[662] Cf. Gautier, o.c. 296-308. It must be remembered that an abbot or a bishop might also be a knight and so could make knights. See Du Cange, Glossarium, “Abbas” (abbates miletes).
[663] On this blow, called in Latin alapa, in French accolée, in English accolade, see Du Cange under “Alapa,” and Gautier, o.c. pp. 246-247, and 270 sqq.
[664] Chanson de Roland, 2344 sqq. Lines 2500-2510 speak of Charlemagne’s sword, named Joiuse because of the honour it had in having in its hilt the iron of the lance which pierced the Saviour.
[665] Gautier, Chevalerie, pp. 290, 297. Examples of these ceremonies may be found as follows: the actual one of the knighting of Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou by Henry I. of England, at Rouen in 1129, in the Chronicle of Johannis Turonensis, Historiens de France, xii. p. 520; Gautier, Chevalerie, p. 275. Gautier gives many examples, and puts together a typical ceremony, as of the twelfth century, in Chev. p. 309 sqq. Perhaps the most famous account of all is that of the poem entitled Ordene de Chevalerie (thirteenth century), published by Barbazan, Fabliaux, etc., i. 59-82 (Paris, 1808). It relates how a captive Christian knight bestowed the order of chivalry, i.e. knighthood, upon Saladin. See other accounts cited in Du Cange under “Miles.”
[666] Not war as we understand it, where with some large purpose one great cohesive state directs its total military power against another; but neighbourhood war, never permanently ended. When not actually attacking or defending, men were anticipating attack, or expecting to make a raid. Perhaps nothing better suggests the local and neighbourly character of these feudal hostilities than the most famous means devised by the Church to mitigate them. This was the “Truce of God,” promulgated in the eleventh century. It forbade hostilities from Thursday to Monday and in Lent. Whether this ordinance was effective or not, it indicates the nature of the wars that could stop from Thursday to Monday!
[667] Courtly, chivalric, or romantic, love as an element of knightly excellence is so inseverably connected with its romantic literature that I have kept it for the next chapter.
[668] The following remarks upon the regula of the Templars, and the extracts which are given, are based on the introduction and text of La Règle du Temple, edited by Henri de Curzon for the Société de l’Histoire de France (Paris, 1886).
[669] The phraseology of the Latin regula often follows that of the Benedictine rule.
[670] Chaps. 33, 35.
[671] Chaps. 40, 41.