Order of the Bath and foreign nationals may be made Honorary Members. The Order of the Bath is the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry, after The Most Noble Order of the Garter, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, and The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick (dormant). In the Middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the knight-to-be taking a bath (possibly symbolic of spiritual purification) during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry. Clothed in a special
Chivalry of the novel), though he was quite in agreement with many so-called chivalric principles and guides to behavior. He toyed with but was never able to write a chivalric romance that was historically truthful. The Italian humanist Petrarch is reported to have had no use for chivalry. Cross-cultural comparison Sociology Chivalry Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal, varying code of conduct developed between 1170 and 1220, never decided on or summarized in a single document, associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlewomen's behaviours were governed by chivalrous social codes. The ideals of chivalry were