Identifier: gri_33125008050011 (find matches)
Title: Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Jacob, P. L., 1806-1884
Subjects: Middle Ages Civilization, Medieval Civilization, Renaissance Costume Military art and science Christian life
Publisher: London : Bickers & Son
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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gird to his side, suspended fromhis neck—received from the hands of some noble or of some noble lady hisspurs, his helmet, his cuirass, his gauntlets, and his sword. The ceremonywas completed by the colee; that is to say, the investing knight, beforepresenting him with the sword, struck him across the shoulder with its flatside, and then gave him the accolade as a sign of brotherly adoption. Hisshield, his lance, and his charger, were then brought to the new-madeknight, and he was thenceforward at liberty to commence the career ofglory, of devotion, and of combat, to which for so many years he hadaspired. The Christian symbolism, which had accompanied the first steps of thenovice, followed and surrounded him in some way or other during the whole x 15+ CHIVALRY. of his knightly career. Indeed, it took part in his punishment and degra-dation if he broke his plighted faith or if he forfeited his honour. Exposedon a scaffold in nothing but his shirt, he was stripped of his armour, which
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Fig. 124. -Degradation of a Knight. -Fragment of a woodcut attributed to Jost Amman, bearing the date 1565 and the monogram A.J. (Collection of M. Guénebault of Paris).
was broken to pieces before his eyes and thrown at his feet, while his spurswere thrown upon a dunghill. His shield was fastened to the croup of a cart-horse and dragged through the dust, and his chargers tail was cut off. A CHIVALRY. 155 herald-at-arms asked thrice, Who is there? Three times an answer wasgiven naming the knight about to be degraded, and three times the heraldrejoined, No, it is not so ; I see no knight here, I see only a coward who hasbeen false to his plighted faith. Carried thence to the church on a litterlike a dead body, the culprit was forced to listen while the burial service wasread over him, for he had lost his honour, and was now only looked uponas a corpse (Fig. 124). Although the Church was the protectress of chivalry, and even investedit with an almost sacred dignity, she always refused to extend her protectionto tournaments, tilts, and assaults of arms, brilliant, but often dangerousmanifestations of the chivalric spirit, and particularly to judicial due

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