Still, however, the period when chivalry became a re gular and systematic institution remains to be fixed ;— that the great principles of it are of Gothic origin, seems to rest on as satisfactory a degree of evidence as the na ture of the question will admit ; but the state of society among the Goths, at the period when we can trace the peculiar features of chivalry among them, was not such, as either to call for its complete and regular institution, or to enable them to have brought it about. The dif ferent periods, which have been assigned to the regular institution of chivalry, are all connected by the authors, who respectively advance and maintain them with some theory on that subject. Those who maintain that chi valry arose out of the feudal system, fix the period of its regular institution after the time of Charlemagne, when that system began to operate most powerfully on the manners and laws of Europe. By other writers, the institution of chivalry is supposed to have been a conse quence of the Crusades ; and a period subsequent to them is of course assigned to the origin of regular chi valry. Lastly, those who are of opinion, not only that traces of chivalry may be perceived scattered among the manners and institutions of the Scandinavians, but that it existed in a regular and complete form among that people, are disposed naturally to fix the period of its origin prior to the time of Charlemagne.
We shall, in the first place, attend to the evidence on which the opinion of its origin prior to the time of Char lemagne rests ; but before examining it, it is necessary to call to mind a position already laid down, viz. that similarity in the peculiar features of chivalry, and not a mere resemblance of a general and uncharacteristic na ture, must alone be admitted as relevant and satisfactory evidence.
In describing the manners and customs of the Scandi navian nations, their mode of admitting their young men to the honour and the use of arms was particularly no ticed. The advocates for the opinion under examination contend, that this ceremony gradually acquired, long be fore the time of Charlemagne, all that form and signifi cancy, which it possessed in the most flourishing days of It may, therefore, be proper to examine some of the facts on which they build this opinion, since it is of the utmost consequence to distinguish between the ceremonies which attended the investiture of the youth with arms, and his adoption into the order of military men, and those ceremonies with which he was admitted to the rank and privileges, and by which he bound him self to discharge the duties of chivalry.
One of the earliest, best authenticated, and most par ticular and appropriate instances, is supplied by Cassio dorus. This author informs us, that Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, adopted the king of the Heruli, by investing him with a sword, a shield, and other instru ments of war ; and by presenting him with a horse. A
short time afterwards, the Emperor Justinian used simi lar ceremonies, in adopting Eutharic, the father of Atha laric, king of the same nation. These facts point out the mode used in the 6th century. In the subsequent century, it would appear, from a passage in the life of St Eloi by St Owen, that a further advance had been made towards the ceremonies employed in the acknow ledged period of chivalry, by distinguishing the knight with ornaments of gold. The passage, however, on which this opinion is non esse dignum, hos qui seculo militarent, incedcre inauratos," is proved by Non. dc St Palaye, to have been altered in its most im portant word, since inornatos, and not inauratos, is the original and genuine reading.
It must not be concealed, however, that as we ap proach the times of Charlemagne, not only do instances of military investiture occur more frequently, but they were attended with much more solemnity and pomp, and with the addition of these ceremonies, which are among the most striking and characteristic of chivalry. Char lemagne sent for his son Louis from Aquitaine, expressly for the purpose of investing him ; and at the investiture great splendour and ceremony were used. Similar splen dour and ceremony Were employed by Louis, when he invested his son Charles. But the instance most to the point, as supplying- a decisive proof of the addition of a ceremony very striking in chivalry, is given by Menne nius in the Reports of Friesland, as taken from a cotem po•ary monument, (A. D. 802). Charlemagne, among the other privileges which he granted to that part of his empire, expressly ordained that the governor might make knights, by girding them with a sword, and giving them a blow ; and this last part of the ceremony is de scribed as customary,—dato eisdem, sicut consuetudinis est, manu colapho.
Such is the substance and general bearing and weight of the facts on which the opinion is grounded, that chi valry existed prior to the time of Charlemagne ; that it i was indeed gradually rendered more perfect m its monies, but that its principle and characteristics were in existence before the reign of that monarch. But, on considering w hat has been advanced, it Nv i I I be found to prove inertly, that military investiture, a custom existing in a rude form among the Germans at the tune of Taci tus, and necessarily arising out of the state and circum stances of society, gradually assumed more splendour, and was attended with additional ceremonies, all indica tive of the admission of the person invested, into the rank of military men. But the principal circumstance we shall look for in vain ; there is no proof that other duties than those of a purely military character, and of these, only such as the sovereign called for, were under taken by those who were so invested.