Chivalry

Chivalry (pronounced shiv-uhl-ree)

(1) The sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms; the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, especially courage, honour, justice and a readiness to help the weak.

(2) The rules and customs of medieval knighthood; Courtesy, respect and honourable conduct between opponents in wartime (often as a historical re-construction).

(3) The medieval system or institution of knighthood.

(4) Cavalry; horsemen armed for battle (historic use only).

(5) Collectively, knights, gallant warriors or gentlemen, fair ladies and noble chivalry (archaic).

(6) The ethical code(s) of the knight prevalent in Medieval Europe, having such primary virtues as mercy towards the poor and oppressed, humility, honour, sacrifice, fear of God, faithfulness, courage and courtesy to ladies.

(7) Courteous behaviour, especially of men towards women.

(8) In historic English law, a tenure of land granted by virtue of knightly service.

Circa 1300: From the Middle English chivalrie and the eleventh century Old French chevalerie (knighthood, chivalry, nobility, cavalry).  The early form was chevaler (knight) from the Medieval Latin caballarius (horseman), from the Latin caballus (nag, pack-horse).  The Medieval Latin caballaria (knighthood, status or fief of a knight) was the most familiar form by the twelfth century, the term chevaler long in use to describe "a knight or horseman".  The meaning (related to cavalier) "the nobility as one of the estates of the realm", dates from the fourteenth century whereas the more modern use "social and moral code of medieval feudalism" appears to be an eighteenth century historical revival.  Chivalry is a noun and chivalrous is an adjective; the noun plural is chivalries.

The Song of Roland

In Medieval Europe, there never was one universal code of chivalry.  The code was a moral construct which several authorities reduced to writing and, despite this disparate history, the concept was well understood in medieval times.  Although only parts of the codes were concerned with warfare, the texts formed the basis of the early rules of war and from here, can be traced the origins of much international law.  The epic-length poem The Song of Roland (written between 1098-1100) is a recount of the eighth century "Knights of the Dark Ages" and the wars fought by Charlemagne; it's essentially Charlemagne's Code of Chivalry but it is a literary work, a tale of betrayal and a normative text of what ought to be rather than a historical document of chivalrous warfare.  In summary, Charlemagne’s code can be reduced to:

To fear God and maintain His Church
To serve the liege lord in valor and faith
To protect the weak and defenseless
To give succor to widows and orphans
To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
To live by honour and for glory
To despise pecuniary reward
To fight for the welfare of all
To obey those placed in authority
To guard the honour of fellow knights
To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
To keep faith
At all times to speak the truth
To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
To respect the honour of women
Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
Never to turn the back upon a foe

The Duke of Burgundy’s Code

In the fourteenth century, the Duke of Burgundy reduced Charlemagne’s code to a list (printed on pigskin), which knights could carry in their Bibles: Faith, Charity, Justice, Sagacity, Prudence, Temperance, Resolution, Truth, Liberality, Diligence, Hope & Valor.  One can credit the Duke of Burgundy with the invention of the credo card.

The High Court of Chivalry

Lindsay Lohan usurping the escutcheon of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or (digitally altered image).

In London, in December 1954, the High Court of Chivalry was summoned for the first time in two centuries to hear the case of a city council claiming their coat of arms had been usurped by a private company displaying it on their theatre.  Before substantive matters were introduced, the judge had to rule whether the ancient court still existed and if so, if it was the appropriate body to hear the case.  The judge found the court extant and with valid jurisdiction, his reasons a succinct sketch of the UK’s unwritten constitution in operation and a tale of how law and language interacted over several centuries.  The important principle established was to confirm, even in the modern era, there existed an enforceable law of arms and the law takes as much notice of bad heraldic manners as it does of more violent discourtesies, the judge disapproving of the “prevalent” notion that something cannot be unethical if it’s lawful.  That theme has of late been noted by royal commissioners though perhaps not politicians; in the judgement, the temptation to comment on whether chivalry was dead was resisted.

In Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd [1955] 1 All ER 387, the Manchester Corporation was successful and the court has not since sat but in 2012,  the council of the Welsh town of Aberystwyth issued a statement that they were prepared to lodge a writ against a Facebook page they alleged was usurping its coat of arms.  Before the council made clear whether they were intending to sue facebook.com or the author(s) of the page, the offending image had been removed.  As one of the findings in 1955 had been the High Court of Chivalry could be abolished only by an act of parliament, because New Labour’s judicial reforms didn’t do this, it appears the court would have to be convened in some form to hear similar matters although it's thought the marvellously flexible British constitution would allow a judge at an appropriate level to declare that their court was "sitting as the Court of Chivalry for the purposes of this case".

Credo

Credo (pronounced kree-doh or krey-doh)

(1) The Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed (often initial capital letter).

(2) A musical setting of the creed, usually of the Nicene Creed (often initial capital letter).

(3) Any creed or formula of belief; doctrine, tenet, philosophy.

(4) Any formal or authorized statement of beliefs, principles, or opinions

1150–1200: From the Middle English credo (the Creed in the Church service), from the Latin crēdō (the first person singular present indicative of credere (to believe" (literally "I believe")), the first word of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds in Latin (Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae).  The Latin crēdō was from the Proto-Italic krezdō, from the primitive Indo-European compound kerd-dhe (literally "to place one's heart" (ie to trust, believe)), a compound phrase of oblique case form of ḱḗr (heart), also the root of the Latin cor- & deh- (to put, place, set) and the Latin faciō).  It was cognate with the Welsh credu (I believe), the Sanskrit श्रद्दधाति (śrad-dhā) (to trust, believe; faith, confidence, devotion) and the Old Irish creitid (believes (verb)).  In English the form was soon nativized as creed while the general sense of a "formula or statement of belief" emerged in the late sixteenth century.  One of the more quoted phrases from the epic poem The Aeneid (29-19 BC) by the Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC)) was experto crede ("take it from one who knows"), the construct the dative singular of expertus + the imperative singular of credere (to believe).  Credo is a noun; the noun plural is credos.

Intended as a basic, succinct statement of the faith, the Apostles’ Creed was structured according to the fundamental belief in the Trinity and the function particular to each of the three Persons:  The Father & creation; the Son & redemption; and the Holy Spirit & sanctification.  It was relatively short and simple, able to be memorized and recited even by the illiterate, an important tradition in times of persecution when it was part of the disciplina arcana (discipline of the secret) to be remembered and passed on orally as a protection against attack.

The Nicene Creed was produced by the Council of Nicea I (325) which was convoked to combat the heresy of Arius (who denied the divinity of Christ).  The Council wished firmly to confirm Christ was consubstantial (one in being) with God, sharing the same divine nature; begotten, not made or created; and that Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through her, Jesus Christ, true God, became also true man. 

Later, at the Council of Constantinople (381), the Church again not only affirmed its condemnation of Arianism but also of the Pneumatomachi (killers of the Spirit) who not only denied the divinity of Jesus but also the divinity of the Holy Spirit.  Thus the creed was expanded to clearly define the divinity of the Holy Spirit, adapting the text written in 374 by Saint Epiphanius of Salamis (circa 310-403).  This creed, officially entitled the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol, was introduced into the Mass circa 500.

Lindsay Lohan's daily skincare credo, the meaning enhanced in the modern way with emojis.

Mass

Mass (pronounced mas)

(1) A body of coherent matter, usually of indefinite shape and often of considerable size.

(2) A collection of incoherent particles, parts, or objects regarded as forming one body.

(3) Aggregate; whole (usually preceded by in the).

(4) A considerable assemblage, number, or quantity.

(5) Bulk, size, expanse, or massiveness.

(6) In painting, an expanse of color or tone defining form or shape in general outline rather than in detail.

(7) A shape or three-dimensional volume that has or gives the illusion of having weight, density, and bulk.

(8) The main body, bulk, or greater part of anything.

(9) In physics, a physical quantity expressing the amount of matter in a body. It is a measure of a body's resistance to changes in velocity (inertial mass) and also of the force experienced in a gravitational field (gravitational mass); according to the theory of relativity, inertial and gravitational masses are equal.

(10) In pharmacology, a preparation of thick, pasty consistency, from which pills are made.

(11) In the Roman Catholic Church and certain Protestant Churches, the celebration of the Eucharist.

(12) In some religious rituals, the musical setting of certain parts of this service, as the Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei (sometimes with initial lowercase).

(13) In extractive mining, an irregular deposit of ore not occurring in veins.

Pre-900: From the Middle English masse, from the Old English mæsse from the Vulgar Latin messa & massa (mass; that which forms a lump) from the Church Latin missa, past participle of mittere (to send, dismiss), perhaps derived from the concluding dismissal in the Roman Mass, Ite, missa est, (Go, it is the dismissal).  Ultimate root was the Ancient Greek mâza (barley cake, lump, mass, ball), akin to mássein (to knead).  Mass is a noun, verb & adjective, massing is a noun & verb and massed is a verb; the noun plural is masses. 

The meaning "lump, quantity, size" is from the late fourteenth century, the sense a direct borrowing from the Old French masse (lump, heap, pile; crowd, large amount; ingot, bar") which had enjoyed the meaning since the eleventh century, under the influence of the Latine massa (kneaded dough, lump, that which adheres together like dough), probably from Greek mâza related to mássein from the primitive Indo-European root mag- (to knead); related was the Lithuanian minkyti (to knead), root of macerate.  The sense extended in English in the 1580s to "a large quantity, amount, or number" and the strict sense in physics is from 1704.  It was first used as an adjective in 1733 and was used thus in biology in the nineteenth century.  Mass-culture was first used (in sociology) in 1916; mass hysteria from 1914; mass media from 1923; mass movement from 1897; mass production from 1920; mass grave from 1918 and mass murder from 1880.

Increasing mass: Lindsay Lohan posts pregnancy progress pictures on Instagram.

Increasing Mass and the Higgs Field

In physics, mass is locked up energy; as an object accelerates, its mass will increase, mass here called “inertial mass”.  Inertial mass is the amount of resistance a physical object has to any change in its motion, this including the resistance a body has to acceleration or to directional changes.  According to the theory of relativity, gravitational mass is always the same as inertial mass; however, when describing an object’s mass increasing due to acceleration, it’s the inertial mass which increases.  So, as an object increases in speed, so does the amount of energy it has, this energy is what is referred to as “the increase in mass”.  It’s this relationship between mass and energy which explains why nothing can exceed the speed of light.  The energy of a particle diverges to infinity as it approaches the speed of light and because there cannot be infinite energy in a particle, the speed of light cannot be reached although particle physicists are divided about whether this was always true.  In the first fraction of a second after the big bang, almost all particles were massless, travelling at or beyond the speed of light until, sometime in that first second, the Higgs field came into existence, permeating the whole universe, giving mass to particles.

The now famous Higgs boson (known also as the Higgs particle) is a subatomic particle which was first described theoretically (as part of a mechanism which was initially referred to as the Higgs Mechanism and is now called the Higgs Field) in the 1960s by English theoretical physicist Peter Higgs (b 1929) and (independently) by a number of others.  The Higgs Field was “invented” because without its operation there was no way to account for the mass of bosons (one of two types of particles) and while bolting it onto the models physicists use for their calculations, it’s existence wasn’t proved until experiments conducted using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC, a very big particle accelerator) at the Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire (CERN; the European Organization for Nuclear Research).  The formal announcement of the verification of the existence of the Higgs boson (and by implication the field) was made in July 2012, the Nobel Prize in Physic awarded the following year to Higgs and Belgian theoretical physicist François, Baron Englert (born 1932) (technically the field is properly known as the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, noting the contribution of US theoretical physicist Robert Brout (1928-2011).

Inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a high-energy particle collider mounted in a 17 mile (27 km) long tunnel in a loop deep under the Swiss-French border near Geneva.

The boson is associated with the Higgs field, a form of energy which permeates the entire universe and can be conceptualized as part of the universe’s “fabric” although it’s not helpful to visually that literally but particles acquire their mass by interacting with this field, the Higgs boson the quantum excitation of the field.  Electrically neutral, the Higgs boson is very short-lived, decaying almost at the point of creation and its very existence can be detected only indirectly by an observation of the particles into which it decays.  It took decades to detect because until the LHC was fully operational, a machine capable of sustaining the experiment didn’t exist.  However, while the work at CERN is thought proof of the existence of the field but nothing beyond; how or why the field exists and why some particles interact more than others remains unknown.