Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/775

 CHIVALRY

691

CHIVALRY

known bishop was Florentius, present in 465 at the

Roman synod under Pope Hilary. Bishop Fran-

degil Atti (1348) was a famous canonist, and

in the odour of sanctity. Chiusi formerly

I of a famous relic, the betrothal ring of the

Blessed Virgin, which was taken to Perugia about

I 149 bj an Augustinian friar; in consequence of this

broke out between them, in which Perugia was victorious and remained in possession of the ring. Chiusi was at first immediately subject to the Holy but was made a suffragan of Siena by Pius II. In 1 77:: Clement XIV added to it the Diocese of Picnza. Among the famous abbeys of the diocese was that of UnmiatO, which was built by Rachis, King (,| thi' Lombards, and afterwards rose to great power ainl influence. The diocese has a population of 26,300, with 50 parishes. 12.5 churches and chapels, 9] secular an 1 50 regular priests, 4 religious houses for men and 7 for women.

Cappi- i-i.itti. /.' ckiese it'Italia (Venice, 1844), XVII; Ann. ecc! 100-02.

I T. Benignt.

Chivalry (derived through the French cheval from the Latin caballns) as an institution is to be con-

d from three points of view: the military, the social, and the religious.

itary. — In the military sense, chivalry was x 1 1 ■ ■ heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages which consti- tuted the chief and most effective warlike force. The knight or chevalier was the professional soldier of tin time; in medieval Latin, the ordinary word • w :i - equivalent to "knight". This pre-eminence of cavalry was correlative with the decline of infantry On file battle-field. Four pecu- liarities distinguished the professional warrior: (1) his weapons; (2) horse; (3) attendants; (4) flag. ! 1 | Tin' medieval army was poorly equipped for long- distance fighting, and bows and cross-bows were still employed, although the Church endeavoured to pro- hibit their use, at least between Christian armies as contrary to humanity. Ai ill events, they were re-

i as unfair in combat by the medieval knight.

I I is only offensive weapons were the lance for the encounter and the sword for the close fight, weapons common t" both light-armed and heavy cavalry.

characteristic distinction of the latter, which really constituted chivalry, lay in their defensive weapons, which varied with different periods. These weapons were always costly to get and heavy to ■./.Mir hauberk of the < tarlovingian Era, the coat of mail, winch prevailed during the

les, and lastly tie' plate-armour, introduced in ourteenth century. (2) No knight was thought to l.e properly equipped without at least three horses, viz. the battle horse, or dexterarius, which was led by hand, and used only for tie- onset (hence the saying, "to mount one's high horse" I, a second horse, palfrey

i er, for ill" route, and the pack-horse for the knight required several attend- ants: one to conduct the horses, another to bear the heaviest weapons, particularly tie- shield or escutch- eon 1 r. i n »</' r, esquire); still another to aid his master to mount his battle

or to raise him if dismounted; a fourth to guard i' fly those of quality, for whom a

high ransom was expected. These attendants, who win 'ion, were not to he confounded

with the armed retainers, who formed the escort of a knight. From the thirteenth century the squires al-o went armed and mounted and. passing from one

■rrade to the other, were raised finally to knighthood. mners were also a distinctive mark of chivalry. They were attached to. and carried on, the lance. There was a shop distinction between the pennon, a Hat: pointed or forked at the extremity, used by a single chevalier or bachelor as a personal ensign, and

the banner, square in form, used a- the ensign of a

band, and reserved to the baron or baronet in com- mand of a group of at least ten knights, called a con- stabulary. Each flag or banner was emblazoned with the arms of its owner, to distinguish one from another on the battle-field. These armorial bearings afterwards became hereditary and gave birth to the complicated science of heraldry.

Social. — The career of a knight was costly, re- quiring personal means in keeping with the station; for a knight had to defray his own expenses in an age when the sovereign had neither treasury nor war budget at his disposal. When land was the only kind of riches, each lord paramount who wished to raise an army divided his domain into military fiefs, the tenant being held to military service at his own per- sonal expense for a fixed number of days (forty in France and in England during the Norman period). These fees, like other feudal grants, became heredi- tary, and thus developed a noble class, for whom the knightly profession was the only career. Knight- hood, however, was not hereditary, though only the sons of a knight were eligible to its ranks. In boy- hood they were sent to the court of some noble, where they were trained in the use of horses and w-eapons, and were taught lessons of courtesy. From the thir- teenth century, the candidates, after they had at- tained the rank of squire, were allowed to take pari in battles; but it was only when they had come of age, commonly twenty-one years, that they were admitted to the rank of knight by means of a peculiar ceremonial called "dubbing ". Every knight was qualified to confer knighthood, provided the aspirant fulfilled the requisite conditions of birth, age, and training. Where the condition of birth was lacking in the aspirant, the sovereign alone could create a knight, as a part of his royal prerogative.

Religious. — In the ceremonial of conferring knight- hood the Church shared, through the blessing of the sword, and by the virtue of this blessing chivalry assumed a religious character. In early Christianity, although Tertullian's teaching that Christianity and the profession of arms were incompatible was con- demned as heretical, the military career was regarded with little favour. In chivalry, religion and the profession of arms were reconciled. This change in attitude on the part of the Church dates, accordingto some, from the Crusades, when Christian armies were for the first time devoted to a -acred purpose. Even prior to the Crusades, however, an anticipation of this attitude is found in the custom called the " Truce of God" (q. v.). It was then that the clergy seized upon the opportunity offered by these truces to exact from the rough warriors of feudal times a religious vow to use their weapons chiefly for the protection of the weak and defenceless, especially women and orphans, and of churches. Chivalry, in the new- sense, rested on a vow; it was this vow which digni- fied the soldier, elevated him in his own esteem, and raised him almost to the level of the monk in medieval society. As if in return for this vow, the Church or- dained a special blessing for the knight in the cere- mony called in the "Pontificale Romanum", "Bene- dictio novi militis". At first very simple in its form, this ritual gradually developed into an elaborate ceremony. Before the blessing of the sword altar, many preliminaries were required of i pirant. such as confession, a vigil of prayer, fasting,

a symbolical bath, and investiture with a win-

for' the purpose of impressing on the candidate the

purity r.f soul with which he was to enter up

a noble career. Kneeling, in the presence of the clergy, lie pronounced the solemn vow of chivalry,

at the same time often renewing the baptismal vow; the one chosen as godfather then struck him lightly

on the neck with a sword (the dubbing) m the name of i lod and St. George, the patron of chivalry.

History. — There are four distinct periods in the