er your horses with silken trappings, and I know not how much fine
cloth hangs pendent from your coats of mail. Ye paint your spears,
shields, and saddles; your bridles and spurs are adorned on all sides
with gold and silver and gems, and with all this pomp, with a shameful
fury and a reckless insensibility, ye rush on to death. Are these
military ensigns, or are they not rather the garnishments of women? Can
it happen that the sharp-pointed sword of the enemy will respect gold,
will it spare gems, will it be unable to penetrate the silken garment?

"As ye yourselves have often experienced, three things are indispensably
necessary to the success of the soldier: he must, for example, be bold,
active, and circumspect; quick in running, prompt in striking; ye,
however, to the disgust of the eye, nourish your hair after the manner
of women, ye gather around your footsteps long and flowing vestures, ye
bury up your delicate and tender hands in ample and wide-spreading
sleeves. Among you indeed naught provoketh war or awakeneth strife, but
either an irrational impulse of anger or an insane lust of glory or the
covetous desire of possessing another man's lands and possessions. In
such cases it is neither safe to slay nor to be slain.... But the
soldiers of Christ indeed securely fight the battles of their Lord, in
no wise fearing sin, either from the slaughter of the enemy or danger
from their own death. When indeed death is to be given or received for
Christ, it has naught of crime in it, but much of glory....

"And now for an example, or to the confusion of our soldiers fighting
not manifestly for God, but for the devil, we will briefly display the
mode of life of the Knights of Christ, such as it is in the field and in
the convent, by which means it will be made plainly manifest to what
extent the soldiery of God and the soldiery of the World differ from one
another.... The soldiers of Christ live together in common in an
agreeable but frugal manner, without wives and without children; and
that nothing may be wanting to evangelical perfection, they dwell
together without property of any kind, in one house, under one rule,
careful to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. You
may say that to the whole multitude there is but one heart and one soul,
as each one in no respect followeth after his own will or desire, but is
diligent to do the will of the Master. They are never idle nor rambling
abroad, but, when t