King Arthur's Round Table served the actual orders
of knighthood as a model. Not only the Franciscans of Italy, but also
slow, German mystics, such as Suso and the profound Johannes Tauler,
delighted in borrowing their similes and metaphors from knighthood.
Tauler speaks of the "scarlet knightly robes" which Christ received for
His "knightly devotion": "And by His chivalric exploits he won those
knightly weapons which he wears before the Father and the angelic
knighthood. Therefore Christ exults when His knights elect also to put
on such knightly garments ...," etc.
Not infrequently the Saracens behaved far more generously than the
Christian armies. A German chronicler, Albert von Stade, tells us that
A.D. 1221 "the Sultan of Egypt of his own free will restored the Lord's
Cross, permitted the Christians to leave Egypt with all their
belongings, and commanded all prisoners to be set free, so that at that
time 30,000 captives were released. He also commanded his subjects to
sell food to the rich and give alms to the poor and the sick.
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