By Sir Raymond J de Souza, KHS
Unlike most political leaders today, knights in the Middle Ages were extremely respectful of the truth and had the true horror of lying. They took extremely seriously the dignity and obedience to the eighth commandment of God’s law: Thou shalt not bear false witness.
The knights had it clear in their minds that the honor of chivalry demanded them to be truthful, to never lie. It was common knowledge that lying is from the devil, who was a liar from the beginning. He told his first lies to Eve, to deceive her and draw her away from God (Genesis 3:1,4). He was the first liar, which makes him “the father of lies.”
Hence the knights strived to imitate Jesus, who is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. A beautiful example of this fidelity is found in the famous knightly prayer of Du Guesclin to King Saint Louis IX, who said, “gardez-moi pur comme les lys de votre blason. Vous qui teniez votre parole, même donnée à un infidèle, faites que jamais mensonge ne passe ma gorge, dût franchise me coûter la vie”: keep me pure like the lys of your shield, you who keep your word even when it is given to an infidel, never permit that lies will pass through my throat, even if frankness may cost my life.
When Jesus, the model of all knights of Christendom, was addressing a group of religious leaders in Israel, who were accusing him of being from Satan, he responded with holy anger by telling them that they were liars! He also told the group of accusers that they were the children of the devil because they were spreading lies about Him and refusing to see the truth. So, Satan is not only the father of lies, but also the father of those who suppress the truth, as so many members of the Church hierarchy and clergy in our days.
Saint John and the other apostles suffered greatly dedicating their lives to the truth. The majority of them died horrible deaths rather than deny the truth about Jesus-His life, His death, His return to life, and the way of salvation for all men through His resurrection (John 3:16). John was saying “We are speaking the truth. Anybody who says the opposite is a liar. “Because Satan is working to convince us that God is the liar and that is the ultimate lie.
Hence the medieval knights would prefer death to dishonour, and this is a verse that is repeated very often in the ‘Chanson de Roland , “Death rather than dishonour!”
La Chanson de Roland, (The Song of Roland), is an Old French epic poem that is probably the earliest (c. 1100) and is considered the masterpiece of the genre. The poem takes the historical Battle of Roncevaux in 778 as its subject.
Charlemagne, having conquered all of Spain except Saragossa, receives overtures from the Saracen king and sends the knight Ganelon, Roland’s stepfather, to negotiate peace terms. But Ganelon, angry because Roland proposed him for the dangerous task, lied to Charlemagne and plotted with the Saracens to achieve his stepson’s destruction. He ensured that Roland commanded the rear guard of the army when it withdrew from Spain. As the army crossed the Pyrenees, the rear guard was surrounded at the pass of Roncesvalles by an overwhelming Saracen force. Trapped against crushing odds, the hero Roland was the paragon of the unyielding warrior victorious in defeat.
The poem ends with the trial and execution of Ganelon, the liar and traitor, the bad knight. Among the knights, to say that someone was a new Ganelon was the ultimate insult!
Conversely, when they were imprisoned, the knights did not like to give their word of honour that they would not go to escape. Why? Because from the prisons made of iron they could try to escape; but from the prison of their given word of honour, never.
And the King of France, John II, who was imprisoned by the English during the Hundred Years’ War, was only able to go back to France when the ransom was paid, and he promised by his word of honour a number of other conditions. Not being able to fulfil those conditions, the King of France freely returned to England, to surrender himself again as prisoner, so that his word could be respected!
St. Louis IX, the dream Crusader king, was one day studying the map of France and its history when he realized that a certain land was not his, but belonged to the English. Immediately, he sent a note to the English king that he should come and take over the land, as being the legitimate sovereign; he even sent the documents that proved the land belonged to the English.
It is easy to see how, in those days, they never had so many lawyers, stamps, notaries, documents and warranties, to prepare documents. To give the word of honour was sufficient. For the old Portuguese knights, it sufficed to pluck one strand of beard and offer it to the person as a sign of commitment to oblige the man to fulfill his given word.
Those were times of faith and honour, times when a man’s word was respected. Then, one would fulfil the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel when He said, “Let your words be yes, yes, no, no. What is over and above this, comes from the Evil One. Aware that the devil is the Father of Lies, the medieval Knight had a true horror of lying, and did his utmost to fulfill the word given to anyone.
How can a Catholic man fulfill the eighth commandment Do not lie and be faithful to his word? Firstly, by understanding the eighth commandment of God’s law in detail, knowing it and loving it. Secondly, by never accepting the concept that the ends justify the means, and always being faithful to one’s word. Thirdly, by avoiding gossiping, speaking ill of people behind their backs, raising suspicions against other people’s honour, etc. and then smiling in front of them.
That was repugnant to the medieval knights, who despised the liars.
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