HOSPITALLERS.

HOSPITALLERS.


There are distinguishing features in describing the three well known Knights:-

1) Knights Hospitallers.

2) Knights Templars.

3) Teutonic Knights.


1) Knights Hospitallers were members of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, a religious and military order. The order was also known as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and as the Hospitallers and, later, as the Knights of Rhodes and as the Knights of Malta.

The order originated with a group of men who ran a hospice (shelter) for Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem during the late 1000's. In 1113, while the group was under the leadership of a man named Gerard, Pope Paschal II recognized it as a religious order. By the mid-1100's, the Hospitallers had also become a military order of Christian knighthood. During the 1100's and 1200's, the order helped provide a permanent force for the defence
of Christian territories in the Holy Land.

In 1291, the order was forced to leave the Holy Land and located on the island of Cyprus. About 1309, it took the island of Rhodes from the Byzantine Empire and established itself there. From its base on Rhodes, the order became a Mediterranean seafaring power and for hundreds of years distinguished itself as a major Western European force against the Ottoman Turks. But in 1522, the Ottoman ruler Suleiman I defeated the order, and the last knights left Rhodes on Jan. 1, 1523. In 1530, the order reestablished its headquarters, on the island of Malta. From Malta, it defended European interests in the Mediterranean until the French general Napoleon Bonaparte took Malta in 1798.

Today, the order no longer has a military function and focuses on caring for the sick. Its full name is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. But it is usually called the Knights of Malta.


2) Knights Templars were members of a religious military order of Christian knighthood. The order was founded about 1119 in Jerusalem by the French knights Hugh des Payens and Godfrey of St. Omer. The order was first called "the poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" because of their early state of poverty and the lodgings given them by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. The lodgings were in the compound of the king's palace known as the Temple of Solomon.

The original purpose of the Templars complemented that of the Knights Hospitallers. The Knights Hospitallers aided pilgrims in the Holy Land while the Templars protected pilgrims on the way to and from the Holy Land.

The Templars organized under a rule (regulations for religious life) composed by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. He stimulated the order's fame and growth through his writings and preaching during the Second Crusade (1147-1149). The Templars took monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They avoided extravagant ceremony and clothing, wearing the white mantle of the Cistercian order, with a red cross added.

At first the order included only knights, but gradually it admitted chaplains--priests who ministered to the knights--and sergeants--wealthy members of the middle class. The pope took the knights under his special protection, and the order added to its purpose the duty to fight all "infidels" who threatened Christianity. The Templars thus played a key role in the Crusades and became a powerful military organization. They grew rich with properties that were donated by grateful kings and princes.

The Templars entered the banking business, and Temples (local lodges) established throughout Europe drew deposits of massive wealth. Princes and commoners alike banked with the Templars, and many states became indebted to them. With the fall of the Holy Land to the Muslims in 1187, the order lost its founding purpose and became a target for unhappy and envious debtors.

In 1302, King Philip IV of France came into conflict with the pope. The king was also near bankruptcy. He waged a vicious and skillful campaign aimed at suppressing the Templars, hoping to gain the order's wealth and at the same time to strike a blow against the papacy. Philip ordered all the Templars in France thrown into prison, where they were tortured until they confessed to accusations of heresy, unnatural practices, and dishonest business activities. Historical evidence has supported only the charge of dishonesty.

Templars in England, Germany, Spain, and Portugal also stood trial, but most were acquitted because they were beyond Philip's immediate control. In 1312, Pope Clement V yielded to Philip's pressure and issued a bull (official decree) suppressing the Templars. The pope, however, awarded the Templars' property to several military orders in Spain and Portugal and its cash holdings to the Knights Hospitallers. During the French trials, the Templars' last grand master, Jacques de Molay, confessed to false charges. He later withdrew the confession but was burned at the stake anyway in 1314.


3) Teutonic Knights, was the name of an organization of German crusaders that arose in Europe during the 1100's. The Teutonic Knights were organized for service in the Holy Land. They modeled their organization after two earlier crusading orders, the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitallers .

In the 1200's, the Teutonic Knights shifted their activities to central Europe, where they tried to convert and control the people of what became Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Their power and influence spread throughout central and eastern Europe.

In the 1300's, the Teutonic Knights lost much of their power, and finally the Poles and Lithuanians overthrew them. In 1525, the Grand Master, Albert of Hohenzollern, embraced Protestantism, and changed the Order from a religious to a civil organization. In 1618, the Order's territory passed to the Hohenzollern Elector of Brandenburg.

THE ORDER OF ST JOHN IN JERUSALEM

THE ORDER OF ST JOHN IN JERUSALEM


Part 1.

When the Knights of St John captured Rhodes and assumed authority over virtually the

whole of the Dodecanese, they already had two centuries of history behind them. The exact

date of the founding of their religious-military Order is difficult to determine, since its

beginnings are shrouded in legend and historical obscurity.

It is very possible that future research will bring to light new evidence bearing on this issue,

but at present it may be said, with reservations, that the inception of a philanthropic

Christian Order has been traced back to Jerusalem, in around the middle of the eleventh

century. Amalfian traders obtained permission from the Caliph to build the church of

Sainte Marie-Latine next to the church of the Resurrection, as well as a hospice for the

accommodation of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. The hospice-hospital was run by

Benedictine monks. It seems that from the end of the eleventh to the beginning of the

twelfth century, that is prior to the First Crusade and the capture of Jerusalem by the

Western Europeans, this first Frankish hospice-hospital had no connections with the

Order of the Hospitallers, as the Knights of St John ( named after their patron St John

the Baptist ) were otherwise known.


Part 2.

In the early years of the twelfth century the enigmatic figure of Pierre Gerard or

Gerard Tenque appeared in Jerusalem, a personality swathed in legend. Neither his

homeland, his family nor his education are known, yet according to all indications to date,

it is he who founded the Order. The Amalfian hospice was merely a precursory foundation.

It is very probable that in Gerard’s day the Knights were only hospitallers and had no

military capacity or organization.

After Gerard’s death, he was succeeded in 1120/1 by Raymond du Puys, who took the title

of Master for the first time. It was then that the Order was organized as a military body, in

accordance with Western European feudal principles, though it did not abandon its original

philanthropic role, at least ostensibly. Through donations, it acquired an enormous property

in land, including entire provinces in the West and East. From the beginning of the twelfth

century, the Knights of St John, together with the Templars, became the most important

representatives of the ideology of the Crusade, wielding their swords against the Mohammedan

foe in the heart of the Holy Land. This explains the zeal with which feudal Europe offered them

economic and moral support. They were ever the spearhead, which initially struggled in the cause

of Western expansionism and the establishment of Western possessions in the East, and later

to defend the West humiliation and defeat at the hands of the “Infidel”. The Knights acquired

military strongholds in Syria and Palestine, such as Jerusalem, Caesarea, Capernaum, Jericho,

Ascalon, Margat, Krak and others.


Part 3.

The Western Europeans barely managed to maintain their hold on the Middle East for two

centuries. In the face of the Arab force, urban centres and fortresses fell one after the other.

The Knights played their part in the defence of the Holy Land and, loyal to their mission, were the

last to retreat. In the wake of the final fall of Jerusalem and Asclon in 1247, came that of Krak

in 1271, and of Margat in 1281. The last beleaguered fortress of the Franks was Acre in Palestine,

which too capitulated in 1291. Decimated and with their Grand Master severely wounded, the

Knights of St John went to Cyprus, where they installed themselves in the region of Limassol.

On Cyprus, however they felt restricted. They were vassals of the island’s Frankish king and

thus unable to act freely. In 1306 the opportunity of acquiring new headquarters befitting their

purpose presented itself. The Grand Master Foulques de Villaret entered into negotiations with

Vignolo de’ Vignoli, who was a liegelord of the Dodecanese. The two men drew up an agreement

whereby, after the capture of Rhodes, Vignolo de’ Vignoli would retain one-third of the island,

the Knights the other two-thirds, the whole of Leros and two-thirds of Kos.