among the Romans, a person of the second degree of nobility, following immediately that of the senators.

Part of the ceremony whereby this honour was conferred, was the giving of an horse; for each had an horse at the public charge, and received the stipend of a horseman, to serve in the wars.

When the knights were taken in among the senators, they resigned the privilege of having an horse kept for them at the charge of the public; then it became necessary, in order to be a knight, that they should have a certain revenue, that their poverty might not disgrace the order; and when they failed of the prescribed revenue, they were expunged out of the list of knights, and thrust down among the Plebeians. Ten thousand crowns is computed to have been the revenue required.

The knights at length grew so very powerful, that they became a balance between the power of the senate and people; they neglected the exercises of war, and betook themselves principally to civil employments in Rome.

a modern sense, properly signifies a person, who, for his virtue and martial prowess, is by the king raised above the rank of gentlemen, into an higher class of dignity and honour.

Knighthood was formerly the first degree of honour in the army, and usually conferred with a great deal of ceremony on those who had distinguished themselves by some notable exploit in arms; the ceremonies at their creation have been various; the principal was a box on the ear, and a stroke with a sword on the shoulder; they put on him a shoulder-belt, and a gilt sword, spurs, and other military accoutrements; after which being armed as a knight, he was led to the church in great pomp. Camden describes the manner of making a knight-bachelor among us, which is the lowest, though the most ancient order of knighthood, to be thus: the person kneeling, was gently struck on the shoulder by the prince, and accosted in these words, "Rise, or be a knight, in the name of God."

Knight is also understood of a person admitted into any order, either purely military, or military and religious, instituted by some king or prince, with certain marks and tokens of honour and distinction, as the knights of the garter, knights of the thistle, knights of Malta, the knights of the Holy Ghost, &c.

Knights Errant, a pretended order of chivalry, much talked of in old romances, being a kind of heroes that travelled the world in search of adventures, redressing wrongs, rescuing damsels, and taking all occasions of signalizing their prowess. This romantic bravery of the old knights was heretofore the chimera of the Spaniards.

Knights of the shire, or Knights of parliament, in the British polity, are knights or gentlemen of estate, who are elected, on the king's writ, by the freeholders of every county, to represent them in parliament.

The qualifications of a knight of the shire in England, is to be possessed of 600l. per ann. in a freehold estate; and in Scotland 400l. Scots valued rent, or 40 shillings of old extent. Their expenses during their sitting, were, by a statute of Hen. VIII. to be defrayed by the county; but this is now scarce ever required.

Knight-Marshal, an officer in the king's household, who has jurisdiction and cognizance of any transgression within the king's household and verge; as also of contracts made there, whereof one of the house is party.

Knights, in a ship, two thick short pieces of wood, commonly carved like a man's head, having four shivers in each, three for the halyards, and one for the top-ropes to run in: one of them stands fast bolted on the beams abaft the foremast, and is therefore called the fore-knight; and the other, standing abaft the main mast, is called the main knight.

Knowledge, is defined, by Mr Locke, to be the perception of the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of our ideas.

Konigsburg, a city of Poland, the capital of ducal Prussia, and of the king of Prussia's Polish dominions, situated on the river Pregel, near a bay of the Baltic sea, seventy miles north-east of Dantzig: E. long. 21°, and N. lat. 54° 40'.

Koran, or Alcoran. See Mahometanism.

Kos, in Jewish antiquity, a measure of capacity, containing about four cubic inches: this was the cup of blessing, out of which they drank when they gave thanks after solemn meals, like that of the passover.