In the Palestinian period the Hospitallers fought for the defense of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem; together with the Templars they supplied the best-trained and disciplined troops and, especially in the times of disaster, their forces were the most stable and reliable. During the last forty years of the kingdom the defense of the country rested almost completely upon these two military orders.[9]
In the armies of the Christians in the Holy Land the knights formed a sort of division, composed of between 300 and 500 knights and a number of hired soldiers. This division was sometimes used as a flank, but more often as a vanguard or rear guard. Besides, the knights built and garrisoned an impressive number of fortresses of which the most powerful were Margat and Crac.
Only seven knights of St. John, including the master, survived the fall of Acre in 1291. They found asylum on the island of Cyprus. During their years there, the knights began to build up a naval force. With this they conquered the island of Rhodes, where they were firmly established in 1308. Thus they became known as Knights of Rhodes.[10]
At Rhodes the knights reached the peak of power and influence, never quite attained in the same measure before or after. And this is all the more remarkable because the number of knights on the island never exceeded three hundred. By building enormous fortifications they made the island an almost impregnable bastion against the attacks of the Mamelukes of Egypt and Syria and the Turks of Constantinople. With their naval power they started a new type of warfare against the old enemies. In Rhodes the knights became a sovereign power like the sea republics of Italy or the Hanseatic cities in Germany.[11]Their navy flew its own flag,a white cross on a red field, they minted their own money, they concluded treaties with other sovereign states on the basis of equality and they had their diplomatic representatives at many courts. After repulsing numerous attacks, the knights finally were overwhelmed by a strong expeditionary force under Sultan Soliman I and capitulated Dec. 21, 1522.
Once again the remaining knights drifted around in search of a dwelling place; they established their capital successively in Crete, Messina, Baia, Viterbo, and Nizza. Finally, on March 24, 1530, they obtained from Emperor Charles V, in his capacity as king of Sicily, the island of Malta and adjacent islands as a “perpetual and free feud.” The only obligation attached to this transfer was that the knights should annually, on the feast of All Saints, offer a falcon or a hawk to the King of Sicily, whoever he might be. Thus the Order of Saint John became a feudatory of the kingdom of Sicily territorially, but as a religious order it continued dependent on the authority of the Holy See. From their key position in the Mediterranean, the knights watched the movements of the Turkish fleet and engaged in battle the corsairs from Tripoli and the other Barbary States. Twice a year the order equipped a “caravan,” namely a naval expedition, to ferret out pirates along the coastline of the Mediterranean. As in Rhodes, in Malta the knights sustained several attacks from the Turks, the most memorable of which was the “Great Siege” (1565). The knights were victorious on all occasions. However, in the eighteenth century a decline in spirit and in discipline set in. What the Turks failed to achieve, Napoleon did; on his way to Egypt, without striking a blow he captured the fortress of Malta, believed to be impregnable (June 12, 1798). The weak Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch soon resigned and the order established a provisional headquarters at Trieste which at the time was under Austria.
A peculiar situation then arose: an orthodox emperor made himself Grand Master of this thoroughly Catholic Order of St. John. Paul I of Russia, who for some time had in mind using the Hospitallers and their island bastion for political purposes, had managed to establish a grand priory in Russia. The Russian knights in 1798 elected Paul as Grand Master, but he died in 1801 without being able to do anything on behalf of the order. With England taking Malta from the French in 1800, the old capital was lost for good.
Upon the loss of Malta the order reached the lowest point in all its glorious history. The order’s headquarters shifted from Messina to Catania to Ferrara and finally in 1834 they were established in Rome. The knights had one more grand master after Paul I, but when he died in 1805, the Pope allowed them only to elect lieutenant grand masters who were to be ratified by him. This state of affairs continued for seventy-four years until Leo XIII by a Bull of March 29, 1879, re-established the office of grand master with headquarters in Rome.[12]
From then on the order regained part of its old vitality. It had lost its territorial sovereignty, military activities had ceased, but it now reverted to its original objective:obsequium pauperum. The order became again a welfare and charity organization. Looking back over its long history one might say that at first its master was the superintendent of a hospital, then he became a commanding army general (to which office he subsequently added that of an admiral), and in this age the grand master has become the president of an international Catholic White Cross which at times collaborates with the international Red Cross.
The order has built and maintains an impressive number of hospitals—in Italy alone there are 19 with a total of 5,290 beds; it takes care of a number of children’s homes, child centers and trade schools for abandoned children. During the two world wars, the order established military hospitals and had a number of ambulance trains and airplanes for the transport of wounded soldiers; in catastrophes such as earthquakes or other disasters it provides food and medical help. It also extends financial and medical assistance to the Catholic foreign missions.[13]
Expenses involved in these activities are paid out of the revenues from the remaining properties of the order and the contributions of its members throughout the world.
The present organization of the Order of Malta consists of three large categories, each subdivided into a number of ranks.[14]Theyare the Knights of Justice, who take the three monastic vows and form the strictly religious nucleus of the order; the Knights of Honour and Devotion who are required to furnish proof of ancient nobility; the Knights of Magistral Grace who are affiliated to the order and are somewhat reminiscent of the old class of sergeants-at-arms. Besides, there are three other groups: the Chaplains, Dames of Honour and Devotion, and the Donates. The grand master may bestow on persons outside the order the Cross of Merit of the Order of Malta, an honour which may be conferred also on non-Catholics and consists of five classes.
The Order of Malta is divided into five grand priories and fourteen national associations, including the “Association of Master Knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the United States of America.” Those knights who do not belong to any of the priories or associations depend directly on the grand master and are calledKnights in Gremio Religionis.[15]
The Order of St. John, although deprived of its territory, retains its sovereign character. The palace of the grand master and the other houses in Rome are extra-territorial, that is to say enjoy the same privilege as that accorded to the other foreign embassies and legations; the order issues its own diplomatic passports and entertains diplomatic missions and legations in several countries.[16]
Recently the legal status of the Order of Malta in the Church has been defined with greater precision. Pope Pius XII, on Dec. 10, 1951, appointed a special tribunal of five cardinals, presided over by the Dean of the Sacred College, Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, in order to determine the nature of the order and the extent of its competence both as a sovereign and as a religious institution, as well as its relationship to the Holy See. After long discussions the commission of cardinals on Jan. 24, 1953, gave the following unanimous verdict:[17]
The Order of Malta is a sovereign order, inasmuch as it enjoys certain prerogatives which, according to the principles of internationallaw, are proper to sovereignty. These rights have been recognized by the Holy See and a number of states. However, these rights do not comprise all the powers and prerogatives that belong to sovereign states in the full sense of the word.
Insofar as the Order of Malta is composed of knights and chaplains, it is a “religio” and more precisely a religious order, approved by the Holy See, according to theCodex juris canonici, Can. 487 and 488, nn. 1 and 2. The purpose of this order is, besides the sanctification of its members, also the pursuit of religious objectives, charity, and welfare work.
The sovereign and the religious character of the order are intimately related, inasmuch as the former serves to attain the objectives of the order as a religious institution and its development in the world.
The Order of Malta depends on the Holy See and, as a religious order, on the Sacred Congregation of Religious.
Those persons who have obtained marks of distinction from the order and the associations of these persons depend on the order, and, through it, on the Holy See.
Questions concerning the institution’s character as a sovereign order are treated by the Secretariat of State of His Holiness. Those of a mixed nature are received by the Sacred Congregation of Religious in accord with the Secretariat of State.
The present decisions do not interfere with the order’s acquired rights, customs and privileges which the Popes have granted or recognized, inasfar as they are still in force according to the norms of canon law[18]and the order’s own constitutions.[19]
The origin of the Order of the Teutonic Knights was practically the same as that of the Order of Saint John: the Teutonic Order sprang from a fraternity of lay men engaged in charitable work. A number of crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck in Germany,under the leadership of a certain Meister Sigebrand, operated a field hospital during the dreadful winter of the Siege of Acre (1190 A.D.), when the Christian army through famine and sickness was almost decimated. Pope Clement III, recognizing the remarkable services of the confraternity, gave it his approbation in 1191; the first Superior of this religious congregation was Conrad, chaplain of Fredrick of Swabia. During the next eight years a number of German knights joined, and the community gradually assumed the character of a military order of knighthood, becoming known as the Teutonic Knights of the Hospital of Saint Mary of Jerusalem. The Pope approved the Order in 1199 with Henry Walpott of Bossenheim as first master. The new order was organized along the same lines as the Hospitallers; it comprised professed knights, priests and lay brothers and its purpose was to care for the poor and the sick as well as to wage war against the foes of Christendom. Like the Hospitallers, the knights followed the Augustinian rule, but whereas the former wore a black mantle with a white cross, the Teutonic Knights adopted a white mantle with a black cross. Only German candidates were eligible for the new order, which rapidly grew in numbers and influence. This may have been due to the fact that the German knights, always resentful of the predominantly Latin influence in the existing military orders, were only too happy to have an organization of their own and thus gave it strong support. The fourth Master, Hermann of Salza (1210-1239), shifted the military activities of his order from Palestine, first to Hungary, and then to the northeastern frontier of Germany, where the order engaged in fighting the heathen Prussians. But although the Knights operated mainly in Prussia, their general headquarters still continued at Acre, until the latter fell in 1291, after which they transferred to Venice. Finally, in 1309, the seat of the order was established in the famous fortress of Marienburg in Prussia.[20]
In 1236 the Teutonic Order absorbed the remnants of the Brothers of the Sword, an order of knighthood which had been founded some thirty-four years earlier for the purpose of subjugating and christianizing the peoples of the Baltic countries of Livonia,Lettonia and Esthonia (now known as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia).
Thus the Teutonic Knights prevailed in these countries. By donations and conquest the knights gradually increased their holdings, until they included large parts of Prussia, Kurland and Lithuania. Although these followers of Christ used the unorthodox methods of fire and sword for the propagation of the faith, it cannot be denied that they greatly contributed to the pacification and civilization of the peoples under their jurisdiction. They encouraged cultivation of the land and built a great number of towns and villages, providing each with a church. In some places they erected schools and, faithful to the original purpose of their order, they established hundreds of hospitals and hospices. In this respect it is worthy of note that the Teutonic Knights were the first to establish a mental hospital (Dollhaus) in Germany, namely at Elbig in 1316. The knights also proved to be clever businessmen inasmuch as they sponsored profitable markets in foreign countries for the produce of their land.
For more than a century after the final subjugation of the Prussians in 1283, the Teutonic Knights were the undisputed rulers of a vast and well-organized domain that stretched along the coast of the Baltic Sea, from the river Oder to Leningrad. The grand master, residing in his fortified convent of Marienburg and then from 1457 on at Königsburg, wasde jure et de factoa sovereign, equal to the other princes of the Empire, and only nominally subordinate to the Emperor. But in the fifteenth century decline set in. The first blow was struck in 1410, when in the battle of Tannenberg the Knights were overthrown by the Polish troops. In 1525 the Order received thecoup de grâce; its grand master Albrecht of Brandenburg embraced the Protestant religion, secularized the possessions of the Order in East Prussia which once he had vowed to protect, and styled himself Duke of Prussia.[21]When later this duchy was united with Brandenburg, the foundations were laid for the kingdom of Prussia and eventually for the German Reich of the Hohenzollerns. In 1561, when Gotthard Kettler, “Landmeister” of Livonia, followed Albrecht’s apostasy,the Teutonic Order ceased to be a sovereign power. However, the loss of sovereignty did not mean the end of the Teutonic Order, for—although a skeleton of its former glory—it still possessed large estates and strongholds in Western Germany. (During the Reformation the Teutonic Knights in the Netherlands separated themselves from their Catholic brethren. This Protestant branch was suppressed by Napoleon but was re-established at the time of the Restoration and is known as the bailiwick of Utrecht.) After the loss of Prussia the general head of the order became known as “Hoch-und Deutsch Meister” (Grand-and Teutonic Master). From 1590 on, these grand masters were almost without exception members of the imperial house of Hapsburg, which meant that the former independent Teutonic Order became more and more an appendix of the Austrian crown. Nevertheless, the order was not completely secularized. True, community life soon ceased to exist, but the knights still took religious vows. The next blow was dealt by Napoleon, who suppressed the Teutonic Order in Germany and confiscated its possessions. The order was now restricted to the confines of the Austrian empire. Around 1839, attempts were made to revive the languishing order by dedicating its members—priests and professed knights—to its original objective, namely ambulance service and works of charity. Besides, the professed knights, instead of fighting the infidels, took upon themselves the obligation of serving as officers in the Austrian army.
The question of profession was settled by a papal indult in 1886 (Neminem profecto latet, March 16, 1886), according to which the knights of the Teutonic Order were to take simple perpetual vows which, however, included the same rights and obligations as solemn vows.
When the Hapsburg dynasty fell after the first World War, only a handful of knights were left. On April 30, 1923, the grand master Eugene, Archduke of Hapsburg-Lothringen, commander in chief of the Austrian forces on the Italian front in World War I, resigned and was succeeded by Bishop Norbert Klein.
In 1929 a radical change took place in the entire structure of the order. The erstwhile military order of the Teutonic Knights was transformed into a religious community of priests and lay-brothers with solemn vows similar to any other religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It assumed the title ofOrdoTeutonicus Sanctae Mariae in Jerusalem(officially designated by the initials O.T.) and is listed in theAnnuario pontificioas a mendicant order. This new community—with a very old past—devotes itself to parish work and works of charity; it is divided into five provinces (Austria, Bavaria, Italy, Yugoslavia and the practically extinct province of Czechoslovakia) with a total membership of 93, of whom 70 are priests. (See theCatalogus ordinis teutonici, Jan. 1, 1950). A congregation of sisters is affiliated to the Order, also divided into five provinces with a total membership of 572, mostly dedicated to hospital work.
The superior general has the old title of Grand Master (Hochmeister, Supremus Magister); he has abbatial rank and enjoys the privilege of thepileolus violaceus. So far his residence is in Vienna, Austria. The professed knights of the old guard who were still alive when the transformation was effected became members of the new outfit with the title of Ordensritter (Knights of the Order). Since the last grand master, Eugene of Hapsburg, died in January, 1955, only one of the old knights is left. It is all that remained of an order which at one time counted its knights by the hundreds. However, as a remnant of the old prerogatives, the new Teutonic Order has the right to bestow knighthood on eminent Catholic men, either lay or clerical, and on great benefactors of the order. These honorary knights are calledfamiliares. Before 1952 the order had made use of this privilege in only three cases.
In Spain and Portugal the fight against the Moors who since the eighth century had conquered large sections of the Iberian peninsula prompted the founding of a considerable number of military religious orders. The chief ones in Spain were the Order of Calatrava (founded in 1158 and approved by Pope Alexander III in 1164) which absorbed the smaller orders of Montjoie (1180) and Montfrac (1198), the Order of Alcantara (1156), the Order of Santiago (1175) and the Order of Our Lady of Monteza (1319). Those in Portugal were the Order of Saint Benedict of Avis, previously known as the Order of the Knights of Evora (1146), the short-lived Ala Order, so called after the wing of Archangel Michael, and the Order of Christ (1318).[22]
They were all founded in the second half of the twelfth century, except the Order of Christ and that of Monteza which originated more than a century later. The origin of several of these institutions is identified with the problem of finding a suitable garrison for frontier fortresses. When a king had captured a Moorish stronghold, he would evidently look around for some reliable soldiers to whom he could entrust his conquest. For instance, after the Castilian kings Alphonso III and Sancho III had conquered the Moorish fortress Calatrava in the Mancha, they entrusted the defense of this citadel to the Cistercian Abbot Raymond of Fiteiro, and soon numerous knights and soldiers rallied around the abbot for the protection of this bastion against the Moors. Thus the Order of Calatrava came into existence. The members took the rule and the habit of Citeaux and elected a grand master in 1164. A few years later the order severed connections with the Cistercians and was approved by several Popes as an autonomous regular military order. As the Moors were gradually forced back toward the south, the order changed headquarters several times; one of its residences was Montsalvat which acquired some fame inliterature as the locale of many romances of chivalry. The Orders of Avis and Alcantara were established for the same purpose as that of Calatrava, namely the defense of the boundaries between Spain and Moorish territory.
The origin of the Knights of Santiago or Saint James of Compostella was slightly different. Compostella prided itself on possessing the body of Saint James the Apostle, who, according to tradition, stayed for a while in Spain to preach the gospel and consecrated the first Spanish bishops. After the Apostle had been martyred in Jerusalem, his body was transferred to Compostella, which for that reason ranked in the Middle Ages as one of the most venerable shrines of Christendom, with an importance surpassed only by Rome and Jerusalem. However, the numerous pilgrims from all countries in Europe visiting the Apostle’s tomb in this far corner of Galicia were often waylaid and robbed by brigands and Moors. For that reason a number of Spanish knights banded together to protect the pilgrims on the road to Compostella, and in 1175 this group of pious soldiers was canonically approved as a religious military order. The Knights of Santiago erected hospices and strongholds on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees as did the Knights of St. John on the French side. A fortified church erected by the Hospitallers at this time and still in a stage of good repair may be seen at Luz-St. Sauveur near Lourdes.
The origin of the Order of Christ and that of Monteza were quite different from that of the other Iberian military orders, as we shall see when we come to speak of the Pontifical Orders of Knighthood.
Although each of the Iberian military orders had, of course, its own, often fascinating, history, the general development of these institutions followed very much the same pattern. The knights lived in their convents and castles ruled by their grand masters; they showed great prowess in the wars against the Moorish invaders, and simultaneously they rose to power and political influence, accumulating immense wealth from the bounty of grateful kings and the pious faithful. Sometimes one order of knighthood confronted another on the field of battle, as happened when they took opposite sides in civil wars that so frequently occurred on the peninsula. This continued until most of the peninsula was under one rule through the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragonand Isabella of Castile. The reign of these two sovereigns,los Reyes Catolicos, marked the end of the Moorish occupation, but at the same time accounts for the decline of the religious military orders. After the surrender of Granada in 1492—the year in which Columbus first sailed westward from Palos—the Moors were definitely driven off the Iberian Peninsula, but by the same token the military orders lost their veryraison d’être. The fact that the Portuguese Orders of Christ and of Avis kept the military spirit alive for some time by sending out expeditions to Africa to fight the Mohammedans in their own stronghold altered but little the inevitable course of events. The religious military orders on the Iberian Peninsula were doomed to die a slow death.
Ferdinand the Catholic administered the first blow in 1482 by assuming the grand mastership of all the Spanish military orders, with the exception of the Order of Monteza. Although this seizure was, canonically speaking, an infraction of the rights of the Church, the act was legalized some decades later, when the Pope put the military orders permanently under the Spanish crown. The Portuguese orders followed suit in 1551, when the mastership was vested in the Crown of Portugal. The only remaining independent order was that of Monteza which, however, shared the same fate in 1587. Thus all the military orders of the Iberian Peninsula lost their independence in the sixteenth century.
During the same century the religious nature of the orders greatly changed. True, the knights still took the monastic vows, but these vows came to have a rather indulgent interpretation. The vow of obedience meant, of course, obedience to the Crown. The vow of poverty was in most instances altered into a vow to lead an upright life (conversio morum). And the vow of chastity was changed into that of matrimonial chastity (castitas conjugalis). The knights were allowed to marry once, but the vow implied that if they committed a sin of impurity, they sinned not only against marriage but also against their vow. In the Order of Alcantara the vow of chastity was replaced by a vow to defend the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin.[23]
Although the kings had taken over the title, office and privileges of grand master, the orders still enjoyed a sort of semi-autonomy, inasmuch as their possessions still belonged theoretically to the orders as such. But the ideas of the French Revolution in Portugal and the Napoleonic occupation of Spain delivered the final blow to the rapidly expiring military orders. They were completely secularized, and their properties confiscated. The Restoration almost succeeded in degrading the once proud knights of Calatrava, Santiago, Alcantara and Monteza to the role of “carpet knights” and court ornaments. However, not quite. There is still some difference between the military orders and the mere orders of merit of the Spanish State as, for instance, that of the Order of Isabel la Catolica. The organization of the Spanish military orders still maintains a number of elements that bestow on them a distinctly ecclesiastical flavor. (While describing the present status of the Iberian military orders we have limited ourselves to the Spanish; the Portuguese Order of Avis was suppressed by King Pedro in 1834 and the present condition of the Order of Christ will be spoken of later).
In the first place, the candidates eligible to these orders must be Catholic. An additional prerequisite, reminiscent of the original objective of the orders, is that candidates must evidence that neither Moors nor Jews are found among their forebears. The reception of the “habit” is accompanied by a rather elaborate Church ceremonial according to the ritual of each particular order. This investiture constitutes the candidates novices of the order. Most of them remain novices throughout their life, but a number of them take the religious vows—in the sense explained above (votum castitatis conjugalis). These professed knights have also the obligation of reciting some prayers daily, originally the equivalent of the Divine Office. Before the pontificate of Pius XI the professed knights were bound daily to say one hundred Paters, Aves and Glorias. Since then, however, this obligation has been reduced to one Pater, Ave and Gloria.
Another important link with the Church is the “Priory of the Military Orders” which actually is a bishopric comprising more than half a million Catholics. The establishment of the priory was intended to compensate somewhat for the loss of property which the Military Orders had suffered in consequence of the so-calleddesamortizaciónlaws of the prime minister, Juan Alvarez deMendizabal. By a decree of Oct. 11, 1835, the latter suppressed most religious orders in Spain and confiscated their properties. These laws also affected the military orders, which had jurisdiction over a large number of abbeys, parishes, monasteries and churches throughout Spain and enjoyed the revenues of these properties. This infringement upon the rights of the Church was rectified by a substitute compromise in the Concordat of 1851. The Spanish province of Ciudad Real (19,741 square kilometers) is set apart as a “coto redondo,” literally a rounded-off territory, known as the Priory of the Military Orders. This priory is a “prelatura nullius,” immediately dependent on the Holy See. The prior is titular bishop of Dora, his official title being “Obispo Prior de los Ordenes Militares.” This dignitary is appointed prior by the Spanish King in his capacity of grand master, but the papal authority is required to elevate the appointee to the episcopal dignity. The former jurisdictional rights of the military orders are, so to say, grouped together in this diocese and vested in the prior. The emoluments of the ecclesiastical properties in the priory go to the diocese and the salaries of the bishop, canons, pastors and other parish priests are paid by the Spanish government, in the name of the grand master. The priests of the diocese of Ciudad Real must belong to one of the four military orders—an arrangement which reinstates the old division of the members of the orders into the classes of knights and priests.
Recently, on Aug. 27, 1953, a new concordat was concluded between the Holy See and Spain, and thus the status of the Priory of Ciudad Real was reconfirmed.[24]Article VIII of the concordat reads as follows: “Continuerà a sussistere a Ciudad Real il PrioratoNulliusdegli Ordini Militari.”
Since the office of Grand Master of the Military Orders, after the abdication of the king in 1931, is in abeyance, the bishop-prior is the acting head of the orders, inasmuch as he is the chairman of a commission whose task it is to prepare a project of law designed to put the orders on a more solid juridical basis. The military orders were suppressed by the Red Government of 1931-1936, but were re-established by the Franco regime. The task of this commission is to define with greater precision the rights and privileges of the Spanish military orders.
The origin of this order of knighthood (Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulchri Hierosolymitani) is the subject of a great deal of controversy. There is no doubt that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre originated in the Holy Land and existed at the time of the Crusades or possibly even earlier. There is no doubt either that for many years an order of knighthood was in existence and called the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. For some time it was listed as a pontifical order of knighthood, apparently because, off and on, the popes have been its grand masters, but theAnnuario pontificiohas ceased to list it as such since 1931, when Pope Pius XI transferred the grand mastership to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. However, the order as it presently exists is an ecclesiastical order of knighthood; article 44 of its statutes, published in 1949, clearly states that it “is strictly religious, both in character and objective.” The problem is not only at what time it originated as an order, but also what its status was; more particularly whether it ever achieved the status of a religious military order, as did the Templars or the Hospitallers.
Some writers believe that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre formed an order which was founded even before the Crusades. In fact, they are of the opinion that this order was the cradle from which all other religious military orders in the Holy Land developed. This is the position found amongst older authors and at present strenuously defended in the monumental work of Guido A. Quarti.[25]
According to this author the prototype of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre is to be found in the “rabdophoroi,” macebearers, who are said to have been attached to the church of the Holy Sepulchre from ancient times to keep order during the ceremonies. These ushers were, according to Quarti, “i primitivi cavalieri” of the Holy Sepulchre. They are supposed to have formed a fraternity which was instituted when Saint Helena, in the beginning of the fourth century, built the basilica of the Sepulchre. Other authors go even farther back and point out that in Jerusalem a confraternity of hermits existed to whom Pope Anaclet in 81 is said to have assigned the custody of Christ’s tomb. Some writersattribute the foundation of this legendary society to the Apostle St. James, first bishop of Jerusalem.[26]
This confraternity, then, is taken to be the forerunner of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. When in 451 the bishopric of Jerusalem was made a patriarchate, the confraternity of custodians is believed to have been transformed into a chapter of canons. Whatever the vicissitudes of this chapter may have been throughout the succeeding centuries, we arrive at some more solid historical data at the time of the first Crusade. After Godfrey de Bouillon had captured the Holy City in 1099, a chapter of canons was instituted in the basilica of the Sepulchre of our Redeemer. Now, according to Quarti, this chapter was a religious military order, the oldest of all such institutions.
This opinion is criticized by many authors, even though they admit that the first knights of the Holy Sepulchre appeared during the reign of Godfrey. They concede that at the time of the Crusades there was a chapter of canons attached to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But they find no proof that this chapter formed a religious order, let alone a military order. The most that can be said is that it acted in some respects like the orders of St. John or the Temple, inasmuch as it received ample donations in the form of manors, farms, fishing rights and the like, not only in Palestine, but also in many parts of Europe. And like the military orders, the chapter of the Holy Sepulchre established priories in many lands to administer the estates it had received.
The most famous of these donations was the bequest made by King Alfonso of Aragon, who willed in 1134 that his kingdom be equally divided among the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. The three organizations wisely ceded their rights to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona. But the event had an intriguing juridical angle, because it made it possible for the “Order” of the Holy Sepulchre to claim at a later date the title of “sovereign order.” For—so it was argued—the chapter of the Holy Sepulchre was by right the partial sovereign of the kingdom of Aragon until the disputes concerningthis legacy were settled; and by ceding its rights to the count, the chapter had acted as a sovereign power.
On the other hand it is admitted that the Crusades gave rise to the existence of knights who, being knighted at the Holy Sepulchre, were called after it. During the Crusades, before or after battle, hundreds of soldiers were dubbed knights, and it was only natural that these soldiers who came to fight in Palestine for Christ’s sake were eager to receive the knighthood in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, right at the tomb where the body of Christ rested for three days. This may have been the case during the first Crusade when Godfrey de Bouillon assumed the title of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre; in fact, legend has it that Godfrey created twenty knights of the Holy Sepulchre. It is also possible that the soldiers knighted at the tomb of the Saviour assumed a special distinction which at first may have consisted of the patriarchical cross with double bar and after the fall of Acre in 1291 assumed the form of the five-fold cross which still is the symbol of the Knights of the Sepulchre. Wearing the same badge, some knights may have banded together in groups and fought side by side on the principle of brotherhood in arms.
However, it is extremely doubtful that these knights formed an order, like that of the Order of Saint John, for the records make no mention of monastic vows, rule, community life, community of goods, or regular organization. It is equally doubtful that the knights formed a secular brotherhood in arms, but granted that they did, the fraternity had no permanent organization.
Like most other knights, when these knights of the Holy Sepulchre had completed their service in the Holy Land they went back home to Europe. And like all other knights—with the exception only of those of Saint John—after the fall of Acre they left the Orient for good. Back in Europe some knights of the Holy Sepulchre may have retired into monasteries, as many a battle-weary knight did, perhaps to fulfill a vow. Small groups of knights belonging to the same district may have founded convents. As a matter of fact, mention is made of several religious communities of the Holy Sepulchre in Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and elsewhere. But it is here that the critics insist that such communities were not formed by knights, like those of the Templars and the Knights of Saint John, but by canons and evenby canonesses. These communities were probably independent of one another, like Benedictine abbeys, but it could be expected that they would be designated as belonging to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. It would follow also that, conformable to the customs of the time and under the influence of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre who naturally would take an interest in those convents, the epithet “military” was added to the term “order.” Such seems precisely to have happened, for one of the first, or at least one of the most famous of these institutions, established at Saragosa in 1276 and occupied by women, came to bear the sonorous title: “Real Monastero de Canonesas Comendadores de la Orden Militar del Santo Sepulcro”—The Royal Monastery of the Canonesses-Commanders of the Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
At the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries the monasteries and convents of the Holy Sepulchre seemed to have passed through a crisis. Pope Innocent VIII issued the bullCum sollerti meditationeon March 28, 1489, whereby all the members of the order and its possessions were incorporated in the Order of Saint John, and the latter’s grand master still bears the title of the Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. But many of those concerned objected; they stayed the execution of the decree until the pope died, and remonstrated with his successor, Alexander VI. Alexander, in a bull of Aug. 13, 1496, declared himself grand master of the order, but by then it was an empty title, because the order soon dissolved into several groups. Emperor Maximilian obtained from Alexander in 1497 the independence of the houses of the Holy Sepulchre and made the prior of Miechow the master general; the king of Spain was the recipient of the same favor from Leo X in 1512; and the Duke of Nevers became the head of the French group. In this way the Order of the Holy Sepulchre came to be divided into three national branches, each closely connected with the ruling dynasty.
Besides, there were still the individual knights of the Holy Sepulchre who did not form a homogeneous group, but who more than anyone else could lay claim to that title, inasmuch as they had been knighted at the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem. The old custom may have been interrupted for some time after the Christians evacuated the Holy Land, but was restored by theFranciscans to whom was committed the care of the Holy Land. They had arrived in Palestine around 1230; after the Christian armies left they managed as best they could despite opposition and persecution, and Pope Clement VI in 1342 made them the official custodians of the Holy Land. In that capacity they formed in a certain way the continuation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. And like the kings of Jerusalem, the superior of the Franciscans who bore the title of “Custos” continued the old tradition of bestowing the knighthood in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. But this time the people who received the honor were not soldiers but rather pilgrims of noble birth—and at times of not so noble birth—who had made substantial donations to the holy places. Pope Leo X confirmed the right of the superior of the Franciscans to continue this practice. About the same time one more grand master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre entered upon the stage, inasmuch as the custos assumed the title, and various popes acknowledged its use. However, the custos who was to bestow the honor ran into difficulties, historical as well as canonical. In the first place, there was the age-old tradition according to which a knight could be created only by a knight. Besides, the dubbing to knighthood involved the use of a sword, but the custos being a priest was forbidden by canon law to carry a sword. The usual procedure, therefore, was that the priest would give the various blessings, and one or another knight, often enough at hand among the crowd of pilgrims, would carry out the dubbing with the sword. Thus history records that a certain German count, who in Jerusalem joined the Third Order of St. Francis and was hence known as Brother John of Prussia, conducted the ceremonies of conferring knighthood from 1478 to 1498. But in case no such knightly assistance was available there was little else left for the priest to do but carry out the sword ceremonial himself. And here the office of grand master, being vested in the custos, provided a convenient excuse to circumvent the canonical irregularity involved in that act.
The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre enjoyed many privileges, some of which were of a rather peculiar character. They had precedence over the members of all orders of knighthood, except those of the Golden Fleece; they could create notaries public, legitimize bastards, and change a name given in baptism; they were empowered to pardon prisoners whom they happened tomeet while the prisoners were on their way to the scaffold; they were allowed to possess goods belonging to the Church, even though they were laymen. In view of such privileges it is not surprising that many aspired to the honor of becoming Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. The good Franciscan friars in Jerusalem, too, seem to have made a rather generous use of their power to confer knighthood.
The history of the order in the last century was not less involved than in the preceding centuries, especially with regard to the grand mastership which shifted time and again. When in 1847 Pope Pius IX re-established the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, he transferred the office of grand master from the custos of the Franciscans to the patriarch who from now on possessed the exclusive right of conferring the knighthood. In 1868 the same pope approved new statutes whereby for the first time membership was divided into three classes: knights grand cross, commanders, plain knights, and stipulated the admission fee according to rank. These contributions were used to defray the expenses of the seminary and the outlying missions of the patriarchate. Because this arrangement involved a financial loss for the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre which up to this time had received the stipends connected with the enrollment of the knights, Pope Leo XIII founded a cross of honor which was not intended to confer knighthood but was rather a mark of distinction bestowed on the pilgrim who visited Jerusalem. This cross extended to three classes: gold, silver and bronze, and the revenues derived from it went to the treasury of the basilica. In 1888, the same pope also approved the establishment of a female branch of the order, known as the “Dames of the Holy Sepulchre.”
Pope St. Pius X in a letter of May 3, 1907[27]took upon himself the grand mastership, but delegated the patriarch as his lieutenant who, in the name of the Holy Father, could appoint the knights. He was also given the right to erect chapters in various countries. St. Pius X also unified the use of uniforms and decorations. He gave the knights the right to wear a mantle of white wool with the red five-fold cross attached on the left-hand side. In view of the old claim that the order was a military institution, the pope gave the knights permission to wear the cross of the ordersuspended from a military trophy. In the case of the ladies, the emblem was to be worn hanging from a golden loop.
The office of grand master continued to be vested in the Holy See until 1928, when Pius XI again appointed the patriarch of Jerusalem as “rector et administrator.”
A complete reorganization of the order was made by Pope Pius XII. By apostolic letter of July 16, 1940, he appointed a cardinal as the “Patronus seu Protector” of the order. In aMotu proprioof Aug. 15, 1945, he assigned the Church and the monastery of St. Onophrius in Rome as the Order’s official center. Finally, by Apostolic LetterQuam Romani Pontificesof Sept. 14, 1949, the pope promulgated complete new statutes for the Order.[28]If, up to that date, more and more the order had assumed the character of an order of merit, this new constitution gives it explicitly a definite purpose. The objective is “to revive in modern form the spirit and ideal of the Crusades, with the weapons of the faith, the apostolate, and christian charity.” More specifically the purpose consists in “the preservation and the propagation of the faith in Palestine, assistance to and development of the missions of the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem, providing for its charitable, cultural and social undertakings and the defense of the rights of the Catholic church in the Holy Land, the cradle of the order.”
The order, as a “juridical person,” is placed under the protection of the Supreme Pontiff who appoints a cardinal as the grand master. The order consists of five classes. The first—and very exclusive—class consists of the “Knights of the Collar,” numbering no more than twelve persons. In addition this same degree belongs by right to the grand master, the cardinal secretary of his Holiness, the cardinal secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Oriental church and the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. Besides this special class there are four degrees, both for knights and ladies: grand cross, commanders with plaque (grand officers), commanders and knights.
The distinctive emblem, in its more or less elaborate forms according to the various ranks, is the five-double cross which in the present document is constantly designated as the cross of Godfrey of Bouillon.[29]