l domains.

In the fifteenth century the kings once more became strong enough to
exercise those powers which belonged to them because they were "anointed
of God." Then the feudal knights lost their former independence. Reduced
to the rank of country squires, they no longer filled a need and soon
they became a nuisance. But Europe would have perished without the
"feudal system" of the dark ages. There were many bad knights as there
are many bad people to-day. But generally speaking, the rough-fisted
barons of the twelfth and thirteenth century were hard-working
administrators who rendered a most useful service to the cause of
progress. During that era the noble torch of learning and art which had
illuminated the world of the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans was
burning very low. Without the knights and their good friends, the monks,
civilisation would have been extinguished entirely, and the human race
would have been forced to begin once more where the cave-man had left
off.

CHIVALRY

CHIVALRY

IT was quite natural that the professional fighting-men of the Middle
Ages should try to establish some sort of organisation for their
mutual benefit and protection. Out of this need for close organisation,
Knighthood or Chivalry was born.

We know very little about the origins of Knighthood. But as the system
developed, it gave the world something which it needed very badly--a
definite rule of conduct which softened the barbarous customs of that
day and made life more livable than it had been during the five hundred
years of the Dark Ages. It was not an easy task to civilise the rough
frontiersmen who had spent most of their time fighting Mohammedans and
Huns and Norsemen. Often they were guilty of backsliding, and having
vowed all sorts of oaths about mercy and charity in the morning, they
would murder all their prisoners before evening. But progress is
ever the result of slow and ceaseless labour, and finally the most
unscrupulous of knights was forced to obey the rules of his "class" or
suffer the consequences.

These rules were different in the various parts of Europe, but they all
made much of "service" and "loyalty to duty." The Middle Ages regarded
service as something very noble and beautiful. It was no disgrace to be
a servant, provided you were a good servant and did not slacken on the
job. As for loyalty, at a time when life depended upon the faithful
per-formance of many unpleasant duties, it