Chivalry is a term which indicates strictly the organization of knighthood as it existed in the middle agea, and in a general sense the spirit and aims which distinguished the knights of those times. The chief characteristics of the chivalric ages were a warlike spirit, a lofty devotion to the female sex, a love of adventure, and an undefinable thirst for glory. The Crusades gave for a time a religious turn to the spirit of chivalry, and various religious orders of knighthoodarose, such as the Knights of St John, the Templars, the Teutonic Knights, etc.
The education of a knight in the days of chivalry was as follows: In his twelfth year he was sent to the court of some baron or noble knight, where he spent his time chiefly in attending on the ladies, and acquiring skill in the use of arms, in riding, etc. When advancing age and experience in the use of arms had qualified the page for war, he became an esquire, or squire. This word is from the Latinscutum, a shield, it being among other offices the squire's business to carry the shield of the knight whom he served. The third and highest rank of chivalry was that of knighthood, which was not conferred before the twenty-first year, except in the case of distinguished birth or great achievements. The individual prepared himself by confessing, fasting, etc; religious rites were performed; and then, after promising to be faithful, to protect ladies and orphans, never to lie nor utter slander, to live in harmony with his equals, etc, he received the accolade, a slight blow on the neck with the flat of the sword from the person who dubbed him a knight. This was often done on the eve of battle, to stimulate the new knight to deeds of valour; or after the combat, to reward signal bravery.
The rules of chivalry only applied to the nobility. While knights on the battle field and in combat enjoyed rules of engagement and a degree of mutual respect - with the notable exception of the Battle of Agincourt where the captured French knights were murdered at the order of king Henry V - peasants, or the ordinary common folk, were slaughtered and raped by knights as though they were not human at all, and certainly not treated in a chivalrous fashion. Research Chivalry
The Evangelical Harmony, or Harmony of the Gospels, were the title of works written with a view to prove the substantial agreement of the four evangelists. The hereticTatian composed in the second century the Diatessaron, the first work of this kind, a continuous narrative of the events written in the gospels. From this harmony all passages were omitted which favoured the doctrine of the real humanity of Christ, and hence told against the peculiar doctrines of Tatian. Theophilus of Antioch is said to have composed a book of a similar kind, and Ammonius Saccas executed another Diatessaron, with the corresponding passages arranged in parallel columns. The Ten Indexes of Eusebius probably appeared in the first half of the fourth century, and was more complete than its predecessors. Research Evangelical Harmony
The Harmony of the Spheres was an hypothesis of Pythagoras and his school, according to which the motions of the heavenly bodies produced a music imperceptible by the ears of mortals. He supposed these motions to conform to certain fixed laws, which could be expressed in numbers corresponding to the numbers which give the harmony of sounds. Research Harmony of the Spheres
In October, 1797, Marshall, Pinckney and Gerry were dispatched to France to treat with Talleyrand and endeavor to restore harmony and a good understanding, and commercial and friendly intercourse between the United States and France. They had great difficulty in obtaining an interview with Talleyrand, being met instead by the latter's special agents, Hottinguer, Bellamy and Hauteval. In dispatches to the home Government the United States Commissioners designated these agents respectively as 'X', 'Y' and 'Z', and hence the name. The special agents suggested that the Americans propose to Talleyrand the loan of a large sum of money by the United States, or that the latter Government accept the assignment from France of an extorted Dutch loan, and that one of the envoys return to America to arrange matters. The Commission indignantly refused these proposals, and broke up in 1798, having accomplished nothing definite. The envoys' report of their negotiations aroused intense feeling against France in the United States. Research X Y Z Mission
Aristoxenus was an ancient Greek musician and philosopher. He was born about 324 BC at Tarentum. He studied music under his father Mnesias, and philosophy under Aristotle, whose successor he aspired to be. He endeavoured to apply his musical knowledge to philosophy, and especially to the science of mind, but it only appears to have furnished him with far-fetched analogies and led him into a kind of materialism. We have a work on the Elements of Harmony by him. Research Aristoxenus
The Athapaskans (Dena) are a tribe of Indians living along the Yukon and Koyukuk rivers in central-north Alaska since at least 1300 BC, when they are thought to have settled, coming from wandering Asian tribes. They are hunters, trappers and fishermen, typical of aboriginal people they live in harmony with the land and the animals and plants with which they feel they share it. Following the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act the Indians have become more westernised, and have had their subsistence existence damaged by western values of unemployment, alcoholism and land ownership - a concept previously alien and preposterous to the Indians. Research Athapaskan
Clement Francois Theodore Dubois was a French musical composer. He was born at Rosnay, Marne in 1837. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas and Benott. His cantata Atala gained for him the Grand Priz de Rome in 1861. He visited Rome, and on his return to Paris he became choirmaster of St. Clotilde, and later organist at the MadeleineChurch; was appointed professor of harmony at the conservatoire in 1871, and professor of composition in 1891; and in 1896 he succeeded Ambroise Thomas as director. His compositions, although not of the first rank, nevertheless stamp him as a musician of talent. In addition to his sacred and orchestral works, he composed the oratorios Les Sept Paroles du Christ in 1867, and Le Paradis Perdu, which gained the musical prize at Paris in 1878; the comic opera La Guzla de L'Emir in 1873, the ballet Farandole in 1883, the lyrical drama Aben-Hamed in 1884, and the dramatic idyll Xaviere in 1885. Research Clement Dubois
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and statesman, Baron of Verulam, ViscountSt Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of England. He was born in 1561 at London and died in 1626. His father, Nicholas Bacon, was keeper of the great seal under Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cambridge and in 1575 was admitted to Gray's Inn. In 1576-79 he was at Paris with Sir Amyas Paulet, the English ambassador. The death of his father called him back to England, and being left in straitened circumstances he zealously pursued the study of law, and was admitted
a barrister in 1582. In 1584 he became member of parliament for Melcombe Regis, and soon after drew up a Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth, an able political memoir.
In 1586 he was member of parliament for Taunton, in 1589 for Liverpool. A year or two after he gained the Earl of Essex as a friend and patron. Bacon's talents and his connection with the lord-treasurer Burleigh, who had married his mother's sister, and his son Sir Robert Cecil, first secretary of state, seemed to promise him the highest promotion; but he had displeased the queen, and when he applied for the attorney-generalship, and next for the solicitor-generalship (1595), he was unsuccessful. Essex endeavoured to indemnify him by the donation of an estate in land. Bacon, however, forgot his obligations to his benefactor, and not only abandoned him as soon as he had fallen into disgrace, but without being obliged took part against him on his trial, in 1601, and was active in obtaining his conviction. He had been chosen member for the county of Middlesex in 1593, and for Southampton in 1597, and had long been a queen's counsel.
The reign of James I was more favourable to his interest. He was assiduous in courting the king's favour, and James, who was ambitious of being considered a patron of letters, conferred upon him in 1603 the order of knighthood. In 1604 he was appointed king's counsel, with a pension of 60 pounds; in 1606 he married; in 1607 he became solicitor-general, and six years after attorney-general. Between James and his parliament he was anxious to produce harmony, but his efforts were without avail, and his obsequiousness and servility gained him enmity and discredit. In 1617 he was made lord-keeper of the seals; in 1618 Lord High Chancellor of England and BaronVerulam. In this year he lent his influence to bring a verdict of guilty against Walter Raleigh. In 1621 he was made ViscountSt Albans. Soon after this his reputation received a fatal blow. A new parliament was formed in 1621, and the lord-chancellor was accused before the house of bribery, corruption, and other malpractices. It is difficult to ascertain the full extent of his guilt; but he seems to have been unable to justify himself, and handed in a 'confession and humble submission,' throwing himself on the mercy of the Peers. He was condemned to pay a fine of 40,000 pounds, to be committed to the Tower during the pleasure of the king, declared incompetent to hold any office of state, and banished from court for ever. The sentence, however, was never carried out. The fine was remitted almost as soon as imposed, and he was imprisoned for only a few days. He survived his fall a few years, during this time occupying himself with his literary and scientific works, and vainly hoping for political employment. In 1597 he published his celebrated Essays, which immediately became very popular, were successively enlarged and extended, and translated into Latin, French, and Italian. The treatise on the Advancement of Learning appeared in 1605; The Wisdom of the Ancients in 1609 (in Latin); his great philosophical work,
e Novum Organum (in Latin), in 1620 ; and the De Augmentis Scientiarum, a much enlarged edition (in Latin) of the Advancement, in 1623. His New Atlantis was written about 1614-17; Life of Henry VII. about 1621. Various minor productions also proceeded from his pen. Numerous editions of his works have been published, by far the best being that of Messrs. Spedding, Ellis, & Heath (1858-74).
Francis Bacon was great as a moralist, a historian, a writer on politics, and a rhetorician; but it is as the father of the inductive method in science, as the powerful exponent of the principle that facts must be observed and collected before theorizing, that he occupies the grand position he holds among the world's great ones. His moral character, however, was not on a level with his intellectual, self-aggrandizement being the main aim of his life. Research Francis Bacon
Francois Certain Canrobert was a Frenchsoldier. He was born in 1809 and died in 1895. He commanded in the Crimean War under St Arnaud, and after his death received the chief command, but could not work in harmony with the British and made way for Pelissier. In the Italian war of 1859 he commanded the 3rd division, and distinguished himself at Magenta. In the Franco-German war he belonged to the force that was shut up in Metz and had to capitulate. He was latterly a French senator. Research Francois Canrobert
The Harmonists were a religious sect founded at Wurtemberg in 1788 by George Rapp and Frederick Rapp. They endeavoured to re-establish the social practices of the early Christian church, holding all goods in common. They were persecuted and so moved to America in 1803 settling in the Connoquenessing Valley, twenty-five miles from Pittsburgh. There they built houses, churches, mills and factories, and by 1805 there were 750 persons settled there who formed the Harmony Society. After two years they decided to adoptcelibacy, and prohibited the use of tobacco. This caused the withdrawal of certain of their people. In 1814 the Harmonists purchased 30,000 acres of land in Posey County, Indiana, settling there in 1815. There they remained until 1824, calling their settlement 'Harmony'. In 1824 they removed to their last location, on the Ohio River, not far from Pittsburgh. In 1831, a German .adventurer, Bernhard Muller, settling among them, caused dissensions and a split in the society. Research Harmonists
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Chivalry
