Ramon Llull

from The Book of the Order of Chivalry

When charity, loyalty, truth, justice, and verity failed in the world, then cruelty, injury, disloyalty and falseness arose. Therefore there was error and trouble in the world in which God had created man with the intention that He be known, loved, feared, served, and honored by man. When the world had fallen into wickedness, it was through fear that justice first returned to the honor which had been customary. And therefore the people were divided into groups of one thousand. And from each thousand was chosen one man who more than all the others was most loyal, most noble in courage, best instructed, and best mannered.

After that they sought for the most fitting animal--the most handsome, most courageous, strongest to bear up in travail, and best able to serve this man. And they found that the horse was the most noble and most fitting to serve him. And because men chose the horse above all the other beasts and gave him to the man chosen among a thousand, that man is named after the horse, which is called cheval in French, a chevalier, which in English is a knight. Thus to the most noble man was given the most noble beast. After this it was most proper that there should be chosen such arms as be most noble, and most fitting for battle and to protect this man from death. And these arms were assigned and given to the kngiht.

Whoever wishes to enter into the order of chivalry, therefore, must remember the noble origin of chivalry. It is incumbent upon him that the nobility of his heart and his good behavior accord with the origin of chivalry. If he did not do so, he would behave contrary to his order and its origins. Therefore it is not proper for the order of chivalry to grant honors to its enemies, or to them who act contrary to its origins. And therefore the knight should be loved and feared by the people because of his noble heart, and his noble behavior and bounty, and the great and high honor granted him by his election, and because of his horse and his arms. Through love he should restore charity and learning, and through fear he should restore verity and justice.

Insofar as a man has more reason and understanding and has a stronger nature than a woman's, to that degree is he better than a woman. For if he were not more powerful and differently endowed to be better than the woman, it would follow that the bounty and strength of nature were not given to provide for a bontiful heart and good works. But just as a man by his nature is created so as to have a noble heart and to be better than the woman, so he has a greater capacity for vice than a woman has. If this were not so, he would not be worthy of his greater capacity to be good...

So high and noble is the order of chivalry that it is not enough that knights be chosen as the most noble persons, nor that they should be given the best and most noble beast and the best and most noble arms. It is fitting and necessary that he be made lord over many men.For in lordship is as much nobility as in servitude there is subjection. So if you enter the order of knighthood, adn are a vile and wicked man, you will do great injury to all your subjects and to all your peers who are good. Because of your baseness and wickedness you should be put under a serf or bondman. And considering the nobility of knights who are good, you will be unworthy to be called a knight.

Neither election, nor horse, nor armor, nor authority yet suffice for the high honor which is proper for a knight, but he should also be given a squire and a servant who can care for his horse. And it is also proper that the common people work the land to bring forth fruits and goods to sustain the knight and his beasts, and tha tthe knight rest and dwell in keeping with his nobility, and that he exercise upon his horse either by hunting or in other ways that may please him, and that he find ease and delight in things which his men provide wiht labor and pain.

Clerks study doctrine and knowledge to learn how to know God and love Him in order to teach the lay and bestial people by good examples how to know, love, serve, and honor God, our glorious Lord. And so that they may do these things in a proper manner, they attend the schools. Then just as clerks, by their honest life, by good example, and by learning, have achieved their status and office to direct the people to devotion and a good life, so likewise knights, by their noble hearts and by force of arms, maintain the order of chivalry, and hold this order so that the common people may be deterred, by fear, from doing wrong to one another.

....So high and so honored is the order of chivalry that it is not enough that he care for horses, and learn to serve a knight, and go with him to tourneys and battles, but it is necessary that a school of the order of knighthood be held for him, and that the science be written in books, and that hte art be demonstrated and read in the way other arts are read. The sons of knights should learn first the science that pertains to the order of chivalry, and after they become squires they should ride through divers countries with the knights.