What kind of order is the Order of the Phoenix?
I’ve always ignored the first part of the name of Dumbledore’s special group. “Phoenix” is interesting: Dumbledore’s familiar, connected to his interest in immortality, and possibly also connected to the name of Voldemort’s special group. (We see Fawkes “eat” death, or at least a Killing Curse. Maybe there’s some historical lore tying phoenixes to “eating death,” making it seem appropriate for a club hoping to learn a few things about immortality from their master? But we needn’t insist on this.) “Order” just makes it sound fancy. Right?
Maybe there’s more to it, though.
There are a few different types of “orders,” the definitions of which seem a bit fuzzy and sometimes overlap. I’m no expert and would welcome a more informed perspective!
Honorific orders or orders of merit are--roughly speaking--awards. You get a medal and maybe a special robe and fancy sash, and probably have occasional gatherings for all the cool people in the awards club. Maybe you organize charitable campaigns. The Order of Merlin seems to be this type, at least in the twentieth century.
Military orders were popular in the Middle Ages. They often started for a specific purpose, like protecting pilgrims, guarding and managing hospitals for lepers in the Holy Land, or defending the king’s claim to the throne of France during the Hundred Years’ War, though their activities often expanded (or conversely, dwindled) over the years. They often had a religious purpose, and members sometimes took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but members were usually laymen, and some orders were less religiously-oriented than others. If members weren’t already knights, being inducted into the order often made them so. Military orders that aren’t extinct seem mostly to have evolved into honorific orders. The point here to note is that at least in the beginning, members were expected to do something--usually fight.
Fraternal orders are organized societies dedicated to various aims: these could be charitable, religious or philosophical, academic, professional, political, mutual support, or purely social. Examples include the Freemasons, the Orange Order, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Loyal Order of the Moose.
The Order of the Phoenix seems closest to a secular military order. But that raises an interesting question. Unlike fraternal orders, which only need members who decide to organize themselves, orders of chivalry usually need official state sponsorship. The monarch or some equivalent “fount of honor” (whoever represents the state’s sovereign power) is the only person with the power to induct people into their nation’s orders of chivalry.
At least, this has been the case since about the late seventeenth century. Which is certainly an interesting date in the Potterverse. Before that, chivalric orders could be founded by private individuals. Though monarchs started claiming this power as theirs alone starting around the 13th century. (I guess it took them a while to succeed at monopolizing that privilege.)
What are the rules for chivalric orders in wizarding Britain? Conferring the Order of Merlin seems to be the prerogative of the Ministry for Magic, so they have been influenced by Muggle trends. But is it still legitimate for private individuals to found quasi-military orders?
And if Dumbledore as a private individual does not have the power to found a legitimate order, does that just mean the Order of the Phoenix is a phony order, or have they actually committed some form of treason? Perhaps only Moody, Frank, and Alice, if they repeated classified information they learned from the Auror Office. And Dumbledore, since starting a private vigilante group probably goes against his Wizengamot oath of office somehow.
Or is it a private organization? We don’t know when Dumbledore became Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, but he could have held that position for decades. Does the Chief Warlock have the power to found an order of chivalry? Is the Order of the Phoenix totally official? At least during the first war: since Dumbledore was no longer Chief Warlock at the beginning of OotP, maybe he no longer qualified as the head (Grand Master?) of the Order of the Phoenix either. That would make the Order’s activities in 1995 a mite dubious.
If it started as a legitimate, official organization, that would explain why they were able to fight “side by side” with the Ministry in the first war. And perhaps why they took that group photo.
On the other hand, it’s hard to see Dumbledore starting an organization subject to any kind of public scrutiny. What if the Wizengamot objected to one of his candidates? Could they make his life difficult if they really, really didn’t want him to induct Sirius Black, because they didn’t want to upset Arcturus? Suppose Dumbledore and Crouch disagreed over whether the three Auror members should take a particular action--whose authority was supreme? I can’t see Crouch being happy with his subordinates taking orders from anyone else either. Not even if the orders didn’t conflict with his. The whole situation seems like a recipe for trouble.
Is it possible to split the difference? Maybe Dumbledore technically has the power to found a chivalric order, but he, er, neglected to make it public that he’d done so. Or file paperwork that anyone but himself could access. There may have been rumors that some of Dumbledore’s friends and a handful of young Gryffindors were engaged in some kind of mutual protection, and maybe keeping an eye on people they considered dangerous. And some of those people were conveniently nearby a few times when the Aurors swooped in to bring someone in for questioning, and joined in the fighting. Maybe they even got temporarily deputized to help, if the Ministry does that. As long as it looked like they were just very involved concerned citizens, Dumbledore kept quiet about their being an actual order, while retaining the option of announcing their legitimacy if necessary. Presumably with the excuse that he hadn’t made their existence public before due to security concerns.
This seems like a dangerous game and doomed to fail at some point, but that’s consistent with many of Dumbledore’s other plans, so I can’t rule it out.
Does anyone have other ideas?
Maybe there’s more to it, though.
There are a few different types of “orders,” the definitions of which seem a bit fuzzy and sometimes overlap. I’m no expert and would welcome a more informed perspective!
Honorific orders or orders of merit are--roughly speaking--awards. You get a medal and maybe a special robe and fancy sash, and probably have occasional gatherings for all the cool people in the awards club. Maybe you organize charitable campaigns. The Order of Merlin seems to be this type, at least in the twentieth century.
Military orders were popular in the Middle Ages. They often started for a specific purpose, like protecting pilgrims, guarding and managing hospitals for lepers in the Holy Land, or defending the king’s claim to the throne of France during the Hundred Years’ War, though their activities often expanded (or conversely, dwindled) over the years. They often had a religious purpose, and members sometimes took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but members were usually laymen, and some orders were less religiously-oriented than others. If members weren’t already knights, being inducted into the order often made them so. Military orders that aren’t extinct seem mostly to have evolved into honorific orders. The point here to note is that at least in the beginning, members were expected to do something--usually fight.
Fraternal orders are organized societies dedicated to various aims: these could be charitable, religious or philosophical, academic, professional, political, mutual support, or purely social. Examples include the Freemasons, the Orange Order, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Loyal Order of the Moose.
The Order of the Phoenix seems closest to a secular military order. But that raises an interesting question. Unlike fraternal orders, which only need members who decide to organize themselves, orders of chivalry usually need official state sponsorship. The monarch or some equivalent “fount of honor” (whoever represents the state’s sovereign power) is the only person with the power to induct people into their nation’s orders of chivalry.
At least, this has been the case since about the late seventeenth century. Which is certainly an interesting date in the Potterverse. Before that, chivalric orders could be founded by private individuals. Though monarchs started claiming this power as theirs alone starting around the 13th century. (I guess it took them a while to succeed at monopolizing that privilege.)
What are the rules for chivalric orders in wizarding Britain? Conferring the Order of Merlin seems to be the prerogative of the Ministry for Magic, so they have been influenced by Muggle trends. But is it still legitimate for private individuals to found quasi-military orders?
And if Dumbledore as a private individual does not have the power to found a legitimate order, does that just mean the Order of the Phoenix is a phony order, or have they actually committed some form of treason? Perhaps only Moody, Frank, and Alice, if they repeated classified information they learned from the Auror Office. And Dumbledore, since starting a private vigilante group probably goes against his Wizengamot oath of office somehow.
Or is it a private organization? We don’t know when Dumbledore became Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, but he could have held that position for decades. Does the Chief Warlock have the power to found an order of chivalry? Is the Order of the Phoenix totally official? At least during the first war: since Dumbledore was no longer Chief Warlock at the beginning of OotP, maybe he no longer qualified as the head (Grand Master?) of the Order of the Phoenix either. That would make the Order’s activities in 1995 a mite dubious.
If it started as a legitimate, official organization, that would explain why they were able to fight “side by side” with the Ministry in the first war. And perhaps why they took that group photo.
On the other hand, it’s hard to see Dumbledore starting an organization subject to any kind of public scrutiny. What if the Wizengamot objected to one of his candidates? Could they make his life difficult if they really, really didn’t want him to induct Sirius Black, because they didn’t want to upset Arcturus? Suppose Dumbledore and Crouch disagreed over whether the three Auror members should take a particular action--whose authority was supreme? I can’t see Crouch being happy with his subordinates taking orders from anyone else either. Not even if the orders didn’t conflict with his. The whole situation seems like a recipe for trouble.
Is it possible to split the difference? Maybe Dumbledore technically has the power to found a chivalric order, but he, er, neglected to make it public that he’d done so. Or file paperwork that anyone but himself could access. There may have been rumors that some of Dumbledore’s friends and a handful of young Gryffindors were engaged in some kind of mutual protection, and maybe keeping an eye on people they considered dangerous. And some of those people were conveniently nearby a few times when the Aurors swooped in to bring someone in for questioning, and joined in the fighting. Maybe they even got temporarily deputized to help, if the Ministry does that. As long as it looked like they were just very involved concerned citizens, Dumbledore kept quiet about their being an actual order, while retaining the option of announcing their legitimacy if necessary. Presumably with the excuse that he hadn’t made their existence public before due to security concerns.
This seems like a dangerous game and doomed to fail at some point, but that’s consistent with many of Dumbledore’s other plans, so I can’t rule it out.
Does anyone have other ideas?