manner to speak, as it were unconsciously, of him who is its object.1

...

My mother brought me up with the most tender care. .. Scarcely had I learned the first elements of letters, when, eager to have me instructed, she confided me to a master of grammar. There was shortly before this epoch, and even at this time, so great a scarcity of masters of grammar, that, so to speak, scarce one was to be seen in the country, and hardly could they be found in the great towns. He to whom my mother resolved to confide me had learned grammar in a rather advanced age, and was so much the less familiar with this science, as he had devoted himself to it at a later period; but what he wanted in knowledge, he made up for in virtue. . . . From the time that I was placed under his care, he formed in me such a purity, he so thoroughly eradicated from me all the vices which generally accompany youth, that he preserved me from the most frequent dangers. He al lowed me to go nowhere except in his company, to sleep nowhere but in my mother's house, to receive a present from no one without her permission. He required me to do everything with moderation, precision, attention, and exertion. While most children of my age ran here and there, according to their pleasure, and were allowed from time to time the enjoyment of the liberty which belongs to them, I, held in continual restraint, muffled up like a clerk, looked upon the bands of players as if I had been a being above them.

...

"Every one, seeing how my master excited me to work, hoped at first that such great application would sharpen my wits; but this hope soon diminished, for my master, altogether unskilful at reciting verses, or composing them according to rule, almost every day loaded me with a shower of cuffs and blows, to force me to know what he himself was unable to teach me.... Still he showed me so much friendship; he occupied himself concerning me with so much solicitude, he watched so assiduously over my safety, that, far from experiencing the fear generally felt at that age, I forgot all his severity, and obeyed with an inexpressible feeling of love.... One day, when I had been struck, having neglected my work for some hours in the evening, I went and sat myself at

Vie de Guilert de Nogent, c. 4, 12, 13, p. 355, 385, 396, 397.

my mother's knee, severely bruised, and certainly more so than I had deserved. My mother having, according to her custom, asked if I had been beaten that day, I, in order to avoid accusing my master, assured her that I had not. But she pulling aside, whether I would or no, the garment they call a shirt, saw my little arms all black, and the skin of my shoulders all raised up and swollen by the blow of the rod which I had received. At this sight, complaining that they treated me with too much cruelty at so tender an age, all troubled and beside herself, her eyes full of tears, she cried 'I will no longer have thee become a priest, nor in order to learn letters, that thou thus endure such treatment.' But I, at these words, regarding her with all the rage of which I was capable, said to her: 'I would rather die than cease learning letters, and wishing to be a priest.'"

Who can read this account without being struck with the prodigious development which, in two centuries, have been taken by the domestic sentiments, the importance attached to children, to their education, to all the ties of family? You might search through all the writers of the preceding centuries, and never find anything resembling it. We cannot, I repeat, give an exact account of the manner in which this revolution was accomplished; we do not follow it in its degrees, but it is incontestable.

I must close this lecture. I have given you a glimpse of the influence which the internal life of the feudal castles exercised over the domestic manners, and to the advantage of the sentiments which arose from it. You will immediately see this life take a great extension; new elements will become joined to it, and will contribute to the progress of civilization. It was in the castles that chivalry took birth and grew. We shall occupy ourselves with it in our next lecture.

Vie de Guibert de Nogent, 1. i., c. 2, in my Collection des Mémoires relatifs à l'Histoire de France, c. 4, 5, 6. p. 356, 358, 363, 364

SIXTH LECTURE.

Efforts of the possessors of fiefs to people and animate the interior of the castle-Means which present themselves for the attainment of this end-Offices given in fief-The education of the sons of vassals in the castle of the suzerain- Admission of the young man among the warriors in ancient Germany-This fact is perpetuated after the invasion-Twofold origin of chivalry-False idea which is formed of itChivalry arose simply and without design, in the interior of castles, and in consequence either of the ancient German customs, or of the relations of the suzerain with his vassals-Influence of religion and the clergy over chivalry-Ceremonies of the admission of knights-Their oaths-Influence of the imagination and poetry over chivalry-Its moral character and importance under this point of view-As an institution, it is vague and without coherence-Rapid decline of feudal chivalry-It gives rise to the orders: 1. Of religious chivalry; 2. Of courtly chivalry.

ISOLATION and idleness were, as you have seen, the most prominent features of the situation of the possessor of the fief in his castle, the natural effect of the material circumstances in which he was placed. Hence, as you have also seen, arose two results apparently contradictory, and which yet wonderfully accorded. On the one hand, the need, the passion for that life of incursions, war, pillage, adventures, which characterises the feudal society; on the other, the power of domestic life, the progress of the position of women, of the spirit of family, and of all the sentiments connected with it. Without premeditation, by the mere effect of their situation, and of the manners which it gave rise to, the possessors of fiefs sought at once afar off and within their dwelling, in the most tempestuous, the most unforeseen chances, in the nearest and most habitual interests, wherewith to fill up their

life and to occupy their soul, a twofold satisfying of that need of society and activity, one of the most powerfu. instincts of

our nature.

Neither one nor the other of these means sufficed. Those wars, those adventures, which in the present day, at a distance of seven or eight centuries, appear to us so multiplied, 80 continual, were probably, in the eyes of the men of the eleventh century, rare, soon terminated, mere transitory incidents. The days of the year seem very numerous and long to him who has nothing to do, no necessary, regular, or permanent occupation. The family, in its proper and natural limits, reduced to the wife and children, did not suffice to fill them up. Men with manners so rude, with a mind so little developed, soon exhausted the resources which they found in them. To fertilize, so to speak, the sensible nature of man, and make it give rise to a thousand means of occupation and interest, is the result of a very advanced civilization. This moral abundance is unknown in rising societies; its sentiments are strong, but abrupt, and brief, as it were; the influence which they exercise over life is greater than the place which they hold in it. Domestic relations, as well as external adventures, assuredly left a great void to fill up in the time and soul of the possessors of fiefs of the eleventh century

Men must have sought, in fact did seek, to fill it up, to animate, to people the castle, to draw thither the social movement which it wanted; and they found the means.

You will recollect the life which, before the invasion, the German warriors led around their chief, that life of banquets, of games, of festivals, and which was always passed in common.

to

Feasts," says Tacitus, "banquets ill prepared but abundant, are given them instead of pay ... no one is ashamed pass the day or night in drinking They most frequently treat at the banquets, of enemies to be reconciled, alliances to be formed, chiefs to be chosen, of peace and of

war," i

After the invasion and the territorial establishment, this agglomeration of warriors, this life in common (as I have

emperors.

already had occasion to observe), did not immediately cease, many companions still continued to live around their chief, upon his domains, and in his house. Moreover, we find the chiefs, the principal of them at least, kings or others, forming a court, a palace, upon the model of the palace of the Roman The multitude and titles of officers, and servants of all kinds, who all at once make their appearance in the house of the great barbarians, are inexplicable to those who do not know the organization of the imperial palace. Referendary, seneschal, marshal, falconers, butlers, cup-bearers, chamberlains, porters, harbingers, &c., such are the offices which are found from the sixth century, not only in the establishments of the Frank, Burgundian, and Visigoth kings, but among their more considerable beneficiaries, of which the greater part are borrowed from the notitia dignitatum, the imperial almanac of the time.

Soon, you have seen, the taste for and habit of territorial property gained more influence; the greater part of the companions left the chief; some went to live in benefices which they held of him; others fell into a subaltern condition, into that of coloni. This revolution was operated more especially in the course of the seventh and eighth centuries. We then see the home of the chief broken up, or at least very much contracted; only a few companions remained near his person. He was not entirely alone, or absolutely reduced to his family, properly so called; but he was no longer surrounded by a band of warriors as before the invasion, nor at the head of a little imperial palace, as in the century which followed it.

When we arrive at the end of the tenth century, or rather at the middle of the eleventh, at the epoch when feudalism attains its complete development, we find, around the great possessors of fiefs, numerous officers, a considerable train, a little court. We find there not only most of the offices which I have just named, and which they had borrowed from the empire, not only the count of the palace, the seneschal, the marshal, the cup-bearers, falconers, &c., but new officers and names, pages, varlets, grooms, and squires of all kinds: squire of the body, squire of the chamber, squire of the stable, squire of the pantry, carving squire, &c. &c., and most of these charges are evidently filled by free men; in