Tea at Trianon: Knights of the Holy Eucharist

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, October 5, 2015

Knights of the Holy Eucharist

Here is their Code of Chivalry:

Chivalry can be classified into three basic but overlapping areas:

Duties to countrymen and fellow Christians: This encompasses virtues such as mercy, courage, valor, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor, and servanthood of the knight to his lord. This also brings with it the idea of being willing to give one’s life for another, whether he would be giving his life for a poor man or his lord.

Duties to God: This would encompass being faithful to God, protecting the innocent, being faithful to the Church, being the champion of good against evil, being generous, and obeying God above the feudal lord.

Duties to women: This is probably the most familiar aspect of chivalry. This encompasses what is often called courtly love, the idea that the knight is to serve a lady, and after her all other ladies. Most especially in this category is Our Lady, Queen of Heaven and earth.

These areas overlap quite frequently and are often indistinguishable from one another. One particular similarity is honor, the foundational and guiding principle of chivalry; thus, for the Knight, honor is one guide of action. (Read more.)