The Good
Fantasy/Ideal
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Knights
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So that it might be better understood why the order of chivalry was created and established, it is good to review [the ritual of ordination].
You ought to know that when it is desired to create a new knight, it is customary right at the first that eh be confessed and repentant of all his sins, and that he prepare himself to receive the body of Our Lord. And then, on the eve of the day on which he is to become a knight, he should get into a bath and remain there for a long while, thinking that he ought to wash and cleanse henceforth his body of all filth of sin and immoral living, and ought to leave all such filth within that water. Then, all clean of conscience, he should leave the water of that bath and should go lie down in a completely new bed, with clean, white linen sheets, and there he should rest like those who have emerged from the great anguish of sin and from the great peril of the devils' torment. This bed signifies the tranquility of goodness, of conscience, of reconciliation between himself and Our Lord with respect to everything by which he may have angered Him in times past.
Then the knights should come to the bed to dress him, and they should dress him in new linens and everything necessary --all new--signifying that just as the body should be cleansed of all filth of sin, so he is reclothed in white, new, and clean linen as a sign that henceforth he should keep himself pure and without sin. Then the knights should dress him in a red tunic, signifying that he is obliged to shed his blood to defend and uphold the faith of Our Lord and the rights of the Holy Church, and al the other duties described above that a knight is obliged to perform. And then the knights should bring him black shoes, and put them on him as a sign that he should remember that from earth he has come, and to earth he must return, because of the death which eh must expect, whose hour he knows not; and because of this he should put all pride beneath his feet. And then the knights should bring him a belt, all white, and gird him with it, and put it around him as a sign that his body should be completely enclosed in chastity and fleshly purity. Then the knight should bring him a red mantle, and place it on his shoulders as a sign of very great humility, because mantles this made were in ancient times made in true humility.
Then the knights should lead him with great joy into the church, and he should remain in the church and keep vigil all night until morning, in very great devotion, praying to Our Lord that He be willing to pardon him from the vain slumbers and wakings in which he has engaged in times past, and that He should help him keep vigil in His grace and in His service henceforth.
The next morning the knights lead him to mass to hear the service very devoutly, praying Our Lord that He give him grace to enter and to fulfill this order in His service. And when the mass has been sung and said, then the knights lead him to that one or to those knights who are to bestow on him the order. Then the knight who bestows the order gives him two golden spurs to two knights, one to each, and those two knights put the spurs on his feet, as a sign that, as gold is the most coveted of metal there is, it is placed on his feet because he removes from his heart all evil desire for possession.
Then that knight who is to bestow on him the order of chivalry takes up a sword, because the sword cuts in two parts. So he should guard and uphold and maintain right, reason, and justice everywhere without contradicting for anything the Christian faith and the rights of Holy Church. And then the knights who bestow the order on him should kiss him as a sign of confirming the order that they bestow and which he receives, so that peace and love and loyalty be in him, and that me may obtain them and keep them wherever he can. And then those knights should give him the colee, as a sign that he should forevermore remember the order of chivalry that he has received, and perform the deeds, which pertain to that order.
These things should be performed in this way. And they are indeed happy who conduct and maintain themselves just as their station requires. And as for anyone who would do the contrary, it would be better had he never been made a knight.
Peter Speed, ed. Those Who Fought. New York: Italica Press, 1996.
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The Bad
Realistic/Criticism
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