SAINT JAMES
353
SAINT-JEAN
famous for its collection of rare and valuable books.
Owing to Wadding's position as annalist of the
Franciscan Order and agent with the Holy See for his
native country during the stormy period of the Insur-
rection of 1641, the archives of St. Isidore's became
the repository of many precious documents relating to
Franciscan subjects and to the civil and ecclesiastical
history of Ireland during the seventeenth century.
Such among the valuable MSS. belonging to the sister
college of St. Anthony's, Louvain, as escaped destruc-
tion or dispersion during the French Revolution
also found, for a time, a domicile in St. Isidore's.
They included many of those old Irish MSS. saved
from destruction by Brother Michael O'Clery, during
his tours of Ireland in search of material for the
"Annals of the Four Masters". They are sometimes
referred to as the " St. Isidore MSS. " After the taking
of Rome by the Piedmontese in 1870, these, together
with such others as had any bearing on the civil or
ecclesiastical history of Ireland, were for greater se-
curity removed to the convent of the order at Mer-
chant's Quay, Dublin, where they are now preserved.
Harold, Life of Wadding, prefixed to his Epitome Annalium Ordinis Minorum (Rome, 1662); MSS. materials in the College Archives; GAua, Series Episcoporum (Ratisbon, 1873).
J. C. Hanrahan.
Saint James of Compostela (Santiago de la Es- pada), Order of, founded in the twelfth century, owes its name to the national patron of Spain, St. James the Greater, under whose banner the Chris- tians of Galicia began in the ninth century to com- bat and drive back the Mussulmans of Spain. Com- postela, in Galicia, the centre of devotion to this Apostle, is neither the cradle nor the principal seat of the order. Two cities contend for the honour of hav- ing given it birth, Le6n in the kingdom of that name, and Ucl(5s in Castile. At that time (11.57-1230) the royal dynasty was divided into two rival branches, which rivalry tended to obscure the beginnings of the order. The Knights of Santiago had possessions in each of the kingdoms, but Ferdinand II of Le6n and Alfonso VIII of Castile, in bestowing them, set the condition that the seat of the order should be in their respective states. Hence arose long disputes which only ended in 1230 when Ferdinand III, the Saint, united both crowns. Thenceforth, Ucl6s, in the Province of Cuenca, was regarded as the head- quarters of the order; there the grand master habit- ually resided, aspirants passed their year of proba- tion, and the rich archives of the order were preserved until united in 1809 with the "Archive hist6rico nacional" of Madrid. The order received its first rule in 1171 from Cardinal Jacinto (later Celestine III), then legate in Spain of Alexander III. Unlike the contemporary orders of Calatrava and Alcdntara, which followed the severe rule of the Benedictines of Cttcaux, Santiago adopted the milder rule of the Canons of St. Augustine. In fact at Le6n they of- fered their services to the Canons Regular of St. Eloi in that town for the protection of pilgrims to the shrine of St. James and the hospic(>s on the roads leading to Compostela. This explains the mixed character of their order, which is hospitaller and military, like that of St. John of Jerusalem. They were recognized as religious by Alexander III, whose Bull of 5 July, 1175, was subsequently confirmed by more than twenty of his successors. These pontifical acts, collected in the "Bullarium" of the order, secured them all the privileges and exemptions of other monastic orders. The order comprised several affiliated classes: canons, charged with the admin- istration of the sacraments; canonesses, occupied with the service of pilgrims; religious knights living in community, and married knights. The right to marry, which other military orders only obtained at the end of the Middle Ages, was accorded them from the beginning under certain conditions, such as the XIII.— 23
authorization of the king, the obligation of observing
continence during Advent, Lent, and on certain
festivals of the year, which they spent at their monas-
teries in retreat.
The mildness of this rule furthered the rapid spread of the order, which eclipsed the older orders of Calatrava and Alcdntara, and whose power was re- puted abroad even before 1200. The first Bull of con- firmation, that of Alexander III, already enumerated a large number of endowments. At its height Santi- ago alone had more possessions than Calatrava and Alcantara together. In Spain these possessions in- cluded 83 commanderies, of which 3 were reserved to the grand commanders, 2 cities, 178 boroughs and villages, 200 parishes, 5 hospitals, 5 convents, and 1 college at Salamanca. The number of knights was then 400 and they could muster more than 1000 lances. They had possessions in Portugal, France, Italy, Hungary, and even Palestine. Abrantes, their first commandery in Portugal, dates from the reign of Alfon.so I in 1172, and soon became a distinct order which Nicholas IV in 1290 released from the jurisdic- tion of Uclcs. Their military history is finked with that of the Spanish states. They assisted in driving out the Mussulmans, doing battle with them some- times separately, sometimes with the royal armies. They also had a regrettable share in the fatal dissen- sions which disturbed the Christians of Spain and brought about more than one schism in the order. Finally they took part in the maritime expeditions against the Mussulmans. Thus arose the obligation imposed upon aspirants to serve six months in the galleys, which obfigation still existed in the eigh- teenth century, but from which exemption was easily purchased. Authority was exercised by a grand master assisted by a Council of Thirteen, which elected the grand master and had the right to depose him for due cause; they had supreme jurisdiction in all disputes between members of the order. The first grand master, Pedro Fernandez de Fuente Encalato, died in 1184. He had had 39 successors, among them several Spanish Infantes, when, in 1499, Ferdinand the Catholic induced the pope to assign to him the administration of the order. Under Charles V, Adrian VI annexed to the crown of Spain the three great military orders (Alcdntara, Calatrava, and Santiago) with hereditary transmission even in the female fine (1522). Thenceforth the three orders were united under one government, though their titles and possessions remained separate. To dis- charge the detail of this administration, Charles V instituted a special ministry, the Council of Orders, composed of a president named by the king, whom he represented, and six knights, two delegates from each order. To this council belonged the presentation of knights to vacant commanderies and jurisdiction in all matters, civil or ecclesiastical, save the purely spiritual cases reserved for ecclesiastical dignitaries. Thus ended the autonomy of the orders (see Cala- trava, Military Order of). Their symbol was a red cross terminating in a sword, which recalls their title de la Espada, and a shell (la venera), which they doubtless owed to their connexion with the pilgrimage of St. James.
IsLA, Regla de la Orden y cavalleria de Santiago (Antwerp, 1598) ; Bulario de la Orden de Santiago (Madrid, 1791); Llamazares, Historia de las cuatro drdenes militares (Madrid, 1862) ; de la Fdente, Histdria eclesidstica de Espafla (Madrid, 1874).
Ch. Moeller.
Saint- Jean-d' Acre. See Acre; Ptolemais.
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Diocese of (Mau- ramanensis), includes the arrondiascvunt of Saint- Jean-de-Maurienne in the Department of Haute Savoie. The diocese was suppressed by the Concordat of 1802, and its territory joined to the Diocese of Chamb^ry under the French Empire, then in 1825 under Pied- montese rule it was cut off from Chamb6ry and made
