SOI 
KNIG H 
elected emperor in 1215, and intending to reward the no¬ 
bility and gentry by whofe affiftance he had obtained the 
imperial crown, inltituted this order upon paying his de¬ 
votions to the abbey of St. Gal), a native of Scotland, the 
apoftleof Swabia, and the patron of Germany. This new 
affociation was placed under the guardianfhip of St. Ur- 
fus, one of the Thebaic legion, who had been inhumanly 
martyred before the Temple of the Sun in the town of Sol- 
eure, to which the worfiiip of the fun, Sol, had given its 
name. The body of the faint was, by the pious care of 
Bertha with the great Foot, as file is called, wife of Charle¬ 
magne, placed under the high altar which this princefs 
caufed to be erefted for that purpofe ; as it was upon 
that very altar that the infignia of knighthood were con- 
fecrated, the order, in allufion to the name of the mar¬ 
tyr, whofe relics were depofited there, adopted the name 
of the Bear, (urfus meaning a bear in Latin,) and placed 
the image of that animal on the medal of their badge. 
It was ordered that the abbot of St. Gall fhould per- 
fonally confer the order on the 16 th of Odtober. The candi¬ 
dates, having, according to ancient cuftom and regulations, 
kept their vigils in abltinence and prayer, were prefented 
to the prelate, who girded them with the military belt and 
the fword previoufiy confecrated, and invelted them with 
the collar of the order. 
The order continued among the Swifs till they became 
a commonwealth ; and then, the cattles and ftrong holds 
of the noblemen being difinantled, the ufe of the order 
was wholly laid afide. The collar was a gold chain in¬ 
terlaced with a chaplet of oak-leaves, to which was fuf- 
pended the badge, confuting of a medal of gold enamelled 
white, thereon a bear fable on a mount vert. See Plate II. 
XXXVIII. The Order of Our Lady of Mercy, or 
St. Mary de Merced, for the redemption of captives. 
James I. of Arragon, furnamed the Invincible, being fome 
time a prifoner in France to Simon count of Montfort, 
and fuffering there great hardfiiips and privations, began 
to confider, by comparifon, what the Chriftian flaves mult 
fuffer in the hands of the Moors, whofe religion and man¬ 
ners were fo different from thofe of the Spaniards and the 
French. Actuated by motives of companion, he made a 
vow to the Virgin Mary, that, if ever he fhould recover 
liis liberty, he would, with all his might, contrive to 
fhorten the captivity of thofe who were in the power of 
the Mahometans. A few years afterwards, being fet free, 
he laid up great fums of money, and, by the advice of 
Raymond de Penafort his confeffbr, a dominican friar, 
and of Pedro Nolafco, a native of Mar des Saintes Pucel- 
les in the diocefe of St. Papoule, founded the order, anno 
1218, in the city of Barcelona, and called it of la Nueva 
Merced. As legendary tales are generally connected with 
the origin of ancient eftablifliments, we are told that 
this name was fuggefted by the Holy Virgin lierfelf, who 
in the fame night and at the fame hour appeared in a vi- 
fion to the king, to Raymond, and to Pedro, and gave 
them proper inftrudtions. 
This order has been fometimes called of St. Eulalia , 
the name of a virgin and martyr to whom the principal 
church of Barcelona was dedicated. The feftival of the 
order was on Sr. Lawrence’s day, the 10th of Auguft. 
The end of the inllitution, and peculiar obligation of the 
knights, confified in gathering alms, and going in perfon 
to redeem captives, who, either by piracy, chance, or any 
other accident, had fallen into the hands of the Moors. 
The good effedt of the inftitution was foon felt, and foon 
the nation reaped the benefit of the religious zeal of the 
knights; for, in the firft fix years after the foundation, 
Pedro Nolafco redeemed four hundred Haves from the in¬ 
fidels. >- 
The purpofe for which the order was created fhould 
have fecured good underftanding and harmony amongft 
the members ; but, alas 1 thofe whofe employ was to fet 
captives at liberty were themfelves flaves to their own 
paffions. The knights and the priefls began to quarrel 
about the eledfion of a mafter, till pope John XXII. de- 
. V»i. XL No. 796. 
T II O O D. 
cided the queftion in favour of the priefls. Irritated at 
this preference, the knights feceded from the ecclefialtical 
part of the affociation, and incorporated themfelves with 
the order of Montefa; fo that, ever fince, the fociety has 
been compofed of priefts, without any lay-brethren or mi¬ 
litary perfons among them. 
St. Felix de Valois and St. John de Matha reformed the 
order feveral years afterwards, and kept up, with great ex¬ 
ertions and zeal, among the regulars, called in France the 
Order of St. John de Matha, Trinitarians and Mathurins, the 
true fenfe of the original creation. Thefe reverend fa¬ 
thers ufed, before the abolition of all orders, to repair to 
Algiers, Tunis, Fez, and Morocco, for the molt laudable 
purpofe of redeeming captives. They held their ge¬ 
neral chapter at a fmall village in the duchy of Valois, in 
the diocefe of Meaux, where the fathers de la Mercy had 
a convent, ten leagues from Paris, called Cerfroid ; and 
where the deputies of the feveral convents repaired from 
all parts of the Chriftian world for the purpofe of regulat¬ 
ing the affairs of the order; their habit was white, with a 
red crofs patee embroidered on the breaft. The badge 
was a fmali Ihield per fefs gules and or, in chief a crofs 
patee argent, in bafe four pallets, gules for Arragon; upon 
the ftiield a ducal coronet. See Plate III. 
We muft mention here, on account of its Angularity, a 
fadl which is not generally known. In the year 1668-9, 
the lady Alice, duchefs of Dudley, being in her eightieth 
year, bequeathed by her laft will the fum of one hundred 
pounds per annum to be employed for the redemption of 
captives of the Englifh nation. 
The Order of Mercy for Ladies is faid to have been in- 
ftituted at Barcelona, and liberally endowed, in 1261, by 
a pious woman of quality of that town, called Mary du. 
Secours. Thefe ladies wore on their breaft a fmall Ihield, 
with the arms of the order exactly fimilar to that worn by 
the knights ; but we are of opinion that this affociation, 
if ever it exifted, was more honourable than ufeful. 
XXXIX. The Order of the Cross of Jesus Christ, 
in Italy and France; or the Knights of the Mili¬ 
tia of St. Dominic. Defcended from the family of 
the Guzmans in Spain, and burning with an impetuous 
ardour for preferving the orthodox faith againft the riling 
innovators, St. Dominic created this order in the year 
1206, and made the principal duty of the knights to fight 
againft the Albigenfes, who, at that time, having promul¬ 
gated fome new tenets againft thofe approved by the pre¬ 
ceding councils and the court of Rome, were held as moft 
dangerous men, and called heretics. Thefe feefaries, who 
inhabited the fouth of France, and who perhaps had 
been too bold in their new dodtrine, and too fuccefsful In 
propagating it, united with the Waldenfes, conformed 
themfelves to the principles of Zuinglius, and are ftill re- 
prefented among us by feveral others who call themfelves 
Moravians, United Brethren , &c. 
The knights, from having received their inftitutions 
and ftatutes from St. Dominic, were ftyled Fratres de Mi¬ 
litia SanLIi Dominici. He had preferibed to them a white 
habit, and, for the badge, a crofs quarterly fable and argent, 
which was worn on the breaft. Pope Innocent III. con¬ 
firmed this order in 1215. The knights profeffed obe¬ 
dience and conjugal cliaftity. By this laft vow, which we 
have often met with in the creations of knightly affocia- 
-tions, but which has not been particularly explained, the 
knight fubmitted to be excluded from the order if ever 
guilty of adultery. Having performed the principal obli¬ 
gation of their calling, in achieving the redudtion, or at 
leaft the difperfion, of the Albigenles, not without fiied- 
ding much blood in favour of a religion whofe morality 
is all meeknefs and tolerance, the knights laid afide their 
arms, and devoted themfelves “ wholly to the fpiritual 
warfare,” fays Afhmole. A much better employment 
than to perl'ecute our fellow-creatures on account of their 
religious opinions ; a warfare much more confentaneous 
with juftice, as its object is to fubjedt our paffions, whofe 
tumults and infurreCtions are much greater enemies to 
.9 S our 
