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Quiz about The Ten Commandments of the Code of Chivalry

The Ten Commandments of the Code of Chivalry Quiz

In 1884 French literary historian, Léon Gautier, created a written Ten Commandments for a medieval chivalric knight based on extensive research. See if you can figure out all ten chivalric mandates. Good luck!

by BigTriviaDawg. Estimated time: 3 mins.

Author
BigTriviaDawg

Time
3 mins

Type

Quiz #
413,477

Updated
Aug 17 23

# Qns
15

Difficulty
Easy

Avg Score
13 / 15

Plays
203

1) Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and thou shalt all its directions.
2) Thou shalt the Church.
3) Thou shalt respect all , and shalt thyself the defender of them.
4) Thou shalt the country in which thou wast born.
5) Thou shalt not before thine enemy
6) Thou shalt make war against the without cessation and without .
7) Thou shalt perform thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of .
8) Thou shalt never , and shalt remain faithful to thy word.
9) Thou shalt be generous, and give to everyone
10) Thou shalt be and always the of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

Your Options

[God] [observe] [everywhere] [scrupulously] [infidel] [pledged] [champion] [mercy] [recoil] [largesse] [weaknesses] [lie] [love] [defend] [constitute]

Click or drag the options above to the spaces in the text.

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer:

No contemporary written record of a chivalric code has been found, but it is likely that a strong oral tradition existed. Knights would have been of the gentry and landholders beholden to a local lord or king. Gautier spent a lifetime learning about life during the Chivalric Age. The term chivalry comes from the Old French word "chevalerie", meaning horseman. The medieval knight would have first had a duty to God and the Church and second to his feudal lord. In the process, the knight must defend those weaker than himself as long as it does not violate his duty to Church and lord.

It goes without saying that a medieval knight would have to be a baptized Christian. During the Crusades the battle cry "Defend the Church" was shouted while attacking the Saracens. The first 9 of Gautier's ten commandments are supported by ancient poems and literature, while the tenth is an overall summation of what it means to be a knight. Plus, since Gautier was modeling the code after the Ten Commandments of the Bible, he needed ten codes! They are in the order of importance with a knight's duty to God and Church as the most important. It is worth noting that while Gautier's list is focused on the behavior of knights during the 11th to 13th centuries, chivalric behavior goes back much further in time to the Romans.

Source: Author BigTriviaDawg

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
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