Following Orders

[Sir William Marcus]

They also maintained the dedicated Renaissance Festival Forums thread: Following Orders.

This was to help spread the word of the Order's charities and contributions, and to act as an outlet for online recruiting of like minded historians and enthusiasts.

[Lady Christina de Pond]

They also maintained the dedicated Renaissance Festival Forums thread: Following Orders.

This was to help spread the word of the Order's charities and contributions, and to act as an outlet for online recruiting of like minded historians and enthusiasts.

Huzzzahhh nothing wrong with maintaining the thread

[Sir William Marcus]

The Knights Hospitaller - Defenders of Sick and Injured Pilgrims




The Knights Hospitaller were also known as: Hospitalers, the Order of Malta, the Knights of Malta.

From 1113 to 1309 they were known as the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem; from 1309 to 1522 they went by the Order of the Knights of Rhodes; from 1530 to 1798 they were the Sovereign and Military Order of the Knights of Malta; from 1834 to 1961 they were the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem; and from 1961 to the present they are formally known as the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta.


The Origin of the Hospitallers:

In the mid-11th century, a Benedictine abbey was established in Jerusalem by merchants from Amalfi. About 30 years later, a hospital was founded next to the abbey to care for sick and poor pilgrims. After the success of the First Crusade in 1099, Brother Gerard (or Gerald), the hospital's superior, expanded the hospital and set up additional hospitals along the route to the Holy Land.





On February 15, 1113, the order was formally named the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and recognized in a papal bull issued by Pope Paschal II.





Hospitaller Knights:

In 1120, Raymond de Puy (a.k.a. Raymond of Provence) succeeded Gerard as leader of the order. He replaced the Benedictine Rule with the Augustinian Rule and actively began to build up the order's power base, helping the organization to acquire lands and wealth. Possibly inspired by the Templars, the Hospitallers began to take up arms in order to protect pilgrims as well as tend their illnesses and injuries. Hospitaller Knights were still monks, and continued to follow their vows of personal poverty, obedience, and celibacy. The order also included chaplains and brothers who did not take up arms.





Relocations of the Hospitallers:

The shifting fortunes of the western Crusaders would also affect the Hospitallers. In 1187, when Saladin captured Jerusalem, the Hospitaller Knights moved their headquarters to Margat, then to Acre ten years later. With the fall of Acre in 1291 they moved to Limassol in Cyprus.


The Knights of Rhodes:

In 1309 the Hospitallers acquired the island of Rhodes. The grand master of the order, who was elected for life (if confirmed by the pope), ruled Rhodes as an independent state, minting coins and exercising other rights of sovereignty. When the Knights of the Temple were dispersed, some surviving Templars joined the ranks at Rhodes. The knights were now more warrior than "hospitaller," though they remained a monastic brotherhood. Their activities included naval warfare; they armed ships and set off after Muslim pirates, and took revenge on Turkish merchants with piracy of their own.






The Knights of Malta:

In 1522 the Hospitaller control of Rhodes came to an end with a six-month siege by Turkish leader Suleyman the Magnificent. The Knights capitulated on January 1, 1523, and left the island with those citizens who chose to accompany them. The Hospitallers were without a base until 1530, when Holy Roman emperor Charles V arranged for them to occupy the Maltese archipelago. Their presence was conditional; the most notable agreement was the presentation of a falcon to the emperor's viceroy of Sicily every year.

In 1565, grand master Jean Parisot de la Valette exhibited superb leadership when he stopped Suleyman the Magnificent from dislodging the Knights from their Maltese headquarters. Six years later, in 1571, a combined fleet of the Knights of Malta and several European powers virtually destroyed the Turkish navy at the Battle of Lepanto. The Knights built a new capital of Malta in honor of la Valette, which they named Valetta, where they constructed grand defenses and a hospital that attracted patients from far beyond Malta.


The Last Relocation of the Knights Hospitaller:

The Hospitallers had returned to their original purpose. Over the centuries they gradually gave up warfare in favor of medical care and territorial administration. Then, in 1798, they lost Malta when Napoleon occupied the island on the way to Egypt. For a short time they returned under the auspices of the Treaty of Amiens (1802) , but when the 1814 Treaty of Paris gave the archipelago to Britain, the Hospitallers left once more. They at last settled permanently in Rome in 1834.


Membership of the Knights Hospitaller:

Although nobility was not required to join the monastic order, it was required to be a Hospitaller Knight. As time went on this requirement grew more strict, from proving nobility of both parents to that of all grandparents for four generations. A variety of knightly classifications evolved to accommodate lesser knights and those who gave up their vows to marry, yet remained affiliated with the order. Today, only Roman Catholics may become Hospitallers, and the governing knights must prove the nobility of their four grandparents for two centuries.


The Hospitallers Today:

After 1805 the order was led by lieutenants, until the office of Grand Master was restored by Pope Leo XIII in 1879. In 1961 a new constitution was adopted in which the order's religious and the sovereign status was precisely defined. Although the order no longer governs any territory, it does issue passports, and it is recognized as a sovereign nation by the Vatican and some Catholic European nations.




Prior to his passing. The 78th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, Most Humble Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ "Fra Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie" with his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

I know you got some Teutonic stuff coming Brother! 

Then the pilgrims will have a basic understanding of the Big Three! 

[Sir William Marcus]

This is a list of Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller.

* The Blessed Gerard (1099-1120)
* Raymond du Puy de Provence (1120-1160)
* Auger de Balben (1160-1163)
* Arnaud de Comps (1162-1163)
* Gilbert d'Aissailly (1163-1170)
* Gastone de Murols (c. 1170-1172)
* Jobert of Syria (1172-1177)
* Roger de Moulins (1177-1187)
* Armengol de Aspa (1187-1190) (Provisor, i.e. Overseer; not formally designated Master)
* Garnier of Nablus (1190-1192)
* Geoffroy de Donjon (1193-1202)
* Afonso de Portugal (1203-1206)
* Geoffrey le Rat (1206-1207)
* Garin de Montaigu (1207-1228)
* Bertrand de Thercy (1228-1231)
* Guerin de Montacute (1231-1236)
* Bertrand de Comps (1236-1240)
* Pierre de Vielle-Bride (1240-1242)
* Guillaume de Chateauneuf (1242-1258)
* Hugues de Revel (1258-1277)
* Nicolas Lorgne (1277-1284)
* Jean de Villiers (1284-1294)
* Odon de Pins (1294-1296)
* Guillaume de Villaret (1296-1305)
* Foulques de Villaret (1305-1319)
* Hélion de Villeneuve (1319-1346)
* Dieudonné de Gozon (1346-1353)
* Pierre de Corneillan (1353-1355)
* Roger de Pins (1355-1365)
* Raymond Berenger (1365-1374)
* Robert de Juliac (1374-1376)
* Juan Fernandez de Heredia (1376-1396)
o Riccardo Caracciolo (1383-1395) Rival Grand Master
* Philibert de Naillac (1396-1421)
* Antonio Fluvian de Riviere (1421-1437)
* Jean de Lastic (1437-1454)
* Jacques de Milly (1454-1461)
* Piero Raimondo Zacosta (1461-1467)
* Giovanni Battista Orsini (1467-1476)
* Pierre d'Aubusson (1476-1503)
* Emery d'Amboise (1503-1512)
* Guy de Blanchefort (1512-1513)
* Fabrizio del Carretto (1513-1521)
* Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (1521-1534) (first Grand Master that ruled over Malta)
* Piero de Ponte (1534-1535)
* Didier de Saint-Jaille (1535-1536)
* Juan de Homedes y Coscon (1536-1553)
* Claude de la Sengle (1553-1557)
* Jean Parisot de la Valette (1557-1568)
* Pierre de Monte (1568-1572)
* Jean de la Cassiere (1572-1581)
o Mathurin Romegas (1581) Lieutenant 1577-1581 and Rival Grand Master 1581
* Hugues Loubenx de Verdalle (1581-1595)
* Martin Garzez (1595-1601)
* Alof de Wignacourt (1601-1622)
* Luís Mendes de Vasconcellos (1622-1623)
* Antoine de Paule (1623-1636)
* Juan de Lascaris-Castellar (1636-1657)
* Martin de Redin (1657-1660)
* Annet de Clermont-Gessant (1660)
* Raphael Cotoner (1660-1663)
* Nicolas Cotoner (1663-1680)
* Gregorio Carafa (1680-1690)
* Adrien de Wignacourt (1690-1697)
* Ramon Perellos y Roccaful (1697-1720)
* Marc'Antonio Zondadari (1720-1722)
* António Manoel de Vilhena (1722-1736)
* Raymond Despuig (1736-1741)
* Manuel Pinto da Fonseca (1741-1773)
* Francisco Ximenes de Texada (1773-1775)
* Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc (1775-1797)
* Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim (1797-1799) (last Grand Master that ruled over Malta)
* Paul I of Russia (1798-1801) de facto
o Count Nikolay Saltykov (1801-1803) Lieutenant de facto
* Giovanni Battista Tommasi (1803-1805)
o Innico Maria Guevara-Suardo (1805-1814) Lieutenant
o André Di Giovanni (1814-1821) Lieutenant
o Antoine Busca (1821-1834) Lieutenant
o Carlo Candida (1834-1845) Lieutenant
o Philippe di Colloredo-Mels (1845-1864) Lieutenant
o Alessandro Borgia (1865-1871) Lieutenant
o Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce (1871-1879) Lieutenant
* Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce (1879-1905)
* Galeazzo Maria Conte Thun-Castelfondo (1905-1931)
* Ludovico Chigi Albani della Rovere (1931-1951)
o Antonio Hercolani-Fava-Simonetti (1951-1955) Lieutenant
o Ernesto Paternó-Castello di Caraci (1955-1962) Lieutenant
* Angelo de Mojana di Cologna (1962-1988)
o John Charles Pallavicini (1988) Lieutenant
* Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie (1988-2008)
* Robert Matthew Festing (2008-Present)

[Sir William Marcus]

Blessed Gérard Tonque
is the founder of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.



Blessed Gérard Tonque (who died on September 3, 1120) was a French Benedictine monk who was the guest master of the Benedictine Monastery St. Maria Latina in Jerusalem. The guest house, situated on the other side of the road of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was very big as it was always occupied by numerous pilgrims who came to see the places where Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead. Because the journeys in those days were a big strain, most of the pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem exhausted or sick.



Therefore the guest house of St. Maria Latina was more a hospital than a hotel and it was in those days commonly known as the Hospital of Jerusalem. Apart from nursing the sick they used to accommodate abandoned children, feed the starving, clothe the needy and care for discharged prisoners. Blessed Gérard's hospital was a well organised charitable organisation.

Blessed Gérard founded the Brotherhood of St. John of Jerusalem to run the hospital.



This community is the historical root of the Hospital Order of St. John, the oldest hospital order of the Church (founded in 1099), known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta or in short the Order of Malta, whose Anglican branch, The Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (founded in 1831), is well known in South Africa as The Priory of the Order of St. John through its offspring the St. John Ambulance Association and Brigade (founded in 1877).

The statutes of the Brotherhood of St. John of Jerusalem are the basis of the Rule of the Order of St. John whose spirituality is going back to the Benedictine principle of hospitality, expressed in chapter 53 of the Rule of St. Benedict which reads: "All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35). Proper honour must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal 6:10) and to pilgrims". And that is exactly what the hospital of Jerusalem and its brotherhood did.

Blessed Gérard and his successors called the sick "the poor of Christ" or simply "the holy poor" indicating that they being welcomed as Christ, thus represent Christ to those who have the honour of serving them. Loving ones neighbour therefore becomes worship of God and the members of the hospital order made the promise "to be servants and slaves to our Lords, the sick". A principle of the brotherhood's spirituality was right in the contradiction of the spirit of the time not to gracefully grant favours to those in need and to be honoured for what they had done, but to consider it a favour to have the honour of serving the needy and thus receive the grace of being close to Christ who is being represented by the poor.

Such an attitude is still a contradiction to the Spirit of our times, where helpers often consider themselves superior to those they help and do not realise what graceful chance they miss to meet the Lord in the needy.

On the other hand the hospital of Jerusalem did not disregard the spiritual needs of their Lords, the sick. The hospital was actually regarded as a spiritual community and the sick were not only cared for bodily but also benefited from the pastoral care of the hospital.

The Rule of the Order of St. John reads in chapter 17: "When a sick comes to the house ... he may be received as follows: After he has first faithfully confessed his sins to a priest, he may receive Holy Communion, and afterwards he may be carried to a bed and may be lovingly fed every day like the Lord, according to the possibilities of the house, even before the brothers have their meal. And the Reading and the Gospel may be read in the hospital on all Sundays and the sick may be sprinkled with Holy Water during the procession."

The hospital was considered both a church building and church community anyway. The ward was a big room with an altar inside, so that all the sick could participate in Holy Mass without having to leave their beds.

All in all the brotherhood and the hospital order founded by Blessed Gérard thought of the hospital as a community of saints: The brothers extended God's loving care to the needy. They acted on Christ's behalf, because the church is the body of Christ and Christ is thus acting at all times through his church. But the brothers met Christ in the Sick as well (cf. "Whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!" Mt. 25.40).

All involved, the brothers on the one hand and the sick on the other hand, are mutually representing Christ, making life in the community of the hospital a mutual encounter with the Lord and therefore an event of salvation.

Concerning the foundation of the Order of St. John through Blessed Gérard Tonque, the opinions of the scientists differ considerably according to their intention, either to proof the independence of the foundation, or to proof a long tradition. The one group of historians states, the hospital would have been destroyed in the Seljuks' Raid AD 1070 - 1078 and would have been rebuilt soon afterwards. Other historians think, the hospital would have withstood the Seljuks' Raid and its director would also have been in Jerusalem during the siege in 1099.

A fresco in the Chapel of the contemporary Grand Magistry in the Via Condotti in Rome depicts Blessed Gérard (Beato Gherardo) chained with a loaf of bread in the left hand. (The picture at the top of this page!) This reminds us of the legend which tells us, Blessed Gérard would have thrown loaves of bread over the walls of Jerusalem to the hungry crusaders during the siege of six weeks preceding the conquest. He would have been caught and brought before the Ottoman defenders to be charged for supporting the enemy. When evidence was to be produced the loaves of bread in his coat had miraculously changed into stones and Blessed Gérard was acquitted.

Blessed Gérard reorganised the former guest house, which was then the hospice or hospital of Jerusalem totally in AD 1099, the year of the conquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders. Of course, he had to do so, because there was a vast increase of patients admitted to the hospital from among the crusaders themselves and all those who followed their trail as pilgrims again into the freed Holy City. This reorganisation is considered the foundation of the Order of St. John.

It is irrelevant if that reorganisation now means either the detachment from the maybe still existing mother monastery of St. Maria Latina and the modification of the Rule of St. Benedict, or the gradual change of the Brotherhood of the hospital, which was presided over by Gérard, into a religious order in the sense of a daughter foundation, which now took on a mother's role for the Brotherhood which continued to exist. It is certain, that from this time on the Brothers of the Order , which since then is called the Order of St. John, vow to live a life according to the Evangelical Counsels - poverty, chastity and obedience -, wear their own religious vestments ( a black habit with a white beam cross at the left side) and live according to their own regulations. Unfortunately these original regulations got lost, but we may assume, that is was - like the first preserved Rule of Gérard's successor, Raymond du Puy - a conglomerate consisting of Augustinian and Benedictine ingredients with own additions. Therefore I cannot second the opinion , that the Community under Gérard's leadership would have been nothing more than a group of people of similar interests loosely joined together. This is not in contradiction to the fact that in the particular sense of Canon Law we can call the Community an independent order only since the time between 1135 and 1153.

Many pilgrims joined the newly founded order as helpers and brothers already in Gérard's times. Rich donations, e.g. by Godfrey of Bouillon and King Baldwin I (1108) enabled Gérard amongst other things to erect branch hospitals in European Mediterranean harbours. Already before 1113 there were branch hospices at the castle of St. Egid, in Asti, Pisa, Bari, Ydrontum, Tarent and Messina. Pilgrims, who got sick, should be treated there at an early stage, because otherwise the influx of sick pilgrims into the Hospital of Jerusalem would have become too big, especially as the passage to Jerusalem was free again in these times and therefore big amounts of pilgrims came to Jerusalem again.




The Blessed Girard receiving Godfrey de Bouillon at the Hospital of St. John upon the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders(1093)

source: blessed-gerard.org

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

*We interupt our regularly scheduled history lessons for an important announcement:*

Mythbusting manuscript

Saint Paul University has obtained a coveted limited-edition copy of the Chinon Parchment, which sheds light on the mysterious, maligned warrior monks.

Jennifer Green, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Tuesday, August 05, 2008

When several leaders of the Knights Templar were burned at the stake for heresy in 1314, legend has it they screamed out a curse against the villainous lawyer who convicted them. Eight days later, he died. They begged God to prove their innocence by taking the pope within 40 days. Thirty-three days later, Pope Clement V died too. Eight months after that, the French king who had coveted their money also died, and all his sons succumbed within 14 years, ending the royal family's 300-year reign.

So, did the Templars really worship idols, spit on the crucifix, and sodomize each other as the French king charged? Or did they just fall victim to his desperate greed, as a recently discovered parchment suggests?

In 2001, a second-year student of ancient documents at the Vatican stumbled across the Chinon chart, a 58- by 70-centimetre parchment misfiled in the secret archives for 400 years. "I thought I was dreaming," Barbara Frale told the Citizen in an e-mail. "It took six months for me to fully grasp that it was real."

Ms. Frale, who is writing a book about her find, says the document shows that Pope Clement V did not excommunicate the Templar leaders, but absolved them of heresy and brought them back into the church. Rumours about sodomy and idolatry were misunderstood military hazing rituals. "Historians had concluded that the Templars were innocent, but most people still thought they were heretics, occultists and the like," she wrote.

"Now we have definitive proof. The Templars were not heretics. The order, which was a military brotherhood, simply practised a secret ritual that was grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted." (as a former Infantryman I can relate to the concepts of hazing)

Late last year, the Vatican produced 800 limited-edition copies of her find, with a full-size reproduction of the parchment, a Latin translation, a historical commentary, written by Ms. Frale, and three replicas of medieval church seals. Ottawa's Saint Paul University has purchased No. 302 for its renowned rare book library at a cost of $8,000.

Many historians have pilloried Pope Clement for selling out the Templars to the French king. But in her commentary, Ms. Frale argues that the pope was no toady. He was a subtle thinker who had to "run with the hare and hunt with the hounds" to keep the church from splitting apart.

"He preferred subtle ploys to resounding strategies and his slow, hushed tactics obtained far from minor results in one of the most difficult situations in the long history of the church," writes Ms. Frale.

The Knights Templar began in the 11th century as a unique order of high-borne military monks commissioned to fight Holy Wars against the Muslims and protect pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. By the end of the 13th century, more than 15,000 Templars ranged throughout Christendom, holding hundreds of castles. In Jerusalem, they were centred at what was believed to be King Solomon's Temple -- hence, the name Templars. Tales circulated that they had dug underneath the temple to find ancient treasures, including a fragment of the True Cross, and a thorn from Christ's crucifixion crown.

Over the decades, their stellar reputation as fierce fighters and honest bookkeepers made them ideal couriers for cash and other valuables from kingdom to kingdom. Before long, they were operating what amounted to the first international banking system. They were answerable only to the pope; no king or cardinal could curb them.

In 1291, the city of Acre on the Mediterranean coast in present-day Israel, fell to the Muslims, and in 1303, the Crusaders lost their remaining holdings in the Holy Land. People became disenchanted with the Templars, and accused them of corruption and growing soft. Rumours circulated that they had strange initiation rites in which novices had to deny Christ three times, spit on the cross three times, strip naked and kiss their superior on the lower back, navel, and lips. If required, the initiates had to submit to sodomy. Finally, the Templars were said to wear a small black bearded head on a cord under their clothing -- clearly a false idol.

The whispering fuelled anti-cleric feelings already rife in France. King Philip had loathed the previous pope, Boniface, who was admittedly easy to hate. According to Matthew Bunson's Pope Encyclopedia, this pontiff believed he was entitled to total control over all Christendom, shrieking in Latin at his cardinals, "I am Caesar! I am emperor!"

When some cardinals worked against him, he expelled them from the church. When a powerful family crossed him, he razed their village.

It was a fundamental power struggle between kings and clergy, but the immediate irritant was the issue of funding for France's wars against Britain. Boniface had to back down from his refusal to let France tax the clergy, but he didn't stay down for long. In 1302, he issued a papal bull stating "for every human creature it is essential for their salvation to be subject to the authority of the Roman Pontiff."

Philip responded to this affront by seizing Boniface and brutalizing him for several days, relenting only at the insistence of angry townspeople. The pope never recovered and died several weeks later. The church was left so badly divided between cardinals loyal to the French king and those loyal to Rome that they were not able to settle on a new pontiff for almost a year.

They finally elected Clement V who seemed to be Philip's man, even moving the papacy to France.

Philip still needed money, so in 1306 he devalued the French currency. Parisians rioted, and the king fled to a Templar stronghold to take shelter. According to some reports, he found the answers to his prayers there: room after room of ready cash. All he had to do was destroy the order.

Clement promised the king he would look into the rumours about the Templars, but before he could proceed, Philip ordered all the Templars in France arrested and their property seized. Confessions were extracted by torture, thereby presenting Clement with a fait accompli -- who needs a papal hearing when the men had already confessed? Ms. Frale wrote in an academic paper for The Journal of Medieval History that the king made sure the Templar "confessions" were widely circulated and forged documents purportedly from the pope, so that any attempt to defend the Templars would make the church look like it was defending corruption.

Philip relented slightly, agreeing to administer the Templar property apart from his own, and arranging for 73 members to travel to Poitiers, where the pope could interview them. But he held the leaders at the castle of Chinon, saying they were too sick to travel.
The document found by Ms. Frale shows that in 1308, the pope deputized three of his most trusted cardinals to meet these leaders, almost in secret, and hear them out. The Templars justified their rituals saying the renunciation of Christ was simply to give them practice should they be captured in battle by the Muslims. Stripping naked and kissing the superiors at the base of their spine, navel and on the mouth, was meant to show obedience.

Ms. Frale says that Clement saw "they were surely so tainted by bad habits that they needed reform; but they could not be considered heretics."

However, he disbanded the Templars at the Council of Vienne in 1312.

Nevertheless, King Philip dragged on their trials for seven years. Finally, on March 18, 1314, the leaders were brought before a papal commission. All had confessed and were to be sentenced to life in prison.

Two revoked their confessions and the French court found them guilty of a relapse to heresy. That evening, Jacques de Molay and two others were abducted by soldiers and burned at the stake at the hour of Vespers.

Malcolm Barber, an internationally-recognized expert on the Templars, explained from his office in Britain: "Scholars had some documents describing the downfall of the Knights Templar and the trials that sent them to the stake, but they had lost track of this one, known as the Chinon Parchment, since the 17th century. So it's not new information, but it's nice to have."

In the past years, an exasperated Vatican has had to fend off fictitious legends about the Templars, especially most recently, in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, which suggested that the Holy Grail the Templars sought or possessed was not the chalice used by Jesus at the last supper, but his descendent from a union with Mary Magdalene.
Ms. Frale's find manages to fill in some of the historical blanks, acquit both the Templars and Pope Clement, and raise a little cash.

Ferdinando Santoro, head of Scrinium, a publisher linked to the Vatican, has said frankly: "This is a commercial operation to satisfy the demands of a global market keen to acquire works of historic value and of universally recognized scientific rigour .... "
But when the book was first announced last fall, the Times reported that Monsignor Sergio Pagano, Prefect of the Secret Archives, squirmed at the sales pitch, saying books and documents were meant to be "studied and read, not presented with fanfare. That is not our style." He emphasized that the document was "in no way a scoop or discovery," since it had been listed in the Vatican inventories since the 17th century.
The rediscovery has been something of a mixed blessing.

In Spain, a group claiming to have descended from the Templars has begun legal action demanding that the Vatican recognize that more than 9,000 properties and assets worth $160 billion were lost when the church disbanded the ancient order of knights. According to the Daily Telegraph, the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ doesn't want to reclaim the money, but restore the "good name" of the Knights Templar.
"We are not trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our order," the group said a statement.

Last fall, a British order of Templars that also claims direct descent from the original Knights Templar called on Pope Benedict XVI to apologize.

At Saint Paul University, chief librarian André Paris is delighted with the acquisition, a handmade leather folio with a full-size reproduction of the parchments, a Latin translation, a historical commentary in English, and replicas of three Templar seals. It took about 50 Vatican historians, scholars, designers and craftsmen about six years to make the copies.
Saint Paul's may own Canada's only copy and one of only seven or eight in North America.
Despite the price tag, he says, "I was afraid we might not get it."

Already more than 100 scholars have examined the book, but Mr. Paris says anyone can come take a look at the volume as long as they call ahead.

Ms. Frale went on to get her PhD at the University of Venice and is now a historian on staff at the Vatican Secret Archives. Her book, The Templars: The Secret History Revealed is to be published by Arcade in January. Her publishers advertise it as "an explosive new history of the medieval world's most powerful military order, the Templars -- and the momentous discovery that finally allows the full story to be told."

"The revelations will be extremely interesting," Ms. Frale told the Citizen. "For now, I can't say a word."

[Femme Falchion]

[

so there is something to all this talk about kissing?  What's wrong it kissing?   

The Goddess wills it.

[Femme Falchion]

"The revelations will be extremely interesting," Ms. Frale told the Citizen. "For now, I can't say a word."

Thanks for posting this Warrior Monk....and all the new information (gramercy Brother William too)  I may be tempted to read this....it seems odd that Ms. Frale would be allowed to write such a book.  I wonder if she has the "blessing" of the church?

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Thanks for posting this Warrior Monk....and all the new information (gramercy Brother William too)  I may be tempted to read this....it seems odd that Ms. Frale would be allowed to write such a book.  I wonder if she has the "blessing" of the church?

Technically the Order of the Temple is a non-entity......so would it matter? 

[Sir William Marcus]

Teutonic Order



A medieval military order modelled on the Hospitallers of St. John, which changed its residence as often as the latter. These residences, marking as many stages in its development, are: (1) Accon (Acre), its cradle in Palestine (1190-1309); (2) Marienburg, Prussia, the centre of its temporal domination as a military principality (1309-1525); (3) Mergentheim in Franconia, which inherited its diminished possessions after the loss of Prussia (1524-1805); (4) finally, Vienna in Austria, where the order has gathered the remains of its revenues and survives as a purely hospital order. A Protestant branch likewise subsists in Holland.




(1) There was already a Teutonic hospital for pilgrims from Germany in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, with a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, who is still the patroness of the order and after whom the name Mariani is sometimes given to its members. But this establishment, which was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Master of St. John, was broken up at the conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin (1187). During the Third Crusade German pilgrims from Bremen and Lübeck with the Duke of Holstein established a temporary hospital under the besieged walls of Acre; this was a large tent, constructed from the sails of their ships, in which the sick of their country were received (1190). After the capture ofAcre this hospital was permanently established in the city with the co-operation of Frederick of Suabia, leader of the German crusade, and at the same time religious knights were attached to it for the defence of pilgrims. The Order of Teutonic Knights was founded and took its place beside the other two orders of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers and the Templars. As early as 1192 they were endowed by Celestine III with the same privileges as the Order of St. John, whose hospital rule they adopted, and as the Order of the Temple, from which they borrowed their military organization. Innocent III in 1205 granted them the use of the white habit with a black cross. The emperors of the House of Suabia heaped favours upon them. Moreover, they took sides with Frederick II even after he had broken with the papacy and in opposition to the other two military orders. During the Fourth Crusade, when the gates of Jerusalem were for the last time opened to Christians, under the command of this emperor, the Teutonic Knights were able to take possession of their first house, St. Mary of the Germans (1229). But it was not for long and before the end of the century they left Palestine, which had again fallen under the yoke of Islam (1291).




(2) A new career was already open to their warlike and religious zeal, in Eastern Europe, against the pagans of Prussia. This coast of the Baltic, difficult of access, had hitherto resisted the efforts of the missionaries, many of whom had there laid down their lives. To avenge these Christians a crusade had been preached; a military order founded with this object, the Sword-bearers (see MILITARY ORDERS, THE), had not been very successful, when a Polish duke, Conrad of Massovia, determined to ask the assistance of theTeutonic Knights, offering them in return the territory of Culm with whatever they could wrest from the infidels. Hermann of Salza, fourth Grand Master of the order, was authorized to make this change by Honorius III and the Emperor Frederick II, who, moreover, raised him to the rank of prince of the empire (1230). The knight Hermann Balk, appointed Provincial of Prussia, with twenty-eight of his brother knights and a whole army of crusaders from Germany began this struggle which lasted twenty-five years and was followed by colonization. Owing to the privileges assured to German colonists, new towns arose on all sides and eventually Germanized a country of which the natives belonged to the Letto-Slavic race. Thenceforth the history of this military principality is identified with that of Prussia. In 1309 the fifteenth Grand Master, Sigfried of Feuchtwangen, transferred his residence from Venice, where at that time the knights had their chief house, to the Castle of Marienburg, which they made a formidable fortress.



The number of knights never exceeded a thousand, but the whole country was organized in a military manner, and with the constant arrival of new crusaders the order was able to hold its own among its neighbours, especially the inhabitants of Lithuania, who were of the same race as the natives of Prussia and, like them, pagans. In the battle of Rudau (1307) the Lithuanians were driven back, and they were converted only some years later, with their grand duke, Jagellon, who embraced Christianity when he married the heiress of the Kingdom of Poland (1386). With this event, which put an end to paganism in that section of Europe, the Teutonic Knights lost their raison d'être. Thenceforth their history consists of incessant conflicts with the kings of Poland. Jagellon inflicted on them the defeat of Tannenberg (1410), which cost them 600 knights and ruined their finances, in order to repair which the order was obliged to have recourse to exactions, which aroused the native nobility and the towns and provided the Poles with an opportunity to interfere against the order. A fresh war cost the order half its territory and the remaining half was only held under the suzerainty of the King of Poland (Treaty of Thorn, 1466). The loss of Marienburg caused the transfer of the Grand Master's residence to Königsberg, which is still the capital of Prussia properly so-called. To maintain itself against the kings of Poland the order had to rely on Germany and to confide the office of Grand Master to German princes. But the second of these, Albert of Brandenburg (1511), abused his position to secularize Prussia, at the same time embracing Lutheranism (1525). He made Prussia an hereditary fief of his house under the suzerainty of the Crown of Poland.



(3) Nevertheless, the dignitaries of the order in the remainder of Germany faithfully preserved its possessions, and having broken with the apostate chose a new Grand Master, Walter of Cronenberg, who fixed his residence at Mergentheim in Franconia (1526). After the loss of Prussia the order still retained in Germany twelve bailiwicks, which they lost one by one. The secession of Utrecht (1580) meant the loss of the bailiwick of that name in the Low Countries. Louis XIV secularized its possessions in France. The Treaty of Lunéville (1801) took away its possessions on the left bank of the Rhine and in 1809 Napoleon abandoned its possessions on the right bank to his allies of the Confederation of the Rhine. The Teutonics retained only the bailiwick in the Tyrol and that in the Austrian States.



(4) Thus the order became purely Austrian, under the supreme authority of the Emperor of Austria, who reserves the dignity of Grand Master for an archduke of his house. Since 1894 it has been held by Archduke Eugene. There are at present 20 professed knights who are bound to celibacy while they enjoy a benefice of the order, and 30 knights of honour who are not bound to this observance, but who must furnish an entrance fee of 1500 florins and an annual contribution of 100 florins. Moreover, their admission exacts a nobility of sixteen quarterings. The revenues of the order are now devoted toreligious works; it has charge of 50 parishes, 17 schools, and 9 hospitals, for which object it supports 2 congregations of priests and 4 of sisters. Moreover, it performs ambulance service in time of war; it pays the cost of the ambulance, while lay Marians are engaged as ambulance bearers. Thus, after various vicissitudes the Teutonic Knights are restored to their original character of hospitallers. Besides this Catholic branch in Austria the order has a Protestant branch in the ancient bailiwick of Utrecht, the possessions of which have been preserved for the benefit of the nobility of the country. The members, who are chosen by thechapter of knights, must give proof of four quarterings of nobility and profess the Calvinistic religion, but are dispensed from celibacy. When Napoleon took possession of Holland in 1811 he suppressed the institution, but as early as 1815 the first King of the Low Countries, William I of Orange, re-established it, declaring himself its protector. The present order comprises 10 commanders, Jonkheeren, and aspirants (expectanten), who pay an entrance fee of 525 florins and have the right to wear in their buttonhole a small cross of the order.



 









List of Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order

Leaders of the early Brotherhood, 1190-1198




The Teutonic Order as a hospice brotherhood in Outremer:

    * 1190 Meister Sibrand
    * 1192 Gerhard
    * 1193/94 Heinrich, prior
    * 1195-1196 Ulrich
    * 1196 Heinrich, preceptor (probably identified with Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim)



Grand Masters of the Order, 1198-1525
Hermann von Salza, the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
Hermann von Salza, the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

The Teutonic Order as a spiritual military order:

    * 1198–1200 Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim
    * 1200–1208 Otto von Kerpen
    * 1208–1209 Heinrich von Tunna
    * 1209–1239 Hermann von Salza
    * 1239–1240 Conrad of Thuringia
    * 1240–1244 Gerhard von Malberg
    * 1244–1249 Heinrich von Hohenlohe
    * 1249–1252 Günther von Wüllersleben
    * 1252–1256 Poppo von Osterna[5]
    * 1256–1273 Anno von Sangershausen
    * 1273–1282 Hartmann von Heldrungen
    * 1282 or 1283 –1290 Burchard von Schwanden[6]
    * 1290–1297 Konrad von Feuchtwangen
    * 1297–1303 Gottfried von Hohenlohe
    * 1303–1311 Siegfried von Feuchtwangen
    * 1311–1324 Karl von Trier
    * 1324–1330 Werner von Orseln
    * 1331–1335 Luther von Braunschweig (Lothar)
    * 1335–1341 Dietrich von Altenburg
    * 1342–1345 Ludolf König
    * 1345–1351 Heinrich Dusemer
    * 1351–1382 Winrich von Kniprode
    * 1382–1390 Conrad Zöllner von Rothenstein
    * 1391–1393 Konrad von Wallenrode
    * 1393–1407 Konrad von Jungingen
    * 1407–1410 Ulrich von Jungingen
    * 1410–1413 Heinrich von Plauen
    * 1414–1422 Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg
    * 1422–1441 Paul von Rusdorf
    * 1441–1449 Konrad von Erlichshausen
    * 1449 or 1450–1467 Ludwig von Erlichshausen[7]
    * 1467–1470 Heinrich Reuß von Plauen
    * 1470–1477 Heinrich Reffle von Richtenberg
    * 1477–1489 Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen
    * 1489–1497 Johann von Tiefen
    * 1497–1510 Frederick of Saxony
    * 1510–1525 Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach (Albert of Prussia)



Hoch- und Deutschmeister, 1530-1929

    * 1527–1543 Walter von Cronberg
    * 1543–1566 Wolfgang Schutzbar
    * 1566–1572 Georg Hundt von Weckheim
    * 1572–1590 Heinrich von Bobenhausen
    * 1590–1618 Maximilian of Austria Habsburg
    * 1619–1624 Karl I of Austria
    * 1625–1627 Johann Eustach von Westernach
    * 1627–1641 Johann Kaspar von Stadion
    * 1641–1662 Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
    * 1662–1664 Karl Josef of Austria
    * 1664–1684 Johann Caspar von Ampringen
    * 1685–1694 Ludwig Anton of Palatinate–Neuburg
    * 1694–1732 Ludwig Franz of Palatinate–Neuburg
    * 1732–1761 Clemens August of Bavaria
    * 1761–1780 Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine
    * 1780–1801 Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria
    * 1801–1804 Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
    * 1804–1835 Anton Viktor of Austria (office becomes hereditary to Imperial House of Austria)
    * 1835–1863 Maximilian of Austria–Este
    * 1863–1894 Wilhelm Franz Karl of Austria
    * 1894–1923 Eugen Ferdinand Pius Bernhard of Austria (end of hereditary status)
    * 1923–1933 Dr. Norbert Klein

       

       929 - present-day

Time of the Teutonic Order as a clerical Roman Catholic religious order

    * 1923–1933 Dr. Norbert Klein
    * 1933–1936 Paul Heider
    * 1936–1948 Robert Schälzky
    * 1948–1970 Dr. Marian Tumler
    * 1970–1988 Ildefons Pauler
    * 1988–2000 Dr. Arnold Othmar Wieland
    * 2000–present Dr. Bruno Platter












Source: Wiki & Catholic Encyclopedia

http://www.imperialteutonicorder.org/

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem



The military order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem originated in a leper hospital founded in the twelfth century by the crusaders of the Latin Kingdom. Without doubt there had been before this date leper hospitals in the East, of which the Knights of St. Lazarus claimed to be the continuation, in order to have the appearance of remote antiquity and to pass as the oldest of all orders. But this pretension is apocryphal. These Eastern leper hospitals followed the Rule of St. Basil, while that of Jerusalem adopted the hospital Rule of St. Augustine in use in the West. The Order of St. Lazarus was indeed purely an order of hospitallers from the beginning, as was that of St. John, but without encroaching on the field of the latter. Because of its special aim, it had quite a different organization. The inmates of St. John were merely visitors, and changed constantly; the lepers of St. Lazarus on the contrary were condemned to perpetual seclusion. In return they were regarded as brothers or sisters of the house which sheltered them, and they obeyed the common rule which united them with their religious guardians. In some leper hospitals of the Middle Ages even the master had to be chosen from among the lepers. It is not proved, though it has been asserted, that this was the case at Jerusalem.

The Middle Ages surrounded with a touching pity these the greatest of all unfortunates, these miselli, as they were called. From the time of the crusades, with the spread of leprosy, leper hospitals became very numerous throughout Europe, so that at the death of St. Louis there were eight hundred in France alone.

However, these houses did not form a congregation; each house was autonomous, and supported to a great extent by the lepers themselves, who were obliged when entering to bring with them their implements, and who at their death willed their goods to the institution if they had no children. Many of these houses bore the name of St. Lazarus, from which, however, no dependence whatever on St. Lazarus of Jerusalem is to be inferred. The most famous, St. Lazarus of Paris, depended solely and directly on the bishop of that city, and was a mere priory when it was given by the archbishop to the missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul, who have retained the name of Lazarists (1632).

The question remains, how and at what time the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem became a military order. This is not know exactly; and, moreover, the historians of the order have done much to obscure the question by entangling it with gratuitous pretensions and suspicious documents.

The house at Jerusalem owed to the general interest devoted to the holy places in the Middle Ages a rapid and substantial growth in goods and privileges of every kind. It was endowed not only by the sovereigns of the Latin realm, but by all the states of Europe. Louis VII, on his return from the Second Crusade, gave it the Château of Broigny, near Orléans (1154). This example was followed by Henry II of England, and by Emperor Frederick II. This was the origin of the military commanderies whose contributions, called responsions, flowed into Jerusalem, swollen by the collections which the hospital was authorized to make in Europe.

The popes for their part were not sparing of their favours. Alexander IV recognized its existence under the Rule of St. Augustine (1255). Urban IV assured it the same immunities as were granted to the monastic orders (1262). Clement IV obliged the secular clergy to confine all lepers whatsoever, men or women, clerics or laymen, religious or secular, in the houses of this order (1265).

At the time these favours were granted, Jerusalem had fallen again into the hands of the Mussulmans. St. Lazarus, although still called "of Jerusalem", had been transferred to Acre, where it had been ceded territory by the Templars (1240), and where it received the confirmation of its privileges by Urban IV (1264).

It was at this time also that the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, following the example of the Order of St. John, armed combatants for the defence of the remaining possessions of the Christians in Asia. Their presence is mentioned without further detail at the Battle of Gaza against the Khwarizmians in 1244, and at the final siege of Acre in 1291.

As a result of this catastrophe the leper hospital of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem disappeared; however, its commanderies in Europe, together with their revenues, continued to exist, but hospitality was no longer practised. The order ceased to be an order of hospitallers and became purely military. The knights who resided in these commanderies had no tasks, and were veritable parasites on the Christian charitable foundations.

Things remained in this condition until the pontificate of Innocent VIII, who suppressed this useless order and transferred its possessions to the Knights of St. John (1490), which transfer was renewed by Pope Julius II (1505). But the Order of St. John never came into possession of this property except in Germany.

In France, Francis I, to whom the Concordat of Leo X (1519) had resigned the nomination to the greater number of ecclesiastical benefices, evaded the Bull of suppression by conferring the commanderies of St. Lazarus on Knights of the Order of St. John. The last named vainly claimed the possession of these goods. Their claim was rejected by the Parliament of Paris (1547).

Leo X himself disregarded the value of this Bull by re-establishing in favour of Charles V the priory of Capua, to which were attached the leper hospitallers of Sicily (1517).

Pius IV went further; he annulled the Bulls of his predecessors and restored its possessions to the order that he might give the mastership to a favourite, Giovanni de Castiglione (1565). But the latter did not succeed in securing the devolution of the commanderies in France. Pius V codified the statutes and privileges of the order, but reserved to himself the right to confirm the appointment of the grand master as well as of the beneficiaries (1567). He made an attempt to restore to the order its hospitaller character, by incorporating with it all the leper hospitals and other houses founded under the patronage of St Lazarus of the Lepers. But this tardy reform was rendered useless by the subsequent gradual disappearance of leprosy in Europe.

Finally, the grand mastership of the order having been rendered vacant in 1572 by the death of Castiglione, Pope Gregory XIII united it in perpetuity with the Crown of Savoy. The reigning duke, Philibert III, hastened to fuse it with the recently founded Savoyan Order of St. Maurice, and thenceforth the title of Grand Master of the Order of Sts. Maurice and Lazarus was hereditary in that house. The pope gave him authority over the vacant commanderies everywhere, except in the states of the King of Spain, which included the greater part of Italy. In England and Germany these commanderies had been suppressed by Protestantism. France remained, but it was refractory to the claims of the Duke of Savoy. Some years later King Henry IV, having founded with the approbation of Paul V (1609) the Order of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, hastened in turn to unite to it the vacant possessions of St. Lazarus in France, and such is the origin of the title of "Knight of the Royal, Military, and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Lazarus of Jerusalem", which carried with it the enjoyment of a benefice, and which was conferred by the king for services rendered.

To return to the dukes of Savoy: Clement VIII granted them the right to exact from ecclesiastical benefices pensions to the sum of four hundred crowns for the benefit of knights of the order, dispensing them from celibacy on condition that they should observe the statutes of the order and consecrate their arms to the defence of the Faith. Besides their commanderies the order had two houses where the knights might live in common, one of which, at Turin, was to contribute to combats on land, while the other, at Nice, had to provide galleys to fight the Turks at sea. But when thus reduced to the states of the Duke of Savoy, the order merely vegetated until the French Revolution, which suppressed it. In 1816 the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel I, re-established the titles of Knight and Commander of Sts. Maurice and Lazarus, as simple decorations, accessible without conditions of birth to both civilians and military men.

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

The Order of The Hatchet (Orden de la Hacha)



This is a rather unusual order in that it was clearly a military order for women. In 1149 it was founded by Raymond Berenger in Catalonia under special circumstances. It honored the women of Barcelona who fought to defend Tortosa against Moorish attack.  The Dames admitted to the order were exempt from tax, took precedence over men in assemblies, and enjoyed many other privledges. It is believed the order died out with the original members.


Source - Desmond Seward's The Monks of War

[Sir William Marcus]

THE ORDER OF ST. ANTHONY 1095 - 1777.
Symbol of Order; Blue Tau Cross, known as St. Anthony's Cross.



The Order of St. Anthony, known as "Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony", or the "Antonians", was a monastic nursing Order, founded by Gaston de Dauphiné, in 1095. In that year a terrible and mysterious disease called St. Anthony's fire was causing great mortality in the valley of the Rhône. In 1040 Jocelyn, a Pilgrim, had brought relics of St. Anthony to the Church of St. Didier la Mothe, near Vienna. Praying before these relics in 1095, Gaston, his son being then dangerously ill, vowed to give his goods to found a hospital if his son got well. The son recovered, and eagerly joined his father in the fulfillment of his vow. They took the monastic habit, and established a hospital which became a pilgrimage centre for persons suffering from St. Anthony's fire. The Order flourished greatly and spread through France, Spain and Italy. Boniface VIII in 1297 ordained that the Antonines should live as canons-regular under the rule of St. Austin. Through the Order, Anthony's popularity as a saint reached its height. The black-robed Hospitallers, ringing small bells as they collected alms, were a common sight in many parts of western Europe. The bells of the Hospitallers, as well as their pigs--allowed by special privilege to run free in medieval streets--became part of the later iconography associated with St. Anthony. The Order subsisted till the Revolution, at which time there were sixty-six Antonines in France: of this number only three became assermentés; the rest preferred persecution, exile, and death. In 1777, Although the Order had been canonically united to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the possessions of the Order had in fact been given to several military Orders. The Neapolitan possessions were given to the Constantinian Order, the Tuscan to Santo Stefano, and the French to Saint Lazarus and St. John.

NOTES:
1) St. Anthony also spelled Antony, or Antonios. Born circa 251, Koma, near al-Minya, Heptanomis [Middle Egypt], Egypt died. Jan. 17, 356, Dayr Mari Antonios hermitage, near the Red Sea. Feast day January 17th. Anthony was a religious hermit and one of the earliest monks, considered the founder and father of organised Christian monasticism. His rule represented one of the first attempts to codify guidelines for monastic living.
2) St. Anthony's Fire, is a name given to two afflictions;
i) Erysipelas. A streptococcal bacteria, which if it enters a wound causes red patches on the face spreading across the cheeks and nose. Causes pimple which burst then crust over; and
ii) Ergotism, caused by Ergot a toxin created by fungal infection of rye. When the contaminated rye enters the human food chain, it can cause infections that lead to gangrene, and even death.

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

In honor of our disabled Frere Mikael  , I thought to add some of our Iberian Orders:

Military Order of Calatrava

Founded in Castile, in the twelfth century, as a military branch of the great Cistercian family.

In the Cistercian Order, then only recently formed (1098), there had been a large number of knights or sons of knights. In Calatrava, on the contrary, those who had been monks became knights. Monastic life has been called "a warfare", and it would be a mistake to suppose those rough medieval warriors sought in the cloister only a comfortable asylum after a troublous career. In both lives there was an heroic struggle to sustain, whether against one's passions or against the Moslems, and the austerities of an ascetic life could not have been more dreadful to them than the privations of camp life and the wounds of battle. These impetuous natures, who did nothing by halves, were eager to take Heaven, as they took earthly strongholds, by storm (Matthew 11:12). However, the Order of Calatrava owes its origin not to any deliberately prepared plan, but to fortuitous circumstances, the recital of which would seem to be mere romance if the teller, Rodrigo of Toledo, did not add that he himself had known in his youth the hero of the story. It runs as follows:

Calatrava is the Arabic name of a castle recovered from the Moslems, in 1147, by the King of Castile, Alfonso VII, called el Emperador. Situated on the extreme southern borders of Castile, this conquest was more difficult to keep than to make, at a time when neither standing armies nor garrisons were known. It was this deficiency that the military orders, and first of all the Knights Templar., intended to supply by fulfilling their vow of perpetual war against the Moslem. To the Templars the king had recourse, but after a vain attempt to defend Calatrava they abandoned it, and the king was looking in vain for another defender when Raymond, Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero, offered himself. This step is said to have been suggested to the abbot by Diego Valasquez, a simple monk, but one who had been a knight, was well acquainted with military matters, and was inspired with the idea of employing the lay brothers of the abbey to defend Calatrava. These Cistercian lay brothers--at that time a recent innovation in religious life--not being in Holy orders, were variously employed as herdsmen, as labourers, as husbandmen, and so on; Diego employed them as soldiers of the Cross. They laid down the hammer and the shepherd's crook, and took up the sword. Thus a new order was created, which received the name of Calatrava from the castle given up by the king (1157).

Once provided with arms, these brethren, filled with warlike enthusiasm, were eager to take the offensive against the Moors. With this end in view, they chose, when the Abbot Raymond died (1163), a certain Don García to lead them in battle as their first grand master. At the same time, the choir monks, not without protest, left Calatrava to live under an abbot whom they had chosen, in the monastery of Cirvelos. Only Velasquez and a few other clerics, to act as chaplains, remained in Calatrava with the knights, Velasquez becoming prior of the whole community. This somewhat revolutionary arrangement was approved by the general chapter at Cîteaux, and by Pope Alexander III (1164). A general chapter held at Cîteaux in 1187 gave to the Knights of Calatrava their definitive rule, which was approved in the same year by Pope Gregory VIII. This rule, modeled upon the cistercian customs for lay brothers, imposed upon the knights, besides the obligations of the three religious vows, the rules of silence in the refectory, dormitory, and oratory; of abstinence on four days a week, besides several fast days during the year; they were also obliged to recite a fixed number of paternosters for each day Hour of the Office; to sleep in their armour; to wear, as their full dress, the Cistercian white mantle with the scarlet cross fleurdelisée. Calatrava was subject not to Cîteaux, but to Morimond in Burgundy, the mother-house of Fitero, from which Calatrava had sprung. Consequently, the Abbot of Morimond possessed the right of visiting the houses and of reforming the statutes of Calatrava, while the highest ecclesiastical dignity of the order, that of grand prior, could be held only by a monk of Morimond.

The first military services of the Knights of Calatrava had been brilliant, and in return for the great services they had rendered they received from the King of Castile new grants of land, which formed their first commanderies. They had already been called into the neighbouring Kingdom of Aragon, and been rewarded by a new encomienda (landed estate), that of Alcañiz (1179). But these successes were followed by a series of misfortunes, due in the first instance to the unfortunate partition which Alfonso had made of his possessions, and the consequent rivalry which ensued between the Castilian and Leonese branches of his dynasty. On the other hand, the Moors of Spain, wishing to recover their lost dominions, called to their aid the Moors of Africa, thus bringing on the new and formidable invasion of the Almohades. The first encounter resulted in a defeat for Spain. In the disasterous battle of Alarcos, the knights were overpowered and, in spite of splendid heroism, were obliged to leave their bulwark of Calatrava in the power of the Moslem (1195). Velasquez lived just long enough to be the sorrowful witness of the failure of his daring scheme. He died the next year in the monastery of Gumiel (1196). It seemed as if the order was ruined in Castile, and this opinion so far prevailed that the branch of Aragon regarded itself as having succeeded the other. The Knights of Alcañiz actually proceeded to elect a new grand master, but the grand master still living in Castile claimed his right. Finally, by a compromise, the master of Alcañiz was recognized as second in dignity, with the title of Grand Commander for Aragon.

The scattered remains of Calatrava had meanwhile found a common shelter in the Cistercian monastery of Cirvelos, and there they began to repair their losses by a large accession of new knights. They soon felt themselves strong enough to erect a new bulwark against the Moslems at Salvatierra, where they took the name, which they kept for fourteen years, of Knights of Salvatierra (1198). But in the course of a fresh invasion of the Almohades, Salvatierra, in spite of a desperate defence, shared the fate of Calatrava (1209). Upon the fall of this Castilian stronghold dismay spread from Spain throughout Western Europe. Summoned by the voice of the great Pope Innocent III, foreign crusaders hatened from all sides to help the Spanish Christians. The first event in this holy war, now a European one, was the reconquest of Calatrava (1212), which was given back to its former masters. In the same year the famous victory of Las Navas de Tolosa marked the incipient decline of Moslem domination in Western Europe. Having thus recovered possession of the stronghold, and resumed the title of Calatrava (1216), the order nevertheless removed to more secure quarters of Calatrava la Nueva, eight miles from old Calatrava (1218). From his centre their influence spread to the remotest parts of the Peninsula; new orders sprang up--Alcántara (q.v.) in the Kingdon of Leon, Avis (q.v.) in Portugal, both begun under Calatrava's protection and the visitation of its grand master. This spirit of generous emulation, spreading among all classes of society, marks the climax of Spanish chivalry: it was then that King Ferdinand the Saint, after the definitive coalition of Castile and Leon (1229) dealt a mortal blow to the Moslem power in the conquest (1235) of their capital city, Cordova, soon followed by the surrender of Murcia, Jaén, and Seville. The European crusade seemed at an end. Encouraged by these victories, Ferdinand's successor, Alfonso X, the Wise, planned a crusade in the East and contemplated marching, with his Spanish chivalry, to restore the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1272). But the Moors still held out in their little Kingdom of Grenada, which was to remain for two centuries longer an open door, exposing Western Europe to the constant danger of African invasion. For the perpetuation of this menace, Christendom had to thank its own dissentions--not only international, but personal and dynastic. Into these factious quarrels the Knights of Calatrava, like other knights of the Cross, were unhappily drawn.

Calatrava, with its abundant resources of men and wealth, had by this time become a power in the State. It had lands and castles scattered along the borders of Castile. It excercised feudal lordship over thousands of peasants and vassals. Thus, more than once, we see the order bringing to the field, as its individual contributions, 1200 to 2000 knights, a considerable force in the Middle Ages. Moreover, it enjoyed autonomy, being by its constitutions independent in temporal matters and acknowledging only spiritual superiors--the Abbot of Morimond and, in appeal, the pope. These authorities interfered, in consequence of a schism which first broke out in 1296 through the simultaneous election of two grand masters, García Lopez and Gautier Perez. Lopez, dispossessed a first time by a delegate of Morimond, appealed to Pope Boniface VIII, who quashed the sentence and referred the case to the general chapter at Cîteaux, where Lopez was re-established in his dignity (1302). Dispossessed a second time, in consequence of a quarrel with his lieutenant, Juan Nuñez, Lopez voluntarily resigned in favour of Nuñez, who had taken his place (1328), on condition that he should keep the commandery of Zurita; as this condition was violated, Lopez again, for the third time, took the title of Grand Master in Aragon, where he died in 1336.--These facts sufficiently prove that after the fourteenth century the rigorous discipline and fervent observance of the order's earlier times had, under the relaxing influence of prosperity, given place to a spirit of intrigue and ambition.

With the accession of Pedro the Cruel began a conflict between the Crown and the order. That prince caused three grand masters in succession to be put to death, as having incurred his suspicion: the first of these was beheaded (1355) on a charge of having entered into a league with the King of Aragon; the second Estevañez, having competed for the grand mastership with the king's candidate, García de Padilla, was murdered in the royal palace, by the king's own treacherous hand; lastly García de Padilla himself, a brother of the royal mistress, fell into disgrace, upon deserting the king's party for that of his half brother, Henry the Bastard, and died in prison (1369). Amid all these troubles the war against the Moslem, which was the very reason of the order's existence, was reduced to a mere episode in its history. The greater part of its activities were employed in purely political conflicts, and its arms, consecrated to the defence of the Faith, were turned against Christians. An even more pitiable spectacle was that of the knights divided among themselves into rival and mutually hostile factions. At the same time began the encroachments of royal authority in the election of the grand master, whose power was a check upon that of the king. For instance, in 1404, Henry of Villena was elected 24th grand master merely through the favour of Henry III of Castile, although Villena was married, a stranger to the order, and by papal dispensation entered upon his high functions without even the preliminary of a novitiate. A schism in the order ensued and was healed only after the king's death, in 1414, when a general chapter, held at Cîteaux, cancelled the election of Villena and acknowledged his competitor, Luis Guzman, as the only legitimate master. After the death of Guzman, a new encroachment of King John II of Castile gave rise to a new schism. He had succeeded in forcing upon the electors his own candidate, Alfonso, a bastard, of the royal stock of Aragon (1443); but Alfonso having joined a party formed against him, the king sought to have him deposed by the chapter of the order. This time the electors divided, and a double election issued in not fewer than three grand masters: Pedro Giron, who took possession of Calatrava; Ramirez de Guzman, who occupied the castles of Andalusia; and the bastard Alfonso of Aragon, who continued to be recognized by the knights of the Aragonese branch. At last, through the withdrawl of his rivals one after the other, Pedro Giron remained the only grand master (1457). Giron belonged to an eminent Castilian family; an ambitious intriguer, more anxious about his family interests than about those of his order, he played an important part as a leader in the factions which disturbed the wretched reigns of John II and Henry IV, the last two lamentably weak descendants of St. Ferdinand of Castile.

By turns, Giron sustained first Henry IV, in a war against his father, John II, then Alfonso, who pretended to the throne, against Henry IV. Such was Giron's importance that Henry IV, in order to attach him to his cause, offered him the hand of his own sister, the famous Isabella of Castile. Giron had already had his vow of celibacy annulled by the pope, and as on his way to the court, when he died, thus saving the future Queen of Castile from an unworthy consort (1466). The same pope, Pius II, granted to Pedro Giron the extravagant privilege of resigning his high dignity in favour of his bastard, Rodrigo Telles Giron, a child eight years old. Thus the grand mastership fell into the hands of guardians--an unheard of event. The Abbot of Morimond was called upon to devise a temporary administration, untill Telles should reach his majority. The administration was entrusted to four knights elected by the chapter, and from this period date the definitive statutes of the order known as "Rules of Abbot William III" (1467). These statutes recognized in the order seven high dignitaries: the grand master; the clavero (guardian of the castle and lieutenant of the grand master); two grand comendadores, one for Castile and the other for Aragon; the grand prior, representing the Abbot of Morimond in the spiritual government; the sacrista (guardian of the relics); the obrero (supervisor of buildings).

The order, having reached its apogee of prosperity, now held sway over fifty-six commanderies and sixteen priories, or cures, distributed between the Diocese of Jaén and the Vicariate of Ciudad Real. Its lordships included sixty-four villages, with a population of 200,000 souls, and produced an annual income which may be estimated at 50,000 ducats. The kings whose fortune the mismanagement of the late reigns had depleted could not but covet these riches, while such formidable military power filled with distrust the monarchs who were obliged to tolerate the autonomous existence of the order. During the struggle between Alfonso V of Portugal and Ferdinand of Aragon for the right of succession to Henry IV of Castile, the last male of his house (1474), much depended upon the attitude of Calatrava. The knights were divided. While the grand master, Rodrigo Giron, supported Portugal, his lieutenant, Lopez de Padilla, stood by Aragon. The battle of Toro (1479), where the pretensions of Portugal were annihilated, ended this schism, the last in the history of the order. The grand master, reconciled with Ferdinand of Aragon, fell, during the war against the Moors, at the seige of Loja (1482). His lieutenant, Lopez de Padilla, succeeded him and, as the last of the twenty-seven independent grand masters of Calatrava, revived for a season the heroic virtues of his order's better days. A mortified monk in his cell, a fearless warrior on the battlefield, the glory of Padilla shed its last rays in the war of the conquest of Grenada, which he did not live to see completed. At his death (1487), Ferdinand of Aragon exhibited to the chapter, assembled for the election of a new grand master, a Bull of Innocent VIII which invested him with authority to administer the order, and to this decree he compelled the electors to submit. Thus ended the political autonomy of the Order of Calatrava. The reason of its being--the struggle against the Moors--seemed, indeed, to end with the fall of Grenada (1492).

The canonical bond between Calatrava and Morimond had been relaxing more and more. The King of Spain was too jealous of his authority to tolerate any foreign--especially French--intervention in the affairs of his kingdom. The canonical visits of the Abbot of Morimond ceased; difficulties were raised when the grand prior came from Morimond to take possession of his dignity. The last French prior was Nicholas of Avesnes, who died in 1552. After a long contest, a compromise was effected in 1630, leaving to Morimond its right of electing the grand prior, but limiting its choice to Spanish Cistercians. Moreover, the knights of the order were virtually secularized: Pope Paul III commuted their vow of celibacy to one of conjugal fidelity (1540). As members of the order were allowed to found families, and were authorized by Julius III (1551) to make free use of their personal property, the vow of poverty also passed into virtual desuetude. In 1652, under Philip IV, the three Spanish orders took a new vow: that of defending the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. This was the last manifestation of any religious spirit in the orders. The military spirit, too, had long since disappeared. The orders had, in fact, fallen into a state of utter inactivity. The commanderies were but so many pensions at the king's free disposal, and granted by him rather to the high-born than to the deserving. In 1628 the Order of Calatrava was declared to be inaccessible not only to tradesmen, but even to sons of tradesment. The last attempt to employ the knights of the three orders for a military purpose was that of Philip IV, in quelling the rebellion of the Catalans (1640-50), but the orders restricted their efforts to the complete equipment of one regiment, which has since been known in the Spanish army as "The Regiment of the Orders".

When the Bourbon dynasty occupied the throne, Charles III, having founded the personal order of his name, levied upon the old orders a contribution of a million reals to pension 200 knights of the new order (1775). Their revenues being the only remaining raison d'être of the order, confiscation necessarily led to dissolution. Confiscated by King Joseph (1808), re-established by Ferdinand VII at the Restoration (1814), the possessions of Calatrava were finally dissipated in the general secularization of 1838.