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

392 KNIGHT
KNIGHTS
cause in which he has enlisted . It is simply,
as has been said, a point of rank above that of
the Master Mason . It is, therefore, confined
to the high degrees .
Knight Mahadon. (Chevalier Mahadon .)
A degree in the Archives of the Lodge of St .
Louis des Amis Rkunis at Calais .
Knight of Asia, Initiated. See Asia,
Initiated Knights of.
Knight of Athens. (Chevalier d'AthMes .)
1 . The Fifty-second Degree of the Rite
of Mizraim. 2. A degree in the nomenclar
ture of Fustier. 3 . A degree in the Archives
of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite
in France .
Knight of Aurora . (Chevalier de l'Aurore
.) A degree belonging to the Rite of Palestine
. It is a modification of the Kadosh, and
is cited in the collection of Fustier. In the collection
of M . Viany, it is also called Knight of
Palestine .
Knight of Beneficence . (Chevalier de la
Bienfaisance .) The Forty-ninth Degree of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France. It is also called Knight of Perfect
Silence.
Knight of Brightness. (Chevalier de la
Clarte.) The Seventh and last degree of the
system of the Clerks of Strict Observance,
called also Magus .
Knight of Christ . After the dissolution
of the Templars in the fourteenth century,
those knights who resided in Portugal retained
the possessions of the Order in that
country, and perpetuated it under the name of
the Knights of Christ . Their badge is a red
cross pattee, charged with a plain white cross .
(See Christ, Order of.)
Knight of Constantinople. A side degree
; instituted, doubtless, by some lecturer ;
teaching, however, an excellent moral lesson
of humility. Its history has no connection
whatever with Masonry . The degree is not
very extensively diffused ; but several Masons,
especially in the Western States, are in possession
of it . It may be conferred by any
Master Mason on another ; although the
proper performance of the ceremonies requires
the assistance of several. When the
degree is formally conferred, the body is called
a Council, and consists of the following officers
: Illustrious Sovereign, Chief of the Artisans,
Seneschal, Conductor Prefect of the
Palace, and Captain of the Guards.
Knight of Hope . 1 . A species of androgynous
Masonry, formerly practised in France .
The female members were called Dames or
Ladies of Hope . 2 . A synonym of Knight of
the Morning Star, which see.
Knight of Iris . (Chevalier de l'Iris .)
The Fourth Degree of the Hermetic Rite of
Montpellier .
Knight of Jerusalem. (Chevalier deJe,-u
salem .) The Sixty-fifth Degree of the collection
of the Metropolitan Chapter of France .
Knight of Justice. Knights Hospitalers
of St . John of Jerusalem or Knights of Malta
were called, in the technical language of the
Order, Knights of Justice .
Knights of Malta. This Order, which at
various times in the progress of its history received
the names of Knights Hospitalers
Knights of St . John of Jerusalem, Knights of
Rhodes, and, lastly, Knights of Malta, was
one of the most important of the religious and
military orders of knighthood which sprang
into existence during the Crusades which were
instituted for the recovery of the Holy Land .
It owes its origin to the Hospitalers of Jerusalem,
that wholly religious and charitable Order
which was established at Jerusalem, in 1048
by pious merchants of Amalfi for the succor of
poor and distressed Latin pilgrims. (See Hos-
~italers of Jerusalem .) This society, established
when Jerusalem was in possession of the
Mohammedans, passed through many vicissitudes,
but lived to see the Holy cty conquered
by the Christian knights . It then received
many accessions from the Crusaders,
who, laying aside their arms, devoted themselves
to the pious avocation of attending the
sick . It was then that Gerard, the Rector of
the Hospital, induced the brethren to take
upon themselves the vows of poverty, obedience,
and chastity, which they did at the
hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who
clothed them in the habit selected for the
Order, which was a plain, black robe bearing
a white cross of eight points on the left breast .
This was in the year 1099, and some writers
here date the beginning of the Order of
Knights of Malta . But this is an error . It
was not until after the death of Gerard that
the Order assumed that military character
which it ever afterward maintained, or, in
other words, that the peaceful Hospitalers of
Jerusalem became the warlike Knights of St .
John.
In 1118, Gerard, the Rector of the Hospital,
died, and was succeeded by Raymond du Puy,
whom Marulli, the old chronicler of the Order,
in his Vite de' Gran Maestri (Napoli, 1636),
calls "secondo Rettore e primo Maestro ."
The peaceful habits and monastic seclusion
of the Brethren of the Hospital, which had
been fostered by Gerard, no longer suited the
warlike emus of his successor . He therefore
proposed a change in the character of the society,
by which it should become a military
Order, devoted to active labors in the field
and the protection of Palestine from the encroachments
of the infidels. This proposition
was warmly approved by Baldwyn II ., King
of Jerusalem who, harassed by a continual
warfare, glaxly accepted this addition to his
forces . The Order having thus been organized
on a military basis, the members took a
new oath, at the hands of the Patriarch of
Jerusalem, by which they bound themselves
to defend the cause of Christianity against the
infidels in the Holy Land to the last drop of
their blood, but on no account to bear arms
for any other purpose .
This act, done in 1118, is considered as the
beginning of the establishment of the Order
of Knights Hospitalers of St . John, of which
Raymond du Puy is, by all historians, deemed
the first Grand Master .