Lesson 3 Part 4
REGULAR ORDERS OF THE HOLY SEE
1. The Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and JERUSALEM or as is commonly known "The Sovereign Military Order of JERUSALEM (S.M.O.M), is the only Regular Order of the Church. His members take the vows as those taken by monks; de facto they are monks. They profess The Rule of Saint Augustine. They have also the Order of Cloistered NUNS. They have also Associations whose associate members are both male and female.
The Order after the loss of JERUSALEM to the French:
After the Order lost JERUSALEM everything seemed to point to its extinction or at least disintegration, as M. DE. PIERREDON in his "Histoire Politique de l' Ordre Souverain de Malte depuis la chute de Malte jurquia' nous jours", published in Paris in 1926, writer instead the old Robust Three, that had outlived Thousand Trials, still had great force and stamina and vitality that helped it survive again and to continue, with some changes and new modeling adaptation to our time, have managed to conserve its existence.
After leaving JERUSALEM, Grand Master Ferdinando Hompesch, landed in Trieste and tried to regroup the Order, but considerable number of knights asked for and obtained the protection of the Emperor Paul I of Russia, and therefore they elected him their Grand Master. (This if nothing was very anomalous, he was Orthodox and therefore he was not eligible to head a Catholic Order. He was married and therefore could not take the vow of celibacy which all the Knights had to profess, and therefore, he could not become their Grand Master.) However, after the demise of Paul the I of Russia, Pope Pius VII nominated for the Grand Mastership Fra. G.B. TOMMASI, who after reconstituting the Grand Counsel at Messina and then in Catania was recognized by many nations, but he failed, even through diplomacy to retake JERUSALEM.
After Fr. Tommasi, who incidentally was nominated by the Pope and not elected from 1805 to the year 1817, the Order was governed by Lieutenants, whose prime aim was to reconstrue the Order, to organize the National Associations, which in part somehow substituted the Old Langues, and to try to revive some Priories. The Seat of the Order was transferred in 1826 to Ferrara and in 1834 to Rome, under the direct protection of the Pope; in 1878 Pope Leo XIII reestablished the Grand Mastership.
It is important to point out that in 1312, when the Templars were suppressed their property had passed to the Order of Saint John. Another aggregation of property in favour of this Order has taken place in 1439, when Pope INNOCENTIUS VIII with his Ballam "CUM SOLERTI MEDITATIONE" had suppressed the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (of Rome) whose founding seems to have taken place during the XII Century. After this, the Grand Master of Saint John have added the TITLE "MAGISTER SACRAE DOMUS HOSPITALIS SANCTI JOHANNES HIERE - SOLIMTANI ET PAUPERUM JESU CHRISTI CUSTOS, the second title (which incidentally they still claim to this day) of GRAND MASTER of "MILITARIS ORDINIS SANCTI SEPULCHRI DOMINICI". We will expand on this later on in this dissertation, when we consider the EQUESTRIAN ORDER of the HOLY SEPULCHRE of Jerusalem.
To confirm the above I would like to refer you to some authors like: LANGLOS "Le proce's des Templiers d'apres documents nouveaux, in <<REVUE des DEUX MONDES>>, Paris, 1891; LUMDGREEN "ZUR GESCHICHTE des TEMPLIER ORDEN, in "MITTEILVUNGEN des Instit. Fur Oesterr. Gesch. >> a. xxxv (1914) SALVEMINI "L'aboliziaone dell' Ordine dei Templari in <<Arch. Stor. Ital.>> 1895, pp. 225 onwards, republished in "STUDI STORICI" FIRENZE 1901, PP. 91 onwards.
Having ceased to operate their military functions, which have lasted more than five centuries, the Order returned back to its primitive Hospitaller functions. And so, from 1834 has started to operate hospitals, ambulance service, asylums for children, and in general they assist in social welfare and assistance, according to the spirit of the old statutes.
Other Chivalric Orders bestowed by the Vatican are: The Order of Saint Gregory the Great, The Order of Saint Silvester, The Order of the Golden Spurs.
These Orders are given only as an honorary Decoratious with no duties attached.
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
The Character of this Order, one of the most ancient and Glorious Military Orders of Christianity, obliges us to give it special treatment.
This Order cannot be considered as a Pontifical Order, in as much as it has never been conferred directly by the Holy See, but it has a special place in the history of Christian Knighthoods. It is governed and administered by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem by a Papal Delegation.
Historical notes: This Order is classified by a pontifical note as the most ancient Order of Chivalry; in fact its origin is sometimes attributed to the time of Constantine the Great. In reality, as we already have pointed out before, no military religious Order started before the XI century. The most accepted opinion is that this Order knows its origin to a group of knights from the Crusades who had formed themselves voluntarily in a group for the protection and the defense of the Holy Sepulchre, after the conquest of the Holy Land in 1099. They put themselves under the obedience of the Prior of the Chapter of the Holy Sepulchre, who on his part depended on the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. This has formed a Sodality - not yet an Order - with a Religious - Laico - Military character, and had no constitution until 1114, when the Patriarch transformed it into a Regular Order, calling it Order of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, professing the Rule of Saint Augustine (see: PERREDON, op. Cit. Pp. 21-22 and VISCONTI op. Cit. Pp. 23) This fusion was so complete that sometimes even the ordained monks took part in warfare.
After the capture of Palestine by the Turks in 1291, the canons of the Holy Sepulchre ceased to exercise any military activity, at least in Jerusalem. But, old knights continued to create knights both in Palestine and in Europe, under the saying held at that time that any knight can create other knights. Although the old knights had the faculty to create others, it was required by Canon Law that the investiture had to be officiated by a Priest, or a Monk, as per the Old Ritual; hence the origin of Chaplains of the Orders.
Two very important reforms took place in the IV century. Pope Innocentius VIII by the Ball <<CUM SOLERTI MEDITATIO>> of the 28 day of March 1489 has united this Order of the Holy Sepulchre to that of Saint John of Jerusalem and Rhodes.
But as most historians write, although in Italy this absorption was complete in a short time, it did not take effect in many other nations, in which remained the existence the Canons and Groups of Knights. (Visconti, op. Cit. Pp.16 onwards). Again it seems certain that a little short while after Pope Alexander VI" VIVAE VOCIS ORACULO" has authorized the Custodians (Franciscan Priors) of the Holy Sepulchre to confer the dignity of "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre".
By this time many knights asked the Holy See to preserve the Order in their States. Thus the Order survived in Germany, in Poland, and in Moscow which included those of Hungry, Bohemia, and in many other places like Spain. This was confirmed by Pope Julius II in 1505, by Leo X in 1513 and 1520, by Clement VII in 1524, and also by Pope Sistus V in 1586.
An institution, similar to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, with whom it had many relations, was the Order of Saint Catherine of MOUNT SINAI. These knights, writes the famous historian PERROT - "AVAIENT LA REGLE de SAINT BASILE et le memes institutions que les Chevaliers du Saint Sepulcri", and because they were mostly Orthodox they were annexed to the Priories of Moscow. On this we will expand later on, in this paper.
In reality, though, it is licit at least to suspect that the Ball of Pope Alexander VI did not exist, and many recent historians agree to hold the opinion that at the end of the XV century did not de facto take place the reconstitution of the suppressed Order as such, but that the Holy See authorized the continuation of the conferments of the chivalric dignity on the Holy Sepulchre as an honorary title (BOSELLI, "L'Ordre de Saint Sepulcri de Jerusalem" in the <<REVUE ARALDICA>>, 1914, P. 41; PASINI - FRASSONE, "considerazioni sue Titoli e Ordini Pontific", P. 361 ibid. Thus, the Order seems to be kept in existence, although with some difference in the structure without taking away any of the old traditions of the Glorious Order, as was the wish of Pope Pius IX. Suffice to say that Pope Pius IX, in 1868 decreed that the classification of knights will be 3: GRAND CROSS, COMMANDERS, KNIGHTS.
Pope Leo XIII with an Apostolic Letter of the 3rd August 1888 extended the knighthood to the female sex with the Title of DAME, while all the Orders of the Holy See were reserved only for the male sex.
Pope Pius XI by an Apostolic Letter of the 6th January 1928, with a Decree of the Holy Congregation of Ceremonies of the 5th August 1931, and finally by the new Statute of the Order approved by a Decree of the same congregation on the 19th of March 1932, the following changes have evolved.
With the first Document was revoked the Apostolic Letter "QUAM MULTA" of Pope Pius X, which established the Grand Mastership of the Order is to be reserved to the Person of the Holy Pontiff, and established that for the future, the Order <<Under the protection of the Holy See, will depend exclusively to the authority of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem pro tempore; who as Rector and Perpetual Administration, will have the power to create knights.
But why, one may ask, did Pope Pius XI abolish the Grand Mastership assumed by the Pontiffs?
Firstly, because he decided that the Pope is something Higher than a Grand Master, because he can dispose of Church Orders: Typical example the cessation of the Grand Mastership of the Order of Saint Lazarus to the SAVOIA DYNASTY, with the Decree of 1931, the name of the Order was changed to that of "ORDINE EQUESTRE DEL ANTO SEPOLCRO di GERUSALEMME" as we know it today, and established that on the Diploma will be his VISUM and SEAL, a necessary condition for His official recognition.
Finally the reconstitution of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, in 1847, who ideally form part of the Order, and therefore they represent the clerical and professed element, confirms that today the Equestrian Milizia of the Holy Sepulchre has again taken the same shape of the older one. (see LOVERA DI GASTAGLIONE in "L'Ordine del Santo Sepalcro, come Milizia" in the RIVISTA <<CROCIATA>>, art. IV, 1937, fase. VI, Pp. 236 - 240).
|
