Christendom 175Middle Ages were different from those of the 11th to the
13th centuries, just as the 13th-century concepts differed
from those of the 11th.
SECULAR CHIVALRYChivalry was originally based on the evolution of the
mounted warrior (the milesin Latin) or KNIGHTS AND
KNIGHTHOODin France from the later decades of the
10th century. It was then that knights became dominant
military and political figures supported by the institu-
tions of what has been called FEUDALISM. This exercise of
power by knights was based on their military training,
wealth, and possession of an adequate horse, all essential
for mounted shock combat. This soon led to the devel-
opment of a lawless and arrogant class only too often
contemptuous of the rest of society and the church.
From the 12th century onward, secular literature, rulers,
and institutions tried to promote chivalry as a moral,
religious, and social code of knightly conduct upholding
the virtues of courage, respect for women, honor, and
service to lords. At the same time these ideals were
always based on the possession of military prowess as a
cavalry man with the necessary horse and equipment.
CHRISTIAN CHIVALRYChivalric virtues were deeply influenced by Christianity;
that influence tended to coincide with secular efforts to
control the behavior of the warrior class. In promoting the
PEACE ANDTRUCE OFGODin the 11th century, the church
sought to limit and redirect the violence of the then-domi-
nant knightly and warrior class. It tried to place limits on
warfare within Europe and demanded respect for the insti-
tutional church, the clergy, and vulnerable members of the
laity. At the same time the church became more tolerant of
certain kinds of warfare and violence, developing further
AUGUSTINE’Sideas about the JUST WARin defense of the
faith. The virtues of the new Christian knight were sup-
posed to be fidelity, piety, obedience to the clergy, and ser-
vice to God. All this was linked to the promotion of the
Crusade. These secular and religious ideals were reflected
in, if they did not dominate, literature.
See alsoARTHUR,KING, ANDARTHURIAN LITERATURE;
ARMIES AND MILITARY ORGANIZATION; CASTLES AND FORTIFI-
CATIONS; CAVALRY;CHANSONS DE GESTE; COURTLY LOVE;
EPIC LITERATURE; HERALDRY AND HERALDS; MILITARY
ORDERS; ROMANCES; TOURNAMENTS; TROUBADOURS;
WEAPONS AND WEAPONRY; WOMEN, STATUS OF.
Further reading:Richard W. Kaeuper, Chivalry and
Violence in Medieval Europe(Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999); Maurice Keen, Chivalry (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984); Sidney Painter,
French Chivalry: Chivalric Ideas and Practices (Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1940); Malcolm Vale, Wa r
and Chivalry: Warfare and Aristocratic Culture in England,
France, and Burgundy at the End of the Middle Ages(Lon-
don: Duckworth, 1981).
Chrétien de Troyes (ca. 1140–ca. 1191) author
Born about 1140, the writer Chrétien de Troyes was active
in the last 30 years of the 12th century. His patrons were
MARIE DECHAMPAGNEand Philippe d’Alsace, the count of
FLANDERS(r. 1168–91). Chrétien’s writing was fundamen-
tal in the founding of medieval ARTHURIAN ROMANCE. The
five romances that can be attributed to him certainly made
the “matter of Britain,” or King Arthur and his court, the
basis for narrative fiction for centuries.
The transition from earlier romantic tradition, using
sources derived from antiquity, to the Arthurian domain
did not occur all at once: Chrétien’s five surviving
romances were entitled Cligés, Érec et Énide, Le Chevalier
de la Charrete(The Knight of the cart), Le Chevalier au
Lion(The Knight of the lion), Yvain,and the Conte du
Graal.He died about 1191.
See also COURTLY LOVE;GAWAIN AND THE GAWAIN
ROMANCES;PERCEVAL; ROUNDTABLE; WACE.
Further reading:Chrétien de Troyes, The Complete
Romances of Chrétien de Troyes, trans. David Staines
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990); Sandra
Hindman, Sealed in Parchment: Rereadings of Knighthood
in the Illuminated Manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Douglas F.
Kelly, Chrétien de Troyes: An Analytical Bibliography(Lon-
don: Grant and Cutler, 1976); Donald Maddux, The
Arthurian Romances of Chrétien de Troyes: Once and Future
Fictions(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991);
Lacy Norris, Douglas Kelly, and Keith Busby, eds., The
Legacy of Chrétien de Troyes,2 vols. (Amsterdam: Rodopi,
1987–1988).Christendom The term Christendomhad its origins in
a concept of community of European Christians linked to
a particular church and under the guidance of the PAPACY.
From the disappearance of a Roman Empire in the fifth
century and the chaotic collapse of the Carolingian
Empire in the 10th, there was little to serve as a center of
culture and political authority. One ideal for the unity
and community of this world arose in the promotion of
ecclesiastical centralization on the papacy during the
GREGORIANREFORM movement of the 11th century. A
renewed and self-aware PAPACY then sought universal
allegiance and authority. This coincided with increased
awareness and contacts with Europe’s neighboring and
different cultures and societies—ISLAMand the Orthodox
worlds of the Byzantine Empire and Eastern Europe. This
contact suggested that such religious self-consciousness
was possible and even desirable. Aspiring to a universal
authority, the papacy tried to play a leadership role in this
idea and dominate ecclesiastical and secular affairs.
Christian Europeans did feel some common bonds
through this hierarchized Christianity, but emerging secu-
lar states after 1200 were not willing to submit to papal
authority beyond a certain point. At the same time there