Keen dedicates much of the credit to the effective teaching of the priesthood as well as the close relationship between the nobility and the monasteries.
[1] However, the Catholic Church traditionally had an uneasy relationship with secular warriors dating back to the time of the Roman Empire.
During the later period of the Empire, theologian Augustine of Hippo wrote of a Just War in the City of God.
Here, the Church officially sanctioned lay knights fighting for the Faith when Urban said that any who fought would be absolved of their sins rather than tarnish their soul for killing.
However, as the time of increasing church involvement was the formative period of the Chivalric Codes, it helped add another dynamic to the Ritterfrömmigkeit.
Marcus Bull said, "One of the most important features of the piety of eleventh-century arms-bearers was that it was associative, passive to the extent that it was inspired and sustained by the spiritual resources of a monastic or clerical élite.
Knights demonstrated this by not only fighting for God, but many times they would give trophies of war to a major church or monastery as sign of support.
Keen said, "The richness of the Cluniac ritual and of monastic vestments and ceremony clearly had a powerful impact on the imagination of secular nobles.
[8] In fact, it was common for a man to join a religious community he had supported in order to end his career as a way of retirement.
While the details of the literature cannot be taken at face value, the appearance of Christianity in these works marks the importance piety to the warriors of the time.
In Lohengrin, Christian prophesy and miracles are spread throughout the work which takes place during the Crusades.
The eight knightly virtues drawn from the code of Chivalry are devotions, courtly manners, fellowship, piety, fairness, service, bravery and justice.