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

390 KNIGHTHOOD
KNIGHT
knighthood is the blow given with the hand
upon the neck or shoulder ." But he admits
that there has been a controversy among
writers whether the blow was heretofore given
with a sword or by the bare hand upon the
neck (p. 73) .
The mystical signification which Caseneuve
gives in his Etymologies (voc . Accollee) is ingenious
and appropriate, namely, that the
blow was given on the neck to remind him who
received it that he ought never, by flight from
battle, to give an enemy the opportunity of
striking him on the same place .
But there was another blow, which was
given in the earliest times of chivalry, and
which has by some writers been confounded
with the accolade, which at length came to
be substituted for it . This was the blow on
the cheek, or, in common language the box
on the ear, which was given to a knight at
his investiture . This blow is never called
the accolade by the old writers, but generally
the alapa, rarely the gautada. Du Cange
says that this blow was sometimes given on
the neck, and that then it was called the
colaphus, or by the French colic, from col,
the neck . Duchesne says the blow was always
given with the hand, and not with the
sword .
Ashmole says : "It was in the time of
Charles the Great the way of knighting by
the colaphum, or blow on the ear, used in sign
of sustaining future hardships, . . . a custom
long after retained in Germany and France.
Thus William, Earl of Holland, who was to be
knighted before he could be emperor, at his
being elected king of the Romans, received
knighthood by the box of the ear, etc ., from
John, king of Bohemia, A. D . 1247."
Both the word alapa and the ceremony
which it indicated were derived from the form
of manumission among the Romans, where
the slave on being freed received a blow called
alapa on the cheek, characterized by Claudian
as "felix injuria," a happy injury, to remind
him that it was the last blow he was compelled
to submit to : for thenceforth he was to be
a freeman, capable of vindicating his honor
from insult. The alapa, in conferring knighthood,
was employed with a similar symbolism .
Thus in an old register of 1260, which gives an
account of the knighting of Hildebrand by the
Lord Ridolfonis, we find this passage, which
I give in the original, for the sake of the one
word gautata, which is unusual : "Postea
Ridolfonus de more dedit illi gautatam et
dixit illi. Tu es miles nobilis milithe equestris,
et hint gautata est in recordationem, illius
qui to armavit militem, et hcec gautata debet
esse ultima injuria, quam patienter acceperis."
That is : "Afterwards Ridolfonus gave him in
the customary way the blow, and said to him :
Thou art a noble Knight of the Equestrian
Order of Chivalry, and this blow is given in
memory of him who bath armed thee as a
knight, and it must be the last injury which
thou shalt patiently endure ." The first reason
assigned for the blow refers to an old custom
of cuffing the witnesses to a transaction, to
impress it on their memory . Thus, by the
riparian law, when there was a sale of land,
some twelve witnesses were collected to see
the transfer of property and the payment of
the price, and each received a box on the ear,
that he might thus the better remember the
occurrence . So the knight received the blow
to make him remember the time of his receiving
his knighthood and the person who conferred
it .
For the commission of crime, more especially
for disloyalty to his sovereign, a knight
might be degraded from the Order ; and this
act of degradation was accompanied with
many ceremonies, the chief of which was the
hacking off his spurs. This was to be done
for greater infamy, not by a knight, but by the
master cook . Thus Stow says that, at the
making of Knights of the Bath, the king's
master cook stood at the door of the chapel,
and said to each knight as he entered, "Sir
Knight, look that you be true and loyal to the
king my master, or else I must hew these
spurs from your heels ." His shield too was reversed,
and the heralds had certain marks
called abatements, which they placed on it to
indicate his dishonor.
M . de St. Palaye concludes his learned and
exhaustive Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie
with this truthful tribute to that spirit of
chivalry in which ancient knighthood found
its birth, and with it I may appropriately
close this article :
"It is certain that chivalry, in its earliest
period, tended to promote order and good
morals ; and although it was in some respects
imperfect, yet it produced the most accomplished
models of public valor and of those
pacific and gentle virtues that are the ornaments
of domestic life ; and it is worthy of
consideration, that in an age of darkness,
most rude and unpolished, such examples
were to be found as the results of an institution
founded solely for the public welfare, as
in the most enlightened times have never been
surpassed and very seldom equalled ."
Knight . 1 . An order of chivalry . (See
Knighthood and Knight Masonic .)
2 . The Eleventh and last degree of the
Order of African Architects .
Knight, Black. See Black Brothers.
Knight Commander. (Chevalier Commandeur.)
1 . The Ninth Degree of the Rite of
Elect Cohens . 2 . A distinction conferred by
the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction
of the United States on deserving Honorary
Thirty-thirds and Sublime Princes of
the Royal Secret . It is conferred by a vote of
the Supreme Council, and is unattended with
any other ceremony than the presentation of a
decoration and a patent .
Knight Commander of the Temple.
See Sovereign Commander of the Temple .
Knight Commander of the White and
Black Eagle. (Chevalier Commandeur de
l'Aigle blanc et noir .) Tha Eightieth Degree of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France .