By:  Chris Dalrymple, KTO

"Chivalry is dead."  This lament, often made in the wake of a  social faux pas, usually  indicates that the "good old days" of focusing on social graces is past.  But is "chivalry" dead?  Let us explore.

In the preface to the book Chivalry: Dizain des Reines, by James Branch Cabell, this statement is made: "each age develops its code...which minimize(s) celebration in dilemmas of conduct by postulating an unequivocal cleavage between the current right and the current wrong....it presents an ideal to be lived up to; it gives direction to the uncertain, stray impulses of life.  The Chivalric code is no worse than most... it flourishes best in an age wherein sentiment...[is] easily translatable into action.  Its requirements are less of the intellect than of the heart."

This focus on the heart rather than the head shall become apparent.

Cabell's work points out that chivalry is putting "God, honor, and mistress above all else, and stipulates that a knight shall serve these three without any reservation." 

Lest anyone think that sexism is the focus here, I will take this opportunity to remind us that the word "mistress" is from an Old French word indicating a female teacher--maistresse, a feminine form of maistre "master"-- itself from the Latin magister "chief, head, director, teacher"; it is derived from ancient words indicating "teacher, tutor, master; complete, whole, great, mighty; great, large, overall". 

While one might assume that the word "magic" is associated with "magister", the two are derived from entirely different word sources *-meg in the case of "mistress" and *-magh in the case of "magic (from which, by the way, magician indicates "oriental scientist", according to myEtymology.com).

Cabell's work indicates that in the case of chivalry "It is the opposite of the code of Gallantry, for while the code of Chivalry takes everything with a becoming seriousness, the code of Gallantry takes everything with a wink."

Gallantry, according to the dictionary, is from Old French galant meaning "courteous; spirited, dashing".  It is derived from the word "gala" meaning "make merry".  Since the 14th century it indicated "man of fashion and pleasure", and from the 17th century "politely attentive to women." 

Why the focus on the feminine? Has "gallantry" won the day?   Is "chivalry" dead?  According to Brian R. Price, in his article Isn't Chivalry Dead?! and published in the July 2010 Knight Templar magazine, "Chivalry is an idealization of virtue, a wedding of military excellence with courtesy, a sense of justice, piety, and honor." 

"All of this is brought forward to us from a dark time in history, from days when men fought one another, fought the harsh world that had broken Roman order, fought against the plagues visited upon Europe...." Out of this harsh environment "the idea of chivalry came...like a phoenix; first in the glorification of the warrior virtues that Charlemagne used to unify Europe and dispel the encroachment of foreign religions and cultures." 

It was during this time period that "men saw heroes as bringing them from the darkness, heroes like Charlemagne and Alexander."  Men struggling within their environment found such men to be someone whom they could follow to extract themselves from their woes to improve their environment.  As these hero-leaders developed, so grew the feudal system--a system where the warrior was glorified and rewarded with land, revenue, and responsibility.

The problem was that these warriors were a rowdy bunch.  There was "brawling and fighting amongst themselves as much as fighting for the peasants or their king.  But there was some order, and this order began to reduce the barbarism that had been so much a part of life after the fall of Rome."

The western European societies and the feudal system began to slowly change during the 12th century and the concept of knighthood changed with it. The church sought to moderate and ultimately to attempt a change in the concept of the social warrior.  The word "Church", is derived from kyrios "ruler, lord," from ancient word root meaning "strong, powerful."  This ultimately culminated in the crusades.

Says Price: "The ideal put forward by the church sought to add new virtues to the potent strength of the warrior--that with God and right on one's side, the sword arm itself was strengthened.  The church added piety, justice, defense of the innocent and the weak, honesty, humility, and purity."

Around this same period, Elenaor of Aquitaine and her daughter Marie "created a new cult of adoration surrounding women....the central tenet in this school of thought was that through love, the knight or lover could be strengthened by the love of a woman.  Not completely different from the ideals of religious chivalry, where the knight was strengthened by devotion to God."

Interestingly, the name "Elenaor" is said by Wikipedia to have several potential meanings:  Eleanor of Aquitaine was named after her mother, Aénor de Châtellerault, and called Aliénor, (from Alia-Aénor), which means other-Aénor in Occitan). Therefore the meaning of the name is sometimes given as "The Other."

Aénor is a name whose meaning is not surely known, maybe coming from Latin lenire ("to heal"). It could be connected to the Greek eleos ("compassion") as well.   Wikipedia also points out that "the similar Hebrew name Elior means "God is light". The similar-sounding Arabic Allahu Nuri also means "God is my light"; the modern version is Nurullah (Noorullah) ("light of God").

Regardless of the meaning of Eleanor, "Out of the courtly love movement came tales of romance...[that] provided symbolic life to the ideals of church and court, building new heroes, measuring the knight by a new ideal standard.  The symbols that have grown out of these legends are familiar...King Arthur and the round table, Knights in shining armor, and not least, chivalry."

Price notes that "in these tales of chivalry was the idealization of each age; in each romance and in each treatise on knighthood the authors set down new standards by which the knight was to be judged.  Chivalric virtues were a crystal clear distillation of what it meant to be a fine human being, a person in search of justice and humility."  As the book Chivalry notes "each age develops its code...an ideal to be lived up to; it gives direction to the uncertain, stray impulses of life."

Chivalry also notes that "The Chivalric code....requirements are less of the intellect than of the heart." So chivalry, whose chief components are the exultation of: God; of reflection and consideration; and the master teacher of the virtues, developed powerful symbols.  These symbols are "powerful because of their deep attachment to the most important virtues of man.  Courtesy, respect, generosity, honesty, fidelity, humility, justice, excellence, courage, loyalty, duty...."

These symbols served to remind the chivalrous that central to the "best of humankind" is the exultation of God; of reflection and consideration of all, of self, and of others; and the one who is able to masterfully illustrate and teach these precepts to others.  

The key to chivalry then, developed both by the "compassionate; shining light of God" (Eleanor) and by "the strong, powerful ruler" (Church), is the same, is "love". 

Regardless of how one chooses to perceive "love",  the components of love in all forms is "desire" and desire is from the phrase de sidere "from the stars," from sidus "heavenly body, star, constellation".  Desire is an impulse from the heavens stimulating one to the above mentioned principals of chivalry.

"Today, morality and ethics are rare commodities.  Schools no longer teach morality, religion is able to reach only a few [generally because of a focus on a "strong, powerful ruler" rather than a "loving, shining light of God"], and families are often broken....It is into this vacuum that the symbols of chivalry bring both memories of an idealized past and the promise for a better future," Price notes.

Humans tend to take something as noble as "chivalry" and make it into something as pretentious as the ancient derivation of "gallantry"--a merry making, fashionable, politeness.  It is in this manner that gallantry can mean a false pretense at chivalry; though today they are sometimes taken as synonymous.

But "chivalry" is not dead.  Nor can it die as long as there is God; as long as there is desire to join with God; and as long as there are those who know, understand and are willing to teach chivalric principles to others.  While God is a "strong and powerful ruler", God is also a "shining light of love".  While such a universal blend of extremes exists, chivalry can not be a dead concept.

While the modern era sees such attributes as strength and love as linear "extremes", the oriental mindset sees the circular yin and yang of things precisely as such a blending of extremes.  The strong blending into the weak, the hard into the soft, and many other combination of "extremes."

Chivalry then, cannot die; but humans may become so forgetful of their original desire to join with God that chivalric roles are significantly weakened,  sometimes to the point of pretentious politeness. 

Templars seek chivalry not gallantry.  Bernard himself points this out in several places.  Rule 22, for example (paraphrased) state "Templars should not be concerned with currently pleasing fashion statements...For those who serve the sovereign creator must be born on the inside and the outside as God's representative." 

Templars desire the strength of the warrior and the love as most often best exemplified in woman. Holiness--a word derived from ancient words meaning health, and whole--is the very nature of God. Templars desire WHOLENESS. 

God is one.