As for the Church, it contented itself with warning the knights against too bellicose a spirit, and with imbuing them as far as possible with the sentiments of Christian charity; in fact, knights were frequently considered to be a species of Levite. “There was,” says the “Ordène de Chevalerie”[10] “a great resemblance between the duties of a knight and those of a priest.” Thence the reason that the priest was “the hero of the faith,” and the knight “the pontiff of true honour.” Thence the name of _ordène_, or _ordination_, given to the investiture of knighthood. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish knight Don Ignatio de Loyola, who became so famous as the founder of the Order of the Jesuits, made himself a knight of the Virgin, and solemnised his entrance into God’s service, according to ancient custom, by keeping the _veillée des armes_[11] before the sacred image of the mother of Christ. The Church, although it seeks to maintain peace and has a horror of bloodshed, has never forbidden legitimate wars, and thus good King St. Louis never shrank on the field of battle from driving his sword up to the very hilt into his enemy’s heart. And the Church, whilst approving of the noble character as well as of the enthusiasm of chivalry, always endeavoured to restrain its more romantic and warlike tendencies. Its pacific and charitable spirit is expressed in the solemn blessing on the sword of a knight, which we take from the “pontifical:”--“Most holy Lord,” said the officiating prelate, “omnipotent Father, eternal God, who alone ordainest and disposest all things; who, to restrain the malice of the wicked and to protect justice, hast, by a wise arrangement, permitted the use of the sword to men upon this earth, and willed the institution of the military order for the protection of thy people; O thou who, by the mouth of the thrice-blessed John, didst tell the soldiers who came to seek him in the desert to oppress no one, but to rest content with their wages,--we humbly implore thy mercy, Lord. It is thou who gavest to thy servant David to overcome Goliath, and to Judas Maccabeus to triumph over the nations who did not worship thee; in like manner now to this thy servant here, who has come to bend his head beneath the military yoke, grant strength and courage for the defence of the faith and justice; grant him an increase of faith, hope, and charity; inspire him with thy fear and love; give him humility, perseverance, obedience, and patience; make his disposition in everything such that he may wound no person unjustly either with this sword or with any other, but that he may use it to defend all that is just and all that is right.”