[18] Tacitus, Hist. lib. iv. c. 18. Life of Agricola, s. 32. Germania, s. 7.
[19] Barthol. p. 54. as cited by Warton, Dissert. I. Of the Origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe, in the first volume of the late admirable edition of his History of English Poetry.
[20] It is also curious that this blow was said to have been customary.—“Dato eisdem, sicut consuetudinis est, manu colapho.”
[21] Not exactly according to the form, for by this time a belt with a sword inserted was girded round the military candidate, instead of delivering a javelin to him. See the preceding page.
[22] William of Malmsbury, lib. ii. c. 6.
[23] Ingulph, p. 512.
[24] Caxton, Fayts of Arms and Chivalry, chapter entitled “Of the Honor that ought to be done to a Knight.”
[25] Spencer’s Fairy Queen, book v. canto 5. st. 37. The romance of the Morte D’Arthur says, that in early times there were no hermits, but who had been men of worship and prowess; “and the hermits held great household, and refreshed people that were in distress.” Lib. 18. c. 10.
[26] The reader will find in Johnson’s Dictionary the etymology of sir. When this word, acknowledging power and superiority, was first used as the title of chivalry, I do not know. Instances exist as high as the reign of Henry II.
[27] Coke, Instit. 4. In the Reports of the Lords’ Committees respecting the Peerage, (printed 2d July 1821), doubts are often expressed regarding the meaning of the word Banneret. A little attention to the difference between the personal nobility of chivalry, and the nobility which arose as a franchise appurtenant to land, would have prevented the entertaining of such doubts, and the conclusion might have been drawn from principles, instead of being guessed from precedent, that the title of banneret had no relation to the dignity of Lord of Parliament. The Lords’ Committees seem surprised that barons should sometimes have had the addition of knights, and at other times of bannerets but in truth chevalier was the title which comprehended all others, and, like the word ‘Lord,’ was used in a general sense.