SAINTLY KNIGHTS

In spirit as well as practice, Christian principles and the chivalric code were antithetical. Chivalry, after all, was directed toward warfare and killing, and chivalric (or courtly) love advocated adultery. The Church and chivalry were finally reconciled by Pope Urban II in 1095, when he urged the knights to wage a Holy War against the infidel. In the spirit of the Crusades, Christ was redefined as a leader of armies, churchmen became knights, and knightly orders adopted patron saints, whose names they invoked upon going into battle.