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
Order of chivalry in the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Late Medieval Europe" (1987), the Canadian heraldist D'Arcy Boulton classifies chivalric orders as follows: Based on Boulton, this article distinguishes: Another occurrent chronological categorisation is into: Confraternal orders are orders of chivalry with the presidency attached to a nobleman: Fraternal orders are orders of chivalry that were formed off a vow & for a certain enterprise: Votive orders are orders of chivalry, temporarily formed on the basis of a vow. These were courtly chivalric games rather than actual pledges as in the case of the fraternal orders. Three are known from