The medieval conception of knighthood remains controversial because the word knight still has romantic connotations for us and, more important, because medieval writers and scribes employed miles and its vernacular equivalents in various, often contradictory ways. The relationship between literary works and social reality is far from clear. The problem is further complicated in Germany by the existence of the ministerials and the role that knighthood is alleged to have played in their ennoblement. One solution is situational analyses of the (...) use of the word miles in specific regions, that is, examinations of who was called a miles by whom, when, and in what context in particular areas, in this case the archdiocese of Salzburg. (shrink)