect or to
avenge women, orphans, and ecclesiastics, who could not bear arms in
their own defence; to redress wrongs, and to remove grievances, were
deemed acts of the highest prowess and merit. Valour, humanity,
courtesy, justice, honour, were the characteristic qualities of
chivalry. To these was added religion, which mingled itself with every
passion and institution during the Middle Ages, and, by infusing a large
proportion of enthusiastic zeal, gave them such force as carried them
to romantic excess. Men were trained to knighthood by a long previous
discipline; they were admitted into the order by solemnities no less
devout than pompous; every person of noble birth courted that honour; it
was deemed a distinction superior to royalty; and monarchs were proud to
receive it from the hands of private gentlemen.

This singular institution, in which valour, gallantry, and religion,
were so strangely blended, was wonderfully adapted to the taste and
genius of martial nobles; and its effects were soon visible in their
manners. War was carried on with less ferocity, when humanity came to be
deemed the ornament of knighthood no less than courage. More gentle and
polished manners were introduced, when courtesy was recommended as the
most amiable of knightly virtues. Violence and oppression decreased,
when it was reckoned meritorious to check and to punish them. A
scrupulous adherence to truth, with the most religious attention to
fulfil every engagement, became the distinguishing characteristic of a
gentleman, because chivalry was regarded as the school of honour, and
inculcated the most delicate sensibility with respect to those points.
The admiration of these qualities, together with the high distinctions
and prerogatives conferred on knighthood in every part of Europe,
inspired persons of noble birth on some occasions with a species of
military fanaticism, and led them to extr