Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/771

CHIVALRY. 673 CHIVILCOY. some knight. There lie obtained his education, and when old enough might become a squire. The duty of the squire was to attend the knight in battle or in tournament, to care for his horse and weapons, and to act as his aid. In time, the squire might be made a knight. The distinc- tion could be conferred in the earlier period by any knight; at a subsequent period, the mon- archs claimed the sole right to confer knighthood. The age when the squire became a knight varied; there are cases where the honor was conferred on boys of ten or eleven, but later it was usual to defer it until the age of twenty-one or later. In fact, some squires never became knights, in order to avoid the expense of the ceremony. In France, in the Thirteenth CeTitury, a royal order punished with a fine noble squires who had not become knights by the time that they were twenty-four years old. The ceremony of admission into knighthood, known as 'dubbing,' usually took place on a festival, although" squires were often made knights on the battlefield, in recognition of deeds of bravery. Occasionally before a battle took place the dignity was conferred upon a consider- able number. The essential parts of the dub- bing in the early Twelfth Century were the collee. or accolade, a blow upon the neck or shoulder, and the running the quintaine — i.e. tilting on horseback against a figure stuffed with straw. Later there was a symbolical and mystical development, which made the process of initiation mainly a religious ceremony. Ac- cording to one ritual of the Fifteenth Century, the following were the details of the ceremony: After bathing, as a symbol of )urity, the candi- date 'watched' his arms for a whole night before the altar of some church or the grave of some saint, and in the morning he confessed, often aloud, attended communion and mass, and lis- tened to a sermon on the duties of purity, fidel- ity, honesty, the protection of the Church, wid- ows, orphans, ladies, and all who were op- pressed. A priest then blessed his sword and other pieces of armor; a knight made him take oath to fulfill all his duties: then the accolade, which consisted of three strokes with the sword, was given solemnly, and the following sentence uttered: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I make you knight." The knight who had given the accolade embraced the new knight, and girded him with his sword; the god- fathers put on him the golden spurs, the symbol of knighthood: and the lords and ladies pres- ent assisted in. clothing him with the other pieces of armor. Lastly, he mounted on horseback and ran 'la quintaine.' At the end of the Twelfth Century and later, chivalry was profoundly inlluenced by the popu- lar romances of Arthur, Charlemagne, and other famous heroes. Planners became less brutal, and a spirit of knight-errantry grew up. It be- came the fashion to be rash, imprudent, and extravagant in conduct. The Orlando of Ari- osto and Don Quixote have made the follies of declining chivalrj' familiar to all. Chivalry was at its best in the Twelfth Century, in the Fourteenth was declining rapidly, and in the Fifteenth was thoroughly decadent. Kniglit and squire gradually became mere titles of honor ■which might be hereditary. Consult: Gautier, La chevalerie (Paris, 1884) ; id., English trans- lation by Firth (London, 1890) ; Sir Walter Scott, Essay on Chivalry (London, 1868) ; and Stebbing, History of Chivalry and the Crusades (London, 1830). See Feudalism; Knight; Orders. CHIVALRY, Court of, or Marshal's Court. An aiK-iinl military court of great dignity, which was formerly held by the Lord High Constable of England and the Earl Marshal. It had juris- diction over civil matters affecting: the naval e>tablishments abroad, and of all military mat- ters and infractions of the martial law both within and without the kingdom. The extension of the jurisdiction of the common-law courts and the transfer of the jurisdiction over purely mili- tary olfen.ses to modern courts-martial, instituted by Parliamentary authority, has reduced the court of chivalry to a purelj' honorary position at the English Court. During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries it played the rolo of a court of honor (see Hekalu's Coi.uctiE), butat the present time it has no legitimate function but that of "redressing encroachments and usur- pations in matters of heraldry and coat-armor." If in fact it should exercise this autliority. the Earl Marshal alone would act as jiidge of the court, the office of Lord High Constable having fallen into abeyance. Consult the commentaries of Blackstone and Stephen. Chivalry, Tenure in. The characteristic form of land tenure under the feudal system, the vassal, as tenant in chivalry, holding his land of his feudal lord on condition of military ser- vice. See the articles Feudalism: Knight; Te.nure. CHrVASSO, k6-vas's6. A city in north Italy, on the left bank of the Po, 18 miles northeast of Turin ( Map : Italy, B 2 ) . It markets grain and cattle. It was the residence of the dukes of Montferrat, and a stronghold until the fortifica- tions were destroyed by the French in 1804. The suli)hur baths of San Genesio, two miles south of the town, are frequented from !May to December. Population, in 1881 (commune), 9930; in 1901, 9913. CHIVE, or CIVE (from Lat. cepa, onion) (Allium schrciioiirasum) . A plant of the same genus with the leek and onion ( see Allium ) , a perennial, one-half to one foot in height, with very small, flat, clustered bulbs, increasing by its bulbs so as to form a sort of tuft. The leaves are tubular, cylindrical-tapering, radical, nearly as long as the almost leafless flowering stem, which Is terminated by a hemispherical, many- flowered umbel of biuish-rcd or flesh-colored flowers. The plant grows wild on the banks of rivers, and in marshy or occasionally flooded places in the middle latitudes of Europe and Asia, and on the northern borders of the United States. Chives are commonly cultivated in kitchen gardens, often as an edging for plots, and are used for flavoring soups and stews. Their properties are very similar to those of the onion. The part used is the young leaves, which Iwar repeated cuttings during the season. CHIVERY, .John. The son of a Marshalsea (urukoy in Dickens's Little Dorrit. CHIVILCOY, che'vfl-ko'«. A town in the Province of Buenos Ayrcs, Argentina, situated in a populous district west of Buenos Ayres (Map: .Argentina, F 10). The inhabitants, among whom are many Italians and Basques,