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

KNIGHTHOOD
KNIGHTHOOD 389
which time the Templars and similar orders
sprang into existence .
Ragon, in his Cours Philosophique, attempts
to draw a parallel between the institution of
knighthood and that of Freemasonry, such as
that there were three degrees in one as there
are in the other, and that there was a close
resemblance in the ceremonies of initiation
into both orders . He thus intimates for them
a common origin ; but these parallels should
rather be considered simply as coincidences .
The theory first advanced by the Chevalier
Ramsay and adopted by Hund and the disciples
of the Rite of Strict Observance, that
all Freemasons are Templars, and that Freemasonry
is a lineal successor of ancient knighthood,
is now rejected as wholly untenable and
unsupported by any authentic history . The
only connection between knighthood and
Freemasonry is that which was instituted
after the martyrdom of James de Molay, when
the Knights Templar sought concealment and
security in the bosom of the Masonic Fraternity.
When one was made a knight, he was said
to be dubbed . This is a word in constant use
in the Medieval manuscripts . In the old
Patavian statutes, "Miles adobatus," a
dubbed knight, is defined to be "one who, by
the usual ceremonies, acuires the dignity
and profession of chivalry." The Provengal
writers constantly employ the term to dub,
"adouber," and designate a knight who has
one through the ceremony of investiture as
F`un chevalier adoube," a dubbed knight.
Thus, in the Romaunt d'Auberi, the Lady
d'Auberi says to the king :
"Sire, dit elle, par Dieu de Paradis
Soit adouber mes fibres auberis ."
That is, "Sire, for the love of the God of
Paradise, let my brothers be dubbed."
The meaning of the word then is plain : to
dub, is to make or create a knight . But its
derivation is not so easily settled amid the
conflicting views of writers on the subject .
The derivation by Menage from duplex is
not worth consideration . Henschell's, from a
Provengal word adobare, "toe quip," although
better, is scarcely tenable . The derivation
from the Anglo-Saxon dubban, "to strike or
give a blow," would be reasonable, were it not
presumable that the Anglo-Saxons borrowed
their word from the French and from the usages
of chivalry . It is more likely that dubban
came from adouber, than that adouber
came from dubban . The Anglo-Saxons took
their forms and technicalities of chivalry from
the French . After all, the derivation proposed
by Du Cange is the most plausible and
the one most generally adopted, because it is
supported by the best authorities . He says
that it is derived from the Latin adoptare, to
adopt, "quod qui aliquem armis instruit ac
Mihtem facit, eum quodammodo adoptat in
filium," i . e ., "He who equips any one with
arms, and makes him a knight, adopts him, as
it were, as a son ." To dub one as a knight is,
then, to adopt him into the order of chivalry .
The idea was evidently taken from the Roman
law of adoptatio, or adoption, where, as in conferring
knighthood, a blow on the cheek was
given .
The word accolade is another term of chivalry
about which there is much misunderstanding.
It is now supposed to mean the
blow of the sword, given by the knight conferring
the dignity, on the neck or shoulder of
him who received it . But this is most probably
an error . The word is derived, says Brewer
(Dict . Phr . and Fab .) from the Latin ad collum,
"around the necI " and signifies the embrace
"given by the Orand Master when he
receives a neophyte or new convert ." It was
an early custom to confer an embrace and the
kiss of peace upon the newly made knight
which ceremony, Ashmole thinks, was called
the accolade . Thus, in his History of the Order
of the Garter (p . 15), he says : "The first Christian
kings, at giving the belt, kissed the new
knight on the left cheek, saying : In the honor
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, I
make you a knight . It was called the osculum
pads, the kiss of favor or of brotherhood
[more correctly the kiss of peace], and is presumed
to be the accolade or ceremony of embracing,
which Charles the Great used when
he knighted his son Louis the DE;bonnair."
In the book of Johan de Vignay, which was
written in the fourteenth century, this kiss of
peace is mentioned together with the accolade :
"Et le Seigneur leur doit dormer une collie en
signe de proeste et de hardement, et que it
leur souveigne de celui noble homme qui la
fait chevalier . Et done lee doit le Seigneur
baisier en la bouche en signe de paix et
d'amour" ; i . e ., "And the lord ought to give
him [the newly-made knight] an accolade as a
symbol of readiness and boldness, and in memory
of the nobleman who has made him a
knight ; and then the lord ought to kiss him
on the mouth as a sign of peace and love ."
In an old manuscript in the Cottonian Library,
entitled "The manner of makynge
Knyghtes after the custome of Engelande,"
copy of which is inserted in Anstis's
=Y torical Essay on the Knighthood of the His-
Bath
(Append., p . 99), is this account of the embrace
and kiss, accompanied with a blow on
the neck : "Thanne shall the Squyere lift up
his armes on high, and the Kynge shall put
his armes about the nekke of the Squyer, and
lyftynge up his right hande he shall smyte the
Squyer in the nekke, seyeng thus : Be ye a
good Knyhte ; kissing him ." Anstis himself is
quite confused in his description of the ceremonial,
and enumerates "the blow upon the
neck, the accolade, with the embracing and
kiss of peace," as if they were distinct and separate
ceremonies ; but in another part of his
book he calls the accolade "the laying hands
upon the shoulders ." I am inclined to believe,
after much research, that both the blow on
the neck and the embrace constituted properly
the accolade . This blow was sometimes
given with the hand, but sometimes with the
sword . Anstis says that "the action which
fully and finally impresses the character of