Re: Re: nobles and knighthood

From: Donald R. Oddy <donald_at_grove.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 02:14:50 GMT

In message <200505171418_MC3-1-9E7E-655F_at_compuserve.com> Andrew Barton writes:
>Jane Williams" <janewilliams20_at_yahoo.co.uk>
>>Mae:
>
>>> Huh? Bishop Odo carries a mace. For exactly the same reason that his
>>> brother William might - it's a symbol of authority. But it's also a
>>> knight's weapon.

>> Wasn't there also some theory about it not drawing blood, this being a
>> Bad Thing for priests?
>
>> I'm not claiming there can have been any logic or relation to reality
>> behind this theory, but I've heard that it existed.
>
>It's a D&Dism, present as far back as the Red Box books. I've never come
>across any other reference to it.

I remember it from school history, well before D&D. It was certainly a major character type distinction in 1st edition D&D.

>The Templars were priests and knights and they certainly used edged
>weapons.

I think it may have been a historian's interpretation that gained the status of accepted fact without any real evidence to back it up.

I've certainly not seen a reliable source for the idea.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/


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