KNIGHTS
671
KNIOHTS
promote Catholic education and charity, and, through
its insurance department, to furnish at least tempo-
rary financial aid to the families of deceased members.
On 15 May, 1882, the organizers, as a Supreme Com-
mittee, instituted the first subordinate council, San
Salvador Council, No. 1, New Haven. From this
time on, subordinate councils were organized in the
different cities and towns throughout the State of
Connecticut, but it was not until 15 April, 1885, when
a subordinate council was established at Westerley,
R. I., that the order was extended beyond the borders
of the parent state. The Supreme Committee then
enacted a law providing that a Supreme Council
should be established, composed of the Supreme Com-
mittee and delegates from subordinate councils, each
council being entitled to one delegate for each fifty
members. The number of delegates under this ar-
rangement proving too large, the Supreme Council, on
14 May, 1886, resolved itself into a Board of Govern-
ment, composed of the Board of Directors, formerly
the Supreme Committee, and the Grand Knight and a
Past Grand Knight of each subordinate council of the
society.
Owing to the rapid growth of the society, the Board of Government, in 1892, provided for the organization of State Councils, composed of two dele- gates from each subordinate council in the state. On 29 April, 1893, the Board of Government was suc- ceeded by the National Council, composed of the State Deputy and last Past State Deputy of each State Council, and bj' one delegate from every thousand members of the insurance class. In October, 1893, associate members were first admitted to the order. The establishment of the associate class was intended for those advanced in years, or unable to pass a physi- cal examination, but has gradually been extended to comprehend all eligible men not desiring the insurance feature. On 22 February, 1900, the first instance of the fourth degree took place in New York City, when more than twelve hundred candidates from all parts of the United States received this degree.
The order is now established in every state and territory of the United States, in every province of Canada, in Newfoundland, the Philippine Islands, Mexico, Cuba, Panama. Councils are to be estab- lished in Porto Rico and in South America. The membership, divided into two classes, insurance and associate, included, on 1 March, 1910, 74,909 insur- ance members, and 160,703 associate members, a total of 235,612. Insurance policies are issued for 81000, $2000, and $3000, to desirable risks between the ages of 18 and 60. The rate for each member increases every five years until the age of 60 is attained, after which he pays a level premium based upon his age at initiation. The society has paid to the beneficiaries of deceased members $4,438,728.74.
The Knights of Columbus have done notable work in promoting Catholic education and charity, provid- ing education and homes for Catholic orphans, endow- ing scholarships in Catholic colleges, providing lec- tures on Catholic doctrine, endowing hospital beds, providing sanitoria for its sick members, maintaining employment bureaux, and. in general, performing the work of the apostolate of the laity. In 1904 the order presented to the Catholic University at Washington $50,000 for a chair of American Histor)', besides several thousand dollars for library purposes, and is at present engaged in raising $500,000 to endow 50 scholarships in the Universitv'. The work of lectures to non-Catholics on questions of Catholic teaching and belief has always appealed to the spirit of the order, and of late years has been taken up with no little suc- cess. Splendid results have attended the lectures so far delivered. They have led to a better understand- ing of the Catholic faith on the part of non-Catholics, and a more friendly attitude towards it; they have shown that bigotry is on the wane, and that the non-
Catholic mind is open to conviction. The series of
lectures delivered by the Right Reverend Bishop
J. J. Keane of Cheyenne, W'yo., in Denver, in 1909,
inaugurated the work. At Cedar Rapids, la., eighty-
five per cent of the audience, at the lectures under the
auspices of the Knights of Columbus, was non-Catho-
lic. The work has been taken up successfully in
Buffalo, Milwaukee, Houston, Los Angeles. It is a
movement which does not aim at attacking any man's
belief, but at building up charity among men "and",
in the words of Bishop Keane, " bringing us all closer
to God Almighty". In several cities the Knights
have established Catholic libraries, and in many others
have catalogued the Catholic books in the public
libraries.
The erection of a memorial to Christopher Colum- bus, in the City of Washington, by the United States Government, is due in a measure to the work of the Knights of Columbus. "Columbus Day" (12 Octo- ber), which is observed at present in fifteen states of the Union (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mis- souri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Penn- sylvania and Rhode Island), was instituted largely through the efforts of the Knights, who are now striv- ing to make it a national holiday.
Edward Heaen.
Knights of the Cross (Ordo Militaris Cruci- GERORUM CUM RuBEA Stella), a religious order fa- mous in the history of Bohemia, and accustomed from the beginning to the use of arms, a custom which was confirmed in 1292 by an ambassador of Pope Nicholas IV. The grand master is still invested with a sword at his induction into office, and the congregation has been recognized as a military order by Popes Clement X and Innocent XII, as well as by several em- perors.
There is much discussion as to the real beginnings of this order, some authorities, among others the Bollandists, tracing it back to Palestine, where the first members were supposed to have borne arms against the Saracens. On the other hand, however, is the contemporary custom of establishing a religious congregation at the time of the foundation of a hos- pital, as well as the fact that in no document is there any trace of the Palestinian Cruciferi having gone to Bohemia. Moreover, in a parchment Breviary of the order dated 1356 the account of foundation con- tains no allusion to such a lineage. The order is first found in Bohemia as a fraternity attached to a hospital at Prague under a community of Clarisses, established by Princess Agnes, daughter of Przemysl Ottocar I and Queen Constantia, in 1233. In 1235 the hospital was richly endowed by the queen with property formerly belonging to the German order, a gift confirmed by Pope Gregory IX (18 May, 1236), who stipulated that the revenues should be divided with the Clarisse monastery. After three years, dur- ing which the head of the congregation had gone to Rome as the accredited representative of Abbess Agnes, and the congregation had been formally con- stituted an order under the Rule of St. Augustine by Gregory IX (1238), the abbess (1239) resigned all jurisdiction over the hospital and its possessions into the hands of the Holy See. Twelve days later the pope formally assigned these to the recently confirmed Knights of the Cross, who were to hold them forever in fief to the Holy See, on condition of the yearly payment of a nominal sum. Blessed Agnes built for the order a new hospital at the Prague Bridge, which was taken as the mother-house, and to the title of the order was added in latere (pedc) pontis (Pragensis) fat the foot of the (Prague) bridge]. She also petitioned the Holy See for .some mark to dis- tinguish these knights from other Cruciferi, with whom they bore in common the red cross of the crusa-
