The Five Institutions of the Middle Ages Mind your manners! Yes, my lord. To civilize is to Christianize! I work and I pay, I pray and I pay, I die and I pay. God wills it! Rich and poor alike in the Middle Ages were controlled by five specific institutions: the code of chivalry, the feudal system, Charlemagne, the manorial system and the Catholic Church. To encounter them was inevitable, to avoid them: impossible! Firstly, the code of chivalry was a code of behaviour for the upper class embodying all the qualities and characteristics of the ideal or perfect knight. He should be bold and b