THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF THE ORDER
GENERAL NOTE :
Our Diplomatic Mission, through its translation Office, will answer any in-coming correspondence written in French - English - German - Russian - Spanish and Dutch.
Due to the absence of an Ambassador in our Order, the services of our Embassy are reduced to a minimum. A direct result of this situation is that correspondence, once honoured (acknowledged) in one of the foreign languages listed above, will now be only honoured (answered) in French, English or German.
The Order adopted two official languages: Latin and French :
LATIN,
For its universality during more than a thousand years.
FRENCH,
Heir of Latin and Greek, being the world language of diplomacy par excellence, the language of the Sovereign Houses, of the nobility in Europe (Russia and the Middle East included), of the Knight Orders created at the time of the Big Crusades (except for the Teutonic Order), and the mother language of the founder of the Order in 1988.
- The Constitution (Statutes, Statutory Document and Internal Rules) of the Order are written in French. (Official Language of the Order). However, seen the considerable number of German Active Members, our Order translated these documente into German.
- The Charters of the Order are written in Latin or French. (Official Languages of the Order).
- The Procedures of the Investitures are either in French or in Latin. They may be translated into the language of the “Impétrants” to enable them to understand the various steps of their Knighting.
- The Publication of the Ordo Balliolensis, called “Bajulus” as well as other publications on the Internet is in English for universality reasons. Texts in the “Bajulus”, being written by occasional writers, are published in the language in which they were deposed at the redaction. Note: The publication of the Bajulus has been suspended since 2008, due to the consequences of state control over freedom of the press and expression, and the growing dangers posed by religious sects.....
- The Masterly Communications (CM), the Masterly Ordinances (OM) and the Diplomatic Missives (MD) intended for foreign Sovereigns or Higher Order authorities are, by respect, courtesy, and good manners, written in the language of the addressee. However, French and English, for obvious reasons of universality, will have at all time priority. Copies of these CM, OM and MD addressed to foreign Diplomatic missions “may” but “do not have to” be translated into French. Foreign Diplomatic Missions should have the above-mentioned documents translated by their own translation services. It would be odd diplomatic to claim or require such translations from the Ordo Balliolensis.
- It is mandatory for the Princes of our Order to speak, read and write fluently, in addition to French, at least one other international language such as English, German, Spanish or Russian. If not, they must have a secretariat that enable them to perfom their duties.