foot of Roquefort in Auvergne, was in similar circumstances; Cadenet, whose father's castle of Cadenet, on the Durance, had been rased to the ground by the Toulousans in 1165, was left destitute; Perdigon was son of a poor fisherman of l'Esperon; Berenger de Palasol, of Roussillon, was without fortune; Hugues de Saint Cyr, in le Querci, whose father's castle had been destroyed in the wars, was left a burden on his relations; Arnaud Daniel, of the castle of Ribeyrac in Périgord, was poor; Guillaume Adhémar was a poor knight of Marvejol; Guibert Amiels, a poor knight of Gascony; Richard de Barbésieu, a poor knight of Saintonge; Arnaud de Tintignac, a poor knight of Provence. It need hardly be shewn that the Church attended to no privileges of birth and nobility in her distinctions Pope John XXII was a poor shoemaker's son; Nicholas V was son of a poulterer; Sixtus V of a swineherd; Pope Urban IV was so little ashamed of being the son of a shoemaker, that he ordered the pulpit of the church of St. Urbain at Troyes, his native city, to be adorned on great festivals with tapestry representing his father's stall. In arms too, according to the sentiment of the romances (and even to the practice of the middle ages, for Robert Knolles, the most celebrated English leader in Edward III's wars, after the Black Prince and Chandos, was of very obscure extraction), it was chivalry not nobility which conferred the greatest honour.

When Arthur proved himself able to achieve the trial of the sword, which no one else could draw from the stone, he was elected king of Great Britain, though all looked upon him as a "berdless boy, that was come of lowe blood."1 And when Wolfdietrich, in the Book of Heroes, had

Morte d'Arthur, I, 11.

defeated Count Hermann of Tuscany, who had upbraided him for joining the company of highborn knights when he was poor and apparently of low rank, the author of the poem makes him become the husband of the noble princess.1

In real history, too, chivalry is to be sought for in the ranks of the Swiss mountaineers and peasants, rather than in those of their imperial invaders; in the poor and unprovided followers of Sobieski the Pole, not among the ceremonious and ungrateful courtiers of Vienna. The soldiers of Pavia were more noble than their Emperor Frederick II, when they remonstrated against his barbarous execution of the Parmesan prisoners; saying they were come to fight the Parmesans, but armed and in the field of battle, not to serve them for executioners. There is even an example of legislation on the principle of the romances which places chivalry before nobility; for the state of Pistoja, in the thirteenth century, ennobled men as a punishment for their crimes. But besides these grounds, which may be rejected as fanciful, it would not be difficult to bring forward others, from the severest principles of truth, to prove that there is, after all, a more practical, direct, and secure mode of extending the noble spirit of chivalry than by any legislative or conventional decree. It is the sublime faith and the holy discipline of the Catholic Church which can enable the soul of man to gain the highest degree of elevation of which it is capable in its present state of exile; it is religion which can impart real magnanimity and gentleness to the lower classes, so as to make the most poor and obscure of men susceptible of all the generous and lofty sentiments which belong to true nobility.

In the little book entitled "Recollections of St.

Acheul" there is an account of the life and death of one of the young students, Jean-Baptiste Carette, whose parents were in such abject poverty, that their son, having excited the attention of a worthy priest, had been supported solely by the alms of charitable Christians, and sent to the college of the Jesuits at their expense. Here he evinced, during his short but brilliant career, for he died in his eighteenth year, not only the highest talents, but a certain nobleness and purity of sentiments, "which," adds the writer, "are not always found among those of the highest society." It was the custom at this college for the students to pass one day in the country every month, during the summer season; and Carette would employ these days allotted for enjoyment in visiting his parents in their poor cottage. It was on one of these occasions that he was suddenly seized with the illness which removed him from the world. As soon as the news arrived at the college of his being unable to return, the Director of the Congregation of the Holy Angels, of which he was a member, hastened to visit him. He found him in a miserable cabin, lying upon straw, which was spread upon some loose planks, supported by stones. The pious youth, who remarked his affliction on beholding him in such a state, said to him, "O father, how good it is to submit to the will of God!" The holy man, having heard that he had already received the last sacraments, hastened back to the college to procure something which might relieve his sufferings; but he did not return in time to find him alive. He had departed, repeating the words, "Gloria in excelsis Deo." Here we see in what a low and obscure condition of life nobleness and purity of sentiment may be found; for there is no height and delicacy of honour, no refinement of sentiment, in fact no

perfection of chivalry, which does not of necessity accompany such piety as this.

Under the influence of the Catholic religion, the peasant youth was devout and self-devoted, humble and courteous, amiable, affectionate, upright, and brave; and what more was requisite to constitute the knightly soul? As for birth, it is true we must say of such a person, 66 non patre præclaro, sed vita et pectore puro;" but in the ages of which we speak, Charlemagne and the poorest groom in all his courts had both heard "that the emperor and the beggar, the master and the servant, are brethren, having all the same Father." From youth men were taught that "one nobility belongs to all the faithful, one dignity, one splendour of race, since all are born of the same Spirit and of the same sacrament of faith, and are sons of God and coheirs of the same inheritance; that the rich and powerful have no other Christ besides him who is followed by the poor; that they are initiated in no other sacraments, and have no higher expectation of a celestial kingdom; but that all are brethren and members of the body of Christ, of his flesh and of his bones." But while all men might aspire to the praise of noble chivalry, its distinctions, which were nothing but those of nature, were esteemed of such surpassing dignity, that even kings considered themselves as deriving their chief glory from having possessed them. Witness the reply which Charles VI made to his father, when he offered him the choice of a crown of gold or of a helmet, as the emblem of that chivalry which he professed to admire: "Monseigneur,' exclaimed the young prince, with energy, "donnez-moi le casque, et gardez votre couronne."

2

1 S. Augustin, Hom. IV, inter 50.

2 Catechism. Concil. Trident. pars IV, 31.

XIX. If nobility be understood as the honour consequent upon the circumstance of birth from virtuous parents, it is of an antiquity which is lost in the night of time. "If, indeed, you be his son," says Nestor to Telemachus, σέβας μ' ἔχει εἰσορόωντα. Menelaus, delighted with the wise answers of Telemachus, exclaims that he must have been born of good blood; and Alcinous, desiring Ulysses to declare his name and parentage, adds an opinion which shews how great were the moral effects attributed to birth. It is the pride of Penelope that her son is come of a good race. Diomedes

begins his speech in council by boasting of the virtue of his father and grandfather, of whom he says, ἀρετῇ δ ̓ ἦν ἔξοχος αὐτῶν, and upon this ground he bespeaks the attention of the assembly. No one can ridicule the heroes of the Iliad for having this sentiment in such respect, when he hears the immortal words with which the son of Hippolochus defies his enemy:

Ιππόλοχος δέ μ' ἔτικτε, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ φημὶ γενέσθαι·
πέμπε δέ μ' ἐς Τροίην, καί μοι μάλα πόλλ' ἐπέτελλεν,
αἰέν ἀριστεύειν, καὶ ὑπεύροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων·
μηδὲ γένος πατέρων αἰσχυνέμεν· οἳ μέγ' ἄριστοι
ἔν τ' Εφύρῃ ἐγένοντο καὶ ἐν Λυκίῃ εὐρείῃ.
ταύτης τοι γενεῆς τε καὶ αἵματος εὔχομαι εἶναι.

Virgil, in a lower strain, ascribes this sentiment to the Rutuli, in accounting for their affection for Turnus :

Hunc decus egregium formæ movet atque juventæ,
Hunc atavi reges, hunc claris dextera factis."

But the genuine foundation appears again in his description of the assembly to witness the game of Troy before Æneas, when the spectators applauded the contending youths:

1 Odyss. III, 123. • II. XIV, 118.

2 Ib. IV, 611.
5 II. VI, 206.

3 Ib. VIII, 552.

Lib. VII, 473.