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the ancien regime-第6章

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themselves to be superseded by the dragoons and dragonnades of Louis

XIV。then the end of the French chivalry was at hand; and came。

But centuries before that shameful fall there had come in with

Christianity the new thought; that domination meant responsibility;

that responsibility demanded virtue。  The words which denoted rank;

came to denote likewise high moral excellencies。  The nobilis; or

man who was known; and therefore subject to public opinion; was

bound to behave nobly。  The gentlemangentile…manwho respected

his own gens; or family and pedigree; was bound to be gentle。  The

courtier; who had picked up at court some touch of Roman

civilisation from Roman ecclesiastics; was bound to be courteous。

He who held an 〃honour〃 or 〃edel〃 of land was bound to be

honourable; and he who held a 〃weorthig;〃 or worthy; thereof; was

bound himself to be worthy。  In like wise; he who had the right to

ride a horse; was expected to be chivalrous in all matters befitting

the hereditary ruler; who owed a sacred debt to a long line of

forefathers; as well as to the state in which he dwelt; all dignity;

courtesy; purity; self…restraint; devotionsuch as they were

understood in those rough dayscentred themselves round the idea of

the rider as the attributes of the man whose supposed duty; as well

as his supposed right; was to govern his fellow…men; by example; as

well as by law and force;attributes which gathered themselves up

into that one wordChivalry:  an idea; which; perfect or imperfect;

God forbid that mankind should ever forget; till it has become the

possessionas it is the God…given rightof the poorest slave that

ever trudged on foot; and every collier…lad shall have becomeas

some of those Barnsley men proved but the other day they had become

already:





A very gentle perfect knight;





Very unfaithful was chivalry to its idealas all men are to all

ideals。  But bear in mind; that if the horse was the symbol of the

ruling caste; it was not at first its only strength。  Unless that

caste had had at first spiritual; as well as physical force on its

side; it would have been soon destroyednay; it would have

destroyed itselfby internecine civil war。  And we must believe

that those Franks; Goths; Lombards; and Burgunds; who in the early

Middle Age leaped on the backs (to use Mr。 Carlyle's expression) of

the Roman nations; were actually; in all senses of the word; better

men than those whom they conquered。  We must believe it from reason;

for if not; how could they; numerically few; have held for a year;

much more for centuries; against millions; their dangerous

elevation?  We must believe it; unless we take Tacitus's 〃Germania;〃

which I absolutely refuse to do; for a romance。  We must believe

that they were better than the Romanised nations whom they

conquered; because the writers of those nations; Augustine; Salvian;

and Sidonius Apollinaris; for example; say that they were such; and

give proof thereof。  Not good men according to our higher standard

far from it; though Sidonius's picture of Theodoric; the East Goth;

in his palace of Narbonne; is the picture of an eminently good and

wise ruler。  But not good; I say; as a rulethe Franks; alas! often

very bad men:  but still better; wiser; abler; than those whom they

ruled。  We must believe too; that they were better; in every sense

of the word; than those tribes on their eastern frontier; whom they

conquered in after centuries; unless we discredit (which we have no

reason to do) the accounts which the Roman and Greek writers give of

the horrible savagery of those tribes。



So it was in later centuries。  One cannot read fairly the history of

the Middle Ages without seeing that the robber knight of Germany or

of France; who figures so much in modern novels; must have been the

exception; and not the rule:  that an aristocracy which lived by the

saddle would have as little chance of perpetuating itself; as a

priesthood composed of hypocrites and profligates; that the

mediaeval Nobility has been as much slandered as the mediaeval

Church; and the exceptions takenas more salient and excitingfor

the average:  that side by side with ruffians like Gaston de Foix

hundreds of honest gentlemen were trying to do their duty to the

best of their light; and were raising; and not depressing; the

masses below themone very important item in that duty being; the

doing the whole fighting of the country at their own expense;

instead of leaving it to a standing army of mercenaries; at the beck

and call of a despot; and that; as M。 de Tocqueville says:  〃In

feudal times; the Nobility were regarded pretty much as the

government is regarded in our own; the burdens they imposed were

endured in consequence of the security they afforded。  The nobles

had many irksome privileges; they possessed many onerous rights:

but they maintained public order; they administered justice; they

caused the law to be executed; they came to the relief of the weak;

they conducted the business of the community。  In proportion as they

ceased to do these things; the burden of their privileges appeared

more oppressive; and their existence became an anomaly in proportion

as they ceased to do these things。〃  And the Ancien Regime may be

defined as the period in which they ceased to do these thingsin

which they began to play the idlers; and expected to take their old

wages without doing their old work。



But in any case; government by a ruling caste; whether of the

patriarchal or of the feudal kind; is no ideal or permanent state of

society。  So far from it; it is but the first or second step out of

primeval savagery。  For the more a ruling race becomes conscious of

its own duty; and not merely of its own powerthe more it learns to

regard its peculiar gifts as entrusted to it for the good of menso

much the more earnestly will it labour to raise the masses below to

its own level; by imparting to them its own light; and so will it

continually tend to abolish itself; by producing a general equality;

moral and intellectual; and fulfil that law of self…sacrifice which

is the beginning and the end of all virtue。



A race of noblest men and women; trying to make all below them as

noble as themselvesthat is at least a fair ideal; tending toward;

though it has not reached; the highest ideal of all。



But suppose that the very opposite tendencyinherent in the heart

of every child of manshould conquer。  Suppose the ruling caste no

longer the physical; intellectual; and moral superiors of the mass;

but their equals。  Suppose themshameful; but not without example

actually sunk to be their inferiors。  And that such a fall did come…

…nay; that it must have comeis matter of history。  And its cause;

like all social causes; was not a political nor a physical; but a

moral cause。  The profligacy of the French and Italian

aristocracies; in the sixteenth century; avenged itself on them by a

curse (derived from the newly…discovered America) from which they

never recovered。  The Spanish aristocracy suffered; I doubt not very

severely。  The English and German; owing to the superior homeliness

and purity of ruling their lives; hardly at all。  But the

continental caste; instead of recruiting their tainted blood by

healthy blood from below; did all; under pretence of keeping it

pure; to keep it tainted by continual intermarriage; and paid; in

increasing weakness of body and mind; the penalty of their exclusive

pride。  It is impossible for anyone who reads the French memoirs of

the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; not to perceive; if he be

wise; that the aristocracy therein depicted was ripe for ruinyea;

already ruinedunder any form of government whatsoever; independent

of all political changes。  Indeed; many of the political changes

were not the causes but the effects of the demoralisation of the

noblesse。  Historians will tell you how; as early as the beginning

of the seventeenth century; Henry IV。 complained that the nobles

were quitting their country districts; how succeeding kings and

statesmen; notably Richelieu and Louis XIV。; tempted the noblesse up

to Paris; that they might become mere courtiers; instead of powerful

country gentlemen; how those who remained behind were only the poor

hobereaux; little hobby…hawks among the gentry; who considered it

degradation to help in governing the parish; as their forefathers

had governed it; and lived shabbily in their chateaux; grinding the

last farthing out of their tenants; that they might spend it in town

during the winter。  No wonder that with such an aristocracy; who had

renounced that very duty of governing the country; for which alone

they and their forefathers had existed; there arose government by

intendants and sub…delegates; and all the other evils of

administrative centralisation; which M。 de Tocqueville anatomises

and deplores。  But what was the cause of the curse?  Their moral

degradation。  What drew them
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