[Sca-cooks] OT- Peerage Oaths

Celia des Archier CeliadesArchier at cox.net
Mon Mar 23 12:28:52 PDT 2009


Someone (uncredited - and I missed it) said: 
> > Note that all such oaths are optional, as per SCA corpora, and that  
> > when
> > an individual is unwilling to swear an oath for religious or other
> > reasons an alternate ceremony must be allowed for which doesn't  
> > involve
> > an oath.

To which Solveig Throndardottir replied: 
> Except for the chivalry which is divided into two parts for precisely  
> this reason.

And Doc contributed: 
<<I believe that even the chivalry must allow for an alternative ceremony.
 Per corpora, the Society must allow participants to engage in the
*full* range of activities - which would include being a Knight rather
than a Master of Arms - without requiring an actual oath. >>

Actually, the chivalry *does* allow for an alternative ceremony - it is the one which inducts a Master of Arms into the Chivalry.
The only difference between a Master of Arms and a Knight is that an MoA does not swear fealty... they are both members of the
Chivalry, and of equal rank.  Indeed, they are equal in all ways.  I am not a member of the Chivalry, but one of my best friends
back in my old barony was an MoA, and he explained that he was an MoA rather than a Knight specifically because his religious
beliefs prohibited him from swearing fealty to an unknown King (he had no problems with swearing fealty to a *real* King, a specific
King, but he could not swear a pretend fealty to a pretend King, especially one which changed every 6 months.) 

So having the alternative to become an MoA rather than a Knight *does* allow participants to participate in the full range of
activities, as the ranks are equivalent. 

In service, 
Celia




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