2. Eleventh to thirteenth century, feudal society with its
customs, its institutions, its arts, and its literatures.

3. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a second time of
transition.

The period, then, of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries was one of intense political life, of advanced national
self-consciousness, of rich, highly-organized society. It was
moreover a period of common ideas, movements, and tendencies over
all Europe. Several factors enter into this result:

1. The church was completely organized, forming a common life and
teaching everywhere. She had learned to employ the savage vigor
and conquering instincts of the northern barbarians as defenses
and aggressive missions of her spirit and ideas. The monasteries
were homes of learning, and from them issued the didactic
literature and the early drama.

2. This resulted in that romantic institution or ideal of
chivalry, whose ten commandments explain so much of mediaeval
life and art.[1]

[1] "Chivalry", by Leon Gautier, 1891, p. 26.


(1) Thou shalt believe all the church teaches, and shalt observe
all its directions.