282 THE DECLINE AND FALL the generous sentiments and social offices of man far better than the base philosophy, or the baser religion, of the times. Chiv&iry Between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades,, a revolution had taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe. The service of the infantry was degraded to the ple- beians ; the cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honourable name of miles, or soldier, was confined to the gen- tlemen ^^ who served on horseback and were invested with the character of knighthood. The dukes and counts, who had usurped the rights of sovereignty, divided the provinces among their faithful barons : the barons distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of their jurisdiction ; and these military tenants, the peers of each other and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which disdained to conceive the pea- sant or burgher as of the same species with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved by pure and equal alliances ; their sons alone, who could produce four quarters or lines of ancestry, without spot or reproach, might legally pretend to the honour of knighthood ; but a valiant plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword, and became the father of a new race. A single knight could impart, according to his judgment, the character which he received ; and the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived more glory from this personal dis- tinction than from the lustre of their diadem. This ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the woods of Germany,^** was in its origin simple and profane ; the candidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword and spurs ; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight blow, as an emblem of the last affront which it was lawful for him to endure. But superstition mingled in every public and private action of life ; in the holy wars, it sanctified the profes- the emperor Frederic I. (Storia Imperiale di Ricobaldo, in Muratori, Script. Ital. torn. ix. p. 360 ; Ariosto, Orlando Furiosu, iii. 30). But, i. The distance of si.xty years between the youth of the two Rinaldos destroys their identity. 2. The Storia Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the end of the xvth century (Muratori, p. 281-289). 3. This Rinaldo and his e.xploits are not less chimerical than the hero of T.asso (Muratori, Antichita Estense, torn. i. p. 350).
- Of the words, gcntilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two etymologies are pro-
duced : I. From the barbarians of the fifth century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors, of the Roman empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility ; and, 2. From the sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with ingenuus. Selden inclines to the first, but the latter is more pure, as well as probable. ^ Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania, c. 13.
