[a] The International Commission on Orders of Chivalry (ICOC) includes a list of ecclesiastical decorations in its register since 1998, which only "possess full validity as awards of merit or honours within the respective Churches which have instituted them" but excludes bodies "which are often created as a purely private initiative, and which subsequently place themselves under the 'protection' of a Patriarchal See or Archbishopric.
"[2] The awards associated with Vilatte include those named The Chivalrous and Religious Order of the Crown of Thorns (OCT) (L'Ordre Souverain, Chevaleresque, Nobilaire et Religieux de la Couronne d'Epines), The Sovereign, Knightly and Noble Order of the Lion and the Black Cross (OLBC) (L'Ordre Souverain, Chevaleresque, et Noble du Lion et de Croix Noire (OLCN)).
According to the San Luigi organization, after the French protectorate of Tunisia was established in 1881, France sought to colonize the Ottoman Empire's Fezzan province as part of the Scramble for Africa.
Ghadames society in the 1800s is described by Ulrich Harmann, in Die Welt des Islams, as a city with "customary law and administration" with "the norms" established and observed "by the assemblies of the various sub-tribes and codified in ittifaqat" and sharia.
"[8] It is unclear if the monastery was a satellite of a mother abbey, if it was ever considered stable enough and large enough to be elevated to the rank of an abbey, if they had the canonically required number of twelve monks to elect an abbot, if his election received the approbation of their provincial prior, if after his ecclesiastical confirmation he received abbatial blessing from any bishop in communion with the Holy See, or even if any of their actions were sanctioned at all.
Disease was endemic; attempts to convert the local Muslim population to Catholicism were rejected; and in less than a year, on August 2, 1884, the monastery was sacked and at least one monk was murdered.
[15][16] The OCT was also allegedly founded in 1891 and authorized by Moran Mar Ignatius Peter IV, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.
[8] The ICOC asserts that because "none of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchal Sees possess any type of direct Sovereignty, [...] the decorations instituted by them may not be deemed as equivalent to those bestowed by the Roman Pontiff not only in his Spiritual Capacity but also in his temporal position as Sovereign of the Vatican City State."
[19] The Sovereign, Knightly and Noble Order of the Lion and the Black Cross (OLBC) (L'Ordre Souverain, Chevaleresque, et Noble du Lion et de Croix Noire On April 18, 1911, Le Petit Parisien reported that the Faubourg-Montmartre Police Commissioner and three magistrates searched Guillaume Valensi's home and office were they seized numerous diplomas and the flag of an order created by Valensi, a Tunisian.
[20] According to The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, Valensi was not placed on trial with the other five men because of his "breakdown of the mental faculties".
According to the trial record, Valensi's "part in the play was to pose as chief secretary to the Bey of Tunis, in which capacity he was supposed to be able to bestow the order of the Nichan Iftikar on deserving persons, for a consideration.
The New Zealand Herald described how the town of Lille had been "hoaxed in the most complete and amusing manner" by Valensi and two accomplices, who duped the authorities into thinking that they were Moorish notables.
"I do not bear the title of Marie Timothée, much less that of Prince, Grand Master of the Order of the Lion and the Black Cross", asserted Vilatte.
Brassard was a wine merchant, a Radical Party executive committee delegate affiliated with Freemasonry and director of l'Agence spéciale parisienne.
[27]: 83 Pujo listed eight societies which mushroomed from Brassard's conglomerate or Republican policy as: Pujo included an excerpt from a letter written by Collet, secretary of most Brassard companies, to Adolphe Brézet, "president of the Free State of Counani", stated that Brézet would receive, among several blank diplomas sent to him, a blank "officer of San Luigi" diploma.
[8] Guy Stair Sainty wrote that an "increasing number of such bodies" troubled the Holy See which "issued statements condemning such 'Orders'" in 1935, 1953, 1970 and 1976.
He noted that the "most complete recent condemnation" was included in Orders of Knighthood, Awards and the Holy See, by Archbishop Igino Eugenio Cardinale.
[29] The self-styled orders are described as "originating from private initiatives and aiming at replacing the legitimate forms of chivalric awards.