, or at least of
the church.[765]

[Sidenote: And with gallantry.]

To this strong tincture of religion which entered into the composition
of chivalry from the twelfth century, was added another ingredient
equally distinguishing. A great respect for the female sex had always
been a remarkable characteristic of the Northern nations. The German
women were high-spirited and virtuous; qualities which might be causes
or consequences of the veneration with which they were regarded. I am
not sure that we could trace very minutely the condition of women for
the period between the subversion of the Roman empire and the first
crusade; but apparently man did not grossly abuse his superiority; and
in point of civil rights, and even as to the inheritance of property,
the two sexes were placed perhaps as nearly on a level as the nature of
such warlike societies would admit. There seems, however, to have been
more roughness in the social intercourse between the sexes than we find
in later periods. The spirit of gallantry which became so animating a
principle of chivalry, must be ascribed to the progressive refinement of
society during the twelfth and two succeeding centuries. In a rude state
of manners, as among the lower people in all ages, woman has not full
scope to display those fascinating graces, by which nature has designed
to counterbalance the strength and energy of mankind. Even where those
jealous customs that degrade alike the two sexes have not prevailed, her
lot is domestic seclusion; nor is she fit to share in the boisterous
pastimes of drunken merriment to which the intercourse of an unpolished
people is confined. But as a taste for the more elegant enjoyments of
wealth arises, a taste which it is always her policy and her delight to
nourish, she obtains an ascendency at first in the lighter hour, and
from thence in the serious occupations of life. She chases, or brings
into subjection, the god of wine, a victory which might seem more
ignoble were it less difficult, and calls in the aid of divinities more
propitious to her ambition. The love of becoming ornament is not perhaps
to be regarded in the light of vanity; it is rather an instinct which
woman has received from nature to give effect to those charms that are
her defence; and when commerce began to minister more effectually to the
wants of luxury, the rich furs of the North, the gay silks of Asia, the
wrought gold of domestic manufacture, illumined the halls of