Eddie Roman

Mr. Rauh
April 30, 2010
AP English 11
Semper Fidelis. Most Americans know this phrase as the motto of the U.S.
Marine Corps; what people fail to realize is this phrase is a great deal older than the
United States or the U.S. Marine Corps.
Semper Fidelis has been used by countless organizations-military and otherwise;
various families in feudal Europe on their coat of arms, the city of Abbeville, and the
Devonshire regiment among many others.
Older than all of the organizations that have used the phrase semper fidelis, is the
language it’s said in, Latin. The most common translation of Semper Fidelis into English
is: always faithful; there is another word that comes from fidelis though; fidelity.
So logically, the other translation of semper fidelis is always fidelity. Of course this
doesn’t sound correct grammatically, but if translated like so, semper fidelis takes on a
deeper meaning.
Fidelity itself incorporates faithfulness, but expands it to being faithful to a cause,
person, or belief (AskOxford). The earliest form of fidelity is the fidelity of man to its
Creator, whoever that might be, in ancient Egypt it was Atum, in Greece it was Zeus, and
in most of the western world the deity is simply known as God. No matter what you
believe, fidelity is always a central portion of that belief.
In medieval times, crusaders swore an oath to God and to a king. The honoring of
this oath is fidelity. After the crusades, swearing an oath barely, if ever, mentioned being
faithful to God at all. Fidelity then meant loyalty to a king, or your country. Gradually
fidelity faded away from the leader of the country and shifted in the direction of the
culture of the country, and the set of values exercised by that country. Sometime around
the release of Ford’s model T, fidelity became to one’s culture in terms of conforming to
that culture. Fidelity has transformed from faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, into
conformity.
Ancient culture revolved around whoever society viewed as their Creator,
in the case of the Jewish and Christian cultures, Yahweh.
Fidelity in religion is as old as the 10 commandments.
“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself
an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is
on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not
box down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous
God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth
generations of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the
thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my
commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:7-10)
As noted in the book of Deuteronomy, Yahweh demanded complete fidelity from the
peoples of the ancient world, even going so far as to threaten his people with taking out
punishment for their infidelity for four generations to come.
This threat of punishment is a key motivational factor in the expression of fidelity
of the peoples’ faith to Yahweh. Intimidation, is simply scaring someone into doing what
you want them to do. What worse threat can anyone present than your offspring’s well
being? The bond one has with their child is strong, even considered to be instinctual
(Good Society); therefore threatening to punish the offspring of the infidels, is one of the
most basic, and personal ways to procure fidelity to Yahweh.
There are a great many instances of Yahweh punishing or threatening to punish
his people, in scriptures written by his most faithful followers, most threats being
correlated to being unfaithful to Yahweh. Punishment is an extremely classical view on
motivating fidelity, stemming from the messages in the scriptures relating to Yahweh’s
punishment for infidelity.
This message of punishment for infidelity was carried into the crusades, and
medieval times, via the oath of the knights.
“Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that
God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death.
Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.” (Kingdom of
Heaven)
After this oath was taken the man being knighted, was struck in the face by the Baron,
who then said “and that is how you will remember it” (Kingdom of Heaven). This is
another form of punishment to motivate fidelity wherein the subject is punished before
they even have a chance to break their oath, so the subject can remember the punishment
if the subject ever contemplates being unfaithful.
There is a major difference in the punishment threatened by Yahweh and the
punishment offered in the oath sworn by the knight; the knight’s punishment is
immediate and physical, whereas the punishment instituted by Yahweh applies to the
offender’s descendants. The difference in these two punishments does have an effect on
the overall faithfulness procured by the oath taken. Still viewed today as a strong bond,
is a knight’s oath. Knights are still venerated and seen as heroes, by and large from
Hollywood’s portrayal of them, making their word a measure of the knight’s worth.
Whereas fidelity to a commitment to Yahweh is not nearly as prevalent, most people who
do attend a religious service don’t think twice about missing a service if they have
conflicting plans. This difference in the perception of strength of bonds can be attributed
to the length of time elapsed since the ideas were mainstream; since the knight’s oath is
more recent than the oath Yahweh presents his followers, it is not surprising that the
knight’s oath is seen as a stronger bond than the oath offered by Yahweh.
An even stronger bond is the bond every human has to society. Whether we like
it or not, we are expected to act within what society deems acceptable. If one does not
act within these standards set forth by society, there can be a couple different outcomes
including: shunning, being put in jail, or even death. To avoid these consequences, as
members of society, citizens conform to these fluid guidelines. This conformity is
generally unwavering, and completely faithful. One could even say that conforming to
society’s standards, is practicing fidelity towards humanity, and the standards set forth by
society.
Thus overtime, the fear of God, transferred to being the fear of breaking an oath,
which in turn transformed into the fear of going against society’s standards. This change
in fear, changed what people are faithful to, and by its very definition changed fidelity
from being faithful to God, to being faithful to society and its expectations.