Elzear might well feel aggrieved. There have been knights even younger
than he, who have carried spurs before they were thirteen. This reminds
me of a paragraph in an article which I contributed to “Fraser’s
Magazine,” in March, 1844, under the title of “A Walk across Bohemia,”
in which, speaking of the Imperial Zeughaus at Vienna, I noticed “the
suit of armor of that little hero, the second Louis of Hungary, he
who came into this breathing world some months before he was welcome,
and who supported his character for precocity by marrying at twelve,
and becoming the legitimate bearer of all the honors of paternity as
soon as he entered his teens; who moreover maintained his consistency
by turning a gray old man at sixteen, and finally terminated his
ephemeral course on the field of battle before he became of age.”
Elzear then was not, perhaps, so poor a knight as his older lady seemed
disposed to count him.
I must be briefer with noticing the remaining individuals who either
flung up chivalry for the Church, or who preferred the latter to
following a knightly career. First, there was St. Anscharius, who
after he had made the change alluded to, was standing near the easy
Olas, King of Sweden, when the latter cast lots to decide whether
Christianity should be the religion of the state, or not. We are
told that the prayers of St. Anscharius caused the king to throw
double-sixes in favor of the better cause.
St. Andrew Cossini made an admirable saint after being the most riotous
of cavaliers. So St. Amandus of Nantes won his saintship by resigning
his lordship over men-at-arms. Like him was that St. Romuald of the
family of the Dukes of Ravenna, who, whether fighting or hunting, loved
to retire from the fray and the chase, to pray at peace, in shady
places. St. John of Malta and St. Stephen of Grandmont were men of
the like kidney. St. Benedict of Anian was that famous cup-bearer of
Charlemagne, who left serving the Emperor in hall and field, to serve a
greater master with less ostentation. He followed the example of that
St. Auxentius, who threw up his commission in the equestrian guard of
Theodosius the Younger, to take service in a body of monks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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