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TITLES OF HONOUR
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TITLES OF See also:HONOUR , " those various names of greatness or eminency, which are the most distinguishing titles of See also:civil dignity " (See also: Similarly, in the democratic countries of the See also:English-speaking world the See also:common See also:style of Mr (See also:master), also once a See also:prerogative of See also:gentle See also:birth, is See also:apt to become too See also:commonplace, and the official prefix of " See also:honourable " is assumed on very slender pretexts. For where titles are not planted, they tend to sow themselves.
Titles are also elaborated under cultivation; for they are apt to degenerate if too widely scattered, and need to be crossed with other varieties to produce a more markefable type. Thus See also: The first emperors were, in theory, merely citizens who alone and in a supreme degree were entitled to be the recipients of these honours. But the majestas reipublicae Romanae was soon identified with the See also:person of the emperor. Himself become the See also:fountain of honour, he showered his titular attributes upon those whom it was his whim or his policy to distinguish, while ever fresh styles were invented to illustrate his own unique dignity. For this purpose all the abstract terms , in the vocabulary of flattery were put under contribution, not even excepting the lofty attributes of See also:God (nostra eternitas, nostra perennitas, " most high," " most mighty," " most sacred See also:majesty "). This tendency ran See also:riot when the East See also:Roman See also:Empire had become byzantinized, until by the See also:middle ages there was—to quote Selden— " such innovation of titles as made the dignities of the empire almost ridiculous in those See also:strange and affected compounds." 2
From the See also:Byzantine court that of the Frankish emperors of the West largely borrowed its forms, and this again set the See also:fashion for the courts of lesser potentates. To this source, then, are due the honorary attributes, if not in all cases the titles, of the sovereigns of See also:modern Europe. Throughout the middle ages, indeed, there was no rigid classification of the abstract attributes (See also:highness, See also:eminence, See also:excellency, honour and the like) addressed in the second and third persons to sovereigns or other dignitaries. These depended very much on the See also:fancy of secretaries eager to display their Latinity—or even a smattering of See also:Greek—by
2 E.g. Sebastocrator, compounded of QENaorOS (See also:augustus) and Kpam v (to See also:rule), or panhypersebastos.
devising new forms). It was not until the 17th See also:century that they became fixed, under the See also:influence mainly of the newly organized See also:international See also:diplomatic service (see DIPLOMACY) But meanwhile they had See also:developed from the simplicity of the See also:early feudal age2 into a Byzantine pomposity, the exuberance of which bored even the ceremonious court of See also:Spain into a See also:free use of the pruning See also:knife.3 Honorary styles are, for the rest, now See also:mere stereotyped formulae; the words that compose them have become—to use See also:Emerson's phrase— " polarized " and deprived of meaning. Not otherwise could a German journalist, See also:late in the 19th century, have recorded, without exciting surprise, that " to-See also:day their All-highest majesties went to See also: They are traditional, and are mainly valued for this See also:reason. An imaginative person might devise a dozen styles in themselves better fitted to See also:express the See also:peculiar eminency of a successful See also:money-lender or a wealthy See also:brewer than the feudal title of See also:baron, or than that of See also:knight to indicate the qualities of a See also:Radical apostle of the See also:gospel of " See also:peace at any See also:price." But the instinct in these matters is to put new See also:wine into old bottles; and, on the whole, the bottles See also:bear the See also:strain. The process is, indeed, very old. See also: The first of the German Caesars See also:bore the name of Karl,5 which in itself means no more than " man " and in English speech has sunk to the base meaning of " See also:churl " (see See also: Modern English historians have tended to dissolve this immemorial See also:union in the See also:interest of historic accuracy. But " Charles " is only a degree less conventional than Charlemagne. 6 A parallel See also:case, but more obscure, of a proper name developing into a title is that of the curious title of " Dauphin," ultimately borne only by the See also:heir-apparent to the French See also:throne (see DAUPHIN).mainly with humble See also:police officials, in the United States with the humblest of all, the See also:village See also:constable only (see CONSTABLE). Less impressive perhaps is the See also:fate of the title " See also:valet," which, once that of a gentleman, has sunk to be that of a " gentleman's gentleman " (see VALET). The same word, too, develops differently in different See also:languages. The German Knecht remains a servant; in England the enlist has developed into the knight, just as the serviens (servant) survives in the very various modern uses of the title See also:serjeant (q v.). In one exalted case at least we even have a title based on a mistaken etymological See also:deduction. The title " Augustus," i.e. See also:sublime or sacred, used originally of persons or places consecrated by the auguries, is derived ultimately, in a passive sense, from augere, to increase. This led to the rendering of the Latin title " See also:semper Augustus," borne by the See also:Holy Roman emperors until 18o6, in German as " at all times augmenter of the empire " (zu See also:alien Zeiten Mehrer See also:des Reichs), a style as See also:ill-grounded in See also:etymology as it was lamentably untrue in fact? The fortunes of individual titles are outlined in the See also:separate articles devoted to them. Here it only remains to discuss them generally from the point of view of their classification according to origin and general See also:character. Of the styles that are mere attributes—like serene, honourable, See also:reverend—enough has been said; they are but stereotyped courtesies. Most titles proper, on the other hand, have in their origins a deeper significance. The title king, for instance, recalls a remote time when it was borne by right of kinship, as See also:head of a tribe (see KING). Other titles recall that forgotten See also:stage of society in which it was the rule for age to command and youth to obey: such as the French seigneur, sieur, sire, See also:monsieur, monseigneur; the See also:Italian signor, monsignore; the See also:Spanish senor, and the English " sir," all derived from senior, " older " (see MONSIEUR and SIR), itself a Latin See also:translation of a type of title which in the See also:Teutonic languages appears to survive only in the English See also:alderman (q.v.). Seigneur, sire and the rest developed, of course, into the equivalents, not of senior, but of dominus (lord). But the See also:idea of the title originally must have been the same as that of "See also:elder," like the Arab See also:sheikh (q.v.) or the starostas and starshinas of the Russian village communities; the seniores, in early feudal times, were the full grown fighting men as opposed to the pueri (boys), the unfledged squires and valets. Other titles are derived from the idea of command or rule: such are those of emperor (q.v.); the Latin rex (regere, to rule, See also:guide)—whence the French roi, Italian re and the English attributive style " royal "—and from the same common Indo- See also:European See also:root the See also:Indian titles of See also:raja and maharaja; the title of duke (q.v.); the Latin dominus, domino (originally, a master or See also:mistress in the See also:house, domus), whence the modern See also:dame, madame, mademoiselle, See also:don and See also:dam; the German Herr (cf. herrschen, to rule); or, to take an Oriental instance, that of sultan (Arabic salat, to rule). Some titles again are derived from mere ideas of See also:precedence, like that of "See also:prince" (q.v.), which may be described as the generic See also:sovereign title; the Spanish title of " See also:grandee " (q.v.); or that of " master " (q.v.), which as a title of honour survives in See also:Scotland. Very rare are the titles of honour that have their origin in the idea of gentle birth, which indeed, in earlier times, was predicated of all wearers of titles in Europe. The only modern See also:equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon cetheling (q.v.) in Europe would appear to be the See also:Austrian title of Edler, which means, strictly speaking, no more than " noble," though it implies a rank higher than that of the untitled Adeliger. The English title "See also:earl" (q.v.) has a similar origin, but passed through the stage of an official style as the equivalent of " count." The word " gentleman" (q.v.) is not a title, any more than the French gentilhomme; it is, in. so far as it is used in any definite sense at all, an attribute, like the German hochwolgeboren or the Russian barin—the equivalent of the Latin generosus, " well-See also:born." In the See also:Mahommedan East its equivalent, in the sense of well-born, is the Arabic title sherif,
7 So See also:Rigord, the See also: The most characteristic and familiar of English titles, again, that of " lord," carries us back to a very primitive See also:state, when the lord was See also:par excellence the " See also:loaf-See also:warden " (hlaf-ord, hlaf-weard). Here it may be noted that the title " lord " has no See also:foreign European equivalent: the German Herr (though Herrenhaus is strictly House of Lords), the Italian signor, the Spanish senor, the Slavonic See also:pan and the Greek Kupws are all equivocal, being used most commonly in the sense of Mr (Master). Even the French do not translate " lord " by monseigneur (though seigneur is strictly speaking its equivalent), and still less by monsieur, though the ancient See also:custom has survived of using the latter colloquially in See also:place of all titles,' but by milord. Lastly there are two important European titles derived from See also:personal relations with the sovereign, though they have long ceased to have any such See also:connotation. Of these the See also:oldest is that of " count," which goes back to the comites (companions) of the early Roman emperors (see COUNT); the second is " baron," originally meaning no more than `"` man " and so, under the feudal See also:system, the king's " men " par excellence, the great tenants-in-See also:chief of the See also:crown (see BARON). In England the barons formed and See also:form the See also:body of the See also:peerage, "peer" not being a title of honour, but the description of a status and See also:function bestowed by their creation upon all barons, .viscounts, earls, marquesses and dukes (see PEERAGE). In France, on the other hand, "peer " (pair) was under the old See also:monarchy a title of honour; for not even all dukes were peers of France, and the style of such as were, therefore, ran duc et pair. From the above it will already have become apparent that titles of honour, as they now survive in Europe, are picturesque See also:relics of the feudal system (see See also:FEUDALISM). In theory they are still territorial, and it is the shadowy See also:suggestion of landed See also:estate that gives, in France and See also:Germany, to the nobiliary particles de and von their mystic virtue? In Great See also:Britain there has been of late years a tendency in the case of some newly made peers to drop the affectation of territorial power. In the case of some titles, e.g. Earl See also:Carrington—this merely follows a very ancient English tradition; even under the feudal system after the Norman See also:Conquest it was not unusual for the great nobles to use their titles with their See also:family names or those of their fiefs indifferently; for instance, the Norman earls of See also:Derby described themselves, as often as not, as Earls See also:Ferrers (see DERBY, EARLS OF). See also:Convention, however, dictates that barons and viscounts should, on creation, adopt a territorial style. In the case of such titles as Lord James of See also:Hereford and Lord See also:Morley of See also:Blackburn, this style is adopted from the place of birth; for which a certain precedent might perhaps be pleaded in the medieval custom exemplified in such names for royal princes as " John of Gaunt " or " Henry of See also:Woodstock." On the other hand, there has been also a somewhat absurd tendency to exaggerate the territorial styles by piling one on the See also:top of the other. It would be invidious to mention actual instances; but the process may be illustrated by the imaginary title of Baron Coneyhurst of See also:Ockley. From the fact that, as feudalism developed, fiefs became hereditary, it comes that most European titles of honour are hereditary. See also:Knighthood alone formed, in general, an exception to this rule. Yet, in their origin, no one of the titles familiar to us were descendible from See also:father to son, and the only hereditary quality was that of abstract nobility. Yet, by a curious See also:inversion of the whole idea of titles of honour, an inherited title has come to be far more valued than one bestowed;3 it has the ' E.g. Monsieur de la Rochefoucauld, for M. le duc de la R. In the United Kingdom the parallel custom stops short of dukes. All • other peers, from marquesses to barons, are commonly spoken of and addressed by the title of lord. 2 In Germany a distinction is See also:drawn between those titles derived from estates still held by the head of the family and those that are landless. The latter are simply " of " (von), the former are " of and at " (von and zu). 2 Thus in the Instructions annexed to the See also:commission for the selection of the new See also:order of baronets, King James I. gives these precedence over knights, " because this is a Dignity, which shall be Hereditary, wherein See also:divers circumstances are more considerable, than such a Mark as is but Temporary." (Selden, op. cit. p. 685.)peculiarly aristocratic virtue ascribed by Lord See also:Palmerston to the most Noble Order of the Garter: " There is no damned merit about it;" it has the crowning quality that it must needs be the See also:monopoly of the few. Hereditary titles sink in value, indeed, just in proportion as they become common. In the United Kingdom their value has been kept up by the rule of See also:primogeniture: there can be only one See also:bearer of such a title in a single generation. In France custom distributes the various titles of a family among all the sons, the eldest son, for instance, of a duke inheriting his dukedom, the second son his marquisate, the third his countship, and so on. In Germany and See also:Austria titles pass to all the sons in each successive generation, though in See also:Prussia the rule of primogeniture has been introduced in the case of certain new creations (e.g. See also:Furst, prince). The result is that equivalent titles vary enormously in social significance in different countries. An attempt has been made to estimate the extent of this variation in the case of individual titles in articles devoted to them. Here we need only illustrate the See also:argument by one striking example. The Russian title of " prince " (knyaz) implies undoubted descent from the great reigning houses of See also:Russia, See also:Poland and Lithuania; but the title descends to all male See also:children, none of whom is entitled to re-present it par excellence. There may be three or four See also:hundred princes bearing the same distinguished name; of these some may be great nobles, but others are not seldom found in quite humble capacities—waiters or See also:droshky-drivers. The title in itself has little social value. In the countries east of the marches of the old Empire, i.e. See also:Hungary and the Slav lands, existing titles are partly developed from the native tradition (feudal in Hungary, Bohemia and Poland; autocratic and Oriental in Russia and the lands of the See also:Balkan See also:peninsula), partly borrowed from the West, like that of gr6f (count) in Hungary and See also:graf in Russia. Just as in autocratic Russia the See also:sole indigenous title of honour (knyaz) is associated with royal descent,4 so in the Mahommedan East there are, outside the reigning families, no hereditary titles, except that of sherif, already mentioned. In See also:India the hereditary styles of certain great Mahommedan nobles are exceptions that prove the rule; they represent reigning families whose raj has been absorbed in the imperial See also:government, and they are still reigning princes in the sense in which the heads of German mediatized houses are so described (see See also:MEDIATIZATION). For the rest, the titles of Oriental princes follow much the same gradation as those of the West. As See also:caliph (q.v.), or See also:vicar of the Prophet, the Ottoman sultan is in See also:Islam the equivalent of the pope in Roman Catholic Christendom; his imperial dignity is signified by the See also:Persian title of See also:padishah (lord king), his function as See also:leader of a militant See also:religion by the style of " See also:commander of the faithful " (see See also:AMIR). Shah is in See also:Persia the equivalent of king; the style of shah-in-shah, king of See also:kings, recalls the days of the Persian " great king " familiar in the Old Testament. See also:Khan (prince) and amir (commander, lord) are other Eastern sovereign titles. See also:Pasha and See also:bey, originally exclusively military titles, are now used also as civilian titles of honour, but they are not hereditary. When the pashalik of See also:Egypt was made hereditary the situation was ultimately regularized by bestowing on the pasha the Persian title of See also:khedive (q.v.). In the Far East, See also:Japan has adopted a system of titles, based on her ancient feudal See also:hierarchy, which closely corresponds to that of Europe (see JAPAN). See also:China, on the other hand, stands apart in the curious custom of bestowing titles on the ancestors of persons to be honoured, and in making them hereditary only for a limited number of generations (see CHINA: Social Customs). In Europe such posthumous honours are rendered only in the case of See also:saints (see See also:CANONIZATION).
Of ecclesiastical titles of honour it can only be said that they tend to an even greater exaggeration than those bestowed on See also:secular dignities. The swelling styles of the Eastern patriarchs are relics of the days when Rome, Constantinople, See also:Antioch, See also:Alexandria and See also:Jerusalem were vying with each other for precedence (see CHURCH HISTORY and See also:PATRIARCH). The style
4 The designation barin (boyarin, See also:boyar) is not, properly speaking, a title, but the equivalent of " gentleman."
of the See also:bishop of Rome, who alone in the Western Church retains the name of pope, includes the old Roman titles of See also:pontifex See also:maximus and pater patriae, and always in his signatures the proudly humble phrase " slave of the slaves of God " (servus servorum Dei), based on Matt. xx. 27 (see PoPE). Of ecclesiastical titles those expressing orders and no more—See also:priest, See also:deacon, sub-deacon and the rest—are never honorary (Prester John, q.v., is a shadowy medieval exception). Those expressing office, whether in the Church at large (patriarch, See also:archbishop, &c.), or in the papal court (e.g. protonotary), are often merely honorary. That of bishop even became for a time, after the See also:Reformation, a title borne by certain secular princes (see BISHOP). " See also:Cardinal," which with the predicate Eminence (q.v.) is now reserved for the princes of the Roman Church, was at one time the honorary style of the chief See also:clergy of great cathedrals generally (see CARDINAL). " See also: As for the See also:archdeacon, it is only in the Church of England that he can be still defined as " one who performs archidiaconal functions"; elsewhere, if he exists at all, he is purely titular (see ARCHDEACON). Among titles of honour, finally, may be reckoned honorary degrees bestowed by See also:universities, the pope, and in England by the archbishop of See also:Canterbury. Any degree may be bestowed honoris causa. The universities of See also:Oxford and See also:Cambridge thus regularly bestow the degree of D.D. (See also:doctor of divinity) on those of their alumni who become bishops. It is also the custom to bestow honorary degrees at the yearly " See also:Commemoration " (generally D.C.L., doctor of civil See also:law, at Oxford ; LL.D., doctor of See also:laws, at Cambridge) on a selected See also:list of eminent personages. The right of the archbishop of Canterbury to confer degrees honoris causa, known as " See also:Lambeth degrees," is sup-posed to be derived from one of his powers as legatos natus of the pope, which survived the Reformation. An attempt was made by some of the Swiss reformers of the 16th century to abolish degrees. They were certainly " popish " in their origin, and others besides See also:Herbert See also:Spencer have objected to them as misleading, since they are by no means necessarily a hall-mark of learning. They tend, however, to multiply rather than to decrease in number, and in England some See also:criticism has been aroused by the growing custom in certain quarters of assuming degrees (notably that of D.D.) granted corruptly, or for wholly insufficient reasons, by certain so-called " universities," notably in the United States. For a list of the degrees of the principal universities and their hoods, see UNIVERSITIES, ad fin. The history of many peerage and other titles is outlined in the articles on historic families in this work. For See also:British peerage titles the standard work is G. E. C. (okayne)'s See also:Complete Peerage (See also:rat ed., 8 vols., 1887; new ed., vol. i., 1910). For baronets and others see the manuals of See also:Burke and Debrett. The standard authority for the royal houses and " high nobility " of Europe is the Almanach de See also:Gotha, published yearly. See also the article NoBILITY, and for further references the authorities attached' to those on individual titles, e.g. COUNT. (W. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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