Recently, on Aug. 27, 1953, a new concordat was concluded between the Holy See and Spain, and thus the status of the Priory of Ciudad Real was reconfirmed.[24] Article VIII of the concordat reads as follows: “Continuerà a sussistere a Ciudad Real il Priorato _Nullius_ degli Ordini Militari.” Since the office of Grand Master of the Military Orders, after the abdication of the king in 1931, is in abeyance, the bishop-prior is the acting head of the orders, inasmuch as he is the chairman of a commission whose task it is to prepare a project of law designed to put the orders on a more solid juridical basis. The military orders were suppressed by the Red Government of 1931-1936, but were re-established by the Franco regime. The task of this commission is to define with greater precision the rights and privileges of the Spanish military orders. THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE OF JERUSALEM The origin of this order of knighthood (_Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulchri Hierosolymitani_) is the subject of a great deal of controversy. There is no doubt that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre originated in the Holy Land and existed at the time of the Crusades or possibly even earlier. There is no doubt either that for many years an order of knighthood was in existence and called the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. For some time it was listed as a pontifical order of knighthood, apparently because, off and on, the popes have been its grand masters, but the _Annuario pontificio_ has ceased to list it as such since 1931, when Pope Pius XI transferred the grand mastership to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. However, the order as it presently exists is an ecclesiastical order of knighthood; article 44 of its statutes, published in 1949, clearly states that it “is strictly religious, both in character and objective.” The problem is not only at what time it originated as an order, but also what its status was; more particularly whether it ever achieved the status of a religious military order, as did the Templars or the Hospitallers. Some writers believe that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre formed an order which was founded even before the Crusades. In fact, they are of the opinion that this order was the cradle from which all other religious military orders in the Holy Land developed. This is the position found amongst older authors and at present strenuously defended in the monumental work of Guido A. Quarti.[25]