In proportion as knighthood appeared more and more in this simultaneously warlike, religious, and moral character, it more and more gained power over the imagination of men, and just as it had become closely interwoven with their creeds, it soon became the ideal of their thoughts, the source of their noblest pleasures.  Poetry, like religion, took hold of it.  From the eleventh century onwards, knighthood, its ceremonies, its duties, and its adventures, were the mine from which the poets drew in order to charm the people, in order to satisfy and excite at the same time that yearning of the soul, that need of events more varied and more captivating, and of emotions more exalted and more pure than real life could furnish.  In the springtide of communities poetry is not merely a pleasure and a pastime for a nation; it is a source of progress; it elevates and develops the moral nature of men at the same time that it amuses them and stirs them deeply.  We have just seen what oaths were taken by the knights and administered by the priests; and now, here is an ancient ballad by Eustache Deschamps, a poet of the fourteenth century, from which it will be seen that poets impressed upon knights the same duties and the same virtues, and that the influence of poetry had the same aim as that of religion: 

I.

               Amend your lives, ye who would fain
               The order of the knights attain;
               Devoutly watch, devoutly pray;
               From pride and sin, O, turn away! 
               Shun all that’s base; the Church defend;
               Be the widow’s and the orphan’s friend;
               Be good and Leal; take nought by might;
               Be bold and guard the people’s right;—­
               This is the rule for the gallant knight.

II.

               Be meek of heart; work day by day;
               Tread, ever tread, the knightly way;
               Make lawful war; long travel dare;
               Tourney and joust for lady fair;
               To everlasting honor cling,
               That none the barbs of blame may fling;
               Be never slack in work or fight;
               Be ever least in self’s own sight;—­
               This is the rule for the gallant knight.

III.

               Love the liege lord; with might and main
               His rights above all else maintain;
               Be open-handed, just, and true;
               The paths of upright men pursue;
               No deaf ear to their precepts turn;
               The prowess of the valiant learn;
               That ye may do things great and bright,
               As did great Alexander hight;—­
               This is the rule for the gallant knight.