The Ecclesiastical Orders of Knighthood

by James Herman Van der Veldt

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.