At long last Pope Gregory XVI took the reformation of the Golden Spur in hand—a reformation which proved to be quite radical. In a Brief _Cum hominum mentes_ of Oct. 31, 1841,[36] the Pope practically suppressed the Order of the Golden Spur and established in its place the Order of St. Sylvester, presumably the founder of the old order. In remembrance of the latter, the Pope decreed that the accompanying title of the new order be _Militia Aurata_. The Pope reserved the right of conferring this new knighthood to the Holy See exclusively, revoking all delegated rights once given by his predecessors and abolished the privilege of conferring nobility. The membership of the order was reduced to 150 commanders and 300 knights and confined within the Papal States. In 1905 another radical change occurred in the history of the Golden Spur. Pope St. Pius X by the Brief _Multum ad excitandos_ separated the Order of the Golden Spur from that of St. Sylvester, making them two distinct orders from that time on. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the restored _Militia Aurata_ was put under the protection of the Immaculate Mother of Christ. Moreover, Pius ordered that the gilded cross of the order should in its centre carry a medal with a crowned monogram of Mary. This cross hangs from a trophy which in turn is attached to a red ribbon with white edgings to be worn around the neck. The knights also wear a plaque in the form of a silver star on which the same cross and medal are superimposed; their uniform is a red tunic and black trousers. Pope Pius emphatically reiterated that membership does not entail personal nobility and still less hereditary nobility. The order comprises only one class, namely that of knights. The number of knights may not exceed 100, “lest the honor be decreased by too large a number,” as the Brief states. Actually, in 1954, there were only ten Knights of the Golden Spur in the entire world. This knighthood is conferred upon men, “qui vel armis, vel scriptis, vel praeclaris operibus rem catholicam auxerint, et Ecclesiam Dei virtute tutarint, aut doctrina illustraverint.” Membership is not limited to Catholics; the sentence just quoted leaves sufficient room for the candidacy of non-Catholics, inasmuch as they, too, may help the cause of Catholicism, as in signing a concordat with the Church or by giving freedom to the Catholic missions. In fact, four out of the ten existing knights are non-Catholics: one Greek Orthodox and three Mohammedans, among them the Shah of Iran.[37] THE ORDER OF PIUS ORDO PIANUS