Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/296

 252 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE A ceremony of initiation was necessary to admit one to the ranks of knighthood, just as the young warrior had to be admitted to the German tribe in the days of Tacitus. The prospective knight was supposed to perform some deed of arms to prove his worth, and then could be dubbed a knight by some one already of that station. Kneeling he received the accolade, originally a hard blow on the neck with the flat of a sword which he would remember for a long time. Sooner or later a religious element entered the ceremony in a vigil observed over his arms in a church the previous night and in the hearing of mass before being knighted. Sometimes bishops conferred knighthood. Before becoming a knight one was an esquire or squire, a condition in which some remained permanently, not so much through failure to win military renown as be- cause of the expense of being a knight. Knights were often accompanied in war by men-at-arms, who were heavy- armed foot-soldiers and who were usually of lower birth and less wealth. The regular course of feudal education and path to knighthood was for the aspirant at an early age to serve as a page at some feudal court, and there to learn good manners, how to ride and hunt and hawk, and to fight with spear, sword, and battle-axe, and to distinguish different knights and noble houses by the colors and devices on their shields and coats of arms — the science of heraldry. Next he would attend some knight in the field of war as his squire, and finally be knighted himself. If the feudal noble was at home alone with his family and peasants, hunting would probably be his main diversion Feudal and it also served to supply his larder. If other position*' knights were present, they would amuse them- of woman selves and keep in training by tilting or riding at each other with spears. Such mock fighting might take the form either of jousts, which were single combats, or of tour- naments, where two sides were formed or the knights par- ticipated in a general melee. Nobles were on the go from one of their estates to another much of the time. The ladies played chess and games of chance with dice, and devoted