Clermont ordered that every noble youth on attaining the age of twelve
years should take an oath to defend the oppressed, the widows, and the
orphans.[3] Much superfluous energy was exhausted in the crusades. In
England the growth of the universities and the study and development of
law aided the establishment of social order, while the spread of
commerce and the improvements in husbandry brought with wealth some
refinement and luxury. The baronage wrested from the crown those
liberties which finally became the common property of all. Trade pushed
the inhabitants of the towns into prominence as an important class
whose influence was thrown entirely into the scale of peace and quiet,
on which its prosperity depended. No element of change was more
essential, and none was greater in its civilizing effects than the
development of the chivalric spirit into an institution of which the
laws and customs were observed from England to Sicily. Its influence
worked directly upon the disturbing classes of society. Only time and
the slow march of civilization could calm the restlessness and the
martial spirit of the powerful, but chivalry introduced into warfare
knightly honor and generosity, and into social life a courtesy and
gallantry which formed a strong ally to religion in bringing out the
better sentiments of humanity. At a time when force was greater than
law, when the weak and defenceless were at the mercy of the powerful,
when women were never safe from the attacks of the brutal, a body of
men who were sworn to redress wrongs, to succor the oppressed, and to
protect women and children, could not fail to be highly beneficial and
to win the reverence of mankind. To be a good knight was to be the salt
of the earth. The church gave easy absolution to the champion of the
weak,--the soldier of God. Women smiled upon the cavalier whose
profession was her service, and whose deeds, as well as the glitter of
his arms and the fascination of his martial appearance, flattered her
pride and gratified her imagination.