Vatican, Papal State. An Order of the Advocates of St. Peter, Knight

(Avvocati di San Pietro). Instituted in 1878. Three-piece construction, in bronze gilt with blue and white enamels, unmarked, measuring 39 mm (w) x 62 mm (h) inclusive of the papal tiara and crossed keys suspension, intact enamels, adhesive residue evident on the arms and centrepieces on both sides due to repositioning of the centrepieces, original ribbon, near extremely fine.

Footnote: The Order of the Advocates of St. Peter was established in 1878 as an association of Roman Catholic jurists (lawyers), with the purpose of asserting and vindicating the rights and teaching of the Church and of the Holy See. The organization, which was blessed by Pius IX, received a signal mark of approbation from Leo XIII in 1878, when its constitution was approved in a papal brief. A body of jurists constituting a society whose statutes were confirmed by a brief of Leo XIII on July 5, 1878. As the name indicates, its main object is the defense of the Holy See in its rights and privileges, both in the spiritual and temporal order. It binds its members to refute calumnies of enemies of the Church, whether derived from distortions of history, jurisprudence, or dogma, but above all they are to devote their legal knowledge to a defense of the Church's rights before civil tribunals. The society was formed in 1877, on the occasion of the Golden Episcopal Jubilee of Pope Pius IX, and the Advocate Count Cajetan Agnelli dei Malherbi, of Rome, became its first president. Pope Pius IX warmly approved of the undertaking, and desired a wide extension of the society, as the immunities of the Church need defense everywhere, and under every system of government. It has spread rapidly over the Catholic world, and branches of the society are found among the principal nations of Christendom. The ordinary members must be jurists, but the society also enrolls as honourary members distinguished ecclesiastes or laymen who have made it a practice to defend Church interests along the lines of this organization. Colleges of the Advocates of St. Peter, numbering many hundred members, exist in Italy, England, Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Canada. and South America. All of these bodies are affiliated to the directory in Rome.