which exhibit a rather ordinary piety and none of the spirituality of his predecessors Hugh
and Richard of Saint-Victor.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: ABÉLARD, PETER; GILBERT OF POITIERS; HUGH OF SAINT-
VICTOR; PETER LOMBARD; PETER OF POITIERS; RICHARD OF SAINT-
VICTOR; SAINT-VICTOR, ABBEY AND SCHOOL OF]
Walter of Saint-Victor. Le Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae de Gauthier de Saint-Victor, ed.
Palémon Glorieux. Archives d’histoire littéraire et doctrinale du moyen âge 19(1953): 187–335.
Châtillon, Jean. “De Guillaume de Champeaux a Thomas Gallus: chronique d’histoire littéraire et
doctrinale de l’école de Saint-Victor.” Revue du moyen âge latin 8(1952):139–62.
——.“Sermons et prédicateurs victorins de la seconde moitié du XIIe siècle.” Archives d’histoire
littéraire et doctrinale du moyen âge 23(1965):7–60.
Glorieux, Palémon. “Mauvaise action et mauvais travail: le Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae
de Gauthier de Saint-Victor.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 21 (1954):179–93.
WARFARE
. Warfare was a dominant feature of medieval French history. After the late 4th century,
Germanic tribes penetrated the western Roman Empire in force, bringing important
changes to the military system. Roman discipline and organization gave way to badly
organized forces with poor training, few arms, and almost no discipline. Military
recruitment and payment for services were based on the amount of booty a leader could
provide his soldiers, and loyalty to this leader was dependent on the continued success of
his conquests. Soldiers generally were equipped with only a rudimentary shield and
helmet, and their arms consisted of a sword, ax, or spear. These militaristic barbarians
had an almost Homeric sense of heroism and revered martial skills. Their names, both
male and female, reflected the omnipresence of war, and warriors were the elite of
Germanic society, placed at the top of the wergeld system of compensation and given
elaborate burials with their equipment and booty.
By the 6th and 7th centuries, the Merovingian Franks, who required military service of
all free men, had an effective army based on infantry. Their special weapon was the
francisca, a throwing ax. They adopted body armor only gradually. Their fortifications,
other than those inherited from Rome, were simple earth and wood ramparts.
When the Carolingians came to power in the 8th century, the requirements of a large
empire led to new military institutions that presaged the feudalism of a later time. Rulers
granted income-producing estates to followers who promised to render full-time military
service at their own expense. The expanding role of the stirrup gradually encouraged the
development of heavy cavalry and the archetypical medieval knight.
This system of land grants and oaths of loyalty enabled Charlemagne to muster an
effective cavalry force almost annually. His armies were not large, but they were
powerful and dominated their opponents. He generally led them himself, and although
there were few “formal” military tactics, they were successful in most engagements.
The Encyclopedia 1837