Chivalry
the uses and customs pertaining to the order of knighthood.
From the 9th to the 12th century, a tion which in classical times meant "miles," that is, one bearing a designasimply a soldier, and in the mediæval period a knight, was one who held land in fee from a superior, and was in consequence bound to render him military service. When a young man who was heir to these responsibilities came of age enough to formally pledge himself to discharge them honorably, a ceremony of investiture took place. The Church, as was natural and right, sought to add solemnity to the interesting event, and made the investiture of a youthful knight an imposing religious ceremony, holding up, moreover, before him a high moral and religious ideal to which he was exhorted to aspire. Mercy to vanquished foes and purity in the youthful knight's relations to women were earnestly pressed upon him; and there was undoubtedly more of both than if the Christian Church had not interfered.
Yet withal the ages of chivalry were marked to a frightful extent by cruelty and impurity. While the Church counseled and poets celebrated the religious and moral elevation of the true knight, that individual himself manifested little of either; his principles and his prac- CHLORAL tice were wonderfully different. Chivalry declined and fell with the feudal system, of which it was a normal growth.
The institution of the military orders, the Knights Templar, the Knights of St. John, and the Teutonic Knights, was an interesting development of medieval chivalry.
CHLORAL (C2HCl₂O or CCl..CO.H= trichloraldehyde), a colorless, odorous, oily liquid, boiling at 94°. It is obtained by passing chlorine gas through absolute alcohol. With water it forms a crystalline compound called hydrate of chloral, CCl3.HC (OH) 2.