Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


Dancing was at all times forbidden by the Catholic Church on account of
its tendency to corrupt the morals, and for centuries ecclesiastical
authority was strenuously opposed to it; but, on the other hand, it could
not complain of want of encouragement from the civil power. When King
Childebert, in 554, forbade all dances in his domains, he was only induced
to do so by the influence of the bishops. We have but little information
respecting the dances of this period, and it would be impossible
accurately to determine as to the justice of their being forbidden. They
were certainly no longer those war-dances which the Franks had brought
with them, and which antiquarians have mentioned under the name of
_Pyrrhichienne_ dances. In any case, war-dances reappeared at the
commencement of chivalry; for, when a new knight was elected, all the
knights in full armour performed evolutions, either on foot or on
horseback, to the sound of military music, and the populace danced round
them. It has been said that this was the origin of court ballets, and La
Colombiere, in his "Theatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie," relates that this
ancient dance of the knights was kept up by the Spaniards, who called it
the _Moresque_.

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