s lord, giving the same respect, blind
             obedience, and slavish devotion to the lady. As noted, this relationship
             was always conducted from a distance, making this a pure sort of love,
             though Chaucer sees that it is also a love based on adherence to pleasure
             and to the inner power the devotee feels in the presence of his beloved.
             The idea of courtly love is found in a good deal of the literature of the
             era in different forms, from the Arthurian romances that gave people an
             idea of a courtly world to love poems written by the smitten to the objects
             of their love. One such was Dante, who wrote poems to Beatrice, whom he
             The tradition developed between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries
             as the place of love in marriage became an issue unlike it had been before
             For the Church taught that love should be a rational state
             drawing the soul to God; but the tradition of courtly love
             inculcated heretical notions of surrerendering oneself to
             passion under an elaborate code of frustrations and enticemen
             ...