Holy Ghost, Order

King Henry III of France established the Ordre du Saint-Esprit or Order of the Holy Ghost in 1578. Henry s purpose was to bind the French nobility to his side in the midst of religious turmoil. This included the now infamous Bartholomew s Day Massacre, on 24 August 1542 where Henry III ordered the murder of hundreds of Protestants who were in Paris for the wedding of his sister Marguerite to the Huguenot leader, Henri de Navarre. 

The Order of the Holy Ghost became the most prestigious of all France s chivalric Orders. Its emblems were a dove, knots of gold and the Fleur de Lys. The evening before a French Knight received this Order, he became an initiate of the Order of St Michael. 

The old French Ecossais Master or Architect s Catechism follows the twin Orders of St Michael and the Holy Ghost. It highlights the latent Christ within ... 

---