![pope-benedictxvi-coat-of-arms.png](http://marques.silvaclan.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/pope-benedictxvi-coat-of-arms.png)
![PopeWithMOORSHEAD.jpg.w560h785.jpg](http://www.rvbeypublications.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/PopeWithMOORSHEAD.jpg.w560h785.jpg)
The objects featured here all include the head of a moor, or black African, in profile. The use of the 'moor's head' as a heraldic device dates from the 13th century. The emblem has connections to the Crusades, reflecting associating individual families with victories over the moors. Heraldic devices and emblems were included on objects like those featured here to indicate ownership
Pope Benidict wasn't the first and surely wouldn't be the last to celebrate the defeat and expulsion of the Black Moors from Europe, the Catholic Church has always honored this historic moment, which has one of the factors of the Church having conflict with the Knight Templers monastic order as well as the early foundation of Freemasonry which found kinship with the ideology of the Moors.
In fact the Catholic Church even created a civic order dedicated to the legacy of honoring the expulsion of the Moors and the end of thier occupation of Europe:
William Harper Bennett founded the Order of Alhambra on February 29, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York as a Catholic fraternal and social association. It was named after the Alhambra, a Moorish palace in Granada, Spain; where the Moors surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, after occupying Spain for almost 800 years. Within sight of the Alhambra’s red towers the saintly Columbus received the first favorable reply to his lifelong prayers for assistance to embark on his voyage of discovery. The Order, in addition to adopting the name of the Moorish palace, uses the colorful Oriental costuming and settings. The emblem of the Order is the red tower of Castile surmounting the crescent of the Saracen typifying the triumph of Christianity over the Moors. The Fez worn by members of the Order has this emblem as its prominent centerpiece. The Order has been honored by Pope John Paul II accepting a Fez.
![popefez.jpg](http://www.orderalhambra.org/popefez.jpg)