Jean le Maire de Belges, in Les Chansons de Namur, purposely mentions the exploits of rustic heroes, to acquaint the nobles with the fact that those whom they treat as villeins are sometimes animated by the greatest gallantry. For the reason of these poetical admonitions on the subject of true nobility and human equality generally lies in the stimulus they impart to the nobles to adapt themselves to the true ideal of knighthood, and thereby to support and to purify the world. In the virtues of the nobles, says Chastellain, lies the remedy for the evils of the time; the weal of the kingdom, the peace of the Church, the rule of justice, depend on them.—“Two things,” it is said in Le Livre des Faicts du Mareschal Boucicaut, “have, by the will of God, been established in the world, like two pillars to sustain the order of divine and human laws... and without which the world would be like a confused thing and without any order... these two flawless pillars are Chivalry and Learning, which go very well together.” “Learning, Faith and Chivalry” are the three flowers of the Chapel des Fleurs-de-lis of Philippe de Vitri; it is the duty of knighthood to preserve and protect the two others.
Long after the Middle Ages a certain equivalence of knighthood and a doctor’s degree was generally acknowledged. This parallelism indicates the high ethical value attaching to the idea of chivalry. The two dignities of a knight and of a doctor are conceived as the sacred forms of two superior functions, that of courage and of knowledge. By being knighted the man of action is raised to an ideal level; by taking his doctor’s degree the man of knowledge receives a badge of superiority. They are stamped, the one as a hero, the other as a sage. The devotion to a higher life-work is expressed by a ceremonial consecration. If as an element of social life the idea of chivalry has been of much greater importance, it was because it contained, besides its ethical value, an abundance of æsthetic value of the most suggestive kind.
