Military Religious Orders .

Military Religious Orders . I INTRODUCTION Military Religious Orders, organizations of medieval knights, who performed military, religious, and charitable functions, and whose members were bound by strict monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience (see Monasticism). These groups first appeared during the 12th century and flourished during the High Middle Ages. The three most famous of the military religious orders were the Poor Knights of Christ, also known as the Knights Templar or the Templars; the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, or Hospitalers; and the Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary's Hospital at Jerusalem, called simply Teutonic Knights. All three were founded in the Holy Land--parts of Palestine that Christians considered holy as the home of Christ. These three orders were important in defending the Crusader states--Christian states that Crusaders from the West had established in Palestine (see Crusades). The accomplishments of the three groups varied greatly. The Templars became famous for their pioneering methods of banking. The Teutonic Knights waged numerous wars to convert the people of eastern Europe to Christianity and eventually became a powerful force in the trade and politics of the region. Long after the Crusades, the Hospitalers remained a strong bulwark against Muslim invasion of the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe, until their defeat at the hands of French emperor Napoleon I in 1798. Both the Hospitalers and the Teutonic Knights still exist as religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church. II THE POOR KNIGHTS OF CHRIST French nobleman Hugh de Payens founded the Poor Knights of Christ in 1119 with eight of his companions. The order was founded in Jerusalem, which had been captured by Crusaders in 1099, and it occupied a house near the Temple of Solomon. As a result, it soon acquired the popular name Knights Templar, or simply Templars. In 1128 the pope granted the order a charter, and the famous Cistercian monk Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) fashioned a rigorous rule for the Templars modeled on that of his own order. Bernard's rule governed the Templars' daily duties and outlined a simple, religious way of life. The Templars spent part of each day in prayer, and they observed the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The Knights' administration was highly centralized. The order's leader was called the grand master, and he presided over three ranks of members: knights, chaplains, and sergeants. Only the highest rank, the knight, was permitted to wear the order's distinctive clothing, a white tunic with a red Latin Cross on the back. The grand master was responsible only to the pope, and the many Templar installations in Palestine and Europe were also free from the control of kings and bishops. The first duties of the order included providing military escorts to religious pilgrims making the journey from the Mediterranean to Jerusalem. However, as the Templars' popularity increased in the 12th century, they developed into a formidable band of knights. Numbering around 20,000 at their peak, the Templars established fortresses in many cities in Palestine and came to be very important in defending the Crusader states, especially the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, from attacks by Muslim forces. By the end of the 12th century, military success in the Holy Land had brought the Templars wealth as well as rich gifts of land in Palestine and Europe. The order received generous contributions from the Church, and often rulers in Europe donated land or money to the Templars instead of going to the Holy Land themselves. The order regularly provided a force of 300 knights for the defense of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. To support their military units, the Templars drew upon the money produced by their lands in Europe and Palestine. To speed the movement of funds between their various outposts, they developed a sophisticated banking system. Since the Templars were one of the few groups strong enough to safely transport money to and from the Holy Land, Western kings, nobles, and merchants came to rely upon them for this service. As a result, the Knights gradually became bankers for a large part of Europe and amassed great wealth and power. In 1187 Jerusalem fell to Muslim forces under the command of Saladin, and the Templars moved their base of operations to Antioch, in modern Turkey. In the next century Muslim advances forced them from Antioch to Acre (in modern Israel) and then to Caesarea (also in modern Israel). By 1291 they had abandoned the Holy Land completely and moved their operations to Cyprus, thereby losing their chief purpose, the defense of Palestine. Long-standing resentment of the order's vast wealth now grew. At the same time, rumors began to spread that the order's members engaged in immoral behavior and in religious practices forbidden by the Church. In 1307 King Philip IV of France moved decisively against the Knights. With the permission of Pope Clement V, Philip imprisoned the order's grand master, Jacques de Molay, and all the other Templars living in France at the time. Under torture, the Knights confessed to blasphemy and devil worship. In 1312 Clement dissolved the order and transferred its remaining property to its rivals, the Hospitalers. Eventually, most of the Templars in France were burned as heretics. It has been suggested that Philip IV took these actions because he was severely short of money and found himself able to remedy this problem at the expense of the Templars. Certainly, the rumors of the order's practices and its failure to stop the Muslim conquest of Palestine made it an easy target for the French king. But financial considerations do appear to have played a part. In both France and England the royal government seized most of the order's assets, despite the pope's directive that the Knights' wealth should be transferred to the Hospitalers. The chief legacy of the Templars was the banking system that they developed. In addition to making loans to individuals and governments, the Templars established complex systems for the transportation of wealth to and from the Holy Land. They also pioneered the use of something similar to modern checks. This allowed people to deposit money with the Templars in one place and withdraw it somewhere else. This was both easier and safer than transporting large amounts of gold or silver. The Templars' banking system became the foundation for the banking systems developed by merchants during the Renaissance. Though the Knights were not revived as a religious institution after their dissolution, the order was later incorporated into the York rite of the Masonic order. See also Freemasonry. III THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM Members of the military religious order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem are most often referred to as Hospitalers. The Hospitalers were the oldest institution among the three great military orders of the Roman Church in Palestine, although they originally performed charitable rather than military functions. They were established before the First Crusade (1095-1099). In the 11th century the French nobleman Gerard founded an order to care for sick pilgrims near the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Jerusalem. In 1113 Pope Paschal II officially recognized the order, which limited membership to men of noble birth. Members of the order wore a black cloak with an eight-pointed Maltese cross on it, and the order's organization was similar to that of the Templars. The Hospitalers had a grand master who presided over a centralized organization of knights, chaplains, and servants.The Hospitalers followed the popular monastic Rule of Saint Augustine, named for the Roman bishop, Augustine of Hippo, who had inspired many of its practices. These regulations, like those that Bernard of Clairvaux wrote for the Templars, governed the order's daily rituals of prayer, study, and work. The Rule of Saint Augustine was frequently adopted by monks in the 12th century. Under the order's second grand marshal, Raymond du Puy, it began to take on military duties in addition to its work at the Hospital of Saint John. By 1200 the Hospitalers' charitable functions were playing a secondary role to their military duties. Successes in war defending the Holy Land enriched the order with vast gifts of property in Europe and Palestine. In the 12th century the Hospitalers acquired three impressive fortresses in Palestine at Krak des Chevaliers, Belvoir, and Margat. At the height of their power in the 13th century, the Hospitalers regularly supplied 500 knights to defend the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Empire. The Crusader states were finally defeated in 1291, and the Hospitalers fled to Cyprus before setting up their headquarters on the island of Rhodes in 1309. For more than two centuries the order inhabited that island as the Knights of Saint John of Rhodes. From their outpost on the island, they used their navy to prevent Muslim colonization in the Eastern Mediterranean. While at Rhodes, the order's wealth continued to grow. Besides the many pious contributions made to support its military efforts, the order was further enriched in 1323 when it acquired some of the Templars' wealth. The Knights of Rhodes were the only Christian presence in the entire Eastern Mediterranean after 1453 when Constantinople, the last mainland Christian stronghold in the East, fell to the Ottoman Empire. They continued to hold Rhodes against frequent Muslim attacks until 1522, when they were finally defeated after a long siege. In 1530 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V gave the Knights the island of Malta to serve as their next military base. The order then became known as the Knights of Malta. The Knights' formidable garrison on the island helped to prevent Muslim expansion into Europe, and it remained unconquered until 1798, when French emperor Napoleon I forced the island to surrender. By that time the Knights had lost many of their other European possessions. As a Catholic order, the Knights had lost all of their English and most of their German lands to Protestant rulers in the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation (1517-1648). Their possessions in France were seized during the French Revolution (1789-1799). With the fall of Malta, the order moved its monastery to Trieste, Italy, and then to Rome in 1834. In 1961 Pope John XXIII recognized the order as a religious community of the Roman Catholic Church and an order of chivalry. Today the order continues to manage hospitals and to care for refugees and casualties of war, duties it never completely abandoned, despite the importance of its military endeavors during medieval and early modern times. The primary legacy of the Hospitalers was a military one. They provided a necessary defense against Muslim threats in the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe, threats that lasted long after Christian dominance in the Holy Land had ended. IV THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS OF SAINT MARY'S HOSPITAL AT JERUSALEM The Teutonic Knights were the last of the three great military religious orders to be founded during the Crusades. The order was founded at Acre in Palestine in 1190. In that year the Muslims mounted a siege of the city, and the new order of Teutonic Knights was given a hospital to care for sick and wounded Crusaders. In 1198 the Teutonic Knights were changed from a purely charitable order to a military one to help fight the Turks in the Holy Land. Membership in the Teutonic Knights was limited to German noblemen. In all other respects, though, the order was similar to the Hospitalers and Templars. The Teutonic Knights used the same monastic rule as the Templars, and their organization was much the same as the Templars and Hospitalers. They received official recognition from Pope Innocent III in 1199 and were granted the use of a white tunic with a black cross. The Teutonic Knights' early growth was slow since it competed for members and contributions with the already well-established Templars and Hospitalers. In 1210 Hermann von Salza assumed the leadership of the Knights, and under his vigorous administration they began to expand more quickly. The Knights also moved their primary field of operations from Palestine to eastern Europe. At first, the king of Hungary invited the order to participate in a crusade against the Cumans, a pagan Turkic tribe that threatened the kingdom's southeastern borderlands. The order soon took up permanent residence in the area. In 1226 the Knights demanded and received Prussia (most of modern northern Poland) as a fief from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, on the condition that they convert its Slavic natives to Christianity. In 1234 Pope Gregory IX granted the Knights control over any other territory that they might conquer from the Slavs. The Teutonic Knights soon built a series of imposing castles to defend their new territory, and from these fortresses they frequently waged war against the Slavs. During the next 50 years, the Teutonic Knights gradually gained control over Prussia. In making these conquests, they worked closely with the recently established Livonian Order, which became an integral part of the Teutonic Knights in 1237. Most of the natives were forced to convert to Christianity, driven out of Prussia, or killed. The Knights then encouraged German settlement in the now underpopulated region, and as a result Prussia eventually became predominantly German. By 1300 the Teutonic Knights had become the most formidable power in central and eastern Europe. The order controlled a territory that stretched from Livonia (most of modern Latvia and Estonia) through Prussia and into parts of Germany. The Knights maintained their dominance in the region by waging as many as eight military campaigns each year. In addition, after the order was released from its vow of poverty by the pope in 1263, it became a powerful trading organization, dominating grain trade in the region, and protecting and supporting the cities of the German Hanseatic League. By the end of the 14th century, though, the Knights' role was changing quickly. After 1386 it could no longer claim that its wars were to win converts; in that year the ruler of Lithuania married the Queen of Poland, and Lithuania became the last state in eastern Europe to convert to Christianity. The alliance between Lithuania and Poland, moreover, strengthened the Slavs' position in the region, and a long war between the Teutonic Knights and Poland broke out. In 1409 the King of Poland invited all enemies of the Teutonic Knights to participate in a campaign against the order. On July 15, 1410, the armies of Poland together with recruits of Czechs, Hungarians, Tartars, Lithuanians, and Cossacks defeated the order at Tannenberg in Prussia. The Teutonic Knights survived in Prussia and the Baltic in the later Middle Ages, but their hold over their territories grew weaker. As the order's military power declined, the number of recruits shrank. To maintain their control, the Knights came to rely on mercenaries. This, in turn, meant higher taxes in its territories, which caused resentment. As the Knights' position weakened, Poland seized West Prussia from the order in 1466. In 1525 the order's grand master Albrecht of Hohenzollern adopted Lutheranism, dissolved the order in the remaining Prussian territories, and established a secular dukedom. Throughout the 16th century, the order's presence in eastern Europe continued to decline as Russia, Poland, and Sweden chipped away at its Baltic possessions. By 1591 the Knights had been expelled from Livonia, their last remaining territory in the region. The order lived on as a small military force and moved its base of operations to southern Germany and Austria, where in 1683 it fought against the Ottomans at Vienna. By 1697 its numbers had declined precipitously, and the fighting force was disbanded. The order now became a purely religious institution. In 1809 Napoleon I dissolved the Knights, but a revival of the order began in Austria after 1834. Throughout the 19th century the Teutonic Knights were solely a charitable institution, but in 1929, their religious rule was revived. The order continued to function as a monastic order of the Roman Catholic Church except for a brief period during World War II (19391945). The Knights' headquarters are in Vienna, and they maintain nursing facilities at their various posts in Austria, Germany, and Italy. Although the order's 20th-century presence is modest, its historical importance is large. For several centuries the Knights waged a Crusade in eastern Europe and converted the Slavic peoples to Christianity. In that process they also supported German settlement in the region. The legacy of these historical events is twofold. On the one hand, the Teutonic Knights' influence persists indirectly in the strong Roman Catholicism of Poland and other eastern European states. On the other, the order's heritage has continued to endure in the ethnic tensions between German and Slavic peoples in that region. During the 1930s and 1940s, National Socialists (Nazis) in Germany saw in the activities of the Teutonic Knights a precedent for their own conquest of eastern Europe and their attempt to resettle those lands with German-speaking peoples. During the Third Reich the Nazis restored the Knights' foremost castles as monuments to the German past. V OTHER MILITARY RELIGIOUS ORDERS The Templars, Hospitalers, and Teutonic Knights were the three largest of a number of military religious orders that flourished in the Middle Ages. Many of these groups still exist today as monastic orders and charitable institutions of the Roman Catholic Church. In Spain several groups were founded during the Christian "Reconquest" of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. One of these was the Mercedarians, an order founded in the 13th century by French knight Pierre Nolasque. Its military feats included the ransoming and rescuing of captured Christian knights. Similarly, in eastern Europe the process of converting the Slavic peoples to Christianity inspired the creation of other missionary and military institutions like the Livonian Order, which joined with the Teutonic Knights in forcing Slavs in the region to convert to Christianity. VI LEGACY The military religious orders accepted their work as the supreme expression of the principles of Christian knighthood. By combining martial ideals with religious zeal, the orders helped establish the concept of the knight as an honorable and pious Christian soldier. This practice helped infuse chivalry, the code of medieval knights, with religious overtones, and led to the image of the noble knight as a man of both faith and honor. Contributed By: Philip M. Soergel Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.