with little hazard Corona Obsidialis which was made of grass for him that had preserved an Army besiged Corona Civica for him that saved a Citizen from the Enemy made of Oaken boughs Corona Olivaris of Olive leavs for victory in the Olympick games And Corona Populea for young men that were found industrious and studious in the exercises of vertues But I find that amongst these rewards of honor the Crown made of Ivy called Corona Hederalis was only appropriated to the Poets and here we see the great encouragement given to Vertue which was an age doubtlesse when it was much exercised in all its species When vertuous moderation received an estimation in the minds of young Nobility before 〈◊〉 voluptuousnesse And Honor more aimed at by steps of Vertue than the engrossing parsimoniousnesse or expending profusenesse of the 〈◊〉 and unsatisfying uncertainty of riches 〈◊〉 doubtlesse a most Noble Age. And why should any man make himself so 〈◊〉 concern'd in the true honor of his creation as to set himself so little before the irrational 〈◊〉 as the Examples of ou idle and 〈◊〉 Age do too often demonstrate whilest all men naturally are ambitious of honor And why should not any man blush to be seen reaching at it that is only the recompence of vertue till by some virtuous testimony he hath declared his desert Certain I am no generous and noble spirit ever breathed in any age that did not present some opportunities of exercising virtue in one degree or other and the reward in some measure is ever a concomitant to Heroick and Ingenious merit Or should it in some case fail the truly generous soul though it misse its reward yet it thinks it honor to have deserved Honor and satisfies it self with that encouragement Thus I have given a succinct account of all manner of Bearings Some will here expect that I should now lay down rules to discover the worth of the Atchiever by the nature of the Atchivement as Guillim and others have 〈◊〉 It may be conjectured how far a Coat-Armor is more or lesse honorable by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of worth in the thing born but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 farther from thence to a 〈◊〉 of the quality of the merit for which that 〈◊〉 was a reward is altogether uncertain Therefore for conclusion I shal instance one Escutcheon of Examples more which I think though not difficult to blazon not easily reducible to any such judgement yet the Families well known of noble and 〈◊〉 Descent The first is Sab. a Crosse engrailed Or in the dexter Cant on a mullet Arg. an Inescutcheon of Ulstre the addition of a Knight Baronet being the Coat-Armor of Sir Tho. Peyton of Knolton in East-Kent Knight and 〈◊〉 The second is Ermin on a chief Azure three Lyoncels Rampant Or. The atchivement of Sir Anthony Aucher of Little-bourn in East-Kent The third is barry of twelve Or and Sable by Sir James and Sir Thomas Thynne of Long leak in Wiltshire The fourth is Arg. on a Cheveron Sab. three Escollop-shels Or between three peelets charged with as many Martlets of the first all within a border Vert by Anthony Hammon of St. Albons in East-Kent Esq The fifth is Arg. on a bend Az. three 〈◊〉 heads cabossed Or. On an Escutcheon of pretence Arg. a Cheveron Sab. betwixt three Ravens by Thomas Stanley of Cumberlow in Hertfordshire Esq the paternal coat his right by descent with the distinstion of the third house of the Earls of Derby the Escutcheon of pretence as by match with the daughter and heir of Sir James Enyon of Flower in Northamptonshire Where observe that although a man marry the daughter and heir of a Coat-Armor yet he hath not the power of quartering it but only to empale it or bear it thus in an 〈◊〉 of pretence the liberty of quartering being in the heir who enjoyes both their Coats by right of blood Observe also that if any thing be thus hid by an addition either Canton or Escutcheon of pretence it is notwithstanding to be nominated That no detriment be to the Coat The sixth is Gules three barbed arrows Arg. headed Or by Edward Hales of Tunstal in Kent Esq The seventh is Arg. a Cheveron between three Milrines Sab. by Roger James of Rigale in Surrey Esquire The eighth within a bordure bezanty Sab. Arg. an Imperial Eagle by the Family of the Killigrews in Cornwall The ninth Arg. a fesse Ermines between six Mullets Sab. by Steven Penckhurst of Buxsted in Sussex Esquire And now I hope I have not passed by any one thing that can be called pertinent to this discourse without some touch perhaps satisfactory enough to any indifferent contemplation The End of Armory The Orders of Knighthood in most places of Christendome and in particular first of the Order of St. George in England The Creation Robe of a Knight of y e Garter AS to Knighthood in generall enough hath been already discoursed in the first part of this Treatise I come now to speak of the severall Otders and especially those that are called Soveraign amongst which I must needs esteem that of the Garter or St. George in England to be as Noble as any in the World not from that epidemick humor of most Writers because it is of my own Nation but for the excellency of it self especially in that according to the Articles of its foundation none are to be admitted to the Honor but such as are Peers of the Realm For the first occasion of the erecting these Soveraign Orders of Knighthood above the more common was that as all Honors were instituted for the reward and encouragement of deserving persons so these for persons of more eminence or more excellent merit to receive a character that might in a higher nature than ordinary blazon their merit to the world And that Order or fraternity must needs be esteemed of greatest honor where the King shall submit himselfe to the badge of it This Order of the Garter we find to be instituted by Edward the third after a return from the Warrs against the French and Scots with eminent victories The occasion Sir William Segar says was but slight alluding as I conceive to the story of the King 's taking up the Countesse of Salisburies Garter Which he wearing on his own leg caused a jealousie in the Queen And from thence received the motto life Hony soit qui mal y pens Evill to him that evill imagines But I am of opinion that this humor arose from the French stories only who would be apt enough to endeavour an abatement of the honor of it lest its glory should appear too illustrious in the eye of the World and out-shine or eclipse their then blazing Star And that we may a little examine the truth let us observe the ridiculousnesse of the coherence of these merry scandalizers First they differ in their time as shall appear anon then concerning the Lady they take notice of to make up the pretty Romance the mistake is
Serving-men who had their Lands with this condition that they should serve their Lords on Horseback and so by cuting off a piece of the name as our delight is to speak short this name of Knight remained with us But whence it came that our Country-men should in penning the Laws and all Writings since the Norman Conquest 's time term those Knights in Latin Milites that is Souldiers was transferred unto those that conversing near about the Princes person bare any of the great Offices in the Prince's Court or Train But with us I conceive those were first so called who held any Lands or Inheritances in Fee by this Tenure To serve in the War for those Lands were tearmed Knights Fees and those that elsewhere they named Feuditary that is Tenants in Fee were hete called Milites that is Knights as for example Milites Regis Milites Archiepiscopi Cantuar. Milites Comitis Rogerii Comitis Hugonis c. for that they received those Lands or Mannors of them with this condition to serve them in the Wars and to yield them fealty and homage whereas others who served for pay were simply called Solidarii from whence the word Soldier and Servientes This Title comming to be a reward or degree of Honor is thought to be in imitation of the Equestris Order in Rome to which men were onely advanced for extraordinary virtue and notable merit who onely were admitted to beautifie the Caparizons of their Horses their Armor with Gold from whence they were called Equites aurati In which time all sorts of men were distinguished in their degrees by some garb or habit as some by their clothes some by cutting their hair c. The Roman Knights also were allowed to wear a Chain of Gold and therefore called Torquati from Manlius Torquatus who wore the first obtained by him in a victory in France which is by us yet imitated in the collar of S S. by which it is easily collected that the true institution of it was a reward of Honor and Valour not Sloath and Riches And therefore all men thus ennobled ought either to be deserving by action before or by endeavour and good service after and to be else esteemed unlawfull possessors of that Honor at what rate soever purchased The first account of Ceremonies that we have at the creating a Knight is in the example of King Alfred Knighting his grandson Athelstan and after the continuance of them it seems grew more precise and customary by Feasts giving of Robes Arms Spurs and sometimes Horse and Arms untill our later times produced the new yet usuall Ceremony of a stroak over the shoulder with a Sword with these words Sois Chivaler au nom de Dieu by the King or some by his Commission though the Spur hath lately been observed also Another manner of Creation there hath been also among the Saxons before the Conquest which was by sacred Ceremonies shew'd by one Ingulphus that lived in the time of the Conquest by a solemn Confession a Vigil in the Church receiving of the Sacrament after an offering of the Sword on the Altar and redemption of it then the Bishop Abbot or Priest putting it on him made him a Knight with many prayers called Benedictiones Ensis To this Order or degree of Honor an Infant may be admitted though he be a Ward and then till a late Act of Parliament ordained otherwise his Wardship was free both of person and estate but now their lands are not And there were feudall Laws for and at the making the eldest son of a Lord a Knight as there was also for the marrying of the eldest daughter as in the Charter of King John which was mony raised on the Tenant But any man in the order of Priesthood is debarred the Honor of Knighthood of the Sword Cùm eorum militia sit 〈◊〉 mundum carnem diabolum So Sir John Fern. Though I find that antiently they have been allowed it but not without first laying aside their Spirituall Cures and applying themselves to a Secular life So Matthew Paris Dei natalis Johannem de Gatesden Clericum multis ditatum 〈◊〉 sed omnibus ante expectatum resignatis quia sic oportuit Baltheo cinxit militari And then the persons that gave this Honor were sometimes subjects without any superior authority granted to them as well as Soveraignes though long since it hath been an appropriated priviledge of the Crown Landfrank Archbishop of Canterbury made William the second a Knight in his Fathers life-time But the name of Bacheler added to it seems not to have been till the 33 of 〈◊〉 the third Sir John Fern also tells of Ensignes that anciently were marks of Knighthood as a Ring on the thumb a Chain of Gold and gilt Spurrs All which tokens of his Honor he was as carefully to preserve as a Captain his Banner which according to the rules of Arms then if he once lost basely in the field he was 〈◊〉 of flying any more again till he had regained the same or another from the Enemy To which end it was carefully to be provided that such men as were endowed with this Honor should have these Accomplishments He ought to be faithfull and religious just in his engagements valiant in his enterprises obedient to his Superiors expert in Military affairs watchfull and temperate charitable to the poor free from debauchery not a boaster with his tongue ready to help and defend Ladies especially Widows and Orphans and he ought to be ever in a readinesse with Horse and Arms and to attend the command of his Soveraign in all Wars both Civill and Forrain the neglect where of is a crime as great as to fight against him and merits at the least a shamefull degrading And formerly when the King hath been to make a Knight he sate gloriously in his State arrayed in cloth of Gold of the most precious and costly bodkin-work and crowned with his Crown of Gold and to every Knight he allowed or gave a hundred shillings for his Harnessements c. And Knights in this manner dubbed made this esteem thereof that in it consisted the guerdon of their Virtue and Valour the praise of their House and Family the memoriall of their Stock and Linage and lastly the glory of their Name There are many priviledges belonging to that Dignity and Mr. Selden speaks of a Law that a man was to be punished with the losse of a hand that should strike a Knight yet he sayes he remembers no example of the practise of it which I think is the greater honor to the Dignity as being a shame that any such Law should be the guard of a man so honored with Arms and appropriated to the Sword Against a Knight in the War runneth no prescription The Office of a Coroner in former times being honorable none were capable of it but a Knight By antient Custom none were admitted to the House of
summoning of the Commons was in the 49. year of Henry the third The style of the Statutes running after this manner The King hath Ordained and Established these Acts underwritten c. First The King willeth and commandeth that c. Signifying the power of enacting to force and penalty was derived from the Volumus of the King not the Vote of the Lords and Commons their consent only making it of more vigour against themselves If it were an Act of Indulgence or relief to the Common-wealth it run thus Our Lord the King of his speciall Grace and for the affection that he bears unto his Prelates Earls and Barons and others of his Realm hath granted that c. And sometimes Our Soveraign Lord the King hath granted and commanded at the Instance of the Nobles of this Realm c. No mention at all being made of the consent of the Lords and Commons Then afterwards thus they run Our Lord the King by the Counsel of his Prelats Earls Barons other great men Nobles of his Kingdom in his Parliament hath Ordained 〈◊〉 c. An. 33. Edward the first 1307. and so along in other Statutes the Commons not at all mentioned in the enacting any Statute but as thus in the beginning of Edward the third At the request of the Commons of this Realm by their Petition made before him and his Councel in the Parliament by the assent of the Prelates Earls and Barons c. Untill the 23. of this Kings reign in a Statute of Labourers I find the Commons not mentioned and then the power of Ordination given to the Statute still by the King as thus It is ordered by our Lord the King by the assent of the Prelates Farls Barons and other great men and all the Commons of the Realm summoned to this Parliament c. And in one Act of the same King the style runs thus The King of his own will without motion of the Great men or Commons hath granted and Ordained in ease of his people c. And then to signifie the Constitution of the Commons in Parliament See the 37. of Edward the third where the Statute runs thus The King at his Parliament c. at the request of the Commons and by the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls and Barons and other Great men there assembled hath Ordained c. and at the prayer of the Commons c. In which style most of the Statutes run untill Henry the eight And for provision of the choyce of the Commons in a Statute of the 23. of Hen. 6. is set down the form of Writ by which they are summoned where it is also enacted That the Knights of the Shires for Parliament hereafter to be chosen shall be naturall Knights or otherwise such naturall Esquires or Gentlemen of the same County as shall be 〈◊〉 to be Knights And every Knight that is elected ought to be a resident of the place for which he is elected and every man that is an Elector ought to have forty shillings of free-hold within the said County and for the security of it the Sheriffe hath power to put them to an Oath upon the Evangelist and the Election ought to be betwixt the hours of eight and nine in the Forenoon and so of Burgesses The form of the Writ is this Rex Vic' c. Salutem Quia nostri 〈◊〉 pro quibusdam arduis ur gentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernent ' quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Westm. 12. die Novemb. proxim ' futur ' teneri Ordinavimus ibidem 〈◊〉 Magnatibus Proceribus domus regni nostri colloquium habere tractare Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod facta Proclamatione in proximo tuo post receptionem hujus literis nostris tenend ' die loco predicto duos milites gladiis cinctis magis idoneos discret ' Com' praedict ' c. electionem illam in distincte apertè sigillo tuo sub sigillis eorum qui electioni illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bis in Cancellaria nostra locum certisices 〈◊〉 And still before they came up to the House they signed Indentures to be true and faithfull to their King and Country and the service thereof upon a penalty even to the last long Parliament of eternall infamy And in the third of Queen Elizabeth it was enacted in full Parliament for the safety of the Queen's Majesty her Heirs and Successors and the dignity of the Imperiall Crown of England for the avoiding both of such hurts perills dishonor and inconveniencies as have before time befallen that not only all persons should take the Oath of Supremacy upon divers penalties in that Act specified But also every Knight Citizen and Burgesse of the Parliament should take the said Oath before he entred into the said House or had any voyce there else he should be deemed no Knight Citizen or Burgesse for that Parliament nor have any voyce but shall be to all intents constructions and purposes as if he had never been Returned nor Elected for that Parliament and shall suffer all pains and penalties as if he had presumed to sit in the same without Election Return or Authority And by King James the Oath of Allegiance was added Yet notwithstanding all this limitation upon the Commonalty Parliaments in England were ever esteemed since Magna Charta the greatest liberty of the Subject none else indeed being dreamt of And as it is as great a flower of the Crown to summon Parliaments as foedera bellum indicere to make War and Leagues which is so absolute that it is resolved by all the Judges of the Land that the King may before he is Crowned if by descent the Crown be his right summon a Parliament or within age as was seen in King Henry the sixth who summoned divers Parliaments in his 1 2 3 4 5 6. years of his reign yet was not Crowned till the eighth He being then essentially King without any Ceremony or Act ex post facto and Coronation but a Royall Ornament So the priviledges of Parliament and of the Common-wealth by Parliament are as great for though we thus see the great Prerogative of a King yet many things there are which a King in his own Kingdome cannot do without a Parliament by the Laws by which he hath bound himself as the making any man hereditable or the altering the Common Law or Customs of the Realm though by his absolute authority he may commit any man to Prison during his pleasure Therefore every Parliament-man during the time of the Parliament is priviledged from all disturbance of arrest for debt or the like and the servants of any Parliament man as much as the Kings are And to this Parliament for the further security of the good of the Common-wealth were ever admitted certain Judges of the Land though
they had no Vote which sate on Woolsacks that as the Clergy in Spiritualties so the Judges of the Law in things of the Law were to advise and determine when any difficulty did arise That what Laws should be Enacted might be answerable to the Will of God and not repugnable to the Customs of the Land And in our latter times all Acts of Parliament though made by the King have this style By the consent of Lords and Commons notwithstanding the Civill Law saith Quod Principi placuit Legis habet vigorem The will of the King is the power of the Law The End of Honor. The Analysis of Armory I Have with as much brevity as so copious a Theam would admit run through all the distinctions of Honor. In the next place I shall with as great a contraction lay down the emblems of those distinctions and atchievements due to Nobility and the reward of virtue in the methodicall rules of Armory Bearing of Arms at this time being the only externall distinction of degrees and qualities amongst all civill Societies and Common-wealths From whence we received this custom is uncertain if especially we look to the producing of it into rule and form As it is from imitation Sir John Fern is of opinion that we did borrow it from the Egyptians meaning from their Hieroglyphicks Others will have that the first institution of these honorable differences was amongst the Israelites but however it is not much material to this discourse to be too inquisitive of the originall in that kind since succession of time hath converted it into another custom which may be for ought I know in imitation of the Romans who were accustomed upon triumphs or festivalls to produce the Statues of their Ancestors as the pedigree of their Generous race Which Statues were not as some may imagine erected from the voluntary phansie of the parties represented as is the leaving our Pictures behind us when we dye to our progeny so might every phlegmatick mechanick do but they were such as were for some Heroick act allowed as a publick reward of virtue which was customary amongst them And truly although every good Subject ought to be alwayes prepared alike to offer his body and mind unto the service of the Common-wealth without hope or expectation of mercenary reward honor or glory yet is honor a necessary perquisite to a Crown and Common-wealth being in it self a true spur to generosity Out of which respect the Romans joyned the two Temples of Honor and Virtue in such a manner that no man could enter into that of Honor without first passing through the other of Virtue Sir John Ferns opinion is that the first that imployed these Ensignes in this nature was Alexander the Great so to distinguish those that had done any memorable Acts that they might urge an emulation in their fellow Souldiers It is said of Epaminondas and Othraydes that being ready to dye they wrote their glorious exployts upon their shields themselves to give 〈◊〉 to others to follow their 〈◊〉 when they were dead 〈◊〉 believes that Charls the Great was the first that put them into this methodicall order which doubtlesse could not be if as Sir John Fern saith also that Julius Caesar constituted an office of Feciales But I find it in another Author to be instituted by Numa when he made warre upon the Fidenates a people of Latium However it is a generall opinion amongst our most judicious Heralds that the bearing of Arms as a badge of honor amongst us was not till about the time of Henry the third although many coats have been 〈◊〉 in some Writers of much longer standing as that of Hugh Lupus Earl of Chester in the time of the Conqueror a Woolfs head errased of Gilbert de Gaunt Earl of Kime long before Barry of 6. Or Az. over all a bend Gule Which are 〈◊〉 of by Sir John Fern But how authentick his Authority might have been to him to cause his insertion or his to others I know not but I shall be bold to insert one which may chance carry some weight with it which I shall raise from a Noble Family in the North the family of the Hiltons whose antiquity not only by an ancient pedegree which I have seen taken out of the Office but by the Records of the Tower doth produce the noblest descent that I know any Family in England the pedegree is too large to be inserted in this place else I would do it however shall extract some notes from it that may signifie as much The first that I find recorded of the Family was Sir William Hilton Knight who marrying the daughter of Sir John Grisly Knight a Family long since I think extinct had issue Adam Hilton Which Adam living in the time of King Athelstan gave to the Monastery of Hartlepool a Pix or Crucifix which was in weight twenty five ounces of Silver and caused his Armes to be engraven on it Arg. two barres Azure which are yet seen upon the Gate of Hilton Castle in the Bishopr of Dur. where they lived with a Moses head for Creast the Gate and the Chappel which is very stately for its structure and bignesse are the only parts remaining of the ancient building He gave unto the same Monastery a Cope Vestment with the Stole and the like gift unto the two Monasteries of Whitby and Gisbrough with fifty seven ounces of silver to make Censors They were five descents before the Conquest and hath now the nine and twentieth descent surviving In which line were twenty four Knights eighteen whereof were in a continued succession But I leave this nicety to more criticall judgments to determine the thing having for authority custom sufficient to make it a law within it self without the derivation of any originall institution Former ages having esteemed the Laws of Heraldry with as great a veneration as any in the Nation as indeed it ought still to be and more especially in these and all such times as ours the Court of Heraldry being not onely the Law-giver to Honor but the best record of Families and Inheritances though the Gentry of this Land are too dull to know it since Coat-Armor hath been hereditary as it hath ever since the time of Lewis Le-grosse according to the account of Sir John Fern and Guillim As by one instance I shall declare If a man being an Orphan and by such times as ours have been the Records of what Estate did rightly belong to him and from his Ancestors may be burnt plundered or otherwise embeselled and by such spirits as such times do plentifully afford have been obtruded from his right and hath nothing to plead for it this Office being the just Record of his Pedigree would produce an Evidence sufficient though from many generations his misfortunes have descended More particularly of the Office in another place As for the progresse of Armory I have pitcht upon the most methodicall course I could disposing it into
challenge him he should first right the Lady and then perform the 〈◊〉 or if a chalenge preceded such other accident it was at their pleasure which to undertake first and many more such which would be too tedious for this place They are at large in Mauchaut Sieur de Roman ville his history of Boucicat Of Military Orders in Spain Of the Order of the Lilly THis Order was erected in 〈◊〉 by Garcia the sixth of the name surnamed Naiera in honor of the Virgin Mary and upon a miracle so great as might make this Lilly one of the primest flowers in her little garden The substance of it this The King having been very sick in the extremity of his disease sent to St. Saviour de Leyra and other places of devotion that prayers and interercessions might be made for his recovery In which time was discovered in the City of Naiera where ordinarily he kept Court the Image of the Virgin Mary issuing out of a Lilly holding her Son berwixt her arms And suddenly after the discovery of this the King recovered his health and many other miracles were done on diseased people in that place as supposed by vertue of the Virgin Mother whom they tearmed the Lilly of the Vallyes In honor whereof the said King erected this Order and made himself Soveraign of it and his Sucessors after him These Knights did wear on their breasts a Lilly embroydered in silver and on festivall dayes a double chain of gold interlaced with letters M after the manner of the Gotish letter with an Oval meddal hanging at it with a Lilly enamelled Knights of San Jago or St. James THis was erected by the resolution of Gentlemen being either Barons or men of great quality that jupon the conquering of their Country by the Arabians retired into the Mountains of Asturia and residing there made an engagement of War against the Moors agreeing upon religious Rules of Knighthood yet reserving to themselves liberty of marriage but this Order Favin speaks to be erected by Alphonso the ninth an 1158. and that it was confirmed in 1175 by Pope Alexander the third Their Governor is called great Master their feast is on All-Saints day when they meet in very great magnificence having very great revenues their Ensign a red Crosse shaped like a Sword with an Escollop's shell on it in imitation of the badge of the Pilgrims that go to Jerusalem and to the Sepulchre of St. James the Apostle Now the great Master of this Order hath alwayes neer him thirteen Knights where ever he goes for his aid and Councill and so all the other Orders in Spain Of the Order of Calatrava THis was begun an 1158. in imitation of that of St. Jago by Don Sanctio the third King of Toledo and it takes it name from the place of its establishment their habit is a black garment and on the breast thereof a red Crosse they have many great priviledges and possessions in Spain the form of their Crosse is set down in the end of this discourse which if we will believe Monsieur Favin and Aubertus Maereus is quite another then that which Sir William Segar describes Knights of Alcantara THese also derive their denomination from the place of their institution and living under the same orders with those of Calatrava doe wear the same fashioned Crosse only the Colour is green They have a very glorious Church at Alcantara in Castiglia upon the river Tago endowed with rich possessions where their great meetings are These were first of the order of St. Julian called the order of the Pear-tree Ferainando the second King of 〈◊〉 and Gallicia being the first great Master 1176. Knights of the Band. SIR William Segar attributes the originall of this Ordsr to Alphonso King of Spain an 1268. But Favin sets it down in an 1330. from the testimony of Don Antonio de Guevara Bishop of Mondognedo But by the same person Alphonso the eleventh of which Order that it might receive the more reputation he enrolled himselfe and his Son And yet as Favin sayes None were to be admitted but younger brothers and mean Gentlemen of poor and slender sufficiency who must have been ten years followers of the Court or at the least had fought three times against the Moors They wear a red Scarfe or Ribon crosse the left shoulder like our Knights of the Bath the breadth of three inches Their articles are too many to be inserted here Sir William Segar and Favin have them at large D' Avis in Portugal THere was an Order in Portugal erected in the year 1147. called D' Avis by Alphonso the first who were seatrd in the City Ebora and so called from the Virgin Mary being Patronesse of the City They had a great Master and were called Fratres and the place of their convention was called Frieria Their Ensign is the same Crosse with Calatrava vert and in the centre of it a Pear-tree Of the Order of Jesus Christ. SInce in the year 1320. was erected another Order of more esteem amongst the Portugals called of Jesus Christ by Dionysius King of that Country and nephew to Alphonso the tenth of Castile to which Order was given much of the revenue of the Knights Templars that lay in that Countrey the Kings of Portugal are ever the Soveraigns of the Order to this day The Ensign of the Order is a red crosse surmounted or intersected with another white on a black vestment and they have many priviledges and Articles amongst them Of this order was Don Pantaleon Brother to the Portugal Embassadour who was beheaded at Tower-Hill July 10. 1654. Knights of Montesia THis order was much about the time of those of Calatrava and received their name from the place of their residence in Valentia and do wear for their Ensign a plain crosse Gules This order was established in the year 1317. and had much of the revenue of the Knights Templars also setled on them Knights of Redemption THese Knights called of Redemption were erected by James King of Aragon upon the conquering the Islands of Majorica in the year 1212. Their Articles are many but the chief is they are to redeem prisoners from whence their title is derived their habit is a white garment with a black crosse and their Governour is alwayes resident at Barcco na D'Espuella D' Orada or Of the Goldeu Spnr. THere is another Order in Spain of far more honor called 〈◊〉 D' Espuella D' Orada Which was created with much ceremony as bathing like our Knights of the Bath then being laid on a rich bed after brought to the Chappel or Church where he performs his Vigils confesses and supplicates for power to observe the duty belonging to the order then his gold spurs are put on and a sword girt about him and the sword being drawn is delivered into his right hand in which posture standing he takes an Oath never to refuse to dye
in defence of his Law King and Country And then receiving a kisse from all the rest of the order in testimony of the amity betwixt them he is compleat Other orders there are there as that of Cavaleri Armadi Cavaleri 〈◊〉 Alarde and some more antient as the Order os the Dove or Holy Ghost in Castile of St. Saviour of Mont Real in Aragon but these are either out of date or of low reputation Knights of the Annuntiation THis Order saith Sir William Segar was erected about the same time with that of St. Michael but how I shall engage my faith to this article I know not for I find much uncertainty in the relation the institution of St. Michael being in an 1469. according to his own account and of the Annuntiation an 1434. Besides there is a greater error yet in computation for Monsieur Favin who hath some reason in this case to be understood aud hath been esteemed authentick affirms it to be by Amedis the fifth called also the Green or Verd whom he Chronologizes to live in an 1355. which makes a vast difference and again Aubertus Maereus in his Symbola Equest Ordinum gives the honor of its birth to Amedis the sixth Earl of 〈◊〉 by which I must confesse so great an uncertainty appears as affrights me from any conclusion but that by their general 〈◊〉 defacto I am assured such an Order was And that in memory of Amedis the fifth who most couragiously defended Rhodes against the Turks where he took the bearing of Gules a plain crosse Argent which the Dukes of Savoy have continued till this day This order was first called of the snares of love from the receiving from his Lady the favour of a bracelet made of her hair into love-knots and it was constantly celebrated on St. Maurices day who is Patron-Saint of Savoy He composed it to consist of fifteen Knights comprehending himself a chief Master The place of their celebration is the Church of Pietra in the Castle of Bellies unto which at the institution of this Order was given certain lands for the maintenance of fifteen Chaplains and continually every Knight at his death gives to the Church an hundred Florins And one other Article was that at the funeral of every Knight ceremoniously performed at the Castle of Pietra every Knight of the order should wear black whereas their mourning was a white Gown and leave off the Collar for certain dayes and that at the enterment of the Soveraign every Knight according to their seniority in order should offer up his Collar Every Knight was sworn to wear this order dayly and to accept of no other And that no person stained with reproach or dishonor should be admitted or if found so after to be degraded Of these past Knighthoods these four of the Garter in England the Toyzon in Burgndy St. Michael and of St. Esprit in France and this of the 〈◊〉 in Savoy are the most honorable and yet in being Of the Knights Templars THis Order as it hath been most famous in the world though now extinct I think ought to be preserved with an honorable memory It was erected in a pious design perpetrated with a glorious fame though extinguished in an ignoble and injust stratagem of the Devil the Pope and the King of France Its first rise was from an accident of certain Gentlemen meeting in the Holy Land some say nine an 1117. Who hearing of the great disturbance of the Country by the incursion of Turks and swarmings of Pickaroons engaged a confederacy with the hazzard of their lives to suppresse them Which resolution being known was so approved of by the Patriarch that he commanded accommodation for them in the Temple neer the Sepulchre And the King of Jerusalem appointed them all appertinencies for so religious an enterprize From whence they received the name of Knights-Templars And thus going on with much resolution and courage many Christians came in to thrir assistance and many brave exploits were performed by them Insomuch that in nine years time they had erected such a structure of honor as set all the world at gaze and establisht their Countrey in a happy peace For a reward whereof Pope Honorius at the suit of the Patriarchof Jerusalem prescribed unto them a peculiar Order of life and distinguished their order by wearing a white Garment and Pope Eugenius added a red Crosse after which prosperity they elected a Head whom they called Great Master Yet not long after this Jerusalem and a great part of the Countrey was lost for want of supply from other parts of Christendome However they still made war upon the Turks for 120. years and added new breath to the Trump of Fame purchasing large revenues to the Order in most Kingdoms of Europe being the exercise of love in all Christian Princes and of emulation in every Heroick spirit Insomuch that Vitriacus gives this character of them they were saith he Leones in bello agni mansueti in domo in expeditione milites asperi in Ecclesia vel ut Eremitae Monachi inimicis Christi duri feroces Christianis autem benigni mites c. But this great glory could not shine for ever without an eclipse nor such favorites of fortune live without envy as well as emulation and their fall was so much the more sodain and violent by how much their fame was higher For in England France and almost all parts of Christendome was it at an instant as it were and in one very day by sentence of Pope Clement the first to satisfie the the base avarice of Philip de Beau the Roy of France totally disolved and supprest The pretence was upon certain Articles exhibited against them which have been by all the world almost not only adjudged false but ridiculous As that they used Pagan ceremonies in the election of their great Master that they lost the Holy Land when they alone endeavoured to preserve it that they held some Heretical opinions that they worshipped an Image apparelled in a mans skin and that they drunk mans blood to confirm their oath of Confederacy When indeed itwas most certain that the crime for which they suffered was their vast wealth and their fidelity to the Patriarch whom they owned before the Pope cause sufficient to set the one to solicite and the other to grant a monstrous doom which they suffered under for what will not pride and avarice do The Great Master himselfe and sixty others of the Order were commited to the mercy of fire in Paris at one time and the rest persecuted if not executed in most places all of them dying without any acknowledgement of any one allegation and with the same Christian and heroick spirits they had lived in and by the account of Favin a French writer and one I think in this not too impartial there was at twice after one hundred or above burned to death in Paris all dying with innocence in their
mouths and in the same place many after But as such notorious evils are ever the Ushers of God's infinite judgements it was not far off here for the two Knights imployed in the accusation were one hanged and the other slain in a short time after How the Revenues prospered in the hands of the new possessors I know not or the possessors in the enjoyment of them but I believe like those of Church lands in this Nation And the account of stories and traditions I have seen and heard in particular of it makes me with confidence say Very unfortunately Many of their Territories and Castles in some places were given to an order of Knighthood called the Joannites Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem and particularly in England who were after Knights of Rhodes and lastly of Malta being conferred by Act of Parliament how taken from them I cannot say and in Vienna by order of a great Councel Of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem Rhodes and Malta SOme have been of opinion that this Order was originally from the time of the Holy War an 1099. When by the conduct of one called Peter the Hermit Robert Duke of Normandy Son to William the Conqueror Godfrey Duke of Lorrain and some other Noble persons Jerusalem was 〈◊〉 from the Saracens being called Knights of St. John Baptist and of Jerusalem But it is more certainly related that certain 〈◊〉 Christians going to visit the Holy Sepulchre obtained leave of the Caliph of Egypt to build a little Cottage to live in by it paying a due tribute for their liberty as for their own residence and for the entertaining such as should adventure to joyne with them in their devout life which Monsieur Favin relates to be Neopolitans After this their number so encreased that they built another to entertain women more large and stately and enlarged their Oratory and another for men in the nature of a Colledge or Hospital where they established a Rector or Master and from the great charity among them their religious life and good deeds to Pilgrims they were called brethren Hospitallers of St. John Baptist of Jerusalem And upon the Conquest of the Ciry they had great Franchises granted them and large revenues with liberty to mannage armes and were instituted to be Knights of St. John An. 1164. And for their distinction they wore a black garment with a white ankerd Crosse with eight points but in War they wore a red Coat of Arms with the same white Crosse See the example of the Crosses at the end of this discourse After their successe in the Holy War grew very famous and that they had done very great exploits almost over all Palestine in the year 1308 they wonne the City of Rhodes from the Turks And as valiantly maintained it against them afterwards who four times 〈◊〉 it in vain and the fifth time also was O taman himself repulsed with the losse of 40000 Mahometans But being constantly oppressed and not encouraged with any reliefe from the Christians of other parts after three moneths siege they lost it and ever since have remained in Malta Into this Order no man was admitted but he was first to approve himself a Gentleman before the Rector The Son of a Moore was not to be admitted nor of a Jew or Mahometan though the Son of a Prince and a Christian himselfe and they were sworn to fight for the Christian faith to do Justice defend the oppressed relieve the poor persecute the Mahometans live vertuously and protect Widows and Orphans Of Knights Teutonicks THis order of the Teutonici was founded by an Almain who remaining in Jerusalem after the taking of it gave great and liberal entertainment to all Christians that came to him and in a short time had drawn such a resort that from thence arose a Fraternity that bound themselves under certain Articles and elected a great Master or Governor every man of that association apparelling himself in white with a black crosse pattee voyded with a crosse patonce Which Fraternity afterwards grew a very great Order and purchased a noble fame But Jerufalem being taken by the Turks again they removed and pitcht their settlement in Ptolemaida and that being also taken by the Saracens they retired to Germany and engaging a War against the Prusians they got great victories and having the Emperours Grant for enjoying what by the sword they wonne with expence of some blood they purchased great revenues in Prusia and built many illustrious 〈◊〉 with Churches and some Cathedrals establishing Bishops to them whom they enjoyned to wear the habit of the Order this was about the year 1220. Frederick the second being then Emperor The chief Church appropriate to this Order is Marcenburg The Knights besides their large possessions are Lords of Livonia and they have a Governour which they still call the Great Master Knights of St. Sepulcher THis was antiently an honorable Knighthood but it is since extinguisht and nothing but the memory of it remaining and that inclusively in those of Malta The Ensign of the Order is yet extant amongst them as a relique of antiquity which is a double Crosse 〈◊〉 as it were two conjoyned Gules as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Segar relates But Favin speakes 〈◊〉 as that their Crosse was a Crosse 〈◊〉 in each Canton of the same a small Crosse plain being the same as the armes of the Kings of Jerusalem and from this originall that Godfrey of Bullein gave great goods to 〈◊〉 especially in his last Will and Testament by which also he ordained that himself and the successors Kings of Jerusalem should be buryed in their Cathedrall Church which was joyning to the Sepulchre that their Patriarch should have the Prerogative of crowning them And Baldwin his immediate successor establisht them an Order of Knighthood being before put regular Chanons appointing the Patriarch of Jerusalem their Great Master Thus Favin relates Knights of St. Mary THese were a religious Order erected by certain Gentlemen of 〈◊〉 and Madona for which they obtained a licence of Pope Urban but with mony only calling themselves Knights of St. Mary but were commonly called Cavaleri de Madona and indeed properly enough for whereas they professed to fight against Infidels they lived allwayes at home in peace plenty and ease for which they gained the heroick character of Fratres gaudenti or good-fellow Brethren Their habit was very rich and on it they wore a Crosse like that of St. John of Jerusalem Knights of St. Lazaro THe Knights of St. Lazaro challenge a great antiquity so high as St. Basil They had great possessions and honorable reputation but like the Knights Templars were suddenly eclipsed and had as absolutely been smothered in the Funeral croud of obscured honor had not Pope Pius Quartus a little revived them This Order does own obedience to a great Master also and are engaged to the observance of many Articles especially they are to be of lawful birth and Gentlemen