for piety and high birth. Some writers, however, consider that it originated with the Canons regular, whom St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, introduced into her new church of Mount Calvary; while others again assert that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre arose in the time of Godfrey de Bouillon, or his successor Baldwin, and that by the latter the Patriarch of Jerusalem was nominated first Grand Master. But the most probable date may, with some historical truth, be fixed at a much later period, in the year 1496, during the papacy of Alexander VI. His Holiness sought, in fact, to be considered as the founder of the Order—by means of which he intended to stimulate zeal for religion and for pilgrimages.
The Grand Mastership, and the right of nominating Knights were originally vested in the Holy See, though the Pope ceded subsequently those rights to the Guardian Father of the sacred tomb. Noble descent was one of the conditions of the reception. The duties of the Knights were to hear mass daily; combat, live and die for the Christian religion; to procure substitutes in the war with the infidels, in case their own presence should be prevented by unavoidable circumstances, to grant constant protection to the servants of the Church; to prevent all sorts of unjust feuds, quarrels, disputes, and usury; to favour peace amongst Christians; protect widows and orphans; to abstain from swearing and cursing; and to guard carefully against intemperance, lewdness, &c., &c. These heavy and severe duties were amply compensated for, by the extraordinary privileges granted to the Knights, by the Pope or the Guardian; so extraordinary, indeed, that we can hardly conceive how or by what means they could be secured or guaranteed to the Knights. Among those privileges was the right conceded to members of the Order to legitimatize bastards, change their names, grant escutcheons, possess church property though married, to be exempt from taxes on salt, wine,
