HIST-281 Lecture 46: The Church
3 Nov 2020
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Document Summary
The church, responding to public demand, strove to tame their excesses and did so in part by promoting the cult of chivalric knighthood. The chivalric element of knighthood, in other words, derived from the purpose and manner of one"s fighting and not from the fighting alone. Toward this end the church supported the popular peace of god movement, which aimed to protect peasants, pilgrims, clergy, women, and children from baronial attack, and later the. Truce of god, which forbade fighting during certain seasons of the liturgical year (especially. Lent and advent) and on major feast days. Knights who cared more for action and booty than for christian piety largely ignored such prohibitions, but the ideal of a christian knight did gradually catch on over the course of the twelfth century. The chivalric ethic thus sought one way to christianize europe"s military caste, and to the extent that it did so it helped to promote peace and stability.
