In Praise of the New Chivalry

As its title suggests, this work by St. Bernard of Clairvaux is interested in promoting the new moral code of combat that has been baptized and become the groundwork for the various Catholic military orders. While Catholic orders for the maintenance of the hospital in Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher had already been established, St. Bernard wants to bolster the morale and prestige of the Knights of the Temple, also known as the Templar Knights to history. He sees their efforts in the Holy Land as being necessary to curb both the military prowess of the Saracens, but to dull the seemingly endless wars of European knights in Christendom by directing their hostility outward.