military order or honour, or a mark or degree of ancient nobility, or reward of personal virtue and merit.

There are four kinds of knighthood; military, regular, honorary, and social.

Military Knighthood, is that of the ancient knights, who acquired it by high feats of arms. They are called milites, in ancient charters and titles, by which they were distinguished from mere bachelors, &c. These knights were girt with a sword, and wore a pair of gilt spurs; whence they were called equites aurati.

Knighthood is not hereditary, but acquired. It does not come into the world with a man like nobility; nor can it be revoked. The sons of kings, and kings themselves, with all other sovereigns, heretofore had knighthood conferred on them as a mark of honour. They were usually knighted at their baptism or marriage, at their coronation, before or after a battle, &c.

Regular Knighthood, is applied to all military orders which profess to wear some particular habit, to bear arms against the infidels, to succour and assist pilgrims in their passage to the Holy Land, and to serve in hospitals where they should be received: such were the knights templars, and such still are the knights of Malta, &c.

Honorary Knighthood, is that which princes confer on other princes, and even on their own great ministers and favourites; such are knights of the Garter, Bath, St Patrick, Nova Scotia, Thistle, &c. See these articles; and for a representation of their different insignia, see Plate CCLXXXVIII.

Social Knighthood, is that which is not fixed nor confirmed by any formal institution, nor regulated by any lasting statutes; of which kind there have many orders been erected on occasion of factions, of tilts and tournaments, masquerades, and the like.

The abbot Bernardo Justiniani, at the beginning of his History of Knighthood, gives us a complete catalogue of the several orders: according to this computation, they are in number 92. Favin has given us two volumes of them under the title of Theatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie. Menenius has published Delicie Equestrium Ordinum, and Andr. Mendo has written De Ordinibus Militaribus. Beloi has traced their origin; and Geliot, in his Armorial Index, has given us their institution. To these may be added, Father Menestrier de la Chevalerie Ancienne et Moderne, Michiel's Tresor Militaire, Caramuel's Theologia Regolare, Mirrenus's Origines Equestrium sive Militurium Ordinum; but above all, Justinian's Historie Chronologiche dell'Origine de gl' Ordine Militari, e di tutte le Religione Cavaleresche; the edition which is fullest is that of Venice in 1692, in two vols folio.