Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

KNIGHTHOOD
KNIGHTHOOD 385
equestrian character .
that the German kings and chiefs were attended
in war and peace by a select body of
faithful servants, and although the Anglo-
Saxon kings and thanes had their military attendants,
who served them with a personal
fealty, the knight, in the modern acceptation
of the word, did not appear until the establishment
in France of the order of chivalry .
Thence knighthood rapidly passed into the
other countries of Christendom ; for it always
was a Christian institution .
The st ages through which a candidate
passed until his full investiture with the rank
Although Tacitus says' altogether an idle spectator of the contest . In
the shock of battle, the two lines of knights,
with their lances in rest, fell impetuously on
each other ; some, who were thrown from their
horses, drew their swords or battle-axes to defend
themselves and to make new attacks,
while advantage was sought by their enemies
over those who had been thrown . During all
this time, the Squire was attentive to every
motion of his master . In the one case, to give
him new arms, or to supply him with another
horse ; to raise him up when he fell, and to
of knighthood were three : the Page, the
Squire or Esquire, and the Knight .
1 . The Page . The child who was destined
to knighthood continued until he was seven
years old in the charge of women, who gave
him that care which his tender age required .
He was then taken from them and placed in
the hands of a governor, who prepared him by
a robust and manly education for the labors
and dangers of war. He was afterward put
into the household of some noble, where he
first assumed the title of a Page . His employments
were to perform the service of a domestic
about the person of his master and mistress
; to attend them in the chase, on their
journeys, their visits, and their walks ; to
carry their messages, or even to wait on them
at table. The first lessons given to him were
in the love of God and attachment to and
respect for females . His religious education
was not neglected, and he was taught a veneration
for all sacred things . His instructions
in respect to manners, conversation, and virtuous
habits were all intended to prepare him
for his future condition as a knight .
2 . The Squire . The youth, on emerging
from the employment of a Page, took on him
that of Squire, called in French ecuyer . This
promotion was not unaccompanied by an appropriate
ceremony . The Page who was to
be made a Squire was presented to the altar
by his father and mother, or by those who represented
them, each holding a lighted taper in
his hand . The officiating priest took from the
altar a sword and belt, on which he bestowed
several benedictions, and then placed them on
the youth, who from that time constantly
wore them . The Squires were divided into
various classes, each of whose employment
was different. To some, as to the chamberlains,
was committed the care of the gold and
silver of the household ; others, as the constable,
had the charge of the table utensils ;
others were carvers, and others butlers . But
the most honorable and the only one connected
immediately with chivalry was the
squire of Honor or the Body Squire . He was
immediately attached to some knight, whose
standard he carried . He helped to dress and
undress him, and attended him morning and
evening in his apartment . On a march, he
led the war-horse of his master and carried his
sword, his helmet, and his shield . In the
hour of battle, the Squire, although he did not
actually take a part in the combat, was not
ward off the strokes aimed at him ; while in
the other case, he seconded the knight by every
means that his skill, his valor, and his zeal
could suggest, always, however, within the
strict bounds of the defensive, for the Squire
was not permitted by the laws of chivalry to
engage in offensive combat with a knight .
3 . The Knight. These services merited
and generall y received from the knight the
most grateful acknowledgment, and in time
the high honor of the badge of knighthood bestowed
by his own hand, for every knight
possessed the prerogative of making other
knights .
The age of twenty-one was that in which
the youthful Squire, after so many proofs of
zeal, fidelity, and valor, might be admitted to
the honor of knighthood . The rule as to age
was not, however, always observed . Sometimes
the Squire was not knighted until he
was further advanced in years, and in the case
of princes the time was often anticipated .
There are instances of infants, the sons of
kings, receiving the dignity of knighthood .
The creation of a knight was accompanied
by solemn ceremonies, which some writers
have been pleased to compare to those of the
Church in the administration of its sacraments,
and there was, if not a close resemblance,
a manifest allusion in the one to the
other . The white habit and the bath of the
knight corresponded to the form of baptism ;
the stroke on the neck and the embrace given
to the new knight were compared to the ceremony
of confirmation ; and as the godfather
made a present to the child whom he held at
the font, so the lord who conferred knighthood
was expected to make a gift or grant some
peculiar favor to the knight whom he had
dubbed .
The preliminary ceremonies which prepared
the neophyte for the sword of chivalry were
as follows : austere fasts ; whole nights passed
in prayers in a church or chapel ; the sacraments
of confession, penance, and the eucharist
; bathings, which prefigured purity of
manners and life ; a white habit as a symbol
of the same purity, and in imitation of the
custom with new converts on their admission
into the Church, and a serious attention to
sermons, were all duties of preparation to be
devoutly performed by the Squire previous
to his being armed with the weapons and decorated
with the honors of knighthood .
An old French chronicler thus succinctly
details the ceremony of creation and investiture.
The neophyte bathes ; after which,