Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chiyaley,
, k perilous duties of the soldier , was eminently consonant with the spirit of the age ; and the youthful chivalry of Europe emulated each other in anxiety to be enrolled under the white-cross banner . The Knights , in renouncing the pomp , power , and pleasures of the world , and taking upon themselves the monastic vows of celibacy , purity , and obedience , did not cease to remain soldiers .
Besides the influence of the Church , another powerful aid was brought to bear to augment the ranks of the Knightly Order . The interest taken by the fair sex in the cause of chivalry , was exhibited in the gage ¦ $ amour , which was bestowed hy a lady upon her favoured knight ; the colours and badge bearing some device of the dame ' s choosing . These marks of favour were of various kinds—as a scarf ,
a ribbon , or a glove ; and we have in Howel's . " ' Familiar Letters " an instance of the disposal of the ladies' favours by the French soldiers who fell in the attack by the English upon the Isle of "Rhe , in 1627 , which shows to how late a period the practice of giving favours had continued .
In a short time the-influx of knights from every country of Christendom into the Order of St . John , suggested a division , by way of distinction , ; into seven languages : Provence , Auvergne , France , Italy , Arragon , Germany ^ and England . To . ¦ Arragon was subsequently added the language of Castillo and Portugal . In the year 1259 it was found necessary to introduce an aristocratical
distinction , in point of dress , between the Knights and the serving brothers . The Knights were authorized to wear in the convent , a black mantle ; and in the camp , a sopra vest or coat of arms , with a white cross on a red field . The proofs required of aristocratic parentage varied with the countries . The Italian did not require
to go further back than two generations ; while candidates from the commercial states of Genoa , Lucca , and Florence might aspire to the Grand Cross though they could not boast of a single quartering , —wealth , it would appear , counterbalancing birth . The Spaniard and Portuguese were placed on a par with the Italian ; while the German had to show eight generations of gentility . The government
was strictly aristocratic ; the Master was president of the council , and as such had a casting vote . The veteran Knights , who , when the Order waxed potent over the whole of Christendom , were entrusted with the charge of the European commanderies , held their authority entirely at the council ' s pleasure—being regarded merely as stewards of the fraternity , from wdiom a strict and conscientious
report of their intromissions with the public revenue was periodically expected , Under Baldwin du Bourg , the third king of Jerusalem , Du Puis and his Knights gathered their first laurels , in 1119 ; and in 1222 preserved Edessa , then in imminent peril . At this period the increase of candidates for admission into the Order was so great that
the Order of the Temple , with a spirit of fraternal rivalry , was instituted . Another charitable and religious society became military about
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chiyaley,
, k perilous duties of the soldier , was eminently consonant with the spirit of the age ; and the youthful chivalry of Europe emulated each other in anxiety to be enrolled under the white-cross banner . The Knights , in renouncing the pomp , power , and pleasures of the world , and taking upon themselves the monastic vows of celibacy , purity , and obedience , did not cease to remain soldiers .
Besides the influence of the Church , another powerful aid was brought to bear to augment the ranks of the Knightly Order . The interest taken by the fair sex in the cause of chivalry , was exhibited in the gage ¦ $ amour , which was bestowed hy a lady upon her favoured knight ; the colours and badge bearing some device of the dame ' s choosing . These marks of favour were of various kinds—as a scarf ,
a ribbon , or a glove ; and we have in Howel's . " ' Familiar Letters " an instance of the disposal of the ladies' favours by the French soldiers who fell in the attack by the English upon the Isle of "Rhe , in 1627 , which shows to how late a period the practice of giving favours had continued .
In a short time the-influx of knights from every country of Christendom into the Order of St . John , suggested a division , by way of distinction , ; into seven languages : Provence , Auvergne , France , Italy , Arragon , Germany ^ and England . To . ¦ Arragon was subsequently added the language of Castillo and Portugal . In the year 1259 it was found necessary to introduce an aristocratical
distinction , in point of dress , between the Knights and the serving brothers . The Knights were authorized to wear in the convent , a black mantle ; and in the camp , a sopra vest or coat of arms , with a white cross on a red field . The proofs required of aristocratic parentage varied with the countries . The Italian did not require
to go further back than two generations ; while candidates from the commercial states of Genoa , Lucca , and Florence might aspire to the Grand Cross though they could not boast of a single quartering , —wealth , it would appear , counterbalancing birth . The Spaniard and Portuguese were placed on a par with the Italian ; while the German had to show eight generations of gentility . The government
was strictly aristocratic ; the Master was president of the council , and as such had a casting vote . The veteran Knights , who , when the Order waxed potent over the whole of Christendom , were entrusted with the charge of the European commanderies , held their authority entirely at the council ' s pleasure—being regarded merely as stewards of the fraternity , from wdiom a strict and conscientious
report of their intromissions with the public revenue was periodically expected , Under Baldwin du Bourg , the third king of Jerusalem , Du Puis and his Knights gathered their first laurels , in 1119 ; and in 1222 preserved Edessa , then in imminent peril . At this period the increase of candidates for admission into the Order was so great that
the Order of the Temple , with a spirit of fraternal rivalry , was instituted . Another charitable and religious society became military about