KNIGHT
670
KNIGHTS
the hope of becoming a priest and spent all his spare
time in study. With the aid of a friendly priest he
was enabled to enter the gymnasium. Five years of
severe study and privation brought with it a break-
down in health and young Kneipp developed con-
sumption. His attention was called to the value of
hydrotherapy and he began some experiments on
himself. While at Dillingen during the winter of
18-19, he used to bathe for a few minutes two or three
times a week in the Danube, and then hurry home to
his room. He says: " I never derived any harm from
these cold exercises but also, as I deemed, small bene-
fit." His health was somewhat improved the next
year, and he entered the Oeorgianum, a seminary for
theological students at Munich, when he was nearly
thirty. Here he continued his hydrotherapeutic ex-
ercises and induced a fellow student to practise them.
He soon found that the old suggestions as to the use of
water were entirely too violent. He was ordained
priest in 1S52 and became chaplain successively in
Biberach, Boos, and St. George in Augsburg. In
1855 he was made confessor to the nuns at the con-
vent of Worishoien and assistant in the parish; in
1880 he became the parish priest.
While still a curate he practised hydrotherapy for the benefit of the poor, and his success in curing their ailments attracted wide attention. People from neighbouring parishes began to flock to him; the rich as well as the poor came to be treated, and his fame spread throughout Germany. His little book, "My Water Cure", went through many editions and was translated into many languages, while people from all over Europe began to flock to him. Many of them were greatly benefited. Pfarrer Kneipp's system consisted of the regulation of the daily life, through simplicity of diet, and the plentiful use of cold water internally and externally. Many of the recommenda- tions of cold water popularly attributed to him are exaggerations. He says most emphatically: "I warn all against too frequent application of cold water. Three times I concluded to remodel my system and relax the treatment from severity to mildness and thence to greater mildness still." His general rules were early to bed and early to rise, with a walk in the de-n'y grass in the bare feet, simple meals, no stimu- lants, not too much meat, and an abundance of cereals. To him we owe the idea of a cereal drink to replace tea and coffee. Kneipp Societies were formed in Germany and in the United States for the better execution of his regulations. Since his death they have dwindled, and his methods are being lost sight of, showing that it was the personality of the man rather than his system which gave him fame. He discovered nothing new, but systematized what was known before and had been allowed to lapse. Many well-known Europeans became his personal friends, and many prominent, and even royal, person- ages took up his method of treatment and were bene- fited. His "So sollt ihr leten" (1889) has been translated into many languages. Leo XIII made him a monsignor.
Kneipp. Meine Waaserkur contains a sketch of his life.
James J. Walsh.
Knight, William, Venerable, put to death for the Faith at York, on 29 November, 1596; with him also suffered Venerablcs Cieorge Errington of Herst, William Gibson of Ripoii, and William .\bbot of How- den, in Yorkshire. William Knight was the son of Leonard Knight and lived at South Duffield, Heming- ton. On coming of age he claimed some property, left to him bv his father, from his uncle, a Protestant, who denounced him to the authorities for being a Catholic; he was at once seized and committed to the custody of Colyer, a pursuivant, who treated him with indignity and" severity. He was sent in October,
) — , tr. Edinburgh, 1891),
1593, to York Castle, where William Gibson and George
Errington were already confined, the latter having
been arrested some years previously for participation
in a rising in the North. A certain Protestant clergy-
man chancetl to be among their fellow-prisoners. To
gain his freedom he had recourse to an act of treachery :
feigning a desire to become a Catholic, he won the
confidence of Knight and his two companions, who
explained the Faith to him. With the connivance of
the authorities, he was directed to one Henry Abbot,
then at liberty, who endeavoured to procure a priest
to reconcile him to the Church. Thereupon Abbot
was arrested and, together with Knight and his two
comrades, accused of persuading the clergyman to
embrace Catholicism — an act of treason under the
penal laws. They were found guilty, sentenced to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered, and suffered their
martyrdom with joy and fortitude at York, on 29
November, 1596.
Babthorpe. Recollections in Troubles of our Catholic Fore- fathers related by themselves. First series, ed. by Morris (Lon- don, 1872), 243-46; Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, III (London), 759.
A. A. MacErlean.
Knighton (Cnitthon), Henry, a fourteenth-cen- tury chronicler. Nothing is known of his career ex- cept that he was a canon of St. Mary's, Leicester, and that he was present when Edward III visited Leicester Abbey in 1363. His clironicle was first published by Twysden in "HistoriEe Anglicanee scriptores decern" (1652) ; a critical edition by Lumby in the Rolls Series contains an exhaustive study of the only two manu- scripts which have survived. Both are now in the British Museum. This work consists of five books and covers the history of England from the accession of Edgar in 959 to the year 1366, in which it abruptly ends. The sudden conclusion suggests that the writer died in or about that year, though from an earlier pas- sage in the work we know that he was threatened with blindness, so that he may have been forced to desist through loss of sight. A later writer from the same community continues the story (book V) from 1377 to 1395. The first three books are of no historical value, as they consist of admitted transcripts from Higden, whom Ivnighton supplements with unacknowledged extracts from Walter of Hemingburgh. He ensured the preservation of his own name by arranging that the initial letters of the chapters in books I and II should spell Henricus Cnitthon. The really important part of his work is the fourth book, which was written from his own knowledge, and which contains facts, particularly with regard to domestic history, not to be found in any other chronicler. A feature of special value is the economic particulars m which the work abounds. He carefully records the rate of wages, the prices of grain, wine, and cattle. He throws much hght on the effects of the Black Death on the labour market, and on the inroads made on the feudal system by the libera- tion of the adscripti glebce. He also details the evil effects of the pestilence which caused a dearth of priests that was supplied by the ordination of candi- dates ill-prepared and but little suited for the sacred ministry.
Chronwon Henrici Knighton vel Cnitthon Monachi Leycea- trensis, ed. Lumby in Rolls Series (London, 1889); Luard in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v. t, -r^
Edwin Burton.
Knights of Columbus, a fraternal and beneficent society of Catholic men, founded in New Haven, Conn., 2 Pel)., 188_', and incorporated under the laws of Connecticut, 29 March, 1882. The organizers and incorporators were the Reverend M. J. McCiivney. the Reverend P. P. Lawlor, James T. Mullen, Cornelius T. Driscoll, Dr. M. C. O'Connor, Daniel Colwcll, William M. Geary, John T. Kerrigan, Bartholomew Healey, and Michael Curran. The purpose of the society is to develop a practical Catholicity among its members, to
