were _Dei militia_, the soldiers of the Church; and it is significant
that warfare against the unbeliever ranks prominently among the duties
enjoined upon the new-made knight, though it does not stand alone. The
defence of the true faith and of the Church is also inculcated; merit
might be acquired in persecuting heretics or in fighting for the Pope
against an unjust Emperor. Nor are the claims of the widow, the orphan
and the defenceless totally forgotten. But the perfect knight of the
Church was the Templar, the soldier living under the rule of a religious
order and devoting his whole energies to the cause of the Holy
Sepulchre. It was a remarkable innovation when St. Bernard, the mirror
of orthodox conservatism, undertook to legislate for the Order of the
Temple; for the primitive Church had hardly tolerated wars in self-
defence. From one point of view it was a wholesome change of attitude in
the moral leaders of society, that they should recognise war and a
military class as inevitable necessities, that they should undertake to
moralise and idealise the commonest of occupations. But the resolve was
marred in the execution. In the desire to be practical, the Church set
up too low an aim and translated Christianity into precepts which were
only suited for one short stage of medieval civilisation, the stage of
the Crusades.

In the long run the poet had far more influence than the priest upon the
chivalric classes. It is remarkable how uniformly Popes and Councils set
their faces against the bloodshed and extravagant futilities of the
tournament; still more remarkable that even threats of excommunication
could not deter the most orthodox of knights from seeking distinction
and distraction in these mimic wars. Equally significant is the growth
of the _service des dames_ which, although invested by troubadours
and minnesingers with a halo of religious allegory, was disliked by the
Church, not merely from a dread of possible abuses, but as inherently