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© Guy Stair Sainty FOR THE LATEST ON THE ORDER OF CHRIST AND THE PAPAL ORDERS, SEE BURKE'S PEERAGE AND GENTRY WORLD ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD AND MERIT, purchase at www.burkes-peerage.net This rarely given distinction cannot strictly be characterized today as an Order of Knighthood, but more as an award of honor of the highest possible standing. The recent reforms of the Papal Orders by Pope Paul VI, [1] the Order of Christ was reserved to Catholic Heads of State to whom it might be given only to commemorate very special occasions at which the Pope himself was present. [2] This Order was last awarded in 1987 to the late Frà Angelo de Mojana, 77th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election to the Grand Magistery; he died the following year. With the recent death of King Baudouin of the Belgians the are no living Knights of the Papal Supreme Order of Christ and there is a considered opinion that the present Pope may have decided to let it fall into abeyance, at least for the present. The original foundation was actually a religious military Order under the rule of Saint Benedict, constituted in Portugal by King Denis I on 14 August 1318, confirmed and granted statutory regulation by the Bull Ad ea ex quibus of Pope John XXII, given at Avignon 14/15 March 1319.[3] The Order's endowment was established with the surviving estates of the recently dissolved Order of the Temple, just as in Spain most of these estates were used to establish the Order of Montesa. The first Grand Master, Dom Gil Martins or Martinez had been a knight of Saint Benedict of Aviz, originally a branch of the Order of Calatrava. Originally based at Castro Marino, in the Diocese of Faro, they moved their headquarters to Thomar, near Santaren, in 1366 (under the 6th Grand Master, Dom Nuño Rodriguez). Although at first the Order's rules required the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, these were modified by Pope Alexander VI at the end of the 15th century, dispensing with that of poverty and allowing the knights to marry provided Commanders undertook to continue their responsions (one third of their revenues) to the Order's treasury.
By the middle of the 16th century the Order possessed some four hundred and fifty commanderies with revenues of one and half million (livres) per annum and provided a major source of power for the Crown. Although the knights no longer took the monastic vows, the counter-reformation saw a revival of the Order's spiritual life with the appointment of Dom Antonio de Lisboa as Apostolic Visitor. The Grand Prior was removed from office and all the priests and religious of the Order were required to resume Conventual life at Thomar, and to wear the habit and cross of the Order. A new dormitory was built, along g with a large refectory, and novices after a year of probation were required to take the monastic vows. Having obtained the position of Prior, Dom Antonio persuaded Pius V to give him virtual control of all the Convents of the Order in 1567 and then sought the suppression of the Knights. King Sebastian protested and obtained confirmation of his post as Grand Master, but the religious members of the Order were now effectively separated from the lay, military membership. Sebastian died in 1578 and was succeeded by his great-uncle, Henrique I, the penultimate male prince of the legitimate line of the House of Bragança, who had taken Holy Orders and was a Cardinal of the Church. He died in 1580 whereupon the throne was assumed by King Philip II of Spain, by right of his mother Isabel, the eldest daughter of Manuel I and sister of King Henrique.
It has been stated by several historians that by the terms of the Bull Ad ea ex quibus, the Popes reserved to themselves the right to award membership in the Order. However, the text of the Bull does not include any such right and it appears that the later Papal award of the Order led to conflict with the Kings of Portugal. Nonetheless, according to Helyot, knights of Christ were appointed by Papal Bull, without the need to provide noble proofs, from the reign of Pope John XXII onwards. According to Dom Jose-Vicente de Braganza, this practice is not documented before the eighteenth century and was so resented by the Portuguese Kings that, in at least one case, an Italian knight (the architect Giovanni Servandoni) appointed by the Holy See was arrested for wearing the insignia. It is evident that the Holy See, in reorganizing the Papal Orders in 1905, wished logically to place the Order which remembered the name of Our Savior as the Supreme among the distinctions awarded by the Holy See. Hence the Order of Christ was described as being the successor of the Order founded by the Papal Bull Ad ea ex quibus since the Portuguese Order had long lost its religious character. Although the Holy See seems to have decided not to award it for the present, it is to be hoped that this highest Vatican honor will once again be conceded to a worthy Catholic Head of State. To the PORTUGUESE ORDER OF CHRIST Footnotes[1]In the Bull Equestres Ordinis of 15 April 1966. [2]The same Bull restricted the Order of the Golden Spur to Christian, not necessarily Catholic, heads of State. [3]This began, "Joannes Episcopus, servus servorum Dei. Ad perpetuam rei memoriam. Ad ea, ex quibus cults augeatur divinus, fidelium quies in quiete proficiat, & defensionis murus....". |