Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/782

 CHRISMARIUM

698

CHRIST

mal and chrismatory are taken indiscriminately and almost universally to refer to the vessels that are employed to hold the oils that are solemnly con- secrated by the bishop on Holy Thursday, viz., oil of catechumens, oil of the sick, and chrism. It is the last mentioned that has given its name to these receptacles. Two kinds of these vessels are in service. One set is employed to reserve the yearly supply and is kept in the sacristy of the cathedral, while the other contains what is required for daily use and is kept in the parochial church. Both kinds should be made either of gold, silver, or at least of tin and pewter {stannum), and should have sheaths or cases. They cannot be made of any substance that >., likely to become oxidized. In shape the longer ones resemble little jars, while the smaller sort are like small cylindrical boxes and are commonly jointed to- gether. As the vessels for each oil are similar in ap- pearance, they should be stamped with distinctive marks to discriminate one from the other. The letters I (or INF.), ( 'AT., and CHR. are usually engraved on the outside to designate respectively oil of the sick, oil of catechumens, and chrism. Many interesting speci- mens of these vessels have come down from the Mid- dle Ages and are still preserved in the treasuries of English and continental cathedrals. These vessels are not blessed, but when containing the oils they may not be handled or carried by lay persons except in cases of necessity (Cong, of Rites).

Rilualc Romamim (Home, 1903), passim; Catalani, Rituale Romanum: De Sacramenti Baptismi A<(mini$tratione (Rome, 1850); Du Cange, Glossarium Latimlatis (Venice. 17M6), s. v. >, etc ; Bon \, Ii, Rebus Lilurgicis (Turin, 1747), I, xxv; O'Kane, Notes on Roman Ritual (Dublin, 1867), 14S; Van Der Stappen, De Sacramentorum Administratione (Mechlin, 1900).

Patrick Morriseoe.

Chrismarium. — (1) A place in a church set apart for the administration of confirmation. (2) An am- pulla or jar, globular in form, usually made of silver or pewter, and used for containing the holy oils. See

( 'IIKISMAL.

Christ, Jesus. See Jesus Christ.

Christ, Monogram of. See Monogram of Christ.

Christ, Offices of. See Jesus Christ.

Christ, Order of the Knights of, a military order which sprang out of the famous Order of the Temple (see Knights Templars). As Portugal was the first country in Europe where the Tem- plars settled (in 1128), so it has been the last to pre- serve any remnant of that order. The Portuguese Templars had contributed to the conquest of Algarve from the Moslems; they were still defending that con- quest when their order was suppressed (1312) by Pope Clement V (q.v.). King Diniz, who then ruled Portugal, regretted the loss of these useful auxiliaries all the more because, in the trial to which the order had been submitted everywhere throughout Christen- dom, tin' Templars of Portugal had been declared in- nocent by the ecclesiastical court of the Bishop of Lisbon. To fill their place, the king instituted a new order, under the name of Christi Militia ( 1317). He i hrn obtained for this order tin' approbation of Pope John XXII, who. by a Hull (1319), gave these knights the rule of the Knights of Calatrava (see Calatrava, Military Order of) and put them under the con- trol of the Cistercian Abbot of Aleobaea. Further.

by another Hull (1323), the same pope authorized

King Diniz to turn over to the new Order of Chris!

tin Portuguese estates of the suppressed Templars,

manj oi the latter hastened to become

Knights of Christ, it may fairly be said that the I ition of Dora Diniz was both in its personnel it territorial position a continuation in Portu- gal of the Order of tho Temple. Seated first at

Castro Marino, it was later (1357) definitively estab- lished in the monastery of Thomar, near Santarem.

By this time, however, Portugal had rid its soil of the Moslem, and it seemed that the Order of Christ must waste its strength in idleness, when Prince Henry, the Navigator, son of King Joao I, opened a new field for its usefulness by carrying the war against Islam into Africa. The conquest of Ceuta (1415) was the first step towards the formation of a great Portu- guese empire beyond the seas. It may at present be taken as demonstrated, that the motive of this great enterprise was not mercenary, but religious, its aim being the conquest of Africa for Christ and His Faith. Nothing could have been more in accord with the spirit of the order, which, under Prince Henry himself as its grand master (1417-65), took up the plan with enthusiasm. This explains the extraordinary favours granted by the popes to the order — favours intended to encourage a work of evangelization. Martin V, by a Bull the text of which is lost, granted to Prince Henry, as Grand Master of the Order of Christ, the right of presentation to all ecclesiastical benefices to be founded beyond the seas, together with complete jurisdiction and the disposal of church revenues in those regions. Naturally, the clergy- of these early foreign missions were recruited by preference from those priests who were members of the order, and, in 1514, a Bull of Leo X confirmed to it the right of pres- entation to all bishoprics beyond the seas, from which privilege afterwards arose the custom by which incumbents of such sees wear pectoral crosses of the form peculiar to the Order of Christ. After this cam- paign King Manoel of Portugal, in order to overcome the repugnance of the knights to remaining in African garrisons, established thirty new command- eries in the conquered territory. Leo X. in order to further increase the number of the order's establish- ments, granted an annual income of 20,000 cruzadas to be derived from Portuguese church property, and, as a result of all this material assistance, the total of seventy commanderies of the order at the beginning of Manoel's reign had become four hundred and fifty- four at its end, in 1521.

While these foreign expeditions kept alive the mili- tary spirit of the order, its religious discipline was de- clining. Pope Alexander VI. in 1492. commuted the vow of celibacy to that of conjugal chastity, alleging the prevalence among the knights of a concubinage to which regular marriage would be far preferable. The order was becoming less monastic and more secular, and was taking on more and more the character of a royal institution. After Prince Henry the Navigator, the grand mastership was always held by a royal prince; under Manoel it became definitively, with thoseof Aviz and Santiago, a prerogative of the crown; Joao III, Manoel's successor, instituted a special council (Mesa das Ordens) for the government .if these orders in the king's name. Brother Antonius of Lisbon, in attempting a reform, succeeded in bring- ing about the complete annihilation of religious life among the knights of the order. The priests of the Order of Christ were compelled to resume conventual life at Thomar, the convent itself becoming a regular cloister with which the knights thenceforward main- tained only a remote connexion. This unwholesome change the young king. Dom Sebastian, tried to reverse (1574 I. hut the glorious, though useless, death, in Africa, of this last of the crusaders i],">7s pre- vented the accomplishment of his ilesiLm. During the period of Spanish domination (1580 1640) another attempt to revive the monastic chara<

t lie u hole order resulted in the stat utes enacted by a general chapter, at rhomar, in Hill), ami promulgated By Philip IV of Spain, in 1027. The three vou re established, even tor knights not In ing in houses of

tin- i.nler. though with certain mitigations, marriage, for instance, being permitted to those who could ob-