In our effort to combat the myth of ‘toxic masculinity”, after having considered the first and the second commandments of chivalry (Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and Thou shalt observe all her commandments) we proceed to consider the third: Thou shalt respect the weak and shalt make thyself their defender. A truly masculine man protects the weak, and never abuses them.
In medieval times, who were the weak? The weak were considered to be all those who could not bear weapons, or were not allowed to. Naturally, that category of people included all women, old men, children, the sick, and the clergy. Saint Joan of Arc was the only exception to that rule, since her mission was given straight from God Our Lord. She did bear a sword, but did not enter into combat.
For pagans, especially the Muslims, strength was of great value, and, because of this, they despised the weak. It was the Catholic Church that taught respect for the weak. It was the Church who embellished the Middle Ages: the hospitals, universities, schools, etc., and encouraged many to work for the sick.
A famous example was given by St. Louis IX, French king and a great knight, who would wash the feet of the poor and lepers and serve them at table. Hence the admiration of the people for him was so great that after the news of his death by illness in the crusade, the people of France stopped using the coins that had his effigy minted on them and started using them as religious medals. The administration of the time had to mint brand new coins without his effigy to use as proper money. Such was his prestige as a saintly knight!
But it was not only individual knights that exhibited such charity towards the poor and the weak. Whole orders of chivalry emerged to look after the sick, such as the Knights of St. Lazarus. Also, it was the Order of the Knights of St. John of the Hospital who, during the times of peace, considered the poor and the sick as their lords and masters and were dedicated to look after them, especially during the Crusades.
Not only did they tend the wounded and the sick, they also prepared themselves for battle. They are known today as the Knights of Malta, the same Knights who maintained hospitals in Jerusalem, who first had to go to Rhodes after the fall of Jerusalem under the Turks, then finally to the island of Malta. They were great heroes who defended Christendom in such an outstanding manner.
But today, unfortunately, the Order of Malta has decayed from the original ideal. Besides having become a high-class club, to which a large number of wealthy Catholics belong, they pay lip service to their original, official goals: tuitio fidei, the defence of the Faith, and obsequium pauperum, the care of the poor.
Instead, a few years ago, the chancellor promoted condoms in Asian mission countries, and the Order in general does next to nothing to defend the Catholic Faith. It is a pity to see the great ideal of Catholic masculinity undergoing such a decadence. Moreover, they expel any member who dares criticize the current decadence and corruption in the Church, either in the Vatican or in dioceses.
Probably the best explanation and defense of chivalry was written by French historian Leon Gautier. He wrote a masterful work on the history and characteristics of chivalry. It was originally published in France in 1884 at a time when Europe was experiencing a rebirth of interest and enthusiasm for the Middle Ages. His book is both history and apologia for chivalry. Based on copious research with primary sources, Leon Gautier charmingly tells the story of chivalry while refuting many accusations and myths.
This paragraph encapsulates Gautier explanation of Catholic manliness in Chivalry in his masterpiece “La Chevalerie” (1):
“Chivalry is not one of those official institutions which make their appearance suddenly in history, promulgated by a pope and decreed by a sovereign.
Religious as it might have been, it had nothing in its origin that reminded one of the foundation of a religious order. One may in fact declare that every single monastic order has been conceived in the mind of an individual. The grand Benedictine order arose out of the intelligence of Saint Benedict, and the Franciscan order from the heart of Saint Francis. There is no parallel to this in the case of Chivalry, and it would be useless to search for the place of its birth or for the name of its founder. Chivalry was born everywhere at once, and has been everywhere at the same time the natural effect of the same aspirations and the same needs.”
Gautier makes it clear that the institution of knighthood was an ideal. Naturally, not every knight lived up to this ideal, and there were sporadic abuses, even very bad ones, just as among priests, bishops and even popes in the history of the Church similar sins have been committed. In such cases, his fellow knights would apprehend the apostate knight and put him through a ceremony of degradation in which he was stripped of his spurs, his sword broken, and the former knight publicly humiliated and punished for his crimes. In fact, the degradation ceremony for military officers that existed until the twentieth century was based on this same knightly degradation. Although there were such cases of knights that went bad, most knights strived to live up to the ideal.
The ideal expressed in the third commandment was: “Be thou the defender, and the manly champion of the churches, the widows, and the orphans.”
How could an authentic Catholic man today, keen to live the ideal of Catholic masculinity expressed by medieval chivalry, fulfill the third commandment: Respect the weak and become their defender?
First and foremost, to defend the weakest and most vulnerable people in our society: the preborn children, who are murdered by the millions nowadays, with the support of the ignoble political rulers and the equally ignoble silence of a great many church leaders. The Pro-Life cause is a non-negotiable condition sine qua non to every knightly order today. Hence the shame and disgrace of the existing orders of chivalry, such as Malta, who ought to be the spearhead of the defense of preborn children, but who hide behind politically correct leadership to justify their cowardly inaction.
Secondly, the defense of the dignity of women; the true Catholic masculine men are called to encourage all Catholics to refrain from the ridiculous and degrading feminism of today and to oppose anything that will degrade authentic womanhood, especially the moral corruption brought about by pornography;
Thirdly, promote as much as possible the teaching of the Church on the Culture of Life, especially the papal encyclicals of Pius XI and John Paul II on the dignity of marriage and motherhood. Regarding the virtue of modesty, beginning with their own families, making sure that their spouses and daughters dress appropriately, and their sons learn to respect the beauty and modesty of femininity.
Finally, defend the faithful members of the clergy who are falsely accused of moral corruption, but publicly expose the pro-homosexual dissenters of the magisterium that are frequently found today, as well as denounce the promotion of socialist ideology for the sake of the same ideal. Today in America there are bishops and priests who dissent from Church teaching on the sin against nature of sodomy, and need to be exposed for the sake of the salvation of souls.
If anyone thinks that Jesus would not have exposed the evil of the hierarchy, please read Chapter 23 of St Matthew’s Gospel, where He denounced the hypocrisy of the evil scribes and pharisees, calling them whitewashed sepulchers, a race of vipers, blind guides, who swallow a camel and strain at a gnat.
In so doing, Catholic men will excel in living the authentic Catholic masculinity in their third chivalric commandment.
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