Order of the Holy Spirit
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (Spiritans)Holy Ghost FathersThe Congregation of the Holy Spirit is a Roman Catholic congregation of priests, lay brothers, and since Vatican II, lay associates...
.
The Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, (French: L'Ordre du Saint-Esprit; L'Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit) was an Order of Chivalry
Chivalric order
Chivalric orders are societies and fellowships of knights that have been created by European monarchs in imitation of the military orders of the Crusades...
under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost
Order of the Holy Ghost
The order was responsible for running hospitals - Hospitals of the Holy Ghost - throughout Europe for centuries, and in its heyday the number of its houses ran into many hundreds...
. It was the senior chivalric order of France by precedence, although not by age (the Order of Saint Michael
Order of Saint Michael
The Order of Saint Michael was a French chivalric order, founded by Louis XI of France in 1469, in competitive response to the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece founded by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, Louis' chief competitor for the allegiance of the great houses of France, the Dukes of...
having been created one hundred years earlier).
History
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...
Order of the Golden Fleece
Order of the Golden Fleece
The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...
, and to help ensure that leading French nobles remained loyal to the Crown. Its membership was initially restricted to a small number of powerful princes and nobles, but this increased dramatically due to the pressures of the Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
: at the beginning of the reign of Henry III
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
, the order had several hundred living members, ranging from kings to bourgeois. Recognising that the order had been significantly devalued, Henry founded the Order of the Holy Spirit December 31, 1578- thereby creating a two-tier system: the new order would be reserved for princes and powerful nobles whilst the old Order of Saint Michael would be given to less eminent servants of the Crown. This Order was dedicated to the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
to commemorate the fact that Henry was elected King of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(1573) and inherited the throne of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(1574) on two Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
s.
During the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
the Order of the Holy Spirit was officially abolished by the French government along with all other chivalric orders from the Ancien Regime, although the exiled Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
continued to acknowledge it. Following the Restoration, the order was officially revived, only to be abolished again by the Orleanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
Louis-Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
following the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
in 1830. However, the Legitimist
Legitimists
Legitimists are royalists in France who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession of the descendants of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848, whose kings were members of the junior...
pretenders to the French throne have continued to nominate members of the order, long after the abolition of the French monarchy itself.
Composition
The King of France was the Sovereign and Grand Master ("Souverain Grand Maître"), and made all appointments to the order. Members of the order can be split into three categories:- 8 Ecclesiastic members
- 4 Officers
- 100 Knights
Initially, four of the ecclesiastic members had to be cardinals, whilst the other four had to be archbishops or prelates. This was later relaxed so that all eight had to be either cardinals, archbishops or prelates.
Members of the order had to be Roman Catholic, and had to be able to demonstrate three degrees of nobility. The minimum age for members was 35, although there were some exceptions:
- Children of the king were members from birth, but weren't received into the order until they were 12.
- Princes of the Blood could be admitted to the order from the age of 16
- Foreign royalty could be admitted to the order from the age of 25
All Knights of the order were also members of the Order of Saint Michael. As such, they were generally known as "Chevalier des Ordres du Roi" (i.e. "Knights of the Royal Orders"), instead of the more lengthy "Chevalier de Saint-Michel et Chevalier du Saint-Esprit" (i.e. "Knight of Saint Michael and Knight of the Holy Spirit").
Officers
The officers of the order were as follows:- Chancellor
- Provost and Master of Ceremonies
- Treasurer
- Clerk
Vestments and accoutrements
The symbol of the order is known as the Cross of the Holy Spirit. This is a Maltese CrossMaltese cross
The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta and through them came to be identified with the Mediterranean island of Malta and is one of the National symbols of Malta...
); at the periphery, the eight points of the cross are rounded, and between each arm there is a fleur-de-lis
Fleur-de-lis
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...
. Imposed on the centre of the cross is a dove. The eight rounded corners represent the Beatitudes
Beatitudes
In Christianity, the Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus that appear in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin adjective beatus which means happy, fortunate, or blissful....
, the four fleur-de-lis represent the Gospels, the twelve petals represent the Apostles, and the dove signifies the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
. The Cross of the Holy Spirit was worn hung from a blue riband ("Le Cordon Bleu").
Cordon Bleu
Due to the blue riband from which the Cross of the Holy Spirit was hung, the Knights became known as "Les Cordon Bleus". Over time, this expression was extended to refer to other distinctions of the highest class - for example, Cordon BleuLe Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with 35 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts...
cooking and Blue Riband
Blue Riband
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...
sporting events. It has been suggested that the term Cordon Bleu in cooking has derived from the splendour of feasts held by the Knights and not simply from the term becoming synonymous with prestige; however, this is not confirmed.
Habit and insignia
The badge of the Order is a gold Maltese cross with white borders, each of the eight points ending in a gold ball (points boutonnées) and with a gold fleur-de-lys between each of its arms. At the center of the cross, was set a white dove descending (i.e., with its wings and head pointing downward) surrounded by green flames. The back of this cross worn by the knights was the same as the front except with the medallion of the Order of Saint Michael at the center rather than the dove and flames (those of ecclesiastical members were the same on the back as on the front). During the ceremonies, the cross of officers and commanders officers was attached to a collar of links of gold fleur-de-lis alternating with links consisting of a white enameled letter H (the first initial of name of the founder) crowned with a gold French royal crown, with identical crowns on either side of it or alternately with a trophy of weapons. Each of these links was surrounded with red enamel flames forming a square around it.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Collier_de_l%27ordre_du_Saint-Esprit_.jpghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elements_collier_Saint-Esprit.svg More generally, the cross was suspended from a large ribbon of color moirée blue sky, hence the nickname cordon bleu the knights who wore.
For the ceremonies of the Order and when the knights of the Order made their Communion the knights wore a long black velvet mantle sprinkled with embroidered gold and red flames and with an embroidered representation of the collar round its edges. Like the royal mantle, this mantle opened on the right side and just as an ermine shoulder cape covered the top of the royal mantle, a shoulder cape of green velvet with the same embroidery but entirely in silver was worn over this mantle and formed the upper part of it. Both the mantle proper and the shoulder cape were lined with orange satin.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Louis_Philippe_Joseph_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans.jpg
The star of the Order had the same design as the front of the badge, but embroidered in silver (later a medal star in silver was used) on both the knights' coats and their vests.
Special privileges and honours associated with the Order
In France red or green sealing waxSealing wax
Sealing wax is a wax material of a seal which, after melting, quickly hardens forming a bond that is difficult to separate without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify something such as a document is unopened, to verify the sender's identity, for example with a signet ring, and as decoration...
was used for the royal seal on documents requiring a royal seal; only in documents relating to the Order of the Holy Spirit was white wax used for this royal seal.