Digital Edition | March 2025

     Albert Pike had opinions on the first, certainly, casting it in an entirely metaphorical light. “The Knight, with us, is he who devotes his hand, his heart, his brain, to the Science of Masonry, and professes himself the Sworn Soldier of Truth.”1 Pike’s answer is satisfying to an extent, because it at least tells us that we are unlikely to be drafted into a crusade beyond the crusade for truth he feels we have already voluntarily enlisted in; but it doesn’t tell us why Masonry so often returns to the trappings of medieval fighting orders for its degrees.

     The answer, to the authors of this Fraternal Review edition, is that the code of chivalry offers vital lessons for the modern Mason. That beyond philosophically declaring ourselves as spiritual knights seeking truth, we can apply the ancient tenets of knighthood to our lives and fraternities and see benefits. There is a benefit to the more obvious tenets such as prowess (competence) and faith; but also, more abstract benefits, such as noblesse oblige and franchise. And we can answer the important question of “Why Chivalry” with the firm answer of “Because chivalry matters to the modern Mason.” It matters because, if the whole point of Masonry is to make good men better, the ancient tenets of Chivalry—adapted for the modern world from their historic origins—offers a philosophical framework for us to do so; because as Masonry teaches us to fear not death but the abandonment of our moral values, so Chivalry gives us a way of framing those values that is worthy of upholding, even in the face of death. After all, was that not the knightly quest—to seek honor first and its rewards second, even in the face of mortality?

• From the Guest Editors

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