Children of the Crusades
Dr. Helena Schrader
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Today,
on 710th the anniversary of Philip IV's "coup" against the Knights
Templar and before readers are totally distracted by "Knightfall", I
wanted to reflect on the origins of the great "militant orders" of which
the Knights Templar were the most prominent.
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| The Hospitaller and Templar Churches - side-by-side - in Famagusta, Cyprus |
Initially,
true to the Word of Christ, the Church of Rome condemned violence of
any kind. By the 5th century, however, the Church conceded that there
were circumstances under which the use of force – even homicide – was
necessary, excusable, and potentially pious. The concept of the “just
war” emerged and was recognized theologically by St. Augustine.
Furthermore,
the more Islam threatened the Christian world, the more the Church
recognized the need for armed men to defend it against armies determined
to spread Islam with the sword. (See: Jerusalem Forgotten? The Struggle for Jerusalem Before the First Crusade.)
Meanwhile, wherever secular power was weak, the need for men willing to
protect clerics, women, and peasants against everything from Vikings to
common robbers was equally evident and urgent.
St. George, the Epitome of the Christian Warrior
The
fact that the Church drew its leadership from the ruling class – the
secular lords with strong military traditions – meant that most clerics
in the Middle Ages were themselves imbued with a warrior ethos. This
fact is underlined by the number of bishops who donned armor and took
active part in warfare — from the Battle of Hastings to the Battle of
Crécy. Thus, it is not surprising that by the end of the first Christian
millennium, Christianity recognized the need for armed force and men
who wielded it, but that did not mean the Church had completely
abandoned its principles.
On the contrary, the Church sought repeatedly to restrict, reduce,
control, and direct warfare and violence. Violence against churches and
clergy was punished with excommunication, for example, and there were
frequent clerical diatribes against the vanity, arrogance, and violence
of the warrior class. When the Byzantine Emperor appealed to Pope Urban
II for aid in fighting the Seljuk Turks and freeing the Holy Land, there
is little doubt that Urban II had double motives for calling for a
crusade: on the one hand, he wanted to free the Holy Land, but on the
other he also wanted to free France and Western Europe from excess
numbers of violent young men, trained in the profession of arms, who
were too quick to fight each other and prey upon the defenseless.
Pope Urban II Calling for the First Crusade
Balderic, one chronicler of Urban II’s speech calling for the First Crusade, quotes the Pope as saying:
Christian
warriors, who continually and vainly seek pretexts for war, rejoice,
for you have today found a true pretext. You, who have so often been the
terror of your fellow men, go and fight for the deliverance of the holy
places. You, who sell for vile pay the strength of your arms to the
fury of others, armed with the sword of the Maccabees, go and merit
eternal reward …. If you must have blood, bathe in the blood of the
infidels …. Soldiers of Hell, become soldiers of the living God!
What is remarkable in retrospect is the extent to which Pope Urban II struck a chord with his audience. Not only did they take the cross in great numbers (and proceed to bathe in the blood of infidels when they reached Jerusalem), but for the next 200 years fighting men flocked to serve Christ, not just in crusades, but as fighting monks bound by monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.
This was made possible by the creation of new monastic orders that enabled men to be both monks and knights. While members of these orders were expected to abjure all wealth, to attend Mass multiple times a day, to fast, pray, and eat in silence, and to live in controlled communities cut off from the outside world, especially women, members were not required to give up the profession of arms. Rather, these orders were designed to capture the religious zeal of the time and funnel the fervor and energy of fighting men into religious channels.
Before this spirit of militant Christianity had burned itself out, no less than 17 military orders, 8 on the Iberian Peninsula, 2 in what is now Italy, and 2 in German speaking Europe had been founded. The most famous and most powerful militant orders, however, were the Templars and the Hospitallers, both founded in the Holy Land yet international in their structures and membership.
Dr. Helena P. Schrader holds a PhD in History.
She is the Chief Editor of the Real Crusades History Blog.
She
is an award-winning novelist and author of numerous books both fiction
and non-fiction. Her three-part biography of Balian d'Ibelin won a total
of 14 literary accolades. Her most recent release is a novel about the
founding of the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus. You can find out more at:
http://crusaderkingdoms.com
