2002-02-21 - 10:03 p.m.
Ordinarily I try to stay away from rebutting what other people say in their diary...but in this case I *have* to reply...
Andrew Posted this attack on a bunch of folks who are very close to me...in fact I am one of them.
I know precisely what brought this on. Andrew is a Member of a group that was recently chartered by a recent King of Atlantia under the Name "The Order of St. Aiden".
The King did this without consulting the Heralds, and there were *lots* of problems with how this was done. Ultimately the name and armory got submitted.
First, the initial armory was unpassable, because it was a *direct* conflict with someone else's. Then there was a flap over "Is this an Order, or a Household, or a Company, r what?"
Then there was a problem with the name. Ultimately, what got registered was "The Company of St. Aidan"
Now, a number of folks are upset, and thinking "the Heralds" are overstepping their bounds and doing this just because we don't like stick jocks and enjoy power trips.
I can't speak for everyone in the College of Arms, but I know that I, at least, do this because of a desire to help people have names and armory that at least approach something reasonable in period. And that is exactly what happened here.
St. Aidan is *not* an Order in the traditional sense. The big thing is that in *every* other Order in the SCA, Membership is bestowed by the Crown to whomever they wish. The Order may or may not be polled, but the Crown's will applies.
St. Aidan has it written into it's charter that the King can only induct those the Order requests. There's a name for that kind of group, and it's a "Company".
Likewise, there is a clause in the charter that states that the group can toss people out. That power is specifically denied in Corpora to anyone other than the Crown or BoD. Companies, on the other hand, can remove members at will.
There are other situations where St. Aidan doesn't fit into the traditional Order model, but it fits into the traditional Company model.
So, there are three options...1. Change the way the group works and make it more Orderlike, 2. Accept the fact that the group acts like a company and cope with that designator (or any one of a dozen others that would be Period and appropriate), or 3. Petition the Board to change the rules (to which I point out that the BoD has *never* overruled Laurel on a Heraldic issue).
The College of Heralds has the authority, per Corpora and BoD precedent, to regulate Names and Armory in the Society, in an effort to make things more accurate. We do a pretty good job. Unfortunately, lines have to be drawn.
As for the name change...the Laurel Herald had no choice. *ALL* of the documentation that was sent indicates that the Saint in question's name was spelled "AIDAN". AS it turns out, the calligropher who made the charter has admitted she typoed when she put Aiden on there.
So, Laurel has changed the name to the *correct* *period* spelling.
As for the Heraldic Baptism...Why yes Andrew, it is similar to an actual Period Ceremony, which occurs when Heralds are created (which these days only really occurs in England and Scotland). Is it exactly the same? No, it isn't.
On the other hand, neither is the ceremony making a Knight in the SCA. The Heraldic ceremony is at least shorter. How exactly does it hurt you to sit through 20 seconds of a Heraldic Baptism? Someday you may be Knighted, and when that happens, you will be the subject of *2* Courts, a prolonged vigil, and a 5 minute long ceremony that everyone in the audience will attend. A newly created Herald has a 20 second ceremony in front of one Court, and most folks won't even interrupt their conversations.
I also point out that Knights get doused with water too...rather heavily.
And as for the "they have no oversight over their self-appointed rules that the rest of us MUST obey" line...yes, there is oversight...it's called the Board of Directors.
Likewise, the Rules of the List are managed by an Earl Marshal, and the Heralds have no input into them. The Rules for A&S Competitions are controlled by MOAS's, and the Heralds have no input into them, nor do the fighters.
Yes, there are bad Heralds. Likewise, there are bad Marshals, bad MOAS's, bad Knights, and bad Kings. I haven't heard anyone suggest that we should burn all the Marshals.
I doubt this will even be read to this point by the people this is aimed at, but if you do read this far...please realize that you are not appearing chivalric at all.
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