Order of the Holy Sepulchre

Canonical phase

This first phase precedes the formation of the Order itself. It begins after devotion to the Holy Places of St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine “The Great”, an establisher of Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313.

Taken by her devotion to the Holy Sepulchre, she traveled to Jerusalem in search of her location, which would be discovered by a pious Jew named Quirino. In order to honor him, he commanded a sumptuous temple to be erected, in honor of the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ, built around the mountain of Golgotha and the tomb of Christ.

He then established there a council of Canons, named for the “canon” or rule with which St. Helena had organized the subsistence and duties of those religious.

For the custody and preservation of the Holy Sepulchre, these religious helped themselves from several lay brothers, to whom he gave as a badge a cross formed by the five red crosses in remembrance of the five wounds of Our Lord. The separation of the Churches would make them schismatic and the occupation by Muslims of the Holy Places in 638 would reduce them to a painful subsistence.

But they managed to survive until the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099, after which Godfrey of Bouillón expelled them by schismatics and replaced them with Latin Canons, faithful to Rome. But he did not settle for this only a simple change of canonical.

Following the warrior spirit of the time, he added a group of knights who became an Order of Cavalry, religious and military, because the temple of the Holy Sepulchre was not protected only with prayers. That the clergy wielded their weapons, becoming armed sacristans, clashed with religious canons.

Although the war against the infidels who had occupied the Holy Land was just and lawful, the clergy were absolutely forbidden, under penalty of excommunication, to kill another man with arms, even a Muslim and in self-defence. Heroic phase is in the Holy Land between 1099 and 1247.

The Sepulchrist Knights were responsible for protecting the Holy Sepulchre and militarily helping the kings of Jerusalem, on whom they depended directly, for the Maestrazgo of the Order fell on them, although they had it delegated in the Great Sepulchrist Prior.

It seems that the intention to create a Cavalry Order was adopted by Godfrey of Bouillon after the Battle of Antioch in 1098. When he was proposed that, following tradition, he should arm knights on the battlefield with several squires who had distinguished themselves by his throw in it, he promised Gontier de l’Aire to wait, for he would be invested by a Knight when they had conquered the Lord’s Grave.

According to Count Alphonse Couret, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is born spontaneously after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099, with the massacre committed by the fanatical Christians, the Crusaders, against Muslim and Jewish men, women and children living in Jerusalem driven by the devotion of the Crusaders to the Holy Sepulchre.

It would be the Godfrey of Bouillon himself who, after being accepted by all as Protector of Jerusalem, was in charge of organizing the religious assistance of the Holy Sepulchre, entrusting him to twenty canons of the regular clergy who should perpetually sing the divine offices and celebrate the Holy Mysteries.

But it was not enough to substitute some canons for others. These peaceful monks, whose life was between prayers and fasts, were unable to defend the Holy Sepulchre from desecration and to protect the helpless who visited him on pilgrimage.

The walls of Jerusalem were not sufficiently protected, especially when the Kings of Jerusalem were almost always in campaign, separated from the capital and leaving almost never garrison, so the city was in the care of its inhabitants. It was necessary to supply the inadequacy of the Christian armies, and to establish a permanent militia made up of chosen knights to protect Jerusalem, especially the Holy Sepulchre.

• According to the French chronicler André Tavin, the Order of Cavalry of the Holy Sepulchre is the first and oldest of all cavalry orders created in the Holy Land. His frats, canons and knights, were already distinguished as a noble guard who watched and protected the Holy Sepulchre. He attracted many princes and lords, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He obtained the recognition of Kings and Pontiffs, when there were not yet the Templars, out of their ranks, and the Hospitallers and Lazarists were only nursing brothers who did not leave their hospitals and lazareths.
• Therefore, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre received the primacy over the other Orders in all religious and official acts, which it still enjoys today. For a few years all the crossings were interrupted, but in 1238 a group of Franciscans were admitted to Jerusalem by the Caliph and the pilgrimages could be restarted, although by small groups of unarmed Christians who were to pay a toll in order to enter.
• The truce with the Saracens allowed to resume the crosses before the Holy Sepulchre, although already without the solemnity of yesteryear, but in silence and in privacy, to avoid unnecessarily drawing attention in a city controlled by the infidels.
• After the truce, they must leave the occupied Jerusalem and return to their places of origin in Europe, thus emerging the so-called Pilgrim Knights. We have testimonies of Christian pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem, under the tolerance of the Islamic rulers, who crossed there knights of the Holy Sepulchre, thus emerging the so-called Pilgrim Knights.
• From 1238 to 1496 we have numerous examples of Sepulchrist knights armed before the Holy Sepulchre, belonging to the most illustrious European families. In 1279 we have Jean de Heusden, nobleman; in 1309 to Gossin Cabilau, noble Flemish; in 1244 Godefroid de Dive, French noble; in 1295 Count Jean X d’Arkel, great-great-grandson of Jean V d’Arkel, armed knight in 1176; in 1325 Robert of Namur.

A long list of knights, counts and princes, from all over the Christian world, who are armed Sepulchrist knights before the tomb of Christ, follows.

They thus receive the most precious reward for their daring journey and the many dangers and hardships suffered in it, by receiving the highest display of honor that a Christian knight could expect.

Statutes The Sepulchrist Order was governed by its own Statutes or Assises. The copy that the French king Louis VII had in 1149 was still preserved, so that it would serve as a rule for the Brotherhood of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which, at the example of this Order, constituted in France and for which it drafted an Assises or Statutes similar to those that the Order had since its foundation.

This document states that Godfrey of Bouillon reserved for himself the Maestrazgo of the Order that, upon his death, would pass to the Latin Kings of Jerusalem.

In it, two categories of members of the Order are established: Milites (Knights) and Presbyteri (Canons), in addition to mentioning the Viators (Pilgrims). It is reported that the kings delegated their command to a Lieutenant, and the obligations of the Knights developed, “protect with arms, fight and wage war,” and the Canons, “pray and celebrate the divine offices in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”

• Consequently, the Order maintained a garrison in Jerusalem, while this city was in the hands of the Christians. The Chronicles tell us of the Knights who stood permanent guard before the Holy Sepulchre and the auxiliary Armed Guards or Guards who, in number of five hundred, were to provide for the army of the Kings of Jerusalem, and for their participation in numerous battles.
• The loss of the city at the hands of Saladin and the destruction of the Latin Kingdom would deprive her of her warrior character and, like the other Orders, she would have to fight for her survival by adapting to the new circumstances.
• The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre were the most affected by the loss of Jerusalem, because they had to leave the guard they were doing in the Holy Places without having another base to retreat. Unlike the Templars and Hospitallers, the Sepulchrist fortresses were all in the holy city. When it was lost, they had to leave all their residences and establishments