The Ecclesiastical Orders of Knighthood

by James Herman Van der Veldt

Additional confusion was created when the Knights of the Golden Spur began to wear the coveted eight-pointed white cross of the Knights of the Order of Jerusalem. Pope Benedict XIV by a Brief of Sept. 7, 1747, abolished this abuse and ordered that the badge of the Order of the Golden Spur be an octagonal gilded cross with a small spur hanging from it.

At long last Pope Gregory XVI took the reformation of the Golden Spur in hand—a reformation which proved to be quite radical. In a Brief Cum hominum mentes of Oct. 31, 1841,[36] the Pope practically suppressed the Order of the Golden Spur and established in its place the Order of St. Sylvester, presumably the founder of the old order. In remembrance of the latter, the Pope decreed that the accompanying title of the new order be Militia Aurata. The Pope reserved the right of conferring this new knighthood to the Holy See exclusively, revoking all delegated rights once given by his predecessors and abolished the privilege of conferring nobility. The membership of the order was reduced to 150 commanders and 300 knights and confined within the Papal States.

In 1905 another radical change occurred in the history of the Golden Spur. Pope St. Pius X by the Brief Multum ad excitandos separated the Order of the Golden Spur from that of St. Sylvester, making them two distinct orders from that time on.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the restored Militia Aurata was put under the protection of the Immaculate Mother of Christ. Moreover, Pius ordered that the gilded cross of the order should in its centre carry a medal with a crowned monogram of Mary. This cross hangs from a trophy which in turn is attached to a red ribbon with white edgings to be worn around the neck. The knights also wear a plaque in the form of a silver star on which the same cross and medal are superimposed; their uniform is a red tunic and black trousers.

Pope Pius emphatically reiterated that membership does not entail personal nobility and still less hereditary nobility. The order comprises only one class, namely that of knights. The number of knights may not exceed 100, “lest the honor be decreased by too large a number,” as the Brief states. Actually, in 1954, there were only ten Knights of the Golden Spur in the entire world. This knighthood is conferred upon men, “qui vel armis, vel scriptis, vel praeclaris operibus rem catholicam auxerint, et Ecclesiam Dei virtute tutarint, aut doctrina illustraverint.” Membership is not limited to Catholics; the sentence just quoted leaves sufficient room for the candidacy of non-Catholics, inasmuch as they, too, may help the cause of Catholicism, as in signing a concordat with the Church or by giving freedom to the Catholic missions. In fact, four out of the ten existing knights are non-Catholics: one Greek Orthodox and three Mohammedans, among them the Shah of Iran.[37]

THE ORDER OF PIUS
ORDO PIANUS

The Order of Pius is the third in rank of the Pontifical Orders of Knighthood. It was erected by Pope Pius IX by the Brief Romanis Pontificibus, and was called after the founder, but also to honor the memory of Pius IV (1559-65) who in 1559 had instituted an Ordo Pianus. Since the latter had ceased to exist in the course of time, the order established by Pius IX could not be considered a continuation of it. However, the Pope stated specifically that he wished to “revive the ancient appellation introduced by his predecessor.”

The order consisted of two degrees: knights of the first and knights of the second class. At the moment of nomination, they received title to personal nobility; in the case of the knights of the first class, the title was transmissible to their sons. The decoration of the order is an eight-pointed blue star surrounding a medal with the inscription “Pius IX” and “Virtuti et Merito”; the reverse bears the date of the foundation of the order, 1847. The decoration hangs from a blue ribbon with red edgings. The uniform is blue. The knights of the second degree were to wear the emblem on the left chest, those of the first degree had the privilege to wear it hanging from a blue ribbon around the neck. The latter could also wear a silver emblem similar to the badge but of larger dimensions on the left chest; only, however, after obtaining the special and expressed authorization of the Holy See.

Several of the stipulations made by Pius IX were changed within the next hundred years. One might speak of these changes as the story of the minutiae of an order of knighthood. In the first place there was the plaque. Two years after the founding of his order, Pius IX issued at Gaeta, in exile, the Brief Cum hominum mentes (June 17, 1849), wherein he ordered that from that date on all knights of the first class enjoyed the privilege of the emblem, but that a special permission of the Holy See was needed to wear a jewelled emblem. Moreover, knights of the first class should no longer wear the star of the order pendent from a collar around the neck, but from the grand cordon. This rule made them Knights of the Grand Cross.

By the Brief In ipso of Nov. 11, 1856, issued from the palace of the Quirinal, Pope Pius IX extended the number of degrees to three: (1) Knights of the Grand Cross, wearing the grand cordon emblem; (2) Knights of the Second Class or Commanders, wearing the collar; (3) Knights of the Third Class, wearing the emblem on a small ribbon on the chest.