Would you know the true thought of the Church? Open the official book where it is carefully formulated—open the Pontifical and read:—
“Receive this sword in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; use it for your own defense, for that of the holy Church of God, and for the confusion of the enemies of the Cross of Christ. Go, and remember that the Saints did not conquer kingdoms by the sword but by faith.”
To sum up in a few words, chivalry has never been, is not, and never will be anything but armed force in the service of unarmed truth. And I am not aware that anyone has ever given a higher or more exact definition of it.
León Gautier, Chivalry, trans. Henry Frith (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1891), 38.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 688
