which are
so entirely the product and repository of the habits, superstitions,
and sympathies of the Middle Ages that they serve to

"Hold the mirror up to Nature,
To show Vice its own image, Virtue its own likeness,
And the very age and body of the times,
His form and pressure."

The men who wrote, and the men who read these romances, the first
springs of our modern fiction, were influenced by two dominant ideas:
"One religious, which had fashioned the gigantic cathedrals, and swept
the masses from their native soil to hurl them upon the Holy Land; the
other secular, which had built feudal fortresses, and set the man of
courage erect and armed within his own domain."[1] These two ideas were
outwardly expressed in the Roman Church and the Feudal System.

During the anarchy of the Middle Ages, every man was compelled to look
upon war as his natural occupation, if he hoped to preserve life or
property. His land was held as a condition of military service. As long
as there was no effective administration of justice, redress for the
aggrieved lay in the sword alone. A military career had no rival in the
eyes of the ambitious and the noble. There was no learning, no art, to
share with skill in arms, the honors to which a youth aspired. Religion
and love, the most powerful inspirations of his moral life, made force
of arms the merit most worthy of their rewards. The growth of the
people in the mechanical arts took the direction of improving the
instruments of warfare; the increase of refinement and humanity tended
less to diminish war than to make it more civilized, showy, and
glorious. The armies of the Romans seem prosaic when we turn to the
brilliant array of chivalry, to the ranks of steel-clad knights
couching the lance to win fame, the smile of woman, or the reward of
religious devotion;--men to whom war seemed a grand tournament, in
which each combatant, from the king to the poorest knight, was to seek
distinction by his strength and valor. It was through the senses, and
especially through the eye, that the feudal imagination was moved.
Every heart was kindled at the sight of shining armor, horses with
brilliant trappings, gorgeous dress, and martial show. The magnificent
Norman cathedrals struck the mind with devotional awe; the donjons and
towers of the great baronial castles were suggestive of power and
glory. To the impressibility of the senses was added the romantic
spirit of adventure,