Seldom before the age of twenty-one was a squire admitted to the full dignity of chivalry. Chaucer's squire was twenty, and had achieved feats of arms. St. Louis particularly commanded that the honour of knighthood should not be conferred upon any man under the age of twenty-one. As the time approached for the completing and crowning of his character, his religious duties became more strictly enforced. Knighthood was assimilated, as much as possible, to the clerical state, and prayer, confession, and fasting were necessary for the candidate for both. The squire had his sponsors, the emblems of spiritual regeneration were applied to him, and the ceremonies of inauguration commenced by considering him a new man. He went into a bath, and then was placed in a bed. They were symbolical, the bath of purity of soul, and the bed of the rest which he was hereafter to enjoy in paradise. In the middle ages people generally reposed naked[72], and it was not till after he had slept that the neophyte was clad with a shirt. This white dress was considered symbolical of the purity of his new character. A red garment was thrown over him to mark his resolution to shed his blood in the cause of Heaven. The vigil of arms was a necessary preliminary to knighthood. The night before his inauguration he passed in a church, armed from head to foot[73], and engaged in prayer and religious meditation. One of the last acts of preparation was the shaving of his head to make its appearance resemble that of the ecclesiastical tonsure. To part with hair was always regarded in the church as a symbol of servitude to God.[74] [Sidenote: The inauguration.]