hich, with the decline of feudalism, came to be
more strongly defined as a separate class, appears to have preserved
the best moral tone of any of the classes of mediaeval society.

A great deal of light is thrown upon the manners and thought of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries by a body of literature which arose
during those centuries. The estimation in which the classes of society
were held is indicated by one of these _fabliaux_. A party of knights
passed through a pleasant and shady meadow, in the midst of exquisite
scenery; they were enchanted by the spot, and wished for meat and wine
that they might tarry there and dine on the grass. There followed them
a party of clerks, whose feelings were also aroused by the beauty
of the place; and, in accord with the frivolous character given them
throughout the _fabliaux_, they exclaimed: "Had we fair maidens here,
how pleasant a spot for play!" After they had passed on, there came a
party of villains, who, with their grosser ideas, thought not of the
beauty of the place at all, but proceeded to indulge themselves in
carnal pleasures and to use it for mean purposes.

These _fabliaux_ show us that Cupid disdained conventional restraint
then as now; for in them the marriage of persons in different classes
often furnishes a theme for the story--this, too, notwithstanding
the sharp caste distinctions which existed. Usually, the maiden is
possessed of more beauty than wealth and belongs to the poor-knight
class; she is wedded to a peasant or villain who has become wealthy.
The husband turns out to be a brute; the lady is crafty and cunning.
He beats and abuses her, according to the instincts of his boorish
nature; she, on the other hand, proves faithless as often as
opportunity presents. The writers never visit condemnation upon her,
for her husband is considered as undeserving of the possession of
such a prize. It is a curious commentary on the manner of the times
that upon the same manuscript, written by the same person, appear
_fabliaux_ of this sort and stories of holy women dying in defence of
their chastity. This contradiction runs throughout the literature of
the period--the praise of virtue and the narration of gross immorality
without an effort to condemn it. One of the most peculiar facts of the
age is the extreme to which was carried the adoration of the Virgin
and the strange things she is made to do and to countenance, in
the mythology of the Middle Ages--for so