"Associated with mail-clad knights whose trade is war and whose
delight is to combat are the men whose sacred vocation forbids the
use of force altogether. Through lands overspread with deeds of
violence, the lonely wayfarer with the staff and badge of a
pilgrim passes unarmed and in safety. In sight of castles, about
whose walls fierce battles rage, are the church and the monastery,
within the precincts of which quiet reigns and all violence is
branded as sacrilege."[84]
The harsh clashes of the Venus music over against the solemn strains
from the Pilgrim's Chorus in Tannhäuser might well symbolize not only
the specific collision of the opera but the broader range of passions
opposed to the religious controls and values in this mediæval society.
=The Group and Class Ideal.=--The early Germans and Celts in general had
the clan system, the group ideals, and group virtues which belonged to
other Aryan peoples, but the very fact of the Germanic victories shows a
military spirit which included both personal heroism and good capacity
for organization. Group loyalty was strong, and the group valuation of
strength and courage was unbounded. A high value was also set on woman's
chastity. These qualities, particularly the loyalty to the clan and its
head, survived longest in Celtic peoples like the Scots and Irish who
were not subjected to the forces of political organization. Every reader
of Scott is familiar with the values and defects of the type; and the
problems which it causes in modern democracy have been acutely described
by Jane Addams.[85] Among the Germanic peoples, when the clan and tribal
systems were followed by the more thoroughgoing demarcation of classes,
free and serfs, lords and villains, chevalier or knight, and churl, the
old Latin terms "gentle" and "vulgar" found a fitting application. The
term "gentle" was indeed given in one of its usages the force of the
kindred term "kind" to characterize the conduct appropriate within the
kin, but in the compound "gentleman" it formed one of the most
interesting conceptions of class morality. The "honor" of a gentleman
was determined by what the class demanded. Above all else the gentleman
must not show fear. He must be ready to fight at any instant to prove
his courage. His word must not be doubted. This seems to have been on
the ground that such doubt would be a refusal to take the man at his
own estimate, rather than because of any superlative love of truth, for
the approved way to prove the point at issue was by fighting, not by any
investigation. But the class character appears in the provision that no
insult from one of a lower class need be noticed. Homicide was not
contrary to the character and honor of a gentleman. Nor did this require
any such standard in sex relations as a "woman's honor" requires of a
woman. In conduct toward others, the "courtesy" which expresses in
ceremony and manner respect for personal dignity was a fine trait. It
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