KNIGHTHOOD, C. A.D. 1066
(f) It was the custom among the English that he who was about to be lawfully consecrated a knight, should, the evening before the day of his consecration, with contrition and compunction make confession of all his sins, before some bishop, abbot, monk or priest, and should after being absolved, pass the night in a church, giving himself up to prayer, devotion and mortification. On the following day he was to hear mass, and to make offering of a sword upon the altar, and after the Gospel, the priest was to bless the sword, and with his blessing to lay it upon the neck of the knight; on which after having communicated at the same mass in the sacred mysteries of Christ, he became a lawful knight. The Normans held in abomination this mode of consecrating a knight, and did not consider such a person to be a lawful knight, but a mere tardy trooper and a degenerate plebian. (p. 147.)
And not only in this custom but in many others as well did the Normans effect a change, for the Normans condemned the English method of executing deeds; which up to the time of King Edward had been confirmed by the subscription of the faithful present, with golden crosses and other sacred signs, and which chirographs[21] they were in the habit of calling charters. The Normans were also in the habit of confirming deeds with wax impressions, made by the especial seal of each person, with the subscription thereto of three or four witnesses then present. At first many estates were transferred simply by word of mouth, without writing or charter, and only with the sword, helmet, horn, or cup of the owner; while many tenements were conveyed with a spur, a body scraper, a bow, and some with an arrow. This, however, was only the case at the beginning of this reign, for in after years the custom was changed (p. 142).