WE HAVE MOVED!

"And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven,
saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth....
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 8:13]

Monday, October 17, 2016

Pope Pius III & A Day That Sparked The Crusades

Pope Pius III & A Day That Sparked The Crusades
 B. at Siena, 29 May, 1439; elected 22 Sept., 1503; d. in Rome, 18 Oct., 1503, after a pontificate of four weeks. Piccolomini was the son of a sister of Pius II. He had passed his boyhood in destitute circumstances when his uncle took him into his household, bestowed upon him his family name and arms, and superintended his training and education. 

He studied law in Perugia and immediately after receiving the doctorate as canonist was appointed by his uncle Archbishop of Siena, and on 5 March, 1460, cardinal-deacon with the title of S. Eustachio. The following month he was sent as legate to the March of Ancona, with the experienced Bishop of Marsico as his counsellor. “The only thing objectionable about him”, says Voigt (Enea Silvio, III, 531), “was his youth; for in the administration of his legation and in his later conduct at the curia he proved to be a man of spotless character and many-sided capacity.” He was sent by Paul II as legate to Germany, where he acquitted himself with eminent success, the knowledge of German that he had acquired in his uncle’s house being of great advantage to him. During the worldly reigns of Sixtus IV and Alexander VI he kept away from Rome as much as possible. Sigismondo de Conti, who knew him well tells us that “he left no moment unoccupied; his time for study was before daybreak; he spent his mornings in prayer and his midday hours in giving audiences, to which the humblest had easy access. He was so temperate in food and drink that he only allowed himself an evening meal every other day.” Yet this is the excellent man to whom Gregorovius in his “Lucrezia Borgia”, without a shadow of authority, gives a dozen children-the calumny being repeated by Brosch and Creighton. After the death of Alexander VI, the conclave could not unite on the principal candidates, d’Amboise, Rovere, and Sforza; hence the great majority cast their votes for Piccolomini, who though only sixty-four was, like his uncle, tortured with gout and was prematurely old. He took the name of Pius III in honour of his uncle, was crowned on 8 Oct., after receiving priestly and episcopal orders. The strain of the long ceremony was so great that the pope sank under it. He was buried in St. Peter’s, but his remains were later transferred to S. Andrea della Valle where he rests by the side of Pius II.

PASTOR, History of the Popes, VI, 185 sqq.; PANVINIO, Continuation of Platina; VON REUMONT, Gesch. der Stadt Rom; ARTAND DE MONTOR, History of the Popes (New York, 1867).
JAMES F. LOUGHLIN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

October 18 – A day that sparked the Crusades

Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Main Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Main Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
On October 18, 1009, under Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, orders for the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection, were carried out. The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt, which involved a great deal of other damage. Adhemar of Chabannes recorded that the church of St George at Lydda “with many other churches of the saints’ had been attacked, and the ‘basilica of the Lord’s Sepulchre destroyed down to the ground’”.
European reaction was of shock and dismay, with far-reaching and intense consequences.  Ultimately, this destruction provided an impetus to the later Crusades.
Crusaders battle
It was for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre that the crusades were organized; it was for its defence that military orders were instituted. During the Middle Ages this memorable relic of Christ’s life on earth was looked upon as the mystical sovereign of the new Latin state. Godfrey of Bouillon desired no other title than that of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre, and different Latin princes, Bohemond of Antioch, and Tancred, acknowledged themselves its vassals.

Knights of the Holy Sepulchre

Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX
Neither the name of a founder nor a date of foundation can be assigned to the so-called Order of the Holy Sepulchre if we reject the legendary traditions which trace its origin back to the time of Godfrey of Bouillon, or Charlemagne, or indeed even to the days of St. James the Apostle, first Bishop of Jerusalem. It is in reality a secular confraternity which gradually grew up around the most august of the Holy Places.
It was natural that the Holy Sepulchre also had its special knights. In the broad acceptation of the word, every crusader who had taken the sword in its defense might assume the title from the very moment of being dubbed a knight. Those who were not knighted had the ambition of being decorated knights, preferably in this sanctuary, and of being thus enabled to style themselves Knights of the Holy Sepulchre par excellence. The fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem did not suspend pilgrimages to the Tomb of Christ, or the custom of receiving knighthood there, and, when the custody of the Holy Land was entrusted to the Franciscans, they continued this pious custom and gave the order its first grand masters.
The official arrival of the Friars Minor in Syria dates from the Bull addressed by Pope Gregory IX to the clergy of Palestine in 1230, charging them to welcome the Friars Minor, and to allow them to preach to the faithful and hold oratories and cemeteries of their own. Thanks to the ten years’ truce concluded during the preceding year between Frederick II of Sicily and the sultan, the Franciscans were enabled to enter Jerusalem, but they were also the first victims of the violent invasion of the Khorasmians in 1244, thus opening the long Franciscan martyrology of the Holy Land. Nevertheless, the Franciscan province of Syria continued to exist with Acco as its seat. The monks quickly resumed possession of their convent of Mount Sion at Jerusalem, to which they have demonstrated their claim with the blood of their martyrs and where they have obstinately retained their foothold in spite of numberless molestations and outrages for five hundred years.
Saint Francis of Assisi with the Sultan Al-Kamil
Saint Francis of Assisi with the Sultan Al-Kamil
The Turks, notwithstanding their fierce fanaticism, tolerated the veneration paid to the Tomb of Christ, because of the revenue they derived from the taxes levied upon pilgrims. In 1342, in his Bull “Gratiam agimus”, Pope Clement VI officially committed the care of the Holy Land to the Franciscans, who fulfilled this trust until the restoration of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem by Pius IX. Consequently, after 1342, to be enrolled among the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, it was necessary to apply to the Franciscans, and from this period the itineraries of pilgrims mention frequent receptions into this confraternity – improperly called an order, since it had no monastic rule, regular organization, or community of goods. Where mention is made of the possessions of the Holy Sepulchre, the allusion is to the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who had convents in various lands, and not to the knights, as some writers believe.

Godefrey of Bouillon
Godefrey of Bouillon

Pilgrims were received into this lay confraternity with all the external ceremonial of ancient chivalry, although the fundamental rules of the institution were not always observed. It was objected that many on whom knighthood was conferred were not of the nobility. The formal question, “if he were of noble birth”, was always put to the applicant, but in event of his being a merchant or a plebeian he was not obliged to answer. In point of fact all classes were represented in these pilgrimages, and it is easy to understand why those who had accomplished this trying devotion, then so fraught with danger, should desire to carry away from Jerusalem some such lasting souvenir as the insignia of knighthood, and that refusal was difficult, especially since the sanctuary was practically dependent on the offerings of these merchants, and consequently these contributions were far more deserving of recognition than the platonic vow to exert oneself as far as possible in the defense of the Holy Land. In the ceremonial of reception, the rôle of the clergy was limited to the benedictio militis, the final act of dubbing with the sword being reserved to a professional knight.
It has been ascertained that, in the fifteenth century from 1480 to 1495, there was in Jerusalem a German, John of Prussia, who acted as steward for the convent and who, in his character of gentleman and layman, regularly discharged this act reserved to knighthood. It was also of frequent occurrence that a foreign knight, present among the crowds of pilgrims, would assist at this ceremony. However, in default of other assistance, it was the superior who had to act instead of a knight, although such a course was esteemed irregular, since the carrying of the sword was incompatible with the sacerdotal character. It was since then also that the superior of the convent assumed the title of grand master, a title which has been acknowledged by various pontifical diplomas, and finally by a Bull of Benedict XIV dated 1746.
Pope Benedict XIV
Pope Benedict XIV

When Pius IX re-established the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1847, he transferred to it the office of grand master of the order. At the same time he drew up and in 1868 published the new statutes of the order, which created the three ranks – that of the grand cross, that of commander, and that of simple knight – ordained that the costume be a “white cloak with the cross of Jerusalem in red enamel”, and regulated the chancellor’s fees. By his Bull of 30 May, 1907, Pius X effected the latest change by reserving to himself the grand-mastership of the order, but delegating his powers to the present Latin patriarch.

QUARESMIUS, Historica Terrœ Sanctœ elucidatio (Antwerp, 1639); HODY, Notice sur les chevaliers du St-Sépulcre (Académie d’archéologie, Antwerp, 1855); HERMENS, Der Orden vom h. Grabe (Cologne, 1870); COURET, L’Ordre du St-Sépulcre de Jerusalem (Paris, 1905).
(cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)
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Also of interest:

Battle of Lyndanisse during the Northern Crusades

King, Crusader, Saint

Saint Louis the King leads the counter-charge against the Saracens

With one sermon, he launched the Crusades

The Crusaders attack Jerusalem

The Northern Crusades

This man was entrusted to collect the Crusader tax

Meditation on our Crusade

St. Louis the King urged his nobles to virtue and to never quarrel among themselves

The Battle of Montgisard

How the Rosary saved Christendom