however, when the romances of chivalry were principally written and
enjoyed, the convulsions arising from attempts to burst the bonds by
which the minds of men were restrained, had not yet been sensibly felt.
The church was still the controlling intellectual influence. A dark
cloud of ignorance and superstition hung over Europe, to be dispelled
at last by the new growth of learning, and the consequences following
upon it. The best intelligence of the time was confined to the clergy,
who used it skilfully to maintain their authority. By every device they
sought to usurp to themselves the sole power of ministering to popular
wants. Nothing which could strike the mind through the senses was
neglected. They offset tournaments by religious shows and pageantry,
rivalled the attractions of the harp by sacred music, and to wean their
flocks from the half dramatic entertainments of the minstrels, they
invented the Miracle Play and the Mystery. The church forced herself on
the attention of every man without doors or within, by the friars
black or gray who met him at every turn, by the imposing monasteries
which formed a central figure in every landscape, and by the festivals
and processions of priests which made the common occasions for the
assemblage of the people. The constant recurrence of holy days and
fasts called the mind to the consideration of spiritual things, and the
rough superstition of the time was deeply excited when the approach of
death in a household brought the priestly train with lighted tapers,
and the awe-inspiring ceremonies with which the lingering soul was sent
on its way.

The military nature of feudalism explains the predominance of warlike
incidents in romantic fiction, and the character of the Roman Church
gives us an insight into the causes which, in addition to the ignorance
of the time, induced men to refer all remarkable events to supernatural
influence, and prepared their minds for the unquestioning belief in the
fictions which are so important a characteristic of the romances of
chivalry. The low standard of morality also, which is reflected in the
same pages, is due quite as much to the predominance of the dogmatic
over the moral element of Christianity, as to the unrefined and rude
conditions of life.

There is much that is picturesque and brilliant in the times, but much
more that is terrible. The nobles and knights, who lived sword in hand
behind their battlements and massive walls, were the