Another way the people of medieval times liked to idealize is in their elevation of a romantic love to a spiritual one. It seems that in most cases and stories you hear about, you always hear the lovers, and the people in their lives make references to God as being the reason things happen in their lives. This is also shown in the story of Tristan and Iseult. In the beginning of the story the two couldn't stand each other, but upon drinking a certain love potion fell so deeply in love that nothing could keep them apart for as long as they lived. Now it is the truth that the main reasons these two can't stay away from each other is because of the strength of the potion they both drank; but you also hear them make reference to God a lot. You hear of them being afraid of him punishing them or not punishing them because of the choices they make for the love of each other. An example of this would be when Brangien says: "Iseult, God has worked a miracle for you, for he is compassionate and will not hurt the innocent in heart"(Romance 66). She says this after Tristan and Iseult met in their usual place in the tall pine trees, and they were able to see King Mark before they spoke and accidentally let him know the truth about them. Other good examples of their love being spiritually guided by God is when the narrator of the story says things like "May God protect the lovers!"(Romance 63) when he is telling of troublesome times for them. Comments like these just go to show that either the writers of these stories or people in the real scenarios back then had a reason to believe that their love was more important than a romance. That it was left up to a higher power, God, to decide what would happen between them.
Another example of the elevation of love to a spiritual level is also in the Inferno, when Virgil is telling the story of how word comes down that Dante should be saved. He tells about when Beatrice, who is now a saint in heaven, says, "love called me here" (Dante 61).
