teran soldiers in straitened circumstances; besides these there has been admitted into the order in later years an unlimited number of foreign princes chiefly of the petty German states professing the Protestant religion. None are to be admitted as companions who are not of honourable descent, knights, and free from dishonourable stain. In the statutes revised under K. Henry VIII. it is said to have been instituted "for the honour of God and the exaltation of the Catholic faith, joined with piety and charity; in establishing a college of religious men to pray for the prosperity of the Sovereign of the order, and the knights companions, and to perform other holy duties; as also for ordering sustentation for a company of alms knights who have not otherwise wherewith to live."

The officers of the order are the prelate, who is always the bishop of Winchester for the time being; the chancellor, who is the bishop of Salisbury, the diocesan of S. George's chapel, Windsor; the register; garter king at arms; and the usher of the black rod.

The habit consists first of a garter of blue velvet on which is embroidered the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense. The garter was chosen as symbolical of unity and society, and the motto expresses the unblameable integrity that should distinguish the companions. The common story of the first use of this motto, and of the original institution of the order is wholly without foundation. The next part of the habit is a mantle of blue velvet having the shield of S. George, argent a cross gules, embroidered on the breast, surrounded with the garter; a

surcoat and hood of crimson velvet lined with white taffeta, and a cap and feathers. These were all the parts of the original habit; till K. Henry VIII. added to them the collar, composed of twenty-six garters enamelled, with roses and mottoes; united by knots of gold. From this hangs the figure of S. George on horseback in armour subduing the dragon, enamelled and ornamented with jewels.

The annual feast of the order begins on the eve of S. George and lasts for three days'.

The chapel of S. George at Windsor, which is also the chapel of the order, was begun in the reign of K. Edward IV. and was not finished till 1516 under K. Henry VIII. On the same site there was formerly a chapel dedicated in honour of S. Edward the Confessor, in which K. Henry I. placed eight secular priests. K. Edward II. appointed to it thirteen chaplains and four clerks. And in 1352 K. Edward III. made it a collegiate church for a dean, twelve canons, thirteen minor canons and other assistants".

With the name of S. George is associated the memory of all that is glorious in the martial annals of our country, when the war-cry of S. George for England, was the signal of victory on the fields of Crecy and of Agincourt. And in earlier times, when the flower of British knighthood led their armies to the rescue of the holy Sepulchre of the Redeemer, the name of S. George was their unfailing watchword. His cross is emblazoned on our Union-flag at this day, surmounted by that of S. Andrew for

1 Ashmole.

2 Dugdale's Monast. Angl. and Tanner's Notitia Monastica.

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Scotland. And though to allude to deeds of earthly glory may seem foreign to the contemplations which engage us in this book, yet the institution of Christian chivalry here claims our regard for a few moments. The name has been too commonly applied to one period of European history, though even those writers who thus confine it are at a loss to explain its existence before that time, which they do not attempt to disprove. Others do not hesitate to maintain that it never existed at all, except in brilliant fictions. And many who turn with a mournful interest to its imperishable records in the history of the past, are tempted to say, that alas! the age of chivalry is gone. But "in opposition to these opinions," says the author of the Broad Stone of Honour, "I shall endeavour to show that chivalry, in some form or other, is coeval with human society, and that it must continue to exist with it till the end of time; but that under the influence of the Christian religion it is infinitely ennobled, and even assumes many general features wholly new.

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"The error which leads men to doubt of this position consists in their supposing that tournaments and steel panoply and coat arms and aristocratic institutions are essential to chivalry; whereas these are in fact only accidental attendants upon it, subject to the influence of time, which changes all such things, new moulding them into a countless diversity of forms, to suit each race of new-born fancies. In the common acceptation of the word, chivalry, as a learned French writer observes, 'did not create a new system but it only extended and refined an old.' Chivalry is only a name for that general spirit or state of mind

which disposes men to heroic and generous actions, and keeps them conversant with all that is beautiful and sublime in the intellectual and moral world. It will be found that, in the absence of conservative principles, this spirit more generally prevails in youth than in the later periods of men's lives; and as the heroic is always the earliest age in the history of nations, so youth, the first period of human life, may be considered as the heroic or chivalrous age of each separate man; and there are few so unhappy as to have grown up without having experienced its influence, and having derived the advantage of being able to enrich their imaginations, and to soothe their hours of sorrow with its romantic recollections. The Anglo-Saxons distinguished the period between childhood and manhood by the term "cnihthade," knighthood; a term which still continued to indicate the connexion between youth and chivalry, when knights were styled children as in the historic song beginning "Child Rowland to the dark tower came;" an excellent expression, no doubt; for every boy and youth is in his mind and sentiments a knight, and essentially a son of chivalry. Nature is fine in him. Nothing but the circumstance of a most singular and unhappy constitution, and the most perverted and degrading system of education, can ever wholly destroy the action of this general law; therefore as long as there has been, or shall be, a succession of sweet springs in man's intellectual world; as long as there have been, or shall be, young men to grow up to maturity, and until all youthful life shall be dead, and its source withered for ever, so long must there have been, and

must there continue to be, the spirit of noble chivalry1."

Not even among pagan nations was this heroism wanting, as the poems of Homer and other ancient records can testify. But, as the same eloquent writer remarks in another of his works, "S. Augustin in two lines reveals the whole difference between the Christian chivalry and the ancient heroic character, but it is a separation as wide as between heaven and earth; 'for the latter' he says, 'did not love glory on account of justice, but seemed to love justice on account of glory ".""

Those who see the shadow of heavenly things in earthly, and Christ in all, trace the principles of a common nature in the institution of chivalry and the discipline of the spiritual life. The same simplicity of faith and practice, the same temperance and constancy, the same spirit of sacrifice and of sincerity and of the utmost love, and the same reverence and affectionate devotion are the very life of the one and of the other. And the same significant emblems, as the fierce giants, and dragons, and enchanted castles, under which the ancient chroniclers pictured the dangers that beset the path of the knight, may fitly represent the perils which lie in the way of the spiritual champion. In the Cross of their Lord both find their safety, and the sign and security of final victory. And thus by things of this world, and which even at first seemed as if they would lead us into strange and

1 Broad Stone of Honour, 1829; Godefridus, p. 89.

2 Mores Catholici, b. vi. c. 9.