The Ten Commandments of Chivalry

May 9, 2011

I.              Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and shalt observe all its directions.

II.           Thou shalt defend the Church.

III.         Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.

Medieval illumination representing the social organization in three levels: the cleric, the knight and the worker, from the British Library

IV.        Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.

V.           Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.

VI.        Thou shalt make war against the infidel without cessation and without mercy.

VII.      Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.

VIII.   Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.

IX.        Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone.

X.           Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

Léon Gautier, Chivalry, trans. Henry Frith (New York: Crescent Books, 1989), p. 26.

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Also of interest:

Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation

 

 

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