The first of these three virtues included, as paramount, fidelity to engagements, and these engagements were the feudal obligation to supe riors and keeping of every promise, besides fidelity to one's lady love. Any breach of en gagement was looked upon and condemned with such epithets as: °False, perjured, disloyal, recreant?' It forbade the savage instinct to treachery. The knight who perpetrated an of fense against this virtue was considered unfit to bear the title of knight. The virtue of courtesy was the display of °modesty, self denial and respect for others?) and included chivalric treatment of prisioners. Under the term munificence was intended the behest of liberality and hospitality to the visitor, freedom in the use of coin to recompense the traveling minstrel, largesse to the poor, and financial aid to relatives in need. Besides the qualification of valor in the knight a fixed purpose of en forcing justice and redress of wrongs was strongly inculcated. In return fgr his vows of renunciation of vices the knight received numerous privileges. These were the right to wear distinctive and resplendent armor-crested helm, heavy armor displaying his heraldic bear ings, spurs of gold, etc. His horse was gay in its bards (see BARDS) and gaudy In his castle or palace he was permitted the dignity of wearing scarlet robes. Certain civil offices were filled by members of the order. He had the power (to be used not lightly) of conferring knighthood on others (if gentle men). There were class distinctions of knighthood such as knights bannerets and bachelors. The former belonged to those hav ing large estates and able to summon a certain number of lances for battle. A squire carried his master's sign of distinction in the form of a banner on the end of a lance. The knight bachelor was permitted only a pointed pennant.
But the above high moral plane of action in the knight's life code, though acting as an in centive to good work and restraint from evil, did not prevent abuse of power from entering the valorous rank. The very elevation of rank
entailed a sense of degradation of those be neath. It was but human that this breach ex tended and cases increased in which the popu lace received disdainful treatment while some members became more and more haughty. Such irregularities or abuses tended to bring the Orders into disfavor. The rapacity of the Knights Templars impaired the fair name of chivalry and brought with it retribution. But the cause of the decline and fall of the institution of chivalry's knighthood is placed by some authorities as brought about by the French kings Charles VI and Charles VII be stowing the order of knighthood profusely, and the act of Francis I conferring knight hood on lawyers and other classes of civilians. The efficiency of gunpowder in rendering armor useless, however, is generally accepted as the chief cause of the extinction of the order of knighthood. (See CHIVALRY). And the 16th and 17th centuries saw the displace ment of knights by gentlemen and cavaliers. By the 16th century we find the honor of knighthood conferred by the sovereign as a civil more than military honor, as reward for services to state or ruler. And with more peaceful times have arisen numerous' orders or fraternities in the social and commercial world utilizing the title, such as the Knights of Columbus, Knights of Labor, etc.
The term knight is applied to a certain piece in the game of chess which is identified by a horse's head; the term has been vulgarly applied in commerce to the traveling sales man as ((knight of the grip." Gautier, Leon Emile Theo dore, Chevalerie' (Paris 1890); Hallam, Henry, of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages' (London 1901); James, George Payne Rainsford, (The History of Chivalry' (New York 1835) ; Weber, Karl Ju lius, Ritterwesen und die Templer, Johan niter und Marianer' (Stuttgart 1835).