Paladin

See also: Paladin (homonymy)

The paladin is a knight having reached one of the highest ranks and which belonged to a Religious order, carrying the crowned capacity of the Foi. Nevertheless this term underwent a rather important evolution, in this direction where of knight therefore crowned in Croisade for the account of a prestigious and military order, the name of paladin will end up evoking a concept more Humaniste of knight wandering (perhaps an amalgam with the Latin palabundus ) defending the widow and the orphan. This nuance can be perceived by comparing two operas Vivaldi based on the same character of Roland: Orlando furioso and Orlando finto pazzo.

This name comes from the Roman epoch. Under Dioclétien, the body of the Praetorian Guard (unit of soldiers of elite charged to protect the general officers), made up of Roman Infantrymen , was replaced by a Contingent assembled Barbares. Their possession of Monture their gave the denomination of eques (riding), term also used at the time to indicate the Order of the Roman knights. However this quota was placed close to the Portique of Schola Palatinae with Rome; the time and the deformation of the language contributed to creation in Low-Latin of the word palatinus (Garde of the Palais) to indicate the Chevaliers elite constituting the personal guard of Charlemagne.

Examples:

the knights of the Temple belong to a military Ordre which invests it of a Croisade with the character Sacré.
according to the tradition of the Chansons de geste one of the twelve valiant warriors following Charlemagne among which can be quoted Roland and Olivier . The gesture calls them the “valiant knights” (of “useful” low-Latin prodis meaning) in this context.

History

The gestures of the paladins of Charlemagne competed a time of popularity with the stories of the King Arthur and the Chevaliers of the Roundtable. Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso, whose work was a time as read and respected as those of Shakespeare, contributed more to the rewriting Littéraire and Poétique of the accounts of important facts of paladins. These accounts treated Guerres between the Francs and the Moors during the Islamic conquests of the Spain and their invasion of the south of the France. Their adventures were known like the Matière of Charlemagne (or Matière of France), on a foot of equality with the adventures of the King classified Arthur and of his knights Matière of Brittany. Galahad, or Galaad, wire of the knight Lancelot, is the Archétype paladin in the Légende arthurienne.

The Celtic Revival, more particularly at the end of the 19th century, privileged the material arthurien and encouraged its rewriting and its repeat broadcast. Nothing like it strongly did not take place for the material of Charlemagne, because Christian and triumphalist person in his presentation (except for the characters of Arioste, much more moderate). Consequently, the readers of the 20th century know well Arthur and its Camelot whereas they little heard of the paladins of Charlemagne, which however enjoyed with the Moyen-âge an equal reputation.

Post-medieval use of the term

Quickly standardized to qualify a chivalrous Hero, or more pejoratively a knight-errant such as Don Quichotte, the paladin will find a definition more modern, regarded as representative even spokesperson of an ideal ethics. It is in the sense that certain authors as Montesquieu refer to this character to symbolize the gasoline of perfectibility and the virtue: “Of the paladins, always armed in a part of the world full with Castle X, Fortresses and brigands, found Honneur to punish the injustice and to defend the weakness. From there… in our Romance the Galanterie founded on the idea of the Love, united with that of force and Protection”. (Montesquieu, Of the spirit of the laws , XXVIII, XXII).

Today usually employed for its connotation of heroism and inflexibility in the roleplays and the médiévalo-fantastic Literature , one finds it declined in various ways according to the universe. Generally, it is a knight drawing his capacities from a Déité (or a capacity Séculier) to which it lent allegiance; it is generally faithful to its word, a model of warrior for the army which it inspires. In search of believer and brilliant deeds and heroic adventures where to express its bravery, its generosity, its Courtesy, the paladin is also regarded as the shield of the ethical and like the arm of the Justice. Its duty is also to support the direction of the balance even sometimes of the Nature.

Do not ask nor does not require except itself, it tries to be a guard of a certain harmony; he keeps the statute of a guard of a spontaneous kindness. In other words, he is defender of a human nature which he considers it able to be worthy and virtuous. It is besides the Dignité which in the center of the concerns paladines like value and like fights: in this direction, the paladin is not so much the expression of a Manichéisme but the symbol of a human quality.

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