Ancient knightly orders. Spiritual and knightly orders - briefly. Common features of spiritual knightly orders

The history of the spiritual and knightly order

Spiritual and knightly order - military-monastic organizations of feudal lords, created in the 12-13 centuries under the leadership of the Catholic Church in order to protect, strengthen and expand the possessions seized during the crusades, as well as for new territories. The spiritual and chivalric orders include the Orders of St. John, the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Order, the Order of Alcantara, the Order of Calatrava.

Spiritual and chivalric orders arose during the time of the first crusades. In the XI century, the Catholic Church was the organizer of the crusades, the purpose of which she announced the liberation from the Muslims of Palestine and the Holy Sepulcher, which, according to legend, was in the city of Jerusalem. The true purpose of the campaigns was to capture new lands. city ​​and jerusalem

In addition to the land, the opportunity opened up to thoroughly plunder the richest cities of the East. In the armies of the crusaders after the capture of Jerusalem, special spiritual and knightly organizations were created on the basis of various brotherhoods: they were called spiritual and knightly orders. The initial task of the orders of chivalry is to protect Christian pilgrims and protect Christian possessions from attacks by followers of Islam. The ideologist of the crusades, Bernard of Clairvaux, who lived in the 12th century, tried to justify their existence in a work specially dedicated to knightly orders.

Spiritual and knightly orders Support for the crusader movement Armed defense of the Holy Land from the attack of "infidels" Order of the Hospitallers 1113 "Order of the riders of the hospital of St. John" Order of the Templars 1118-1119 "The Secret Society of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" Mary of the Teutonic

Hospitaller Order Knights Templar Teutonic Order

Entering the order, the knight took the usual vow of monasticism: poverty, chastity, obedience. The knight had to: fulfill the duty of hospitality and tirelessly wage war against the infidels. Members of the orders could be both knights and commoners, who constituted a separate group. And some military monastic orders even allowed women into their ranks. Members of the knightly order implicitly obeyed the head of the order - the grand master, or grand master. Spiritual knightly orders were similar in almost everything to monastic orders, but they had a certain charter approved by the Pope and special distinctive clothes.

Spiritual and knightly orders that arose in the Holy Land participated in hostilities in other territories of the Christian world. So, for example, the Knights Hospitallers and the Templars were the first to enter the war in Spain. The Iberian Peninsula attracted the attention of knightly orders as a source of income. The influence of the Knights Hospitallers and the Templars led to the fact that, already in the 12th century, several military monastic orders of their own arose in Spain. The Spanish chivalric orders were patronized by the Christian rulers of Spain.

8-04-2017, 13:38 |

The monastic and knightly orders of Western Europe are perhaps the most attractive theme of the Middle Ages. Probably, in terms of popularity, it is on a par with. The theme of knightly orders is attractive for its mystical meaning, which surrounded him with many contemporaries. Knightly and monastic orders later became the prototype for the creation of various secret organizations in Europe.

The most famous order is the Knights Templar. He was already so mystified, many curses and murders were attributed to him. Not everything is so clear. This topic is not purely historical. It is more like a more philosophical topic that requires deep reflection. Comprehension is needed in order to understand what a medieval order is, whether mysticism is inherent in it, and whether all the secrets of these organizations have been unraveled.

The emergence of knightly orders

Traditionally, the time of the appearance of the orders of knights is attributed to the period - this is approximately the beginning of the XII century. If you remember in Clermont in 1096, Pope Urban II convened a council and proclaimed the idea of ​​a crusade. It was necessary to recapture the holy lands in Jerusalem captured by Muslims, in which the main shrines of Christians were located. The participants of the campaign were to be forgiven for all sins.

In the course of the movement, knightly orders were born, which retained the monastic charter. The very word "order" literally means to obey. So in the Early Middle Ages, half monks and at the same time half warriors appeared. And it was not very typical for that period. At the same time, members of the order could shed blood and pray, while they protected the pilgrims () on the way to Jerusalem.

If you go into details more deeply, then the monastic orders had their own humane background. Orders are formed, gradually starting from the 7th century. at that time there was a hospital for pilgrims. This is a place where pilgrims could rest and heal. He was based in Jerusalem. There the believers could take a break before heading home. The hospital existed on donations from Christian countries and wealthy pilgrims. After civil strife in the Arab Caliphate, the hospital was closed, but in 1023, by decree of the Egyptian Caliph, it was reopened.

How did a simple hospital become related to monastic orders? The fact is that the provision of medical care was associated with the activities of monasteries. The monks were obliged to provide shelter and assistance to wanderers and pilgrims. So the hospital named after St. John the Baptist in Jerusalem soon became a monastic one. Those monks were called ionites, or hospitallers.

The transformation of a monastic order into a knightly one

In order for a monastic order to become a military or knightly order, it was necessary to take only one step. The military at that time were needed to guard the pilgrims on the caravan routes on their way to Jerusalem. Initially, these soldiers were recruited even from among the local Muslim Arabs. It didn't matter much at all. They were just people who accompanied caravans of pilgrims.

In 1096, everything changed, in 1099 the first was successful, they took Jerusalem. Pilgrims (crusaders) and their military guards entered the city. The Kingdom of Jerusalem begins. Gradually, part of the knights, from among the crusaders, entered the service in John's hospital in Jerusalem.

1099-1113 This is a period of hidden development of the hospital. At that time it was not yet clear what kind of organization it was. Either this is a hospital with a small military guard, or it is still a knightly military organization. Further, the activities of this hospital intersect with the activities of another knightly organization. It will become, along with the Hospitallers, the most famous knightly monastic order. And her activities will attract the attention of historians and other scientists.

The emergence of a new knightly monastic order

Hugh de Payens with other knights and servants organized a detachment that was supposed to guard the pilgrims who followed the dry path to Jerusalem. Arriving in Jerusalem, the knights turned to the king with a request to appoint them officially as the guards of the pilgrims and give them premises to house the order. So they promised to protect the Christian faith and bring income to the local treasury.

The knights were given the former stables, which were located in the pre-existing Jewish temple, into the premises. Later they got their name from the French language - the Templars. This is how the next knightly monastic order appears, which does not yet have an official status. It does not yet have any rules, there is no charter. Initially, this is just an organization of people who decided to devote themselves to such activities - that is, to wage war on the infidels and protect the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Gradually, another new order appears. There in Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, that is, in the center of the Christian faith. This is the guard of the Holy Sepulcher. Now they are called the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher and are often confused with the Knights Templar. First of all, they have similar emblems at first glance. Unlike other orders, these knights do not have a leader (master). And they report directly to the king of Jerusalem. Being part of the king's personal army, the knights of the Holy Sepulcher received various privileges from him.

The Knights of the Holy Sepulcher were paid by the King of Jerusalem. However, their honor in society was somewhat less than that of the Hospitallers and Templars. These two orders lived on donations from pilgrims, merchants. The Templars were also respected and received donations from church communities and other people who did not directly participate in the campaign. However, these people wanted to receive the blessing of the Pope and be forgiven for their sins.

Registration of the status of knightly orders

Only 20 years after the beginning of the activities of these orders, a monk and a very revered person, St. Bernard wrote a treatise or charter of a knightly monastic order. In it, he clearly defined that the monk-knight is a completely new, elite and prestigious, holy and formidable social stratum. The presence of such a status in a person sharply exalted him in society.

A member of the order - he is a monk, that's why

1. Must be restrained;
2. Observe all posts;
3. Pray daily;
4. He has no right to touch women;
5. Cannot own property.

In exchange for such obedience, he receives good food, clothing, and weapons. They fought and chi considered the military elite of that time. It was for such knights that the concept of pension provision subsequently appeared in the modern view. A wounded or maimed warrior still continued to be a member of the order, received food and other benefits. The spiritual aspect was also important - a representative of the order could count on the salvation of the soul. Even if he committed some misdeeds, the war with the Muslims atoned for everything.

Such chivalrous organizations constituted a microstate. They obeyed the master, obeyed discipline. This made it an important part of the military structure. For them, there was no term of service in a year, as was the case, for example, with ordinary knights. They should always be ready at the first call to join the battle.

The device and life of knightly monastic orders

The Templars and other orders were always ready. Even when there were no hostilities, the knight had to engage in daily military training:

1. Workout;
2. Education;
3. caring for your horse
4. caring for your weapons

All this is the main occupation of a member of the order. If you take a knight of a hospitaller, then he also serves in the hospital, that is, he receives medical skills. At the same time, it does not matter what kind the knight belongs to and what rank he has, he must do this.

It can be assumed that in this way the military elite became more and more disciplined and moderate. Everyone in the order must understand that he serves a higher purpose and must obey it. The main goal is more important than any humiliation and misfortune, it is above all.

Knightly monastic orders become over time a new militia, a new elite of the military hierarchy. And many subsequent victories are connected just the same with the actions of the orders. Any success raised the status of orders, exalted them among other military units. Attempts were made to establish new orders, several dozen of them were founded later. The largest orders have been studied by historians, some of them have survived to this day in one form or another, mainly as charitable organizations.

Entering the ranks of the order, the knight renounced his property, all material wealth. He passed it on to his relatives. Very often the knights donated their wealth to the order. Over time, many chivalric organizations became rich in this way, mostly from tracts of land. These were feudal plots inhabited by serfs. They performed all feudal duties, and the income went in favor of the order.

Rise of Spiritual Orders

With all the wealth that the orders received as donations, they did not stop there. By having a general management of their property, they rationalized their farms and made them more productive. So their wealth increased even more. It can be assumed that spiritual orders became the first capitalist organizations in Europe.

Over time, the economy of such orders began to play an even greater role than their military component. They continued to guard pilgrims and religious sites in the same way. They did it in small groups. Only a noble person could become a member of the order. Usually these were the younger sons of feudal lords, who could no longer claim to receive a land allotment as an inheritance.

Thus, knightly organizations arose from the beginning. Over time, they turned into a powerful military organization that had its own charter and was very disciplined. During their heyday, they had extensive economic activities, from which they received income in favor of the order.

Knightly orders video

Termination at the beginning of the XI century. The raids of the Hungarians, Arabs, Normans contributed to the successful economic development of European countries and the rapid growth of the population. However, by the end of the 11th century. this led to an acute shortage of free land. Wars and their companions - famine, epidemics became more frequent. People saw the cause of all misfortunes in punishments for sins. The best way to get rid of sins was considered to be visiting holy places, especially Palestine, where the Holy Sepulcher was located. But after the capture of Palestine by the Turks and Seljuks, who were intolerant of non-Muslims, pilgrimage there became almost impossible.

The idea of ​​a campaign against the Muslims to liberate the Holy Sepulcher was becoming more and more widespread in Europe. It was not only a charitable deed, but also a way to provide land for both feudal lords and peasants. Everyone dreamed of rich booty, and the merchants hoped for trade benefits. In 1095 the pope Urban II called for an expedition to Palestine. The participants of the campaign decorated their clothes and armor with crosses - hence its name. Both feudal lords and peasants participated in the first crusade.

In 1096-- 1099. Crusaders conquered Syria and Palestine from the Turks - Seljuks. There arose the Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose vassal possessions were considered the counties of Edessa and Tripolitan, the principality of Antioch. The crusader states waged constant wars with the Muslim rulers of the surrounding countries. Gradually, the crusaders, who were not very numerous in the East, began to lose their possessions. There were seven other major crusades. Peasants almost did not participate in them, but emperors and kings often walked at the head of the knights. However, all these campaigns were almost fruitless. During the fourth crusade, the crusaders attacked Constantinople and in 1204 took it. They created the Latin Empire on the lands of Byzantium. Only in 1261 did the rulers of the Nicaean Empire, preserved from Byzantium, manage to liberate Constantinople. But Byzantium has not restored its former power.

In Palestine, with the support of the popes, spiritual and knightly orders were created. Those who joined the order became warrior monks. First arose Order of the Knights Templar. Then it was created Order of the Hospitallers. Later arose Warband. The knight-monks lived off the lands belonging to the orders in Palestine and in Europe. Detachments of order knights differed from the usual feudal troops in their discipline. However, over time, the orders grew rich, and their members ceased to show their former zeal in military affairs. Many of them surrounded themselves with luxury. It was even claimed that the Templars, who were especially rich, secretly renounced Christianity.

Meanwhile, the onslaught of the Muslims intensified. In 1187 the sultan Salah al-Din(Saladin), who united Syria and Egypt, recaptured Jerusalem. In 1291, the last fortress of the crusaders in Palestine, Acre, fell.

Despite the failure and great sacrifices, the Crusades had a positive meaning for Western Europe. They contributed to the acquaintance of Europeans with the higher culture of Byzantium and the eastern countries at that time, and the borrowing of many achievements. Strengthened the position of European merchants. This led in the future to the development of commodity-money relations, the growth of cities and handicraft production. The outflow of the most militant part of the feudal lords, and their death contributed to the strengthening of royal power in a number of European countries.

Spiritual and knightly orders

As we have already said, even before the start of the Crusades, on the roads of Europe and the East leading to Jerusalem, one could see shelters for pilgrims. In the middle of the XI century. one of the inhabitants of the Italian city of Amalfi founded at the very end of the journey - in Jerusalem - another shelter: a hospital for sick pilgrims, and named it in honor of St. John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, who lived in the 7th century. It was this hospital that was destined to give rise to a phenomenon that became almost the hallmark of the European Middle Ages - knightly orders. The oldest of them, known to us by the unofficial nickname "Hospitallers", was called in the documents: "The Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem."

The monks who served in the hospital were not always able to lead the righteous life of meek brothers. The periodically arising need to protect the sick and the property of the hospital often forced the monks to take up arms. According to some reports, they even hit the rear of the defenders of Jerusalem during its siege by the crusaders in 1099. After the capture of Jerusalem, the number of such shelters increased, the staff of these institutions, which declared themselves a monastic order, formed almost exclusively from the crusader knights who had taken tonsure, became more and more militant .

Under Raymond du Puy, the first Grand Master, the order becomes knightly. In 1113, Pope Paschal II approved the charter of the order, obliging the monks to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. The Hospitallers, or Joannites, as they were often called by the name of the hospital, were distinguished by a red cloak with a white cross, which we now call the "Maltese". The fact is that after the expulsion of Europeans from Palestine, the Johnites settled in 1309 on the island of Rhodes, and from 1522 they moved to Malta, where they exist perfectly to this day.

A similar story happened with another knightly order - "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", better known as the "Templars".

At the beginning of the XII century. the poor French nobleman Hugh de Paynes, in the company of eight of his relatives, just like him, who went on a crusade, established an order to protect pilgrims, which they called "Poor Knights". The French crusaders were so poor that they even had to travel together on the same horse (and this image became one of the symbols of the Templars). Most likely, no one would have ever heard about this religious initiative, but Hugh de Paynes and another of the "founding fathers" of the order, Godefroy de Saint-Omer, turned out to be excellent organizers. The popularity of the "Poor Knights" grew all the time, the order was replenished with more and more new members, and in 1128 it was officially recognized at the cathedral in Troyes. Its charter was commissioned to be written by the famous religious figure of that time, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the monastic order of the Bernardines. The difference between the Templars was a white cloak with a red cross.

Here is what Archbishop Wilhelm of Tyre, the former Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and a major medieval historian, wrote about the creation of the Knights Templar:

“Several noble knights, people of true faith and God-fearing, expressed a desire to live in strictness and obedience, forever abandon their possessions, and, betraying themselves into the hands of the supreme ruler of the church, become members of the monastic order. Among them, the first and most famous were Hugh de Paynes and Godefroy de Saint-Omer. Since the brotherhood did not yet have its own temple or home, the king provided them with temporary shelter in his palace, built on the southern slope of the Temple Mount. The canons of the temple that stood there, under certain conditions, ceded part of the walled courtyard to the needs of the new order. Moreover, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, his entourage and the patriarch with their prelates immediately provided support to the order by allocating to it some of their land holdings - some for life, others for temporary use - thanks to which members of the order could receive a livelihood. First of all, they were ordered to atone for their sins and under the guidance of the patriarch “to protect and protect the pilgrims going to Jerusalem from the attacks of thieves and bandits and to take every possible care of their safety” .

Later, at the end of the 12th century, a third order, the Teutonic Order, arose. It appeared in 1190-1191. and, as the name implies, was replenished almost exclusively by immigrants from German lands. The Teutonic Order grew out of the hospital brotherhood of the Holy Virgin Mary during the Third Crusade, its members were distinguished by white cloaks with a black cross.

The principles by which the orders lived connected seemingly incompatible roles - a monk and a knight, the humility of the former was surprisingly combined with the militancy of the latter. However, surprisingly, this strange hybrid not only survived, but also turned out to be one of the most successful social inventions of the time. The orders rapidly increased in numbers, and their influence both in the conquered territories and in the Christian world as such grew explosively.

The fact is that the main problem of the crusaders has always been the inconsistency of actions and the lack of a unified command. Therefore, the knightly orders, with their strict hierarchy and impeccable discipline, quickly became the most combat-ready military units of that time, taking an active part in almost all the battles of the Crusades era. In fact, it was they who made up the standing army of the crusaders, whose ranks were replenished by knights arriving from Europe. It was they who were usually entrusted with the protection of fortresses, the maintenance and expansion of which was too heavy a financial burden for both the lords and the monarchy. From the point of view of maintaining constant combat readiness, the orders were an important military trump card. But from a political point of view, the increase in the number of their members was a disaster for the newly formed Latin states, since the orders were an independent military party, the interests of which did not always coincide with the interests of the kingdoms and duchies.

The activities of orders that were not accountable to local authorities were controlled directly by the pope. The orders were headed by the Grand Masters. The whole system was built on the principles of rigid hierarchy and strict discipline. The statutes of the orders were extremely severe. Knights took monastic vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. According to the charter of the Teutons, for example, written on the basis of the charters of the hospitallers and templars, the brothers had to pray at least five hours a day, fast 120 days a year, knightly entertainment (tournaments, hunting) was prohibited. Severe punishments followed for violations of the rules of conduct (for striking a layman, breaking a fast, divulging the secrets of the order, and the like).

Spiritual and chivalric orders had their own fortresses, lands, possessed huge wealth, which made them a significant political force. The fact is that the orders were engaged not only in war, but also pursued an active economic policy.

The Templars, for example, were allowed to engage in financial transactions by special decree of the pope, and soon banking became one of the main occupations in the order. It was the Templars who invented checks, and there was no longer any need to carry the gold coveted by everyone on a dangerous journey. It was enough to deposit the required amount at the nearest templar preceptory, take the same check in return - a small piece of parchment with a fingerprint, and then, having reached the right place, receive your money there with a very small deduction. Due to the fact that the network of commanderies covered almost all of Europe and the Middle East (in the 13th century there were more than five thousand of them, together with dependent castles and monasteries), there were plenty of people who wanted to use these services.

Is it any wonder that over time the Templars became Europe's biggest creditors? According to many historians, it was the wealth of the order and the exorbitant debts of the French crown (and not only it) that became the main reason for the defeat and dissolution of the Order of the Temple at the beginning of the 14th century.