THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE OF JERUSALEM
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 the Annuario pontificio has 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 writers attribute 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 concerning this 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 even by 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 bull Cum sollerti meditatione on 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 the Franciscans 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 to meet 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 order suspended 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 a Motu proprio of Aug. 15, 1945, he assigned the Church and the monastery of St. Onophrius in Rome as the Order’s official center. Finally, by Apostolic Letter Quam Romani Pontifices of 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]
Besides conferring knighthood, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre grants three honorary decorations as marks of distinction: the “Palm of the order,” “the Cross of Merit” which can also be bestowed on non-Catholics, and the “Pilgrim’s Shell” which is given to those knights and dames of the order who visit the Holy Land.
The creation of knights and dames of the order is reserved to the cardinal grand master who transmits the diploma to the secretariate of state of His Holiness for the visa and the seal. The patriarch of Jerusalem, who is the grand prior of the order, has also the right of nomination, but this right is limited to the canons of the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and persons residing in the territory of the patriarchate. Moreover, the patriarch must notify the grand master of these nominations and the latter then grants the diploma.
The order is divided into several chapters; in the United States there are two lieutenancies.
The religious character of the knightly order of the Holy Sepulchre comes to the fore not only in the description of its objective and the required qualifications of its members, but also in the ceremonial investiture of the newly elected knights which was approved by the Congregation of Sacred Rites, Aug. 24, 1945. This ceremony combines a profession of faith with the ancient ritual used for the dubbing of knighthood. The candidates do not take monastic vows but promise to live an upright Christian life in accordance with the commandments of God and the precepts of the Church, in absolute fealty to the Supreme Pontiff, as true soldiers of Christ.