Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/130

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NOTES AND Q UERIES.

s. in. FKB. n, 1903.

round church of St. Benignus of Dijon, which was unquestionably an imitation of the Jerusalem St. Sepulchre, as were, likewise, the circular churches of Metz, in Lorraine, and of Laon ; the rotunda of Lanleff, in the department of C6tes-du-Nord, and the cir- cular monument (evidently having the same origin) at Rieux-Minervois, near Carcassonne. In Italy we may note the round church of St. Sepulchre at Brindisi, the ancient Brundu- sium ; in Spain the exact replica of the Holy Sepulchre to be found in the Templar church of La Vera Cruz at Segovia, in which there is a small chapel which is an exact model of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem (' Impressions of Spain,' by Lady Herbert, p. 621). All these, then, are imitations, in a greater or less degree, of the Jerusalem prototype, and, needless to say. they have no connexion whatever with St. Pulcheria, or with any " St. Pulchre."

But this is not all. We may cite as further proof the testimony of the chroniclers who mention the foundation of the little circular church of Neuvy-Saint-Supulchre, in the department of Indre, in France. They state clearly that the church was constructed in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and hence the name: "Fundata est ad formain Sancti Sepulchri lerosolimitani " (Viollet-le-Duc, 'Diet. d'Architecture'). The resemblance to the prototype became in this case still more complete when, in 1257, a fragment of the tomb of our Saviour was presented to the Chapter of Neuvy ; for the relic was placed in a sort of grotto, erected in the centre of the rotunda, in imitation of the tomb of our Lord in the basilica at Jerusalem. This grotto existed till 1806, when it was destroyed by a cure of Neuvy, as it hid the altar at the end of the nave (ibid.).

There is a similar instance in the case of the Chapter House (Salle du Chapitre) of the Cathedral of Constance, where there is a monument which at one time was placed in the cathedral itself, and which was intended to serve the same purpose as that at Neuvy, namely, to recall to mind the real tomb in the centre of the rotunda of the Jerusalem basilica.

But besides these circular churches, or replicas, there are numerous non-circular churches, up and down the land, which were merely dedicated under the title of St. Sepulchre. The church of St. Sepulchre at Newgate, London, is one of these ; as are also the St. Sepulchre church at Cambray, that at St. Omer, and that in the diocese of Angers ; the Augustinian church at Piacenza in Italy, and the priory church of St.

Sepulchre de Sambleriis, in the diocese of Troyes, in France. Under the same dedication were the bishopric of Borgo San Sepolcro, suffragan to the metropolitan see of Florence ; the ruined Benedictine Priory at Canterbury ; the hospital of St. Sepulchre at Hedon, or Newton-St.-Sepulchre, in Yorkshire ; and the hospital of St. Sepulchre belonging to the Canons Regular of St. Sepulchre, which used to exist at Warwick.

In mediaeval times there existed the Sacred Military Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. This Order was afterwards amal- gamated by Pope Innocent VIII., in the year 1484, with the better-known Military Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem otherwise known as Knights Hospitalers, Knights of Rhodes, or Knights of Malta ; and consequent upon this union, the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John incor porated amongst his othertitles the additional one of "Sancti Sepulchri Dominici humilis Magister " a title held with distinction by Prince Ceschi di Santa Croce, the Grand Master lately deceased. This Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre, properly so called, is to be distinguished from the knighthood of the same which is still conferred at the Holy Sepulchre formerly by the Franciscan Gustos of the Holy Land, and since 1861 by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to- whom the right of nomination to the knight- hood was at that date transferred. In the sacristy attached to the Latin Chapel in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem is preserved the straight double-edged sword, with cross-guard, of the renowned Godfrey de Bouillon, which is still used by the Patriarch in giving the accolade to the knight-elect. Godfrey de Bouillon, the first Latin King of Jerusalem, was also the first Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. The badge of the Military Order aforesaid is the red patriarchal double-armed cross, and that of the knighthood at least in more modern times the fivefold cross of Jerusalem in- red. In 'The Book of the Wanderings of Brother Felix Fabri ' (1484, Palestine Pilgrim Text Society) a most interesting account of the dubbing of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre is given, as well as a sketch indicating what would be expected of them. This prolific writer also supplies no fewer than forty arguments by which to manifest how this of all knighthoods is quite the best.

And last, but not least, there is the ecclesiastical feast and Officium Divinum of the Holy Sepulchre, observed, in some places at least, on the Second Sunday after