In the beginning of the 11th century, there were many separate feudal states in Western Europe united by a common faith in the Catholic Church. The traditions of the Vikings, the Franks, the Italians, and other barbarian tribes were intermingling with the traditions of the Church and new ideas were developing. Most of the barbarians were natural warrior people with the instinct to fight and conquer. In response to this, popes and bishops promoted a truce of peace among them, trying to baptize their customs into the universal Church. One bishop said:

“Be it known to all the faithful subjects of God, that because of the wickedness that daily increases among the people, we have called together certain bishops [names], and many other bishops, princes, and nobles. And since we know that only the peace­loving shall see the Lord, we urge all men, in the name of the Lord, to be sons of peace.” (1).

Also, at the Councils of Charroux in 989 and Narbonne in 990, the Church retained the aggression of the barbarians with the “Truce of God”. Later, the Council of Elne in 1027 limited violence and encouraged the defence of the weak rather than local warfare. Moreover, with the increasing threat of the Seljuk Turks in the East, Pope Urban II knew he could direct that fighting spirit to a just cause for the Church. Thus, the First Crusade, preached by Pope Urban II, brought about the defense of Christendom in the East and channeled the warrior spirit of the new converts away from local and feudal concerns to the one, universal concern of the Church. In such a manner, chivalry was born. This Christian ideal of virtue, taught by St. Bernard of Clairvaux and redefined due to the teachings of Eleanor of Aquitaine, was finally culminated and fulfilled in the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

In 1096, the First Crusade set out to the East to take back the Holy Land from the Turks. This Crusade was successful for a while, and crusaders were honored by many Christian people for their bravery. Up to this point, many barbarian tribes had honored men who were brave and confident in battle and conquered many lands and gained many riches for themselves. For the barbarian converts, however, a new kind of hero was developing ­ a hero who courageously gave his life for his faith ­ a martyr. One who lived with this virtue, who was willing to give all for the Church, was chivalrous. This ideal was taught and preached by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He wrote the rule for the Order of the Knights Templar, and his rule became known as the code of chivalry. He wrote a letter to Hugh de Payns, founder of the Knights Templar, in which he said that a true knight “is a fearless knight…, since his soul is dressed in an armor of faith just as his body is dressed in an armor of steel…nor is he afraid of death…faithfully and freely does he go forth on Christ’s behalf, but he would rather be dissolved and be with Christ: such is the obviously better thing” (2). For St. Bernard and all Christians, the chivalrous ideal was the ideal of the martyr; it was the life of a saint. A chivalrous man also possessed the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. He was a knight of Christ and was to live and die for Him. Later in his letter, St. Bernard explained how the knights are to live their lives with these virtues:

“First, Christ’s knights have discipline and never disdain obedience…they are wary of all excesses in food and dress; they concern themselves only with necessities… to such an extent does each of them strive, not to fulfill his private desires, but rather to obey his master… they order themselves and dispose their forces for battle considerately and with every caution and provision…they know better than to presume upon their own strength, and prefer to hope for victory through the virtue of the Lord of Sabaoth” (3).

In this way, he instructs them to be prudent, knowing what is right and using good judgment, to be just, giving their enemy what is due, to be brave, trusting in God’s help and not backing down even in the face of fear, and to be temperate, controlling and ordering their desires and being obedient to their superiors. This life of virtue was the original code of chivalry for the crusading knights. Meanwhile, Eleanor of Aquitaine was developing a different ideal for knights that would soon come to be confused with this code of chivalry.

In the late 12th century, there lived a beautiful woman named Eleanor who was the Duchess of Aquitaine and Queen of England. She wanted women to have more status in society and to be treated with more respect by their husbands. She left her husband to establish a “court of love” at her castle in Poitiers, France. At her court, Eleanor taught men how to dress, speak, and act around women, encouraging them to be courteous and romantic. She also instructed men to play music and write poetry to those they loved. She used the book written by Andreas Capellanus, “The Art of Courtly Love”, which gives instructions on how to love depending on class and rank. She mainly instructed knights and noblemen, saying they were to live refined lives of leisure, romance, and festivity. This was contradictory to the Christian code that knights were supposed to be living.

Since knights were being taught to live in this way, chivalry began to be applied to this type of lifestyle. The code of chivalry changed into a materialistic way of life with praise of fancy clothes, extravagant feasts, and passionate love. The Christian virtue was completely turned on its head. Living and dying for Christ and the Church was no longer a part of knighthood, rather chivalry referred to wealthy noblemen who gave everything to win the heart of their lady. Some of the rules Eleanor taught encouraged secretive love and feelings of jealousy and she admired men who fell headlong for their ladies. Some of those rules were: “He who is not jealous cannot love. Love rarely lasts when it is revealed. A new love expels an old one. True jealousy always increases the effects of love. The true lover is continuously obsessed with the image of his beloved” (4). This new code for knights completely contradicts the virtuous life of a true Christian. Instead of living an ordered life with reason in control of the passions, knights were praised for following their emotions, which is the opposite of true chivalry. Into this diversity, St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1182, with young men living worldly lives but some still striving for that lingering ideal that was not yet completely lost.

St. Francis grew up in a wealthy family and lived an extravagant, worldly life as a young man. He followed in the footsteps of the troubadours, romantic poets seeking true love. He tried to live as they did and searched for true love, but he looked for it in the wrong place. As a boy, Francis always dreamed of joining the Crusades. He was very passionate in all that he did and really tried to live in that code of chivalry. He was well­mannered, dressed nicely, had great feasts with his friends, and honored those that were weaker than him, all as the code demanded. Eventually, though, he began to rediscover the true code of chivalry, and realized that he was to honor and respect not only women, but all of the weak, including the poor lepers whom everyone despised. As he began to understand this virtue, he came to hate the worldly idea of knighthood more and more.

When Francis heard the voice of Christ telling him to build up his Church, he obeyed immediately with great enthusiasm and literally began to rebuild a Church building that was falling apart. He gave all of his belongings to the poor, which greatly angered his worldly father. After being publicly disowned by his father, Francis put on a beggar’s tunic and began to beg with the poor and live in prayer and fasting. At Mass one day, he heard the Gospel passage in which Christ instructs his Apostles on how to preach, and he knew that this was his vocation. He redeemed chivalry in his new order by living out the Gospel and serving the weak and powerless. He did away with all earthly pleasures and found true love in Christ.

St. Francis lived in the chivalry of St. Bernard, but also baptized the secular chivalry of Eleanor into his Christian life. He lived with the cardinal virtues and was willing to die for Christ because he was truly in love with Christ. Also, he was still a troubadour and sang and wrote poems praising his true love, Jesus. He gave all to win the heart of his one love, but he knew that to give all was to be willing to die, to be a martyr. He found the truth in each of these two contradictions. He discovered that the love looked for and praised by the world could only ever be satisfied in Christ and that to love Him was to live in chivalry. Secular chivalry admired the passions and St. Bernard taught to control the passions and live by reason. St. Francis found that in living in accordance with reason, he came to love Christ more and more and he could love with all of his passions because those passions followed from his love. The life of asceticism that St. Francis chose to live was not an easy one, but it allowed him to exemplify the chivalrous virtues of fortitude and temperance. He taught his brothers not to grumble, but to always be polite and to serve whomever needed help. He came to the realization that the true code of chivalry was not rules in a book or a letter, but could be found displayed most explicitly in the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. No one was more chivalrous than He who gave all, even His life, to win the love of His lady, the Church, and to give her the greatest gift, salvation, to try to win her heart. It was in discovering this chivalry and following Christ’s example that St. Francis became the truly chivalrous knight.

Throughout the Middle Ages, this ideal of chivalry was often sought after. Although this ideal was first used as a sort of propaganda for attaining earthly peace, and then as a social standard of romanticism, it developed into a true virtue, culminating in the example of Saint Francis. Today, our world has lost a sense of the virtue of chivalry and it has become a term of the past. We often live out the secular ideal of chivalry, which values the emotions. We have become so caught up in pleasuring ourselves that we are no longer concerned with serving the weak and powerless, nor do we even seek true love. Yet we are not satisfied and still desire something more. In order to find true contentment, we must seek true love in Christ and live for Him. To be heroes, we must be chivalrous knights like St. Francis and follow the example of our Redeemer. Chivalry seems to be lost, but it can be found and lived out by each of us. We need to rediscover it by falling in love with Christ and living for Him for whom we are made. We must strive to be knights in the real sense; in other words, we must strive to be saints.

Notes:

1. Peace of God, Proclaimed by Guy of Anjou, Bishop of Puy, 990.
2. Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, 1128­1131, De Laude Novae Militiae, Chapter I
3. Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, 1128­1131, De Laude Novae Militiae, Chapter IV
4. Andreas Capellanus, “The Art of Courtly Love”, 1184­1186, Rules: 2., 13., 17., 21., 30.

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