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

I
386 KNIGHTHOOD
KNIGHTHOOD
clothed in white apparel, he is to watch all
night in the church, and remain there in
prayer until after the celebration of high mass .
The communion being then received, the
youth solemnly raises his joined hands and his
eyes to heaven, when the priest who had administered
the sacrament passes the sword
over the neck of the youth and blesses it .
The candidate then kneels at the feet of the
lord or knight who is to arm him. The lord
asks him with what intent he desires to enter
into that sacred Order, and if his views tend
only to the maintenance and honor of religion
and of knighthood . The lord, having received
from the candidate a satisfactory reply
to these questions, administers the oath of
reception, and gives him three strokes on the
neck with the flat side of the sword, which he
then girds upon him . This scene passes sometimes
in a hall or in the court of a palace, or, in
time of war, in the open field .
The girding on of the sword was accompanied
with these or similar words : "In the
name of God, of St . Michael, and of St . George
I make thee a knight : be brave, be hardy, and
be loyal." And then the kneeling candidate
is struck upon the shoulder or back of the
neck by him who confers the digruty, with
the flat of the sword, and directed to rise in
words like these : "Arise, Sir Damian " ; a
formula still followed by the sovereigns of
England when they confer the honor of
knighthood . And hence the word "Sir,"
which is equivalent to the old French "Sire,"
is accounted, says Ashmole, "parcel of their
style ."
Sir William Segar, in his treatise on Civil
and Military Honor, gives the following account
of the ceremonies used in England in the
sixth century :
"A stage was erected in some cathedral, or
spacious place near it, to which the gentleman
was conducted to receive the honor of knighthood
. Being seated on a chair decorated
with green silk, it was demanded of him if he
were of a good constitution, and able to undergo
the fatigue required in a soldier ; also
whether he were a man of good morals, and
what credible witnesses he could produce to
affirm the same .
"Then the Bishop or Chief Prelate of the
Church administered the following oath :
`Sir, you that desire to receive the honor of
knighthood, swear before God and this holy book
that you will not fight against his Majesty, that
now bestoweth the order of knighthood upon you .
You shall also swear to maintain and defend
all Ladies, Gentlemen, Widows and Orphans ;
and you shall shun no adventure of your person
in any war wherein you shall happen to be .'
"Te oath being taken, two Lords led him
to the King, who drew his sword, and laid it
upon his head, saying, God and St . George (or
what other saint the King pleased to name,)
inviolable .
make thee a good knight ; after which seven
Ladies dressed in white came and girt a sword
to his side and four knights put on his spurs .
"These ceremonies being over the Queen
took him by the right hand, and a Duchess
by the left, and leading him to a rich seat
placed him on an ascent where they seated
m, the King sitting on Lis right hand, and
the Queen on his left .
"Then the Lords and Ladies also sat down
upon other seats, three descents under the
King ; and being all thus seated, they were entertained
with a delicate collation ; and so the
ceremony ended ."
The manner of arming a newly made knight
was first to put on the spurs, then the coat of
mail, the cuirass, the brasset or casque, and
the gauntlets. The lord or knight conferring
the honor then girded on the sword, which
last was considered as the most honorable
badge of chivalry, and a symbol of the labor
that the knight was in future to encounter .
It was in fact deemed the real and essential
part of the ceremony, and that which actually
constituted the knight . Du Cange, in his
Glossarium, defines the Latin word militare,
in its medieval sense, as signifying "to make a
knight," which was, he says, "balteo militari
accingere," i . e., to gird on him the knightly
belt; and it is worthy of remark, that cingulus,
which in ure Latin signifies a belt, came in
the later Latin of Justinian to denote the military
profession . I need not refer to the common
expression, "a belted knight," as indicating
the close connection between knighthood and
the girding of the belt . It was indeed the
belt and sword that made the knight .
The oath taken by the knight at his reception
devoted him to the defense of religion and
the Church, and to the protection of widows,
orphans, and all of either sex who were powerless,
unhappy, or suffering under injustice
and oppression ; and to shrink from the performance
of these duties whenever called
upon, even at the sacrifice of his life, was to
incur dishonor for the rest of his days .
Of all the laws of chivalry, none was maintained
with more rigor than that which secured
respect for the female sex . "If an honest
and virtuous lady," says Brantome, "will
maintain her firmness and constancy, her
servant that is to say, the knight who had
devoted himself to her service, must not even
spare his life to protect and defend her, if she
runs the least risk either of her fortune, or her
honor or of any censorious word, for we are
bound by the laws of Chivalry to be the champions
of women's afflictions ."
Nor did any human law insist with so much
force as that of chivalry upon the necessity of
an inviolable attachment to truth . Adherence
to his word was esteemed the most honorable
part of a knight's character. Hence to
give the lie was considered the most mortal
and irreparable affront, to be expiated only by
blood .
An oath or solemn promise given in the
name of a knight was of all oaths the most
Knights taken in battle engaged
to come of their own accord to prison whenever
it was required by their captors, and on
their word of honor they were readily allowed
liberty for the time for which they asked it ;
for no one ever doubted that they would ful-