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In 638 Jerusalem was taken, although it was possible to continue with worship and pilgrimages. At the beginning of the 11th century the Fatimid Caliphate ruled Jerusalem, persecuting Christians, and preventing all kinds of pilgrimage, even destroying the first building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Only the Orthodox were permitted to remain in Jerusalem but subjected to multiple abuses. Furthermore, the threat of Seljuk Turks advancing towards Constantinople, the Byzantine emperor asked Pope Urban II for help, in order to reunify the church after the recent schism, rebuild the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and allow Christianity to power making pilgrimages to the holy places, he decided to convene the council at Clermont Ferrand in 1055, and a large number of knights came to him who, crying "Deus lo Vult", decided to take the cross, thus becoming the first Crusade. After four years of confrontation with the Muslims they managed to recover Jerusalem in 1099.

After the conquest of the Holy City, Godfrey of Bouillon restored the cult. He entrusted a group of knights with the protection of the temple, thus emerging the first sepulcher knights, so called because they had been invested by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem before the Holy Sepulcher and that they constituted a noble guard who kept vigil with their weapons night and day. They protected the walls of Jerusalem and accompanied their kings in all their battles, guarding the Holy Cross.

King Baldwin I, gives them Asisses or See. And thus, arose a chivalrous order that prayed and fought. They depend on the military of the king of Jerusalem, his great master, with the obligation to keep 500 warriors in arms, and on the religious side of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, giving him some statutes. They spread throughout Europe: Spain, France, England, Germany and Italy, where they founded Grand Priories to attract aid and knights for the Holy Land. European kings recognize its importance and grant their favor and help to the Order.