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The History Of the most Noble Order of the Garter : Wherein is set forth An Account of the Town Castle, Chapel, and College of Windsor; with their several Officers ; The Foundation of the Order by King Edward III. ; With the Statutes, and Annals at large, as they have been altered and amended ; An Account of the Habits, Ensigns and Officers of the Order ... To which is prefix'd, A Discourse of Knighthood in General, and the several Orders extant in Europe
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Atavis regibus ortns eques, Mart.

who afpired no higher, not out of any Incapacity ofattaining greater Honours, but that he defired them not,fays Paterculus : Yet at length, thro’ Corruption ofTimes, Plebeians and Freedmen being too frequently re-ceived into this Degree (too near a Parallel among theKnights of this Age) occafion’d their Power to growlefs and lefs, ’till it fhrunlcto nothing ; fo that the Pla-ces and Offices of Judges which they before had execu-ted, became conferrable upon the Publicans. And whenCicero was Conful, anno ab urbe conditi 690, the EquefirianOrder flood in need of Re-eftablifhment, whereuponthey were then incorporated into that Commonwealthin the third Degree, all Acts palling in the Name of theSenate, the People of Rome, and the Equejirian Order.

They often enjoy’d Abroad the Government offeveralProvinces, whereof Egypt had this peculiar to itfelf,that none of the Senators were admitted, but only thofeof the Equefirian Order, whofe Decrees Auguftus com-manded to be had in like Regard, as if the Magiftratesof Rome, or Kings, Confuls, or Prtetors, had pronoun-ced them.

As a Mark of Eminence , they had the Titles ofSplendtdi and Illujlres bellowed upon them, and fome-times have been called rnoji facred Knights.

And befides other Privileges, they had Seats with theSenators in the Circus Maximus 5 and by the Rofcian Law,fat next them in the Theatres: They had likewife aCollege called Collegium ■Equitum $ and Temples werededicated to the Goddefs Fortune, under the Title ofEquejlri Fortune.

Having fhewn the Dignity and Honours of the E-queflrian Order among the Romans, we fhall now touchupon the Degrees of Knighthood which have beenPerfonal, and may be comprehended under the ModernTitle of Equites Aurati, or Milites Shnplices, (asdiflin-guifh’d from the feveral Orders of Chivalry, inflitutedin Chriflendom.) In the Circumftance of whofe Crea-tion we confefs, nothing in the Roman Ordo Equejlri*bath place, tho’ that might be the Ground and Originalof the Dignity, and one common End in both, namely,the Purfuit of Military Exploits, and Service in theWars.

§. 4. Of

 
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