d not close her eyes to the abuses which this feast engendered,
although episcopal admonitions were not always listened to (Fig. 182). We
see, in the records of one of the most recent Councils of Narbonne, that
the custom of dancing in the churches and in the cemeteries on certain
feasts had not been abolished in some parts of the Languedoc at the end of
the sixteenth century.

Dancing was at all times forbidden by the Catholic Church on account of
its tendency to corrupt the morals, and for centuries ecclesiastical
authority was strenuously opposed to it; but, on the other hand, it could
not complain of want of encouragement from the civil power. When King
Childebert, in 554, forbade all dances in his domains, he was only induced
to do so by the influence of the bishops. We have but little information
respecting the dances of this period, and it would be impossible
accurately to determine as to the justice of their being forbidden. They
were certainly no longer those war-dances which the Franks had brought
with them, and which antiquarians have mentioned under the name of
_Pyrrhichienne_ dances. In any case, war-dances reappeared at the
commencement of chivalry; for, when a new knight was elected, all the
knights in full armour performed evolutions, either on foot or on
horseback, to the sound of military music, and the populace danced round
them. It has been said that this was the origin of court ballets, and La
Colombiere, in his "Theatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie," relates that this
ancient dance of the knights was kept up by the Spaniards, who called it
the _Moresque_.

The Middle Ages was the great epoch for dancing, especially in France.
There were an endless number of dancing festivals, and, from reading the
old poets and romancers, one might imagine that the French had never
anything better to do than to dance, and that at all hours of the day and
night. A curious argument in favour of the practical utility of dancing is
suggested by Jean Tabourot in his "Orchesographie," published at Langres
in 1588, under the name of Thoinot Arbeau. He says, "Dancing is practised
in order to see whether lovers are healthy and suitable for one another:
at the end of a dance the gentlemen are permitted to kiss their
mistresses, in order that they may ascertain if they have an agreeable
breath. In this matter, besides many other good results which follow from
dancing, it becomes necessary for the good governing of society." Suc