( 4 S6 )
CAP. XXIIL
The ObferVation of the Grandabjent IQiigbts.
jib fen t Knights enjoined to obferveFeafi.
Feafi by
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§ l. TTYAving fnewn with what Magnificence and Ce- f.> 1D 'g 1 I remony the Feaft of St. George has been, and ,ought to be obfervcd ; as alfo how ftriftly ‘W ci fthe Statutes oblige the Knights-Companions to appear an. ‘W? 1 .nually thereat; and what fevere Penalties they are liableto, if abfent, except on reafonable Cattle of Abfence.
Yet left the Honour might receive diminution, from toofnvtll an Appearance at its publick Solemnities ; it wasfarther at the L.ftitution of the Order Decreed : That 1®'°?'none of them ftxuid depart the Kingdom, without fir ft ac- ilk^ 1quainting the Sovereign, and obtaining his fpecial Leave and )fG*t aLicet,fe ; neverthelcls the Sovereign granted them Licenfeto go beyond Sea, before the reft of his Subjects, if they iCtappewere ailpos’d to undertake any Military Expedition, from d Bui•whence any Glory of Knighthood might be hop'd for. . stpi,'It was then by the eleventh Article alfo ordained; (on tsfainjwhatfoever cccafion the Abfence might be,) T hat where. This Dtifoever any of the Knights-Companions refided, during the ««fetfaid Feafi, they fitould wear their Mantles of the Order, wfonnfrom the Hour of the firji Vefpers on the Eve of St. George, tiisobitill the fectnd Vefpers on the Feafi Day were finifhed ; as saittitithey f',n ,1 have done, had they been prefent in Perfon, ni,n|]with the Sovereign or his Deputy, during tire whole Cckbrtt-.tion of the Feafi ; [in cafe they were not deprived of their 4ajtJLiberty.) the Prorogation of the Feaft notwithftanding. iiajj.
King Henry VIII. obferving the Cuftom of thele Cele-brations’ began to be negledted, in the eleventh year of his p ,Reign, enlarged the Law in this particular, explaining 1 11the Paid eleventh Article. He declar’d and enjdn’d thewearing of the whole Habit cn the Eve of St. George, if '>!,]nthe Knight-Companion were pot under reftraint. Then he
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