like knights of old

"... but would you, like the knights of old, convert love into worship; do you advocate the blind devotion which led to violence and bloodshed?"  

C.  "No: you mistake a concomitant for a cause; the redeeming virtue of those ages was this romantic devotion, but tinctured of course, with prevailing rudeness and crime. Love, always powerful, was ennobled and purified by martial Romance; and thus allied, was successful against barbarism. Worn out by change, Romance is gone; but Poetry, its vital element, is left; and its refined spirit alone can save love from materialism and degradation, and elevate its objects, so that man can bow with respectful devotion."

(Scenes Beyond the Western Border; and Scenes and Adventures in the Army)

"... each mate or headsman, like a Gothic Knight of old, is always accompanied by his boat-steerer or harpooneer,  (Moby-Dick)

OF THE CRUSADERS

When sighting first the towers afar
Which girt the object of the war
And votive march—the Saviour's Tomb,
What made the red-cross knights so shy?
And wherefore did they doff the plume
And baldrick, kneel in dust, and sigh?

Hardly it serves to quote Voltaire
And say they were freebooters—hence,
Incapable of awe or sense
Pathetic; no, for man is heir
To complex moods; and in that age
Belief devout and bandit rage
Frequent were joined; and e'en to-day
At shrines on the Calabrian steep—
Not insincere while feelings sway—
The brigand halts to adore, to weep.
Grant then the worst—is all romance
Which claims that the crusader's glance
Was blurred by tears?

(Clarel 1.4)