Note 63 — Chapter XII · : Feudal Weapons and Horses. Dubbing a Knight.

As chivalry took on its later and more religious cast, all the acts of an adubbement became clothed with allegorical meaning—e.g. besides the bath, the candidate must lie down (at least for a moment) upon a bed, because "it was an emblem of the rest which God grants to His followers, the brave knights." The candidate's snow-white shirt is to show that "he must keep his flesh from every stain if he would hope to reach heaven." His scarlet robe shows that he "must be ready to pour out his blood for Holy Church." His trunk hose of brown silk "remind him by their somber hue he must die." His white girdle "warns him that his soul should be stainless."