The Pontifical Order of Christ consists of one class only: membership is reserved mostly to sovereigns and heads of state. In the year 1954 there were, according to the _Annuario Pontificio_, only five Knights of the Order of Christ in the world. Although the Pontifical Order of Christ is an order of merit, its ancient religious origin is reflected in the fact that its members must be Catholic, and also in its ritual of investiture. After receiving the apostolic Brief of nomination (letters patent), the new knight presents himself with two witnesses before a cardinal of his choice or, if that is not possible, before the bishop of his diocese to whom he shows the Brief. He promises obedience to His Holiness the Pope and recites the profession of faith, whereupon the presiding dignitary invests him with the collar of the order. ORDER OF THE GOLDEN SPUR MILITIA AURATA In the Middle Ages, the spur was the symbol of knighthood, and in that sense all knights could be said to belong to the “Order of the Spur.” When the Order of the Golden Spur was established is unknown. Pope St. Pius X in his Brief _Multum ad excitandos_ maintains that it is among the oldest orders of knighthood and refers to the tradition which would have Pope St. Sylvester (314-35) the founder: “Neminem latet Ordinem Militiae auratae, sive ab aureo calcari, inter vetustissimos jure esse enumerandum: Constantino enim Magno Imperatore, Silvester PP. I sanctae memoriae decessor Noster, auctor illius fuisse dicitur.” Be that as it may, the Pope expresses regret that in the course of time “the order has lost its ancient splendor and dignity because of human weaknesses and the vicissitudes of the times.” In the 16th century, for one thing, the right to confer this knighthood was no longer reserved to the Holy See. In 1539 Paul III Farnese (1534-49) granted high dignitaries of the papal court and the Roman princely families the privilege of conferring the Golden Spur. From that time on the order was so freely bestowed that it fell into disrepute. To make matters worse, one of the Medici Popes, Pius IV (1559-65), decreed that membership of the Golden Spur entailed automatically the personal title of Roman Count for the titulary and hereditary nobility for his descendents. All this depreciated not only the distinctiveness of the Order of the Golden Spur but also of the Roman nobility. Additional confusion was created when the Knights of the Golden Spur began to wear the coveted eight-pointed white cross of the Knights of the Order of Jerusalem. Pope Benedict XIV by a Brief of Sept. 7, 1747, abolished this abuse and ordered that the badge of the Order of the Golden Spur be an octagonal gilded cross with a small spur hanging from it.