A Knight’s Courage

A Knight’s Courage Stems From his Profundity of Soul and Love of Sublimity

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

All these are attitudes show a great profundity of soul; because in order to understand all this and proceed in this fashion, a soul must be very profound. Very profound does not necessarily mean very intelligent. A knight is not necessarily a philosopher, but he has a clear and profound vision of things whereby he perceives that if such thing is like this and that, then the consequence is that or the other. He is very logical, very consistent, and very strong. He is afraid of consequences. He draws all the consequences for himself and for others, cost what it may and be it as it may.

Police salute during the funeral service of fallen officer Vu Nguyen at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

Because of this, the knight loves sublimity. He likes to reflect and to ponder things from their highest aspects; he prefers serious, elevated, noble subjects to trite, commonplace and trivial things. For example, placed before a monument, he tries to perceive the sublimity of that monument. Placed before a church tower, he looks for the sublimity of that tower. Placed before a medieval suit of armor, he looks for the sublimity of that armor; for his whole soul is turned toward adoration and therefore he likes everything that is elevated and sublime, and despises everything that is banal, ordinary and unimportant. These are some traits of the knight’s soul.

These traits explain his courage. For a man only has the courage to sacrifice his life in one shot (and at times it is not to sacrifice his life but to become a crippled invalid for the rest of his life) if he understands well the high purpose for which he fights and if he is capable of a continuous and proactive love of that purpose. Without that he will not be courageous during battle.

Jean-Marie Caujolle was one of the first French soldiers to be wounded during World War One. Both his legs were blown off by a shell at Champagne.