Religion can promote violence. For instance, in the Aztec region in Mexico religion was used to promote barbaric acts of violence against people captured in wars and slaves. The people of Aztec celebrated a religious feast called ” Tlacaxipeualiztli or the Feast of the Flaying of Men’ in the honor of Xipe Totec- Our Lord the Flayed One”(Carrasco 140). The main ritual in the ceremony was flaying and sacrificing of war captives and slaves. The people would dehumanize the captives and slaves by transforming them into sacrificial images. The transforming would make it easy on the conscience of the people killing innocent victims in cold blood because they were now considered as sacrifices and not human beings. The candidates for the sacrifice would be dressed as teol ixiptla in the image of god Xipe Totec . On the sacrifice day the slaves and the captive warriors would be paraded before the people accompanied by their captors. The captors also adorned ritual gear as a sign of honor. At the climax of the ceremonies the victims would be given new names and required to dance together with the captors. Eventually the victims would be sacrificed in a grisly manner either on the gladiatorial stone or on top of Xipe’s temple. Their hearts would be pulled from their chests and their blood sprinkled into a ceremonial bowl called cuauhxicalli. Then the skins of the victims would be flayed to be adorned by individuals who would go around the city engaging in mock battles as they collected gifts from the people. The Aztec people saw no wrong in committing the acts of violence because they were fulfilling a religious obligation. Cultural ideals also lead to violence in a society. In medieval Europe honor was very important for a human being. According to chivalry literature, people believed that the way to gain honor was by displaying prowess. Those who possessed this quality were highly honored. Honor separated great men from ordinary men because all men were born equal thus the only way to distinguish oneself from the crowd was exhibiting prowess in battle. Those who exhibited prowess and courage, strength would be selected as knights. To this community honor was considered highly than life (Kaeuper 130). The ideology concerning honor was that it could be earned and increased by sword in hand. Thus a knight was more honored if he killed many people in battle “ a knight’s nobility or worth is proved by his hearty strokes in battle” (Kaeupe131). Knights received more honor for their prowess in sword “to be the best knight in the world … means not to be the greatest landlord but to show the greatest prowess” (Kaeupe133). Thus the knights had a license to perpetuate violence in their societies. Knights who had succeeded in battlefields would be willing to kill more to crown their day with more honor as a large number of victims showed just how much prowess a knight possessed. Prowess was synonymous to life and thus it was a core chivalric trait. The trait defined chivalric knights. For example, Lancelot was a great knight because he managed to kill many men through the blows of his swords “he was very skilled in doing all that a great knight must do” (Kaeupe136). He killed up to four knights in a single blow and nearly cut their horses into two. The violence promoted by Lancelot earned him great admiration for