A knight without charity may not be without cruelty and evil will, and cruelty and evil will accord not to the office of chivalry because that charity behooveth to be in a knight, for if a knight have not charity in God and in his neighbor, how or in what way should he love God? And if he had not pity on poor men, not mighty and diseased, how should he have mercy on the men taken and vanquished that demand mercy, as not of power to escape and may not find the finance that is of them demanded for their deliverance? And if a knight were not charitable, how might he be in the order of chivalry? Charity is a virtue above other virtues for she departeth every vice. (Book of the Order of Chivalry, Chap. VII).