Military monastic orders

1312–1798

ANTHONY LATREL

Late Middle Ages: order states and national orders

From the founding of the military monastic orders until the beginning of the 14th century, the formal status of members of the military orders of the Latin Church changed very little, despite the codification of canon law and the adoption by individual orders of new charters and other legal documents. And although by the 14th century the monk-knights had diminished in their enthusiasm and desire to protect or return the Holy Land, they still took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and had to follow the rules of the hostel of their order. Each order had a charter approved by the papal throne. The pope could interfere in the internal affairs of the military monastic orders and even dissolve them, which was done by Clement V with the Templars in 1312. Now the monk-knights could only come face to face with the infidels in Prussia and Livonia, and more and more often they found service, albeit not so brilliant, in the local society. Military religious orders differed from each other in many ways, but they all accepted into their ranks knights, sergeants, priests and sisters, whose main desire was to conduct an armed struggle against the "infidels". Members of the orders were not formally allowed to accept the cross, although they certainly took part in the crusades. By 1312, a distinction had already begun to be made between the constant holy war, in which the participants were not supposed - except in special cases - to fight against fellow believers, and crusades announced by the popes, which were often directed against opponents of the papal throne - Catholics or other Christians.

After the massacre of the Templars, the position of other military monastic orders changed in many respects, although at first this did not affect the number of people wishing to join these orders. The actions of the military monastic orders became the object of criticism and controversy, and even proposals were made to unite them into a single order and to confiscate all their land holdings. Moreover, in 1310, the pope opened an investigation into particularly serious complaints about the activities of the Teutonic Order in Livonia. In 1309 this order moved its headquarters from Venice to Marienburg in Prussia. In 1306, the Hospitallers began their conquest of Rhodes, which probably ended no earlier than 1309. This invasion took place before the beginning of the persecution of the Templars (in 1307) and probably helped the Hospitallers avoid a similar fate. And although the Hospitallers attacked not Muslims, but schismatic Greeks, their actions were equated with a crusade. The capture of Rhodes gave the knights the independence they lacked in Cyprus. The new favorable and prestigious position of the order was skillfully used by the then master Fulk de Villare, who visited Western Europe and organized, together with the pope, a crusade that set off from Italy in 1310 under his personal command. As a result of this campaign, part of the Anatolian territory was captured from the Turks. After 1312, the Order of the Hospitallers was engaged in the West in the management of the landed property of the Templars transferred to them by the pope. The Order faced a serious financial crisis after the Rhodes campaign and due to Fulk de Vlllare's penchant for an extravagant lifestyle (which led to his removal from office in 1317). The transfer of the wealth of the Knights Templar to the Hospitallers caused serious concern of the monarchs in the Iberian Peninsula, and this, in particular, led to the fact that in Castile most of the property of the Templars was seized by the local nobility, and in Valencia and in Portugal new national military-monastic orders appeared.

After the prohibition of the Knights Templar, Pope Clement V managed to keep most of their property for the Church, arguing that the secular authorities should not interfere in the affairs of the military monastic orders. The interests of individual orders often did not coincide with the interests of the papal throne, but in 1312-1378 the Avignon popes not only criticized the orders, but also performed the functions of a court of cassation in relation to the monk-knights, resolving their internal disputes; they also constantly defended the interests and rights of the military-monastic orders throughout Latin Christendom.

In the fourteenth century, some small orders, such as the English order of St. Thomas, who had a small estate in Cyprus, abandoned military operations and turned into simple monastic communities. In the northeast of Europe, the popes tried to reconcile the activities of the Teutonic Order with the interests of other individuals and organizations that also tried to convert the pagan tribes of Lithuania and Livonia to Christianity. However, the Teutonic brothers eluded papal control and quarreled with the Franciscans, the Archbishop of Riga, the Polish king and other secular rulers. In 1319, John XXII contributed to the resolution of the organizational conflict within the Order of the Hospitallers by choosing the energetic Elyon de Villeneuve as the new master. From Avignon, the popes pressed for reform and action as Rhodes grew into a major anti-Turkish bulwark. The Avignon popes intervened more and more actively in the affairs of the knights-monks and even tried to influence appointments within the military-monastic orders, especially in Italy, where they appointed members of the Hospitaller order to govern the papal regions. However, for the time being, the popes observed a certain amount of caution and restraint in matters relating to the Order of the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order, and only in 1377, Gregory XI, who had previously organized an inspection of the western possessions of the Hospitallers, insisted on appointing his protégé Juan Fernandez de Heredia as Master of Rhodes. After that, the situation of all the orders, with the exception of the Teutonic Order, deteriorated sharply: the popes began to constantly interfere in the management of the orders and even took away their land holdings, transferring them to their favorites and relatives.

In Spain, by 1312, the border with the Muslims was already pushed far to the south, and military activity against the Moors became sporadic. The military monastic orders continued to manage their vast domains, but the Spanish monarchs were eager to control or even regain the lands and privileges they had previously granted to the orders. The Aragonese crown secured the lands of the Hospitallers and Templars in Valencia in order to create a new military-monastic order Montesu to protect the border with Murcia, and in 1317 it was decided that the Aragonese hospitallers would personally swear fealty to the Aragonese king before proceeding to their administrative duties. Thus, the king, who had already managed to prevent the sending of people and funds to Rhodes, received some opportunity to control appointments in the order, and, consequently, to use part of the income of the Hospitallers for his own purposes. The importance of introducing a vassal oath to the king of Aragon became clear during the revolts of 1347–1348, when all the orders rallied around the throne, and during the wars with Castile after 1356. The king attempted to establish another order - San Jorge de Alfama - on the Catalan coast, but this enterprise was not successful: the master of the order and his sister were captured in Alfama by African pirates, and in 1400 the order joined Montesa. Two years later, King Martin proposed that all the Aragonese orders, including the Hospitallers, be reorganized into maestrats - masters - under royal control and be engaged in the struggle at sea with Muslim Africans. And in 1451, the Aragonese king Alphonse V considered a plan to place the Order of Montesa in Malta, despite the fact that he had very limited military experience.

As for the Castilian orders of Santiago, Alcantara and Calatrava, they continued their traditional activities of settling and protecting vast latifundia in Andalusia from the Moors, despite the fact that the border now ran much south of their landed possessions. Even in the 15th century, these orders continued to populate the villages abandoned by the Muslims. In addition to this, the Castilian orders also performed other functions. For example, Alcantara guarded the Portuguese border in Extremadura. In 1331, the pope refused Alphonse XI's somewhat belated request for the formation of a new order in the lands of the Castilian Templars. In 1340, all Spanish orders participated in the Christian victory at the Salado River, followed by the conquest of Algeciras in 1344. However, soon after this, the war against the stubborn mountain enclave of Granada died down due to a long civil war and Castile, and the orders became participants in family intrigues and cruel political conflicts and strife. As in the case of Montesa, it was quite rare for the Castilian orders to oppose the Muslims at this time. However, in 1361, three Castilian masters and a Prior of the Hospitallers were in the ranks of the royal army, which defeated the Moors, but then defeated at Guadix.

In Castile, the orders guarded the borders without taking part in active operations: 1350-1460 were years of official truce (with the exception of twenty-five years), violated only by isolated skirmishes. So, around 1389, the masters of Calatrava and Alcantara led a sortie to the gates of Granada, plundered its suburbs and sent a challenge to the Muslim king. And when in 1394 the master of Alcantara, Martin Yáñez de la Barbuda, broke the truce with the Muslims and died in a reckless sortie, driven by a heightened sense of duty to wage a holy war, the king, who tried to stop him, even apologized to the Moors. The reconquista in Castile resumed thanks to the regent Fernando, who conquered Antequera with the help of military monastic orders in 1410. Orders continued to defend fortresses and frontiers, where magisters often commanded royal armies, but most often members of the orders served as royal captains and commanded detachments that did not include monk-knights. However, Calatrava, for example, participated in six border raids in 1455-1457, and her master captured Archidona in 1462. And in the Granada campaign, which culminated in the conquest of the last Muslim emirate on the Iberian Peninsula, members of all orders fought. Of the ten thousand cavalry soldiers who came to Granada in 1491, Santiago put up 962 (plus 1915 foot soldiers), Alcantara - 266, hospitaliers - 62; the number of horsemen of Calatrava is not noted, but we know that in 1489 there were 400 of them.

Castilian orders united in national corporations under the control of large magnates who fought on the side of the crown in the Moorish crusade and in national and civil wars, but at the same time not too concerned with the religious aspects of this struggle. Their troops and resources were part of the national armies and acted on royal orders. In Castile, the three largest orders received considerable income from a large number of sheep and their seasonal driving to new pastures. The Hospitaller Order became the largest landowner in Aragon, Alcantara owned almost half of Extremadura, and Santiago owned most of New Castile. These riches also supported the monastic knights, who came from poor noble families who had little interest in the holy war, but were brave and skillful fighters. The orders existed in the structure of the Spanish kingdoms and, despite their wealth and strength, could not hope to form independent order states, as in Rhodes or in Prussia. The crown, precisely because of the wealth and power of the orders, strove for maximum control over them. The kings intervened in elections and persuaded the popes to nominate candidates for the positions of masters; sometimes the monarchs refused to accept the vassal oath of the chosen masters, in some cases they forced the objectionable to resign their positions or even organized their assassination. Despite resistance and disputes, kings and representatives of the highest nobility promoted their favorites and even their sons, including illegitimate ones, to the post of master; so, Fernando de Antequera managed in 1409 to make his sons masters of Alcantara and Santiago. At the same time, of course, among the monk-knights there were also people who were really driven by ideological considerations, and serious, albeit to no avail, attempts at reform were made. The latter did not receive the support of the papal throne, which itself all the time contributed to the violation of the rules of the orders. Married monarchs could not hold the position of master, but they could be entrusted with certain administrative functions. So, in 1456, Pope Calixtus III appointed Henry IV of Castile as administrator and governor of two orders at once - Santiago and Calatrava. The political ambitions of the masters also did not contribute to the moral health of the orders, involving the brothers in intrigues, schisms and violence. And only the Order of Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order avoided such difficulties due to the fact that they forbade most of the representatives of the nobility of their order states to join the order as monk-knights.

Portugal no longer bordered the Muslims. And the Portuguese branch of the Order of Santiago chose its own master and became independent. The national Portuguese orders were also Avish (Order of St. Bennet of Avish) and the Order of Christ, founded in 1319 on the former possessions of the Templars. Portuguese orders, including a branch of the Order of the Hospitallers, fought at the Salado River in 1340, but most of the time they were involved in local political affairs and obeyed the crown, which, as in Castile, managed to appoint princes of royal blood and other nobles as masters persons close to the court. As for the Portuguese Hospitallers, by 1375 they had not sent funds to Rhodes for nine years. In 1385, the regent of Portugal, the illegitimate son of King Pedro I, who was raised a Master of the Order of Christ and became Master of Avish, led the national resistance to the Castilian invasion and became King João I (initiating the Avish dynasty, which ruled Portugal until 1580). When the Portuguese Reconquista spread across the sea, the orders again briefly engaged in holy war. The Master of the Order of Christ and Prior of the Hospitallers took part in the capture of Ceuta in Morocco in 1415. Around 1418, Pope Martin V appointed Prince Enrique, governor of the Order of Christ, who used the knights of the order and its wealth for geographical discoveries. In 1443, the pope granted the order all the lands that it could seize in the future in Morocco, on the islands of the Atlantic Ocean and in other overseas countries, and in 1457 Enrique granted him a twentieth of the income of Guinea. Royal intervention in the affairs of the Portuguese orders, the participation of orders in national secular politics, internal strife, the frequent appointment of princes of royal blood to manage the orders and their income continued, but the orders organized by the popes in crusade expeditions in Morocco did not often participate. Detachments of the three Portuguese Orders took part in 1437 in the failed attack on Tangier, and in 1471 the Portuguese Hospitallers were among the army that attacked Arzila. All three Portuguese orders and the Portuguese Hospitallers refused in 1456 the papal proposal to establish permanent outposts in Ceuta and keep a third of their members in them, and in 1467 the papal curia declared that the Portuguese orders were not obliged to participate in offensive wars (this decision caused protests in Portugal itself).

In the Baltic regions of Prussia and Livonia, separated by an endlessly contested strip of land, the Germans successfully continued their advance to the east. The fight against pagan tribes was no longer as bloody and fierce as in the 13th century, especially in the western regions of Prussia. The Teutonic Order retained some possessions in the Mediterranean, in particular in Sicily and Apulia, as well as commanderies and recruiting centers in Franconia and Thuringia, in the Rhine valley and in other German lands. Unlike the Spanish orders, the Teutonic Order was not located on the territory of any one state. Prussia and Livonia were not part of the empire and were in the zone of influence of both the emperor and the pope, which often led to disputes and confrontation between these two authorities. There were heated debates within the order itself: the brothers who were in the Baltics called for moving the headquarters to the north and concentrating all efforts on the fight against the Lithuanians, while others wanted to continue actions to return the Holy Land. Finally, in 1309, Grandmaster Siegfried von Feuchtwangen moved the main monastery from Venice to Prussia without asking the brothers' consent. His successor Karl von Trier was exiled in 1317 to Germany. In 1324, the next grand master of the order, Werner von Orseln, was chosen in Prussia, and from that time on, the huge castle on the river bank in Marienburg became the residence of the grand masters.

In 1310, the Teutonic Order was accused of killing Christians in Livonia, desecrating the local church, attacking the archbishop of Riga, trading with pagans, obstructing conversion to Christianity, and forcing many converts to apostasy. In this regard, the order was threatened with forced dissolution, and, defending itself, it became involved in complicated diplomatic relations with the Lithuanians, who only compromised the order with their ostentatious conversion to Christianity. However, the Teutonic Order survived and continued to move east and north, despite the armed resistance of the Poles. They made considerable territorial acquisitions. In 1308, the knights captured Danzig and the eastern regions of Pomerania, and in 1346 they bought Estonia from the Danes. However, in order to suppress the stubborn and stubborn resistance of the Lithuanian pagans and for the constant supply of military booty necessary for the existence of the order, frequent military campaigns had to be carried out. Under Grandmaster Winrich von Kniprod (1352–1382), the Lithuanians suffered a crushing defeat with the help of noble Western volunteers. In his youth, Marshal of France Jean de Busico took part in the campaigns of the Teutonic Order three times, and the future King of England, Henry IV, twice. Usually every year two expeditions were made to Prussia and one to Livonia. These campaigns brought death and destruction with them; True, the Teutonic army lost so many people and funds on expeditions that they could not be compared with the actions on Rhodes or in Spain. But, paradoxically, the successes of the Germans contributed to their fall: in 1386, the Lithuanians allied with the Poles and in 1389 officially adopted Christianity, which made the existence of the Teutonic Order meaningless. There was simply no one to wage a holy war with. But the order continued military operations, pursuing political goals. Ultimately, the enemies of the Teutons united in an effort to regain their lands, and in 1410 the Poles and their allies utterly defeated the Teutonic army at Grunwald.

In a process of colonization on a much larger scale than that carried out by the Castilian orders in Andalusia, the Teutonic Order converted many natives to Christianity and brought along German settlers. The order created a model of effective administration and administrative apparatus - the order state par excellence. Prussia, with a population of 350,000, did not need money from the commanderies in Germany, but it needed a constant influx of new members from there.

The Prussian commanderies and the German branches of the order did not pay regular dues, as was the case with the Hospitallers. The Teutonic Order in Prussia received considerable income from trade, from land rent, as well as from abundant war booty, and from the 15th century it began to tax the population. Income from various sources was distributed to special funds, as was the case in the Castilian orders and in the Order of Montesa. Some knights paid entrance fees, after which they became members of the German branches of the order and remained there; those who were refused admission to the order in Germany went to Prussia or Livonia with their own weapons, three horses and sixty florins. As a rule, the natives of Franconia went to Prussia, very few of whom then returned to their lands. As for the priests and ministers, they were recruited mainly from German settlers in the Prussian lands. About a hundred brothers were constantly at the headquarters of the order in Marpenburg, and hundreds more lived in commanderies; in some monasteries there were no more than ten monks, in others eighty or more. The general chapter of the order now met extremely rarely, the order did not even have a main seal, like the hospitallers, but, nevertheless, the highest administrative ranks could, like the hospitallers' oligarchy, limit the power of the grand master. The grandmaster was obliged to consult with assistants and commanders (komturs), he could be pressured and even removed from his post, and one grandmaster was killed. Some senior officials lived in Marienburg and dealt, in particular, with financial matters, and the treasury of the order was also in their charge; others had their own residences, for example, the marshal of the order lived in Königsberg. The basis of the order - the knights - were a separate aristocratic military caste, which alienated them from their subjects - German settlers, who could only join the order as priests or ministers and had no voice in government.

The Teutonic Order did not have a fleet, but it had a well-armed army and well-fortified fortresses. However, after 1410, the number of applicants to join the order decreased sharply, and it became necessary to pay mercenaries, which undermined the financial stability of the order.

In the north, the Teutonic Knights fought a holy war in Livonia and created a semi-independent regime with the characteristics of a separate order state with its own administration and its own political line. Livonia had its own master, who was selected from two Livonian candidates as a grand master in Prussia; after 1438, the Livonian brothers chose their own masters. It should be noted that Livonia was not a unitary state, like Prussia, since its vast territories were divided among three bishops, and in Estonia the knightly class formed a secular government. The Livonian knight-monks originated mainly from northern Germany and the Rhine lands, and the priests and ministers were recruited from the settlers. Service conditions in Livonia were harder than in Prussia, the movement to the east was accompanied by constant forest raids, destruction and frequent change of allies. The Livonian brothers were not affected by the defeat of 1410 at Grunwald (they did not participate in it) and continued to pursue an aggressive policy and even fought with Orthodox Russians. However, as in Prussia, the Livonian knights did not escape internal strife, mainly related to control over the wealth of the order. In 1471, the Livonian brothers dismissed their master Johann Volthus, accusing him of corruption, of preparing a war against the Russians against all advice, and of securing several commanderships with all their income personally. Despite the removal of Volthus, the wars with the Russians continued; in 1501, for example, the Russians plundered eastern Livonia, but the next year they were defeated by Master Voltaire von Plettenberg, who did much to stabilize the situation in Livonia.

On Rhodes, the Hospitallers defended the Latin ships and opposed the Turkish emirs of the Anatolian coast (opposite Rhodes), and then the Ottoman Turks advancing from the north. The Order of the Hospitallers, unlike the national Spanish orders and the Teutonic Order, was a real international organization that could exist on the territories of various states and not be afraid of the threats of individual monarchs. The military activity of the Hospitallers was not directed to one point, like the actions of the Teutons, and they were not supposed to fight without respite and with such effort. However, this did not mean at all that the Order of St. John was weaker than the national organizations. The orderly state of the Hospitallers in Rhodes lasted for several centuries. Its structure was such that the power of the master on this island was very strong, but within the order it was limited to a multinational oligarch of high officials, regular meetings of the general chapter and articles of the charter. And the division of the order into languages ​​(langues) and residences (auberges) for each national group helped to distribute power and relieve tension between brothers of different origins.

Rhodes was a relatively small island with limited resources, but with good stone fortifications, it could be defended with a small force. The armed actions of the Hospitallers were not of a protracted nature and alternated with periods of complete peace, while the help of mercenaries was resorted to only in exceptional cases. The number of brothers permanently residing in Rhodes probably ranged from 250 to 450. Unlike Prussia, Rhodes did not need people, but money, and mainly in order to pay for the importation of necessary foodstuffs. The port and the economy of the island itself brought some funds to the Rhodes hospitallers, while the main money came from the western priories. The insular position of the order state required the creation of a fleet and the organization of the economy and management in such a way as to ensure the ability to protect the island from any attacks. The harbor brought transportation of pilgrims, pirates, trade and taxes; the population of the island produced food and provided, in case of need, additional military forces; forests provided material for the construction of ships; the inhabitants built towers and castles and served as galley rowers. Rhodes fell into the hands of the Hospitallers as a result of the capitulation of the island on the agreed terms, and the Greeks, of whom there were twenty thousand on the island by 1522, were not oppressed by the new authorities - they lived comfortably, enjoyed the protection of the knights, had a voice in governing the island and, being Uniates, recognizing the supremacy of the Roman pope, served the Orthodox liturgy.

Having moved from Cyprus to Rhodes, the Hospitallers ceased striving to capture Jerusalem, although they continued to help Cilician Armenia from time to time and retained their commandership with a sugar trading post in Cyprus. After 1306, their main task was to prevent the naval aggression of the Turks from Menteshe and push them north to Smyrna. The Order of the Hospitallers participated in the Latin naval alliances against the great Umur of Aydin, in particular in 1334. By this time, the financial situation of the island had stabilized, but the order's proposals for crusade expeditions in 1335 and 1336 were not supported by Pope Benedict XII, probably for fear that the Hospitallers would take their funds from the papal Florentine bankers. As a result, in the years 1343-1345, the order lost a huge sum of 360,000 florins when Bardi, Acciauoli and Peruzzi went bankrupt. In addition to this, as a result of the Anglo-French and other wars, the plague epidemic that began in 1347, and the general economic and demographic decline in the West, the influx of new members and funds into the order was sharply reduced, which led to the restriction of the military activities of the knights. However, the effectiveness of the actions of the Hospitallers depended not only on resources, but also on experience and skill. One or two galleys defending Rhodes, and fifty or a hundred brothers with auxiliary detachments, represented a considerable force. The Hospitallers participated in a crusade expedition that captured Smyrna in 1344, after which they took over the defense of this city. In 1359, fifty Hospitallers fought against the Ottomans at Lampsakos in the Dardanelles, in 1361-1367 members of the order participated in the fight against the Turks on the Anatolian shores. About a hundred brothers with four galleys under the command of Admiral Ferlino d "Irasca were part of the crusading army that captured Alexandria in 1365. And by 1373, the hospitaliers turned out to be the only military force that the papal throne could count on to help Byzantium. However, the request of the Byzantines that that the Hospitallers defend Thessalonica and some other city, probably Gallipoli, was not satisfied.An expedition of the Knights Hospitaller, sent by Pope Gregory XI and sailing for Epirus in 1378, was negligibly small and was defeated at the hands of the Christian Albanians of Arta, who captured the master - Juan Fernandez de Heredia - and demanded a ransom for him.The next master, Philibert of Nayac, and some of the brothers took part in the battle of Nicopolis in 1396 and after the defeat they saved the life. Hungarian King Spgizmund.

Probably, the desire to create a more powerful economic base for themselves and gain a more advantageous strategic position to fight the Ottomans caused plans to move the headquarters of the order to southern Greece (this plan was also supported by the pope). And around 1377, the order leased the Latin principality of Achaia for five years, but was forced to leave it after the defeat at Vonitsa, but in 1383–1389 attempts to establish themselves in the Peloponnese were repeated. After the Nikopol disaster, the Hospitallers rented for several years the Byzantine despotate in the southern Peloponnese, where they defended the Isthmus of Corinth from the Turks. True, the general situation was complicated by the inability of the West to create a united front for effective resistance to the Turks, however, the Hospitallers continued to fulfill their function of protecting Christian Europe, acting either independently or as part of common crusade expeditions.

The papal schism of 1378 also divided the Hospitallers, which led to a drop in discipline in the order and the cessation of the transfer of funds from Europe to Rhodes. The Hospitaller monastery on the island was under French control and therefore supported the Avignon popes. The English crown was on the side of the Pope, but allowed its subjects to travel to Rhodes and transport money there. In 1410, the general chapter meeting at Aix-en-Provence showed remarkable solidarity within the order and ended the division seven years before the papal schism ended. Unfortunately, due to financial difficulties, rival popes began to use the right to grant beneficiaries to their advantage, and this deprived the brothers hospitallers of the prospect of the rewards they deserved for their service in Rhodes. So, in 1413, it turned out that Antipope John XXIII sold the rich commandery in Cyprus to the five-year-old son of King Janus, and then the brothers threatened to leave Rhodes. The papal schism ended in 1417 with the decision of the Council of Constance, which was also attended by the master of the Order of the Hospitallers. A heated debate flared up at the cathedral, during which the Teutonic Order tried to prove that the Lithuanians were not Christians, but the Poles acted in concert with them, while the Poles assured that the Teutonic brothers could not convert even the inhabitants of Prussia to Christianity.

In 1402, Tamerlane captured Smyrna, and soon after, Morea was also abandoned. The Hospitallers needed a foothold against the Turks on the mainland, and in 1407 or 1408, instead of the lost Smyrna, the Bodrum fortress began to play this role. For its construction, indulgences were issued and exemptions from taxes were granted to those who wished to donate funds. In 1440, the construction of a new large hospital began on Rhodes. These were years of truces broken by occasional skirmishes. Egyptian Mamluk attempts to invade the island were successfully repulsed. But in 1480 the Ottomans launched a large-scale campaign against Rhodes; Master Pierre d'Aubusson led the defense of the island. After this attack was repulsed, new fortifications were erected on the island that could withstand cannon fire, and after 1482 the hospitallers held back deceit by keeping the sultan's brother. As the Ottomans moved into the Balkans, Rhodes turned out to be all in greater isolation, but flourished as a reliable bastion of Latin trade and piracy in the Levant.The Hospitallers' own lucrative "corso" was especially important. In fact, it was a profitable form of officially encouraged piracy, considered part of the holy war against the Muslims; Rhodian cozso delivered a lot of trouble at sea to the Mamluks, and the Ottomans, and the Venetians.The Order needed trade with the Turkish lands, its fleet was small and limited to small operations, and yet the Hospitallers inflicted a serious defeat on the Mamluks in 1510. However, after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt Rhodes was again besieged, and the Venetian Crete and other Latin states never sent him any significant help. The Hospitallers tried to quickly organize an anti-Ottoman coalition, but were forced to capitulate and left Rhodes in January 1523.

Structure of military monastic orders

The military monastic orders received most of their income from agriculture and animal husbandry on their estates (sometimes doing this themselves, and sometimes renting it out); other sources of funds were the administration of justice, feudal rights and privileges, city rents, the sale of pensions, investments, papal indulgences, commercial activities, etc. The monastic communities of military orders differed from traditional monasteries in that the brothers had not only to support themselves, but and send money to the headquarters of his order and to brothers who were in military service. Orders usually organized their possessions into priories (or provinces), which included several commanderships (or debts) headed by commanders. The commanders themselves managed their houses or rented them out and paid dues to the priory, and from the priories the funds were transferred to the central treasury of the order. Sometimes the revenues of particular houses were earmarked specifically for the Prior or the Master. After 1319, the Order of Montesa introduced a system whereby the income of individual commanderies was placed at the disposal of certain officials for specific purposes - for the master, to protect the border from Muslims, etc. for their personal treasury. The Master of Hospitallers received most of the income of the island of Rhodes, and after 1530 - Malta.

Despite the introduction of a system of accounting and verification, the ruling elite of the orders did not have accurate information about the total income of the orders, the number of people who were in them, and about what resources and military forces the central leadership could count on in the event of hostilities. Each order faced both similar and unique challenges. There were too few knights in some orders, and some were already too old to participate in wars; in others there are few sergeants; thirdly, there are too many priests. As for cash receipts, in the years 1374-1375 the western governments of the Order of the Hospitallers, for example, sent about 46,000 florins to Rhodes, and in 1478 the monastery on Rhodes received 80,500 Rhodes florins from the West and 11,550 Rhodes florins from the East. And in 1519, the order of the Hospitallers was very much counting on the fact that during this year corso (see above) would deliver to him 47,000 ducats. As we have already said, the number of hospitallers in the East in the 15th century varied from 250 to 450 people. In 1525, there were only 55 Teutonic brothers in Prussia (in 1379 there were about 700), which, however, is partly due to the loss of territories by the Teutonic Order; especially after 1466. Prussian revenues grew until 1410, and then began to decline, but in the years 1435-1450 they arrived fairly regularly and evenly. In 1565, Malta was defended by about 540 knights and sergeants of the Order of the Hospitallers, and in 1631 the entire order consisted of 1755 knights, 148 chaplains and 155 sergeants, that is, a total of 2058 people, of which 995 were in the three French provinces, and 226 in Malta. The Spanish orders were numerous and rich; Calatrava alone received in 1500 an income of 61,000 ducats, which was equal to about one-twelfth of the annual income of the Castilian crown, with more than half of this money received by the master of the order. In modern times, the Hospitallers, in comparison with all other orders, found themselves in the most advantageous economic position. By 1776, Malta's cotton crop was generating more money for the island than the order itself; in 1787-1788 the amount of exports was 2,816,610 skudos.

The master received about 200,000 skudos a year from the income of the island, and the income of the order treasury was 1,315,000 skudos, received mainly from other countries; ordinary brothers imported about 1,000,000 skudos a year for personal expenses. The capital of the Hospitallers, La Valletta, existed on funds received from the colonies and western priories.

The functions of the commanderships included not only providing the center with money and people. They were also recruitment centers, military training bases, nursing homes and residences of numerous priests of the order. All the brothers who lived there were monks, some were priests, and this status of theirs brought income - in the form of donations and orders for funeral masses. Commanderies could own hotels, infirmaries and cemeteries, parishes and schools, several churches or chapels. The orders built and maintained churches and other buildings. They had their own services, their patron saints, icons, relics and relics, which attracted people to them. The Teutonic Order hired special lecturers to read aloud to the brothers in the national language (some of the brothers were illiterate) at meals. Some orders even had their own saints. The orders were also active in propaganda activities.

As the incomes of the orders fell in the face of a deteriorating economic situation, rivalry for their wealth intensified. In the order of the Hospitallers, it became common for commanders to lead two or even more commanderships at the same time, and the conditions for admission to the order began to tighten. So, if in the XIV century in most orders many knights came from the bourgeoisie and the untitled petty nobility, then by the XV century they began to require candidates to prove their noble origin; by 1427 the Catalan Hospitallers accepted new members only on the presentation of written documents and the testimony of witnesses given under oath. In the Teutonic and other orders, formal evidence of belonging to a noble family had to be provided long before the year 1500. And gradually it became common practice. Thus, the aristocracy won back positions from the untitled nobility and the bourgeoisie. And in Castile, evidence of noble origin also served as protection against penetration into the order of persons with Jewish blood. The Teutonic Order, until the very end of the 15th century, did not encourage the use of personal seals and the accumulation of their own funds, as well as the construction of rich tombs, but in other orders, the vows of poverty and the rules that limited private possessions and funds were widely violated by the creation of private foundations, tombs for individual brothers, acquiring seals with personal coats of arms, etc.

After the case of the Templars, the debate around the orders flared up with renewed vigor. Some authors of treatises proposed the creation of a single military-monastic order, others advocated national organizations, and still others believed that the liberated Jerusalem would have to turn into an order state under the control of a new order. Christians who fell victim to the Teutonic Order constantly protested against its actions. But, oddly enough, there was no real discussion of orders as a phenomenon. Writing before 1389, the former chancellor of Cyprus and a fanatic of the crusading movement Philippe de Maizières, who extolled the Teutonic Order to the skies, sharply criticized the Hospitallers, accusing them of spiritual decline and that they served in Rhodes only for the sake of receiving benefices in the West. His own plan for a new military-monastic order, completed in 1396, was drawn up in the usual terms of a noble brotherhood, setting itself the goal of liberating Jerusalem and creating a monarchical order state in Palestine, and the knight-monks would have to constantly be in the East, and their European the estates would be administered by specially appointed reliable secular officials. Philippe de Maizières also suggested that knights should be allowed to marry (as was the case in the Order of Santiago), but that their loyalty to their spouses be monitored. (It's funny that when the widows of the Knights of Santiago joined the order themselves, they had to indicate whether they wanted to remarry.)

In the treatises on the crusading movement, various proposals were put forward to eliminate abuses in individual orders and to regulate such issues as worship, contributions, the obligatory presence in commanderies and the way of life of knights-monks, however, the military-monastic orders of the late Middle Ages did not attract the interest of large theologians, and they did not survive serious reformist movements, such as, for example, in the Franciscan or Augustinian orders. Beginning in the 14th century, monastic knights no longer tried very hard to keep their vows, discipline fell, cases of evasion from military service became more frequent, members of orders sought to have their own residences, private estates, and financial benefits. All this greatly undermined the spirit and morality in the orders. Increasing attention was paid to material and monetary interests, even commanderships were often rented out to secular persons. Membership in the order turned into a sinecure for a privileged aristocratic corporation that provided itself with a comfortable existence for life.

Military monastic orders at the beginning of modern times: on the way to national control

In 1487–1499, the Castilian orders were practically nationalized by the crown; in 1523 the Hospitallers were forced to leave Rhodes; in 1525 the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order became a secular organization. The Teutonic Order operated under very difficult conditions for a long time. Significant territorial possessions and incomes, the famous strict organization and communication made the Order a much more effective organization than, say, the Order of the Hospitallers, however, the conversion of Lithuanians to Christianity, the consequent reduction in the number of military campaigns to the East after 1410, diplomatic combinations hostile to the Order, the need to pay salaries to mercenaries did not contribute to material prosperity. The very organization of the management of the order state undermined the position of the order. The most prosperous strata of Prussian society, who were not allowed to be members of the order and, consequently, to state affairs, became in opposition to the Teutons, who, no longer in need of military assistance, sought to replace them with the peasantry, from which it was possible to collect rent and taxes. In 1410, the Teutonic Order gathered a large army for the Grunwald campaign, lost about 300 brothers in the battle of Grunwald, but still managed to survive and remain in Marpenburg under the leadership of the energetic grandmaster Heinrich von Plauen (who, however, was removed in 1413). Some of the Teutonic Knights sometimes went to fight the Turks (for example, in 1429-1434), but from time to time the proposals made by Emperor Sigismund to others that the order chose a new target for itself and engaged in the fight against the Ottomans in the Balkans, nothing serious came of it. In Prussia, the nobility united in the Prussian Union, their actions led to civil war and Polish intervention; and by 1454 the Teutonic Knights were busy at war with their own subjects. In 1457, the Poles bought Marienburg from the mercenaries who served in the order's army, and the central monastery was moved to Konigsberg; and in 1466 a peace agreement was concluded, according to which the Teutonic brothers were to give up part of the lands remaining to them and pledged to provide military assistance to the Polish crown. The Order could not resist the Poles, since there was no longer any reason to continue to insist that it was protecting Europe.

The activity of settling and converting the Baltic lands to Christianity also did not have much future. Within the order itself there were constant quarrels between the Prussian, German and Livonian masters and between brothers who came from Franconia, the Rhineland and other countries. For example, in Livonia, by 1450, about 60 percent of the brothers were from Westphalia, and about 30 percent from the Rhineland. The knights boasted of their noble origin, appropriated the money of the order, in Prussia they formed a powerful oligarchy, which after 1466 determined the policy of the order and directed the actions of the master. All this led to the secularization of the order and, ultimately, to the complete secularization of the order state. The state of the Hospitallers was territorially much smaller than the Teutonic one, and, accordingly, fewer people and means were required to protect it, and the Order of the Hospitallers itself was much more flexible and continued to conduct military operations long after the Teutonic Order abandoned any semblance of a holy war. In 1525, the last Prussian master, Albrecht of Brandenburg, converted to Lutheranism, recognized himself as a vassal of the Polish king, and began to rule Prussia as a hereditary secular duchy. Of the fifty-five brothers who remained in Prussia, only a few remained committed to Catholicism. The German and Livonian branches of the Teutonic Order existed until 1561. The Reformation also dealt a blow to the Order of the Hospitallers, its priories were dissolved by the Protestant rulers: in Sweden in 1527, in Norway in 1532, in Denmark in 1536 and in England in 1540.

The process of nationalization of the Spanish orders began even before the end of the Reconquista (which ended in 1492). After the conquest of Granada, the Castilian crown decided to put an end to the endless disputes between the orders. Between 1489 and 1494, King Ferdinand assumed control of the three Castilian orders. From the side of the brothers, this did not cause a protest, and a royal council was organized to control the activities of the orders. Chapters, elections and way of life in the commanderships have not undergone significant changes. Calatrava, Montesa and Avish retained their connection with the Cistercian order. In 1523, Pope Adrian VI officially united the Castilian orders under royal authority and transferred the magistracy and related income to the crown (reaching 110,000 ducats per year, which accounted for almost half of all order income). Montesa, and her turn, was subordinated in 1587 to the Aragonese crown. Control of the Portuguese orders, which refused to take part in operations overseas, also passed to the king, who used some of their commanderies to reward loyal service to those who fought the "infidels" in Africa and Asia. The Portuguese orders ceased their military activities, but individual brothers took part in campaigns against the Muslims on their own (for example, about twenty-eight of them were killed or captured at the Alcazar during the Moroccan campaign of 1578).

Over time, the papal bulls gradually freed the Spanish monastic knights from the rules on marriage, private property, fasting, residence and prayer practice. The crown itself began to manage the economy of the commanderies, and many brothers turned into rentiers who retained their membership in the orders for reasons of honor, nobility and career. With the creation of a permanent regular royal army, the value of the orders as suppliers of experienced military force fell. In 1536, Charles V began to break up the possessions of the orders to finance his activities for the defense of Christianity; he sold fourteen of the fifty-one commanderies of Calatrava, thirteen of the ninety-eight commanderies of Santiago, and three of the thirty-eight commanderies of Alcántara, with the result that he received about 1,700,000 ducats.

The royal power had to somehow justify the nationalization of the orders, and the Castilian crown explained this by the desire to pool all resources to continue the holy war and convert the pagans; at the same time, it was emphasized that northern Africa, like Granada, was just the first steps on the road to Jerusalem. In 1506, King Ferdinand assembled the chapter of Santiago, on which it was decided to found a monastery in Oran (Algeria); plans were also made to organize branches of Calatrava and Alcantara in North Africa. All these proposals were discussed until the 17th century, but did not lead to anything concrete. Separate brothers of the Castilian orders held military positions in the kingdom, but the orders themselves were inactive. From 1518 to 1598, out of more than a thousand knights of Santiago, only fifty or sixty fought against the "infidels". At least eight members of Santiago took part in the Tunisian expedition of 1535, and in 1565 several men helped defend Malta. From 1552, the Order of Santiago began to allocate about 14,000 ducats a year for the maintenance of three or four galleys in the Mediterranean, which in 1561 became part of the royal fleet. These galleys were primarily a symbol, but under the great commander of Castile, Luis de Requesens, they played a prominent role in the battle of Lepanto (1571). It is curious that Luis de Requesens was admitted to Santiago at the age of eleven, and Alvaro Basan, whose brilliant career in the navy included participation in the battles of Malta and Lepanto, at the age of two (in 1528). After 1571, Spain was occupied, first of all, by events in the north of Europe, and the holy war receded into the background, and even into the background. By this time, most of the brothers had simply ceased to fulfill their duties. Thus, the member of the order and the poet Luis de Gongora was publicly criticized for refusing in 1614 to obey the royal order to serve in Marmore in Africa.

While the Spanish and Teutonic Orders were undergoing fundamental changes that led to the cessation of their active operations, the Order of the Hospitallers continued to fight. He was still supported by the pope, the emperor, and many other rulers. Pope Clement VII, chosen in 1523 with the participation of the Master of the Hospitallers, was formerly a member of this order himself. After the forced departure from Rhodes in 1523, the Grand Master of the Rhodes knights Philip Vplls de l "Il-Adap and his knights traveled for eight years in various cities and villages in search of a new permanent residence, they visited Messina, Civitavecchia, and Vpterbo, and in Pizza, preserving in all its ordeals the organizational structure of the order and its spirit.Most of the members of the order were French, but they were eventually helped by the Spanish king, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He gave the small rocky island of Malta to the order in fief. with two neighboring islands - Gozo and Comno (in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and the North African coast), after which the Hospitallers began to call themselves the Knights of Malta. They recognized the suzerainty of Sicily and pledged to defend the new mainland bridgehead in Africa - Tripoli, captured by the Spaniards in 1510 The knights, however, did not lose hope of returning to Rhodes or southern Greece and settled in Malta in 1530 without special enthusiasm. There they were joined by their Latin and Greek subjects, who left Rhodes after the Order. At this time, France flirted with the Turks, so that the Hospitallers ended up in Malta solely on the Spanish initiative, and even their master in 1536-1553 was an Aragonese - Juan de Omedes.

The Order of Malta (as the Order of the Hospitallers began to be called from then on) continued to carry out active anti-Turkish activities; in fact, it became an outpost of the Christian powers in the fight against the Ottoman Empire, which by that time had reached the apogee of its power. Shortly after moving to the island, the knights helped the imperial fleet to capture the African fortress of Galeta. In 1531 they participated in an expedition to southern Greece, and in 1535 to Tunisia. In 1541, the Knights of Malta supported the imperial troops, who were already retreating under the onslaught of the Algerians. Malta had an excellent harbor and, located between Spanish Sicily and Ottoman Africa, was an excellent base for conducting military operations at sea against the Turkish armadas and African corsairs. The knights negotiated duty-free importation of grain from Sicily and fortified the harbor. They brought with them from Rhodes their relics and part of the archive of the order and demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to new conditions without damaging the fundamental structure of the order state (which implies that the existence of a military monastic order does not necessarily depend on its territorial location). In 1551, Tripoli was captured by the Turks, and the Maltese island of Gozo was subjected to a devastating attack. But the knights continued to fight. The Order of Malta reached its peak during the reign of Grand Master Jean de la Vallette (1557–1568), a veteran of the last siege of Rhodes in 1522, during which Malta had to endure a terrible siege by the Turks. By the time the Ottomans attacked, the fortress of St. Angelo, the new city of Isola and Fort St. Elmo at the entrance to the harbor were already well fortified. The Turks would have been much more than the defenders of the island, but due to the fact that Jean de la Vallette was an experienced and brave warrior and a talented military leader and he was helped by the entire Maltese population, Malay held out until the arrival of a rescue expedition under the command of the Viceroy of Palermo and the commander Order of Santiago Garspa dg Toledo. After a four-month siege, the Turks were forced to retreat, losing over twenty thousand people.

Six years later, when the Turks were defeated at Lepanto, five galleys and 100 knights were sent by a new military monastic order dedicated to Saint Stephen. This order was founded in 1562 by Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who became his first Grand Master (this position in the order was hereditary) Cosimo turned the small Tuscan flotilla into a regular strong squadron modeled on the Maltese. He wanted to protect his coast and shipping, and to rally around himself his non-Florentine subjects, a new privileged stratum of members of the order he had created. In some cities in opposition to Florence, such as Siena and Lucca, the nobility remained loyal to Malta, but in other places the Order of St. Stephen managed to lure entire families from the Hospitallers, although the new order did not enjoy such prestige. The knights could join the Order of St. Stephen and secure the status of a noble nobleman, taking the new command under family patronage; they could marry as members of the Order of Santiago; they were required to serve in the military for at least three years. The sons of married commanders could inherit the commandship, which was under family protection, and the flaws in the origin of their mothers could be corrected by additional monetary contributions; moreover, the more commanders abandoned their posts, the faster members of the same families could win a noble status for themselves. All this, taken together, was very different from the Maltese ideas about the lifestyle of monastic knights and about the nobility of origin, but one cannot but admit that the Order of St. Stephen actively participated in the holy war at sea.

The headquarters of the Order of St. Stephen was in Pisa and had its own maritime academy, and its monastery church was built according to the sketches of Giorgio Vasari. Soon the order had hundreds of members, both Tuscans and natives of other parts of Italy; in the years 1563-1737 he built no less than 695 commanderies. The fleet of the order was based in Livorno and from there conducted operations to protect the coast and transportation, and also took part in long-distance expeditions, often together with the hospitaller corals. In 1565 the Order sent two galleys to the aid of Malta. Tuscan galleys made raids on African coasts, in the Aegean Sea and in the area of ​​Cyprus. They were organized into a single squadron and the booty was divided equally, but, unlike the ships of the Hospitallers, the galleys of the Order of St. Stephen did not make independent, semi-private pirate raids (corso). After 1584, the Order of Saint Stephen changed the object of their Christian piracy, and now the expeditions were mainly made not to the western Mediterranean, but to the more promising areas of the Levant. In 1610-1618, the order captured twenty-four Barbary ships (Barbary pirates settled on the island of Djerba off the coast of North Africa and turned it into a powerful center of sea robbery, which tormented shipping in this area for more than 300 years and acted on the side of the Turks) and 1409 slaves in the West , sacked several cities and captured forty-nine Turkish and Greek ships and 1114 slaves in the Levant. The Order of Saint Stephen fought alongside the Venetians in the Cretan War of 1645-1669, but this was the order's last major military undertaking. In 1737 the post of admiral was abolished, and in 1809 the order was destroyed by Napoleon. In the same year, Napoleon took away his German lands from the Teutonic Order, the headquarters of the Order moved to Vienna, and all hopes for the revival of the Teutonic Order state and the resumption of hostilities collapsed forever.

In 1568, Cosimo de' Medici tried to include the hospital order of St. Lazarus in the Order of St. Stephen, but in 1572 the Pope attached part of the Order of St. Lazarus to the Order of St. Mauritius, the Grand Master of which was Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and the post of Master in this order was hereditary; the duties of the order included the maintenance of two galleys; and indeed, two of his galleys took part in the Tunisian campaign in 1574. However, after 1583, the order of Saint Mauritius ceased all military activity. In 1459, the Order of Bethlehem was founded by Pope Pius II. The few brothers of this order, under the leadership of Master Daimberto de Amorosa, were going to defend the Aegean island of Lemnos, but after it was captured by the Turks, they moved to Syros and built a hospice there in 1464. After Lemnos was recaptured by the Venetians in the same year, the Order of Bethlehem returned to the island, but it again fell into the hands of the Turks in 1479, and after that the order ceased to exist. Much later, in 1619, the Duke of Mantua and Nevers, Charles Gonzaga, helped the pope organize a new order - the Orde de la Milice Chretienne ("Order of Christian Knights"), designed to fight the Turks and the German Protestants. In 1623, Pope Urban VIII turned it into a real military monastic order. Italian and German branches of the order appeared, money was collected and a fleet was created, but this order did not participate in any military operation.

New time: Order state continues to exist

After 1561, the Order of Malta continued to be an active and independent military organization. It was run by battle-hardened, experienced warriors. In 1540 Master Jean de Vallette was taken prisoner and stayed with the Muslims for more than a year. In 1565, the Knights of Malta managed to repel the Turks, which gave them confidence, and immediately began the construction of a new city - La Valletta - and a system of fortifications around the main harbor. The island turned into a powerful bastion that threatened the strategic communications between Istanbul and Alexandria, which were so necessary for the Muslims for the war on the fronts of Egypt and Tunisia. Algeria and Morocco. Massive new fortifications, which turned the island into a huge stone fortress, made it almost impregnable, and the Turks no longer dared to attack Malta. Of course, the risk of a Turkish attack always remained, and the knights kept the fortifications in perfect condition, surrounding the entire island with them. The last link - Fort Tigne - was completed in 1794. Fortification construction required large financial investments and increased local taxes, but it also gave residents confidence in their own safety and created jobs. Shipyards and arsenals were essential for naval campaigns. The economy of the island was very diverse - ports, new cities, a hospital and quarantine service, points of transit trade were constantly expanding. Within a hundred years, the population of Malta and Gozo almost doubled, from 49,500 in 1680 to 91,000 in 1788. Of course, the population was periodically dissatisfied with their government, as elsewhere in Western Europe, however, with the Maltese, as with the inhabitants of Rhodes before, the knights treated well, and no unrest occurred. All these successes were facilitated by the participation of the Hospitallers in general European life - they could often be found at the papal, French, Venetian and other courts, where they sometimes even held secular posts. A naval academy was set up in La Vallette for officers, and many of its graduates became officers in the French navy, but by the 18th century war at sea had waned, as did the Turkish threat itself.

The military success of Malta was based on the constant control of the sea waters from Tunisia to Calabria, and the main goal of the Hospitallers was not the sinking of enemy ships, but the capture of booty, ransoms and slaves. But fortune sometimes betrayed the Knights of Malta: for example, in 1570 they lost three galleys, which is why the following year they were able to send only three ships to Lepanto. After the battle of Lepanto, the great powers stopped assembling large squadrons, which required too much investment. By this time, a certain balance of power had been created in the Mediterranean Sea, the maintenance of which was greatly facilitated by Malta. However, the victory over the Turks at Lepanto did not destroy the strength of the Ottomans; in 1571, the Turks captured Cyprus, in 1574 - Tunisia, and in 1614 a small detachment of Turks tried to land on Malta. The Hospitallers continued to conduct aggressive anti-Turkish actions. For example, in 1611 they attacked Corinth in Greece and Kerkenna on the coast of Tunisia. In 1645-1669 the Knights of Malta helped the Venetians defend Crete. In 1718 the Turkish War ended, and with it the major naval campaigns in Levantine waters. In 1705, the Hospitallers began to build new heavy sailing ships - ships of the line - in addition to their rowing galleys. Special funds were set up to finance this construction, and the knights were required to serve on the new warships for four six-month periods before being promoted. And although the war at sea almost calmed down, and largely thanks to the Hospitallers, hostilities never completely stopped: for example, in 1749, the Hospitallers attacked Oran. In 1770, Russia defeated the Ottoman fleet, but the danger at sea did not disappear. In April 1798, near the island of Gozo, the Hospitallers captured a Tunisian ship. The Maltese fleet, until the very end of the existence of the Maltese knightly state, consisted of four galleys, two battleships and two frigates. In Malta, as in Rhodes, coso (legalized semi-piracy) played an important role in the economy of the island. This activity was neither crude piracy nor officially licensed, regulated privateering against hostile ships, without distinction of religious affiliation. Rather, corso can be called a peculiar form of holy war, limited (at least in practice) to attacks on the ships of the "infidels". This practice was carried out under the license of the master, who received ten percent of the production, and was controlled by a special tribunal. At the same time, individual hospitalists, on their own initiative, could equip the ship and go in search of enemy ships. Sea hunting was especially profitable in the Aegean Sea and in the Levantine waters. From time to time, Rhodian corsairs attacked Venetian merchant ships, which led to diplomatic confrontations and confiscation of the income of the Hospitaller Priory in Venice. The Maltese navy participated in many of the major campaigns of the 16th century and the Turco-Venetian wars of 1645–1718, but after 1580 the main emphasis was on sogzo. Malta turned into a corsair state, whose ships plowed the waters off the coast of Africa, where they often encountered Barbary pirates. Maltese sailors participated in the sogso, Maltese bankers invested money in it, and the Knights of Malta not only equipped ships for him, but also sailed on them themselves. However, the growing dominance of the French in the Mediterranean, who had made an alliance with the Turks, forced the Hospitallers to curtail their Levantine operations. By 1675 there were twenty or thirty active corsairs in Malta, but by 1740 their number had drastically decreased. It was only after the crisis of 1792 that cogso revived, but not for long. As a result, the Maltese fleet began to monitor the observance of peace at sea. And it must be admitted that in this way the Hospitallers contributed to the development of Western trade; even the Ottoman merchants preferred to sail on Christian ships as the safest.

The organizational structure of the Hospitallers remained virtually unchanged. Everything was led by the Grand Master. In the years 1526-1612, the general chapter met approximately every six years, but in the years 1631-1776, when Malta was gripped by a financial crisis, it was not convened even once. The order, never reformed, became more and more authoritarian, with the masters acting as sovereign. The French monopoly on the post of master was broken in 1374, and after that, Spaniards and Italians could be masters along with the French; in the 18th century, two masters in a row were Portuguese. The post of master was not hereditary, but each master was elected for life.

This provided stability but encouraged gerontocracy in the upper echelons of the administration. Most of the income of the Hospitallers went to the personal treasury of the master, who had almost absolute power in the order.

In France, there were seven provinces of the Order of the Hospitallers, and the French brothers sought by any means to preserve their lands, commanderies and income from them, since their very existence depended on it. The royal power unceremoniously interfered in the affairs of the French priory, corruption flourished. In addition, the intervention of the popes, especially in matters of appointment, undermined the moral foundations of all orders. Nepotism was inevitable and widespread. For example, in 1692, the cousin of the Master of the Hospitallers, Adrien de Vignacourt, received the command of Lagny-le-Sec, and at that time he was two years old, and disposed of this property until his death eighty-two years later. Manuel Pinto de Fonseca was also admitted to the order at the age of two, then became a master and died in this post at the age of ninety-two. And yet the order of the Hospitallers continued to exist, and it could not be said about him that he was leaning towards his decline. The Hospitallers held strong positions in Aragon, in Bohemia, in some German lands and in Italy (especially in Naples and Sicily). By 1583, the order consisted of about two thousand people, with the largest group being knights (there were only one hundred and fifty sergeants, and the same number of priests). In 1700, in France, in the Iberian Peninsula, in Italy and in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, five hundred and sixty commanderies of the Hospitallers were still functioning.

Almost everywhere, the attire of a knight of Malta with an eight-pointed cross meant the highest degree of nobility. In politically fragmented Italy, the Order of the Hospitallers helped to preserve the old all-Italian class of nobles, whose representatives took an educational course in Malta. These people knew each other as members of the same multinational club, access to which was guarded by family ownership of commanderies and an increasingly stringent system of proof of noble birth required upon entry. The growth of the bourgeoisie, the appearance at court of officials of non-aristocratic origin and the changes that took place in the army and its technical equipment led to a decrease in the importance of the role of the old nobility, whose honor and chivalrous ideals were still symbolized by an outdated sword. And the old European aristocracy used the military-monastic orders to maintain and protect their status, removing newly minted nobles and patricians from membership in them.

The Hospitallers were highly respected in Western Europe, and many of them were in close family and political relations with the rulers of their provinces. The order was still officially under the jurisdiction of the papacy, and the decisions of the popes influenced its policies. In the 18th century, accusations of wasting life, immorality and inaction were made against the Order of Malta, and they were far from always unfounded, but the same accusations fell on the order in the 14th century, and even earlier. Despite all the organizational shortcomings, the Order of the Hospitallers was not an anachronism that preserved already dead medieval ideals. From 1635 to 1740, the number of brothers in the order increased from 1715 to 2240 people. The nobility of that time received a very good education, and talented, well-read people, pursuing a wide variety of interests - military, diplomatic, scientific, artistic, joined the order. The library in La Valletta reflected the breadth of interests of the Knights of Malta, both practical and theoretical. Here is one early example. Savva di Castiglione, a member of the order, a humanist, collected classical sculpture while still in Rhodes, then he was ambassador to Rome, and having retired to his command in Faenza, he created a school for the children of the poor.

Like members of other military monastic orders, over time, the Hospitallers began to perceive their vows purely symbolically, and the general liturgical life in the commanderies was gradually forgotten. The commanders themselves were often absent from their commanderies, seeing them primarily as an economic enterprise that gave them a livelihood (moreover, some commanders managed to accumulate significant personal wealth, some of which remained outside the order after their death). Representatives of the Hospitallers were present at the reforming Council of Trent, but their participation in it was not caused by concern for reforming their order, but by the desire to ensure that brothers and members of their families did not fall under the jurisdiction of bishops. However, within the order there was concern about the moral state of the organization, and in the 17th century the Jesuits and representatives of other progressive movements in France were involved in the discussion of this problem. Some hospitallers were actively engaged in charity work and missionary work, ransoming Christians from Muslim captivity, spiritual and pious works. They were looking for ways that would allow non-ordained hospitallers to lead both a pious and military lifestyle, which, in fact, was the vocation of members of the order.

The Age of Enlightenment and the advent of Freemasonry also influenced the Order of Malta. These new trends increased the dissatisfaction of the knights with the old regime. The masters increasingly quarreled with bishops, papal inquisitors and representatives of the Maltese population and clergy. The well-managed estates and forests of the three French provinces supplied half of the foreign income of the order, which provided the French with the first places in the administration. As the military functions of the order were reduced to zero, and revenues dwindled, the order tried to take desperate measures - alliances with the Americans, Russians or British, the foundation of an Ethiopian company, the creation of a Polish priory, the purchase of estates in Canada, the acquisition of Corsica; in 1651, the order bought three islands in the Caribbean, but already in 1665 had to sell them. In 1775, an uprising broke out in Malta under the leadership of the local Maltese clergy, which was supported by the rural population, reduced to poverty by bad government. Grand Master Rogan (1775-1797) made every effort to raise the faded military spirit in the order, improve the administration and court, and increase revenues. In 1776, he convened for the last time the highest legislative body of the order - the General Chapter, which in 1779 issued a code of laws of the Order of Malta. But Rogan's efforts were in vain. In 1792, the National Assembly of France confiscated the French property of the order, and on June 12, 1798, Malta surrendered to Napoleon without a fight. Of the three hundred and thirty brothers then on the island, two hundred were French, and many of them were ready to resist, but the Spaniards refused to fight, there was no firm military leadership, and the master was afraid to take any drastic measures, fearing popular unrest. After the surrender of the island, the knights accused Master Ferdinand von Hompesch of treason and removed him from his post. On December 16 of the same year, the Russian Emperor Pavel was elected Grand Master, and the residence of the order (convention) was moved to St. Petersburg, after which they began to equip the fleet in Kronstadt to return Malta. However, after the death of Paul, Alexander I refused the title of Grand Master, and then completely abolished the order on Russian soil. Gradually, the order began to lose its lands in other countries, and in 1834 the chapter of the order was transferred to Rome. Since then, the fate of the Order of Malta has been closely linked with the history of the papacy.

New time: the fading of the military functions of the military-monastic orders

The Teutonic Order after the fall of Malta continued to participate in hostilities for some time. The order lost Prussia in 1525, but retained possessions in many Catholic and even some Protestant German lands. After 1525, the residence of the German master was at Mergentheim in Franconia, and there for several centuries the German master, who also assumed the functions of a grand master, maintained a small court and had the status of a German prince. At the same time, the majority of the population of Livonia, where the order controlled many cities and fortresses, converted to Lutheranism, but the German knight brothers continued to fight - with Orthodox Russians and from time to time with Livonian Lutherans. In 1561, the last Livonian master, Gotthard Kettler, himself converted to Protestantism and turned the order state into a secular one. Part of Livonia went to Poland, and the former master became the hereditary duke of Courland and Semigallen. By 1577, there were only one hundred and seventy-one people in the Teutonic Order. Mergentheim was not an order state, it was an independent German principality ruled by grand masters, as a rule, members of the Austrian ruling house (for example, Maximilian of Habsburg ruled the order from 1595). The Teutonic Order continued to adhere to the old administrative system and still required evidence of noble birth when admitting new members. In an effort to preserve the order, the knights paid great attention to the ancient traditions of the German aristocracy. Following the example of the German nobles - members of the Order of Hospitallers operating in Malta, the Teutonic Knights more than once put forward proposals to protect the fortresses or even transfer the residence of the order to the Hungarian border to fight the "infidels". But after 1595, when Maximilian of Habsburg sent the Teutonic knights to fight the Turks, they ended up at the front as members of the imperial court, and not as representatives of the Teutonic Order. After 1606, all Teutonic Knights were theoretically required to serve in the army of the order for three years, but in practice they could instead manage commanderies, hold posts in the administration of the city of Mergentheim, or join the regular German army. Beginning in 1648, Lutherans and Calvinists began to be accepted into the order on equal terms, and the Teutonic Order became three-confessional.

In 1658, the Teutonic Order discussed plans for joint action with Venice and Malta, and in 1662, the organization of a Teutonic flotilla on the Danube. In 1664, the grand master of the order, Johann Kaspar von Ampringen, commanded a detachment of knights in battle with the Turks in Hungary, and in 1668 he led an unsuccessful expedition against the Turks to Crete. Some Teutonic Knights fought as part of the garrisons of cities on the Ottoman frontier. Since 1696, the grand master financed the regiment, as part of the Austrian army, in which the members of the order served, receiving salaries both from their commanderships and from the Austrian military authorities; in 1740, the Teutons took part in the Austro-Prussian war, but not as knights of the military monastic order, but as representatives of the German principality. In other words, the Teutonic Order as such fought extremely rarely at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1699, the order had only ninety-four knights and fifty-eight priests. The Teutonic Order stayed in Mergentheim until 1809, after which they moved their residence to Vienna. Like the Order of St. Stephen and the Spanish Orders, it was incorporated into the secular army, but the order's possessions, preserved outside Austria, provided it with some independence.

Spanish orders also became rarely involved in hostilities. In 1625, there were 1,452 brothers in the three Spanish orders, and of these, 949—nearly two-thirds—were in the Order of Santiago. In 1637 and in 1645, King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, preparing for war with France, repeatedly demanded that the brothers fulfill their military duties to the crown, but the order nobility did not at all seek to participate in battles and tried in every possible way to avoid this with the help of protests and tricks. In 1640, 1,543 knights from the military monastic orders, including the Order of Montesa, were gathered to form a battalion, but only 169 (11 percent) of them turned out to be suitable for the defense of their native land - the rest of the brothers were either too young, or too old, or too sick or simply did not want to take part in hostilities. The latter sent replacements at their own expense, paid fines, or hid from conscription. And in the end, this battalion was sent to pacify the rebellious Catalans. After this incident, the knights began to pay off the obligation to carry out military service. As in the case of the Teutonic Order, whose members fought for the interests of the Austrian throne, the battalion of Spanish orders was not a group of monk-knights who defended the Christian cause, the people recruited there were simply obliged to defend the territories of their secular sovereign. In 1775, the three regiments maintained by Alcantara, Santiago and Montessa sent a total of 468 men to the siege of Algiers. Spanish orders have become an anachronism. As for the Portuguese orders, they ceased to exist in 1820-1834, and the possessions of all three Castilian orders were confiscated in 1835.

The contribution of the military-monastic orders to the holy war in 1312-1798 was, in spite of everything, quite significant. The participation of the orders in individual crusade expeditions and in the Spanish Reconquista was limited in time and place, the successes of the Teutonic Order, no matter how significant they were, in the colonization and conversion to Christianity of the Baltic tribes were eventually forgotten, but the defense of Rhodes and Malta and their resistance to the Turks forever entered history. National interests always prevailed over the ideals of the crusader movement, and in the renewing world, military-monastic orders could only survive where they managed to maintain their own territorial base, create a semi-secular theocracy and maintain at least the appearance of waging a holy war and its necessity to the Christian world, which allowed them to own land in other countries and receive income from there. By the end of the history of the military monastic orders, only the Hospitallers and, to a much lesser extent, the Teutonic Knights were in this situation.

After the 16th century, only the Order of Malta had a positive military strategy, determined by its commanders. (True, the Order of St. Stephen has demonstrated that a regional organization, under sensible and firm leadership, can successfully continue the crusading tradition and use ancient knightly values ​​​​for modern military and naval purposes.) Of all the military monastic orders, only the Order of the Hospitallers has not undergone significant changes since 1312 to 1798. The Hospitallers had their own island state, which provided them with such a long and stable existence. True, the life of the hospitallers was directly dependent on the income of the European branches of the order. In 1413, the brothers even threatened to leave Rhodes unless they received financial support from Europe, and only agreed to stay after money arrived from England. In 1792, their financial base was undermined by confiscations of the order's possessions, and shortly thereafter Malta was captured by Napoleon. The rest of the orders were mainly concerned with their own survival as closed aristocratic corporations. And purely national orders and some national priories or branches of international orders were suppressed and incorporated by secular power.

The military-monastic orders were part of the ancient regime (the old regime), doomed to wither away. The confiscations and other repressive measures carried out against the military orders by Napoleon and the victors of the French Revolution put an end to the military activities of these organizations. However, for some time the order convents and priests continued to exist, and even plans were hatched for the revival and restoration of orders - sometimes in the form of aristocratic brotherhoods or Masonic and esoteric groups. Although after 1798 some orders, having turned into non-military charitable or esoteric organizations, still continued to exist, their time was gone forever. They entered history forever as a phenomenon that had a huge impact on the political and cultural processes that took place in medieval Europe.

In 1309-1377 the papacy was in Avignon depending on the French king. This period was called the "Avignon captivity of the popes"

The actions of corsairs in the service of the state were called privateering. Having permission from the authorities - a letter of marque, privateers attacked the ships of those powers with which their country was at war; the letter of marque stipulated the conditions for dividing the booty between the privateer and the state

1

The modern official name is the Sovereign Military, Hospice Order of St. John, Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta. The official residence is in Rome (Italy).
It got its name from the hospital and the church of St. John the Baptist, where the monastic order created in 1113 was located, which eventually turned into a military-spiritual organization. According to their fighting qualities and military prowess, the Joanites were rightfully considered the best warriors in Europe. After the Crusaders were expelled from Palestine, the Hospitallers crossed over to Cyprus, where they built a fleet and in 1309 captured the island of Rhodes. In 1522, after a six-month siege of Rhodes by the Turks, the fleet of knights moved to the island of Malta, where the order ruled until 1798. At the present time, the order is engaged in charitable and charitable activities.

2

The official name is the Order of the Knights of the Solomon Temple, also the Order of the Knights of Christ. It arose in 1119 in Jerusalem from the knights who previously served at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Along with the Hospitallers, he was engaged in the protection of pilgrims and the protection of Christian possessions in Palestine. He was also engaged in trade, usury and banking operations, due to which he accumulated huge wealth. After the expulsion from Palestine, the order switched almost completely to financial activities. In 1307, by order of Pope Clement V and the French King Philip IV, arrests of members of the order on charges of heresy and confiscation of property began. After the execution of several members, including the Grand Master, in 1312 the order was dissolved by papal bull.

3

The official name is Fratrum Theutonicorum ecclesiae S. Mariae Hiersolymitanae. Founded in 1190 on the basis of a hospital founded by German pilgrims in Acre. In 1196 it was reorganized into a spiritual knightly order headed by a master. The goals are the protection of the German knights, the treatment of the sick, the fight against the enemies of the Catholic Church. At the beginning of the XIII century, he moved his activities to Prussia and the Baltic states, where he took part in the crusades against the Slavs and the Baltic states. On the conquered lands, the state of the Teutonic Knights, Livonia, was actually formed. The decline of the order began after the defeat in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. Currently, the order is engaged in charity and treatment of the sick. The headquarters is located in Vienna.

4

The spiritually knightly order of Calatrava (Calatrava la Vieja) was founded in Spain in 1158 by the monk Raymond de Fetero. Pope Alexander III in 1164 approved the charter of the order. The knightly order got its name from the fortress of Calatrava conquered from the Arabs. The distinctive sign of the members of the order was white and black clothes with a red cross. The order took an active part in the reconquest of the lands occupied by the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula (Reconquista). Ceased to exist in 1873.

5

The official name is the Grand Military Order of the Sword of St. James of Compostela. Founded in Spain around 1160. Named after the patron saint of Spain. He took part in the crusades and wars with Muslims. It operates to this day as a civil order of chivalry under the auspices of the King of Spain.

6

The spiritually chivalric order of Alcantara was founded in 1156 in Spain. Initially, it was a military-religious brotherhood of knights, called San Julian de Pereiro. In 1217, the Knights of the Order of Calatrava, with the permission of the king, transferred the city of Alcantara and all the possessions of the Order of Calatrava in León to the Order of San Julian de Pereiro. After that, the order of San Julian de Pereiro was renamed the knightly order of Alcantara. The Order took part in the Reconquista. In the 1830s the order was nationalized and ceased to exist.

7

The official name is the Order of Saint Bennet of Avish. The order was created in 1147 to protect the city of Évora, which had recently been recaptured from the Moors. In 1223
the residence of the order was transferred to the city of Avis, donated by the king of Portugal and fortified by the knights. The order participated in the Portuguese part of the Reconquista and the colonization of the coast of Africa. Disbanded in 1910, but in 1917 restored as a purely civilian, headed by the President of Portugal.

8

The Order of the Sword is a German Catholic spiritual and knightly order, officially called the "Brothers of Christ's Host". It was founded in 1202 on the initiative of Canon Albert of Bremen, who became the first Bishop of Riga. The goal was to capture the Eastern Baltic, carried out crusades against the Baltic peoples, while a third of the occupied lands were assigned to the order. After a number of defeats from the Russian princes and Lithuania, the remnants of the order in 1237 joined the Teutonic Order.

9

Spiritually - a knightly order, the successor of the Templars in Portugal. Established in 1318 by the Portuguese king Dinis to continue the struggle begun by the Templars against the Muslims. Pope John XXII allowed all the possessions of the Portuguese Templars to be transferred to the order, including the castle of Tomar, which in 1347 became the residence of the Grand Master. Hence the second name of the order - Tomarsky. The Tomar knights, like their Avis brothers, took an active part in the overseas voyages of Portuguese navigators. Vasco da Gama and other wandering knights of Tomar sailed with the emblem of the order. Like the Order of Avis, it was dissolved in 1910, but in 1917 it was restored as a purely civil order, headed by the President of Portugal.

10

The official name is the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Founded by the crusaders in Palestine in 1098 on the basis of a hospital for lepers, which existed under the jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarchy. The order accepted into its ranks knights who fell ill with leprosy. The symbol of the order was a green cross on a white cloak. After the capture of Jerusalem by Salah ad-Din in October 1187, the order participated in hostilities, in particular during the Third Crusade. In the battle of Forbia on October 17, 1244, the order lost all of its personnel (both healthy and leper knights, along with the master). After the expulsion of the crusaders from Palestine, the order settled in France, where it continued its hospital activities. The modern Order of Saint Lazarus has branches in 24 countries around the world and continues its charitable activities.

Military monastic orders

MILITARY MONASH ORDERS. When the invasion of the barbarians smashed the remnants of the antique. civilizations, population Zap. Europe began to group around two strongholds of the Middle Ages - a knight. castle and monastery. These two strongholds, acting on each other, created a kind of community - V. the monastic. orders, the emergence of which refers to the era of crosses. hikes. The first, according to the time of occurrence, was ord. St. John of Jerusalem, the members of k-rago were called first Joannites, then Rhodes and finally Knights of Malta . In the floor 11th century a wealthy Moor from Amalfi, apparently secretly converted to Christianity, obtained permission from the caliph to build a hospital for Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem and with it the chapel of St. Mary. In 1099, in the form of the need to organize the defense of Jerusalem. Cor-stva, King Guido Lusignan took advantage of the community that already existed at the same hospital, which also acquired the Church of St. John of Jerusalem. The idea to form an order from knights and pilgrims, members of which would be connected by a single religion. and state the task of guarding the Holy Sepulcher, received graduation. expression in 1113, with the permission of Pope Paschalis II, and from that time the monk-knights began to be called Johnnites or Hospitallers (hospitals). Head of the Order b. elected in 1118 with the title of rector Raymond Dupuis. The members of the order were divided into 3 classes: 1) knights, 2) clergy and 3) servants. All pronounced the same. vows - poverty, chastity and obedience, and knights, moreover, - and constant. fight against the unbelievers. Distinguish. external the sign of the order was black. cloak with white cross. Subsequently, in the war they began to put on red. a cloak so that no blood can be seen. Already Dupuis accepted the title of master of the order, and in 1267 Pope Clement IV bestowed the title of leader on the head of the order. master. In 1187, during the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, more died. part of the knights, and the rest went to Ptolemais. In 1191, the Johnites joined the crusaders, under the head. Philippa French. and Richard the Lionheart. During the long the siege of Acre among the crosses arose new. knight. order - St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas. Purposes of this Order b. identical with the aims of the Joannites, and both orders soon merged; only in Spain remained independent. industry under the name of the ord. St. Thomas. In early 13th century part of the hordes. Ioannitov moved from Ptolemais to Spain and, helping cor. James of Arragon, conquered Valencia from the Moors, for which the knights received large lands. The rest in Mal. Asia continued to fight the Turks. The war with Egypt was especially difficult for the order when it was fought. under Gaza in 1241, a large number fell. part of the knights led by the master. Guerin. In 1291, when Acre b. ceded to the Sultan, order b. forced to move to Cyprus, where the Knights Templar had already settled earlier (see below), at first they welcomed the Joannites, but soon quarreled with them over land. plots. Vel. master of Joannites, Villaret, having gathered in Cyprus all the knights of his order from various. gos-tv, laid the foundation for powers. fleet of the order, with the help of k-rago in 1309 he conquered Fr. Rhodes, where the order moved from Cyprus. 15th century was the most brilliant in the history of the order. With destruction in 1312, the horde. The Templars, the Joannites inherited from them both Cyprus and several. friend. oh-vov. A strong fleet made it possible to conquer the land in Mal. Asia near Smyrna and Halicarnassus. Around mid. 15th century the Egyptians begin to send their fleet to fight the knights. In 1444 they are in the first. once attacked Rhodes, but b. reflected. In 1479, 100 thousand. army sult. Mohammed II again went to Rhodes, but, despite a series of assaults, she b. repulsed and forced to leave. In the XVI century. strife begins within the order, and its importance gradually declines. In 1521 led. master b. chosen by Philippe Villiers de Lisle Adan. The chancellor of the Amoral order, who himself expected to be elected, decided to take revenge on the order and, through a Jew, conveyed to the Turks about the weakness of Mr. Rhodes. In 1522 Sult. Soliman II approached Rhodes on 400 ships with 140,000. The order had 600 knights and 4,500 infantry, but despite this lack of funds, the defense dragged on for six months. Vel. the master hoped that Christ. the state will help the order. However, the hope was not justified, and by January 1. 1523 capitulation took place, after which the remnants of the hordes. The Annites moved first to Messina, from there to Civitta Vecchia and, finally, to the island of Malta, which they received as a gift from the emperor, as well as to Gozzo and Tripoli, with the obligation to protect the coast from Muslim raids. corsairs. Since 1530, when the order was firmly established in Malta, the knights received the title of Maltese. The Reformation deprived the order of the rich. names in England, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, and the changed situation of life in Europe. state-tvah significantly reduced the tide to the order of the new. strength Int. The organization of the order was as follows: at the head was led. master, elected by the knights for life; everything is left. members of the order were divided into 8 nations - Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Arragon, Castile with Portugal, Germany and England. At the head of each nation stood a special one. the face, which, together with that, occupied one of the large ones. positions in the order: Provence gave led. commander (chief treasurer); Auvergne - led. marshal (chief of the infantry); France - Hospitaller (head of charitable institutions); Italy - led. admiral (head of the fleet); Arragonia - led. conservative (min-rj vn. del); Castile with Portugal - led. chancellor (min. foreign affairs); Germany - led. balls (the beginning of all fortifications. structures); England - turcopilera (beginning of the entire cavalry). The heads of nations were, under the chairmanship of led. master, mystery council of the order. Each nation was divided into led. priors, balls and commanderies. The entire 16th century Malt. the knights waged a heroic struggle against the Turks and continued to expand their possessions, conquering Corinth, Lepanto and Patros. From the end of the XVI century. the order is experiencing more and more interference from papal authority, and to the beginning. 17th century papal the inquisitor, who lived in Malta, had already seized the right to issue patents for the title of Malta. knight. Relationships Malt. knights with Russia began at led. Master Raymond de Rocafull (1697-1720), when the unending negotiations arose for an alliance against the Turks. More real were the relations, tied up led. Master Prince de Rogan (1775-97). According to the will of the book. Ostrozhsky, most of his lands, with the termination of the husband. offspring, d. b. go to Malt. ord., forming a special led. priory. This will caused a long controversy, but Catherine II supported the rights of the order and even increased the lands of the new led. priors, adding to them the names of the exiled Jesuits. Franz. the revolution, declaring a struggle against the spirit and the nobility, hit Malt hard. knights. Convention Decree 19 St. 1792 name of the order in France b. confiscated, and the knights expelled from the state. At this time, the order unexpectedly received help from imp. Paul I. 4 Jan. 1797, as a result of influence on the emperor Malt. envoy gr. Litty, b. allowed to establish in Russia led. priorstvo of the order with 13 commanderships, gifted lands and money. Rus. led. primacy b. attached to the Anglo-Bavarian language (nation), so as not to violate the general organization of the order. In 1798, with a manifesto, Paul I announced the establishment "in favor of the Russian nobility of the order of St. John of Jerusalem." The order was divided into 2 priors (Roman-Catholic and Russian-Orthodox). Vel. prior, 2 priors and 98 commanders b. to be Russian subjects, have at least 150 liters. nobility received for the military. merit, and make a contribution to the hordes. treasury. To obtain the command, it was required, moreover, to make at least 4 campaigns, 6 months each. each, in Russian army or in the navy of the order. Funds granted to the order, b. increased. At this time, the whirlwind of the revolution ended the destruction of the order. In 1798, Bonaparte, on his way to Egypt, captured Malta without a fight on June 12. Vel. Master Gompesh b. deposed. In dkb. knights of the horde gathered to choose new ones. led. master. Blessings rendered to the order of imp. Pavel, and the skillful activity of Count. Litta, delivered the election to led. masters imp. Paul, but some of the knights did not recognize this act, because, in their opinion, the head of the Catholic. orders m. b. only Catholic. The election took place on 16 December. 1798, and Paul I accepted it, commanding to add the words "Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem" to his title. Imp. Pavel saw Malta in the inoculation of Russia. chivalry is a means of combating the revolution that has spread over Europe; he dreamed of uniting all the conservatives. e-you and at the same time give new. shine Russian nobility, combining it in the order with Naib. notable clans of Europe. To increase the number of persons who were related to the order, Malt. the cross, but without the right to knighthood, began to complain even to the nobles; for women b. installed special. signs of the order and, finally, in 1800 b. ordered to issue Mr. Chinam for 20 liters. blameless medical services. crosses Malt. orders, bearing the name "Donates of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem". In 1800, Malta was taken over by the English, who, under the Treaty of Amiens, undertook to return it to the knights, but did not fulfill this clause of the contract. Alexander I refused the title of great. master of the order, retaining the title of protector, and in 1817 b. it was announced that "after the death of the commanders of the orders of St. John of Jerusalem, their heirs do not inherit the rank of commanders and do not wear the insignia of the order, due to the respect that the order no longer exists in the Russian Empire." In the 19th century the order, in order to maintain at least a ghostly existence, completely goes under the neighbor. papal patronage. In 1834, the order. chapter b. moved to Rome. In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI restored the Grand Duke. Priory of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In the same year, Metternich, in the same manner as earlier Paul I, created the Lombard-Venetian priory. C floor. 19th century the order acquires the significance of large. does good. society, which has hospitals for the poor in many ways. places in Europe and in Beirut and a large strange place. house in Jerusalem. From the resettlement in Rome, the head of the order is appointed by the pope and bears the rank of deputy (lieutenant) led. master; however, a late-to bar. papal santa croze. bull of 1871 b. granted the former title of Grand. master. In present. temp. Priorities of the order exist: in Austria - Bohemian, in Italy - Roman, Lombard-Venetian and both Sicilies, in Prussia and in Spain. Ord. St. John of Jerusalem, as a badge of distinction, exists in Austria, in Prussia, where it was installed on May 23, 1812 corr. Friedrich-Wilhelm III, and in Spain together with the hordes. St. Thomas. Knights Templar or Khramovnikov (Temple - temple) arose in 1118, being founded by Hugues-de-Payen, Geoffroy-de-Saint-Adémar and more. French knights-crosses. The order got its name because the king is Jerusalem. Baldwin II gave him a house near the church, erected on the site destroyed. temple of Solomon. In 1128 in Troyes St. Bernard b. compiled mouth. for the order, which received the approval of Pope Honorius II and the Patriarch of Jerusalem. This extremely strict charter demanded from the knights the vows of chastity, obedience, poverty and constancy. fight against the unbelievers. They d. b. constantly bear the labors of either a warrior or an ascetic. The knights swore to go into battle one by three; they could not surrender, because mouth. forbade the order to pay a ransom for them. The rights of the knights were enormous: only the pope or the chapter of the order could judge them; witness against the Templar m. b. only the Templar, the testimonies of other persons were not accepted. Order clothing was a white cloak with red. cross. The order, headed by a grand master, who was elected by knights for life and lived in Jerusalem, also consisted of knights, clergy and servants. Under the grandmaster, a chapter or council of elders met. members of the order. The estates of the order, under the name of balls and commanderies, scattered throughout Europe, were subordinate to the masters of the provinces. chapters, to-rye were in France, England, Portugal, Hungary, Arragon and others. Soon after the foundation of the order, the knights of the templars acquired for themselves a huge. fights. glory and attracted into their midst representatives of the most. notable surname knight. Europe, predominantly fr-call. Although the knights took vows of poverty, the order itself quickly grew rich in the 13th century. he owned more than 9 tons of large. estates. In Paris, the order belonged to the whole quarter of the Temple, to which b. granted the right of asylum. After the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, the order moved to Ptolemaida, and from there, together with the Annites to Cyprus, but most of the Knights Templar returned to Europe. command, and in the beginning. 14th century the long-prepared struggle between the order and the king flared up. and papal. power. Together with the accumulation of enormous. wealth came and damage to morals. The knights gave vows of chastity, but constantly. contact with the customs of the East led to the fact that many formed harems, consisting of Muslim women and Jews, to which the knights supposedly converted to Christianity. Gone was the old simplicity and modesty of life; in Europe there were even sayings: "drunk like a Templar" and "swearing like a Templar." Knights widely used their destinies. privileges, and a lot of bloodshed. crimes went unpunished. For European states that began to unite and emerge from the chaos of fragmentation of possessions, the order, as a state in a state, became dangerous. Spiritual authority is the pope and the secular authority of that state, in which the order was owned by the most. property, i.e. the king of France, nevertheless did not dare to openly. struggle with the order and brought against the Templars the accusation of apostasy from the faith and witchcraft. There is no doubt that among the highest officials of the Order of Khramovnikov b. the secret (occult) doctrine received by them from the East is widespread. scientists. Here both the ancient mysteries of Greece and the hidden were mixed up. the teachings of Egypt, and the Kabbalah of the Jews. The first push in this direction b. given already by the fact that in Jerusalem the order owned the temple of Solomon, with treasures hidden as if in it and books that keep wonderful secrets. As proof of the knights' involvement in mysteries. knowledge and magic, we can bring the fact that until now all the oldest societies dealing with the same issues as the Masons, Rosicrucians, Martinists, etc., among many of the ranks of their members, have, for one of the highest. degrees the title of "Chevalier du Temple" ("temple knight"). At the end of the XIII century. order, in the person of their chapters. representatives, was rather skeptical of the papacy. power and thus finally aroused her against him. The struggle between the temple (Temple) and the church (Église) began. Mutual accusations exceeded all measure. The popes accused the knights of apostasy, of worshiping the devil in the form of a goat (Baphomet), of offering him a man. victims, in the device besovsk. covens, etc. The knights, referring to the Apocalypse and the immorality of a number of popes, called the papal court "the great harlot." The last impetus that prompted the enemies of the order to take action was the hospitality extended by the order during the revolt of the population of the core. Philip IV the Handsome. The king, being in the Temple, was convinced of what huges. the order owned wealth, and he had the idea to enrich himself at his expense. On the desire to appropriate the property of the Order, the two recently agreed. cursed enemy: King Philip and Pope Clement V. On secrets. At a meeting in 1306, the Allies established a plan of action. The king filed a complaint with the pope against the knights, accusing them of the above. crimes and in immediate. connection with gloomy. east sect of assassins (assassin - killer). But papal justice proceeded slowly, while the order had all its power; then the king stepped forward, by order of the c-rago, 13 Oct. 1307 Templars b. arrested at the same time in all of France and thrown into prison. Treacherously lured to France led. Master of the Order Yakov Mole b. arrested and imprisoned in the tower. Whatever the guilt of the knights, but the reprisal against them was cruel. Contrary to the bull of 1163 and custom, the knights b. tortured, and the masses followed. executions with the selection of the property of the order for the king and pope. With the bull of 1312, Pope Clement V destroyed the order itself. In mri. 1314 b. Yakov Mole was burned, recognized by the modern-days as innocent of the crimes committed against him. The apparent life of the order has ended, but there is an assumption that the order secretly exists, or existed not so long ago, having Ch. the goal is revenge for the defeat. French extreme left revolutions took the names Jacobins, according to the church built in memory of Yakov Mole, in which they gathered. Unfortunate Louis XVI b. imprisoned in the Temple in the same tower where he once languished. master of the order All this may be just coincidences, but there are many of them, and the solution of this interesting riddle lies in secrets. the archives of the Masons and Martinists, if their study ever becomes possible. Teutonic Order b. founded in 1128, i.e. almost simultaneously with the ord. Templars. Because order. Templar b. created ch. arr. French knights, then they were reluctant to accept the Germans into their midst, and then such a reception completely stopped. Nesk. rich to him. knights in Jerusalem formed special. brotherhood to help pilgrims, under the name of the brotherhood of St. Mary of the Teutonic. Until the cross. the campaigns of Friedrich Barbarussa are new. the brotherhood developed little, but with the appearance in Palestine more. the numbers are not. knights, in 1189 it received an organization on the model of the Templars and the name "Order of the House of the Holy Virgin of Jerusalem." This name did not last long, and in 1191 Pope Clement III approved the mouth. orders with the name of his Teutonic. Perv. the grand master of the order was Heinrich Voldbott, who established the rule that a member of the order could be. only German; the rest of the order b. like the Templars, developing only more widely does good. dyat-st. After the fall of Acre, the Hochmeister Herman Salza transferred the hordes. to Venice, from where he closely followed the international. relations, in order to obtain lands somewhere and establish independent orders for the order. gos-tvo. The struggle of the popes with the Hohenstaufen, with which both sides tried to attract the order to themselves, gave him large lands in Germany and Italy. Especially generously bestowed the order of imp. Frederick II and Pope Honorius III. Hope for independence. existence appeared to the order when cor. hung. Andrei offered him lands in Transylvania with the cities of Kreutzburg and Kronstadt, with the obligation to protect the gr-tsu from the raids of neighbors; the order came into possession of the grant. lands, but soon quarreled with the king, who took his gift back. The order settled more firmly in Prussia. Mazovian who accepted Christianity. book. Konrad in 1226 offered the Kulm and Leboda lands to the order for the protection of Mazovia from the pagan Prussians. Learned failures. experience with Transylvania. lands, hmm. Salza asked the imp. Frederick II a charter for the possession of the Kulm and Prussian lands, and in 1228 means. part of the knights, under the beginning. Hermann Balka, came to the Vistula. Prussia of that time b. inhabited by the pagan people of the Lithuanians. tribe. Preaching Christianity among the Prussians b. started in 1209 Bishop. Christian, who tried to preach the cross. campaign against the Prussians, but his call was not answered enough. number of knights. When did Teut. the knights arrived in Prussia, as the owners of it, then between them, bishop. Christian and Prince. Mazowiecki began a dispute over the right of ownership, which passed into armament. collisions. In 1231, the dispute ended with the fact that the order recognized itself as a vassal of the bishop and promised to transfer it to him. part of the conquered Prussians. lands. From that time on, a gradual process began. methodical conquest of Prussia by the Germans. Local the inhabitants were massacred without exception, and colonists summoned from Germany settled in their places. The knights exterminated the pagans because they were not Christians, and when the Prussians wanted to be baptized, the knights either claimed that they were unworthy of this and nevertheless exterminated, or, if there was not enough at hand. the numbers are not. colonists, were allowed to be baptized, but turned the Prussians into slavery. To secure for himself conquered. lands knights built fortified. cities, from to-rykh first b. the city of Thorn was founded in 1231. The order and its diplomats also successfully led the order. dela. Taking advantage of the fact that his overlord, bishop. Christian, was taken prisoner, the order received from the pope in 1234 the rights to the entire Prussian and Kulm lands, for the obligation to pay tribute personally to the pope, which, so to speak, became the overlord of the order. In 1237 Teuton. ord. united with the Livonian horde. (see below) and was involved by him in the struggle with Russia, which ended in the defeat of the forces of the knights in 1242 (Battle of the Ice). It was hard for the order. time. The Prussians, put out of patience by the oppression of the knights, rose up and attacked the knight. locks. Bishop Christian, having redeemed himself from captivity, demanded back his lands. Order b. saved by the union concluded by him with the Czech. box Ottokar, who helped to pacify the Prussians. Christian soon died, and the dispute of the order with his heir b. allowed by the pope in favor of the order by the fact that the archbishop. throne b. moved to Riga, but owns. the bishops of Prussia and Kulmsk began to be appointed exclusively from members of the order. In 1260, the cruelty of the knights caused the people. rebellion, the leadership of the Crimea took over lit. book. Mindovt. Means. the number of those who rebelled and the decision of their actions were put in danger. the position of all the possessions of the order. Ottokar Czech, who appeared again to help, failed; the order was on the verge of death, when the election to imp. the throne of Rudolf Habsburg saved the situation. By order of the imp-ra, the mass is dumb. knights moved to the aid of the order, and ended up. extermination of the Prussians. By the end of the XIII century. the order owned the huge. lands on both banks. Vistula and founded the cities of Marienburg, Goldingen, Vindava, Mitava and others; colonization ended, and to the beginning. 14th century the order turned in him. gos-tvo. The goal set still gokhm. Salza, b. reached, and in 1309 hmm. Siegfried Feithwangen moved his residence and Ch. control of the order from Venice to Marienburg. 14th century - most time the heyday of the power of the order, especially the period of the exercise of gokhm. von-Kniprode (1351-82), a cruel man, but far-sighted and completely devoted to the interests of the order. By this time, the management of the order had a trace. organization: top. the overlord of the order is the pope, but his relation to the order consisted only in receiving annuals. tribute. Next the organ was the deutschmeister, who managed the lands of the order in Germany and had the sole right to collect led. the chapter of the order, to which the right to judge the Hochmeister was granted, in fact, Ch. manager of the fate of the order. Gohmeister, or led. master, was the chairman of the chapter, consisting of five elected. knights who performed the duties of min-ditch. All the lands of the order were divided into regions, each region b. entrusted to the knight commander, who was also the commandant fortified. city ​​or castle in that area. Remaining. members of the order consisted of: knights wearing white. raincoat with black cross; merciful. brothers who cared for the wounded and sick, and priests. There were also half-brothers (Halbbrüder), who had the right to fight under the banner. orders, but no matter how the nobles did not have the right to booty. During the fall of the order, hordes also appeared. sisters. In the captured and Germanized country, the order was established strictly. order and built a goal. a network of kr-stey - knightly castles. But at the same time, with the development of the order, its enemies also grew. Back in 1315 b. concluded against the Order of the alliance of Vladislav Loketka (Poland) with Gediminas (Lithuania). The war went on with varying happiness. Friend. The enemy of the order was dissatisfaction with the lack of rights of the townspeople and the clergy. Large bargain. centers like Danzig, Koenigsberg, etc., joined the Hans. union and demanded for themselves the rights of internal. self-control, which the order denied them. With the unification of Poland and Lithuania under Jagello external. the position of the order began to deteriorate, and in 1410 on the fields of Grunwald (Tannenberg) the knights suffered a heavy defeat from the Russians, Poles and Lithuanians, after which the order could never recover. From finished. the death of the order b. rescued by an energetic Swede. commander Heinrich Plauen, who arrived with the swordsmen to help and forced Jagello to lift the siege of Marienburg. By Tornsk. peace, order b. forced to cede Zhmud to Poland and pay an indemnity, and give the cities the right to send their representatives to the chapter house. But int. and external the collapse of the order was going on, all intensifying. In 1422, after the new. defeat, order b. compelled to yield to Poland means. land; in 1433, according to Brest. the world, b. more concessions were made. Int. civil strife and beyond. wars with Poland led to the fact that in 1462 the order recognized its fief. dependence on Poland and allowed Poles into their midst, i.e. ceased to be exclusively German. The Reformation deprived the Order of many possessions in Germany and thus finally undermined its strength. In 1511, Hochmeister b. Albrecht of Brandenburg was chosen, who at first tried to fight Poland, but, seeing complete failure, decided to accept the reformation and turn the lands of the order into his possession. He succeeded, and in 1525 a new one appeared. Duchy of Prussia dependence on Poland. Some of the knights who remained faithful to Catholicism left for France, where they were newly elected. Hochmeister von Kronberg. Was developed and new. mouth., but the order was already obsolete and in the beginning. 19th century b. destroyed by decree of Napoleon. In 1805, the Austrian the imp-r took the title of the Hochmeister of Teutonic. Ord., which now exists in Austria, in the form of doing good. total Islands. Livonian order b. founded later than others, namely in 1202, and was the only one that arose not in Palestine. Founder of Riga, Bishop. Albert von Buksgevden, wishing to strengthen his position, as a sovereign, was again conquered. lands, summoned knights from Germany, organized, with the permission of the pope, an order and received a flax from him. oath. At the head of the order was the master, or meister, to whom the commanders were subordinate, who were in charge of the regions and had knights in their subordination. The Order soon took on the name ord. Mechenostsev . At first, relations between the order and its overlord, the bishop, were good, but soon the order felt strength and began to seek independence; relations deteriorated, and perv. master Viunold fon-Rorbach moved his residence from Riga to Ukrainian. Wenden. The conquest of lands proceeded rapidly, and in 1207 Bishop. Albert received all of Livonia in laziness from the emperor. All first. floors. 13th century the order spent in the struggle for Livonia, trying to support the good. relations with Polotsk. princes and even concluding with them in 1212 an alliance against the Estonians. At the same time, the order had to fight for its possessions with Denmark, which had laid claim to the entire coast. Valdemar II of Denmark took possession of Estonia and built Revel, but in 1223 the swordsmen forced the Danes to clear Estonia. By 1228 all of Estonia b. conquered and more her part b. transferred by the bishop to the order. In 1237 new. the invasion of the Danes wrested these conquests from the hands of the swordsmen. Then the order in the same year joined the Teutonic. horde., gokhmeister to-rago became the overlord of the master of the sword-bearers. Until 1347, there was still some dependence of the Sword-bearers on the Archbishop of Riga, but in 1347 the papacy. the bull put an end to this dependence. 13th and 14th centuries - max time development of the orders. Mechenostsev; then b. many castles have been built, and the region is heavily Germanized, although not to the same degree as Prussia. In the same period, the internal struggle with wealthy cities. To the enemies of the order, one more was added, Naib. serious. Good. relations with neighbours. Russian principalities did not last long, and the order soon began to gradually. the capture of the Novgorod and Pskov regions. In 1240, i.e. in the year of the Battle of the Neva, the swordsmen captured it means. part of the Pskov land, and in 1241 they took the mountains. Pskov, after which they moved to Novgorod. To secure for themselves conquered. space, they built the kr-st Koporye. Summoned by the Novgorodians Alexander Nevsky on 5 April. In 1242, he inflicted a severe defeat on the knights on the ice of Lake Peipus (Battle of the Ice). In this battle, where the Teuton also helped the swordsmen. knights, the Germans suffered such losses that b. forced to return everything captured. land and give up the idea of ​​extending their dominions to the east. In the XV century. the fall of the order began. The Battle of Grunwald that broke the Teuton. Ord., greatly shocked Mechenostsev. Master Walter von Plettenberg (1494-1535) managed to revive the order for a while. He entered into close relations with Lithuania and Sweden and concluded an alliance with them for the war with Moscow, but the war of 1501-05. did not benefit the order, which at the same time b. shocked by the reformation. Secularization of the Teuton lands. ord. and his conversion to the vassal duchy of Poland was created for the hordes. Mechenostsev new environment. Having become independent, Plettenberg refused to accept the secularization of the lands and engaged in the reorganization of the order. All orders. lands were divided into regions, in each region. was Ukrainian. city, or burg. In big. There were several regions. cities, one of which bore the name of ober-burg. In each burg there was a convention, consisting of 15-20 knights, at the head of which was a focht or commander who ruled the region. The Fochts were subordinate to the master, who was elected for life. The leadership of the troops of the order was entrusted to the marshal, who lived in Wenden or in Zegewold. For the decision of the military. questions relating to the order, the hordes were going. convention from the marshal, fochts or commanders under the chairmanship. master. Matters affecting the whole country were discussed by the Landtag, which met under the chairman. also master's. The Landtag was divided into 4 sosl. (Stand): spirit-wo, knights, noble vassals of the order and citizens. K ser. 16th century Livon. ord. b. involved in the whirlpool of large. events in which such strong states as Russia and Sweden played a role; therefore his importance diminished, and he gradually lost his possessions. By the end of the XVI century. all of Estonia was under the protectorate of Sweden. Ezel passed into the possession of Denmark, Livonia went to Poland. Under the last master of the Swordsmen, only Courland belonged to the order. The order ceased to exist in 1561.

Military encyclopedia. - St. Petersburg: T-vo I.D. Sytin. Ed. V.F. Novitsky and others.. 1911-1915 .

ALAN FOREY

Causes and origins

The emergence of military monastic orders was one of the manifestations of the diversity of the religious life of Western Christendom at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries. The members of these orders followed the rules, which were generally based on the already existing monastic charters, they took monastic vows - poverty, chastity and obedience. But they lived in peace and - moreover - fought. Of course, each order had its own clerics, but most of the brothers were laymen, and it was they who led the orders. 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 (but they did not take part in hostilities).

The first military monastic order was the Order of the Templars (or Templars). The knights named themselves after the residence of their grand master in Jerusalem, near the former temple of Solomon. The order was founded 42 in 1119 to protect pilgrims traveling through Palestine, but a few years later became part of the Christian military forces that fought against the Muslims. The tasks that the Templars set themselves were put forward by life itself: we know from the writings of the pilgrims that after the first crusade the roads in the Kingdom of Jerusalem were by no means safe, and the rulers of the Latin settlements did not have sufficient military forces to protect them.

There is an opinion that Christian military monastic orders were created in imitation of the Muslim organization ribat - that is, a fortified monastery, the inhabitants of which combined spiritual exploits with armed struggle against the enemies of Islam. However, there were significant differences between such Muslim monasteries and Christian military monastic orders: for example, members of the ribat went to such a monastery only for a certain period of time and therefore looked more like crusaders than members of military monastic orders. In addition, it has not been proven that the Franks, who lived in the Latin kingdom at the beginning of the 12th century, knew about the existence of these Muslim organizations. Historical facts testify that the military monastic order was a product of the Christian society of that era. By this time, Western Christians already saw in the armed struggle for a just cause a means of saving the soul and an act of mercy, which became for the laity who sought to lead a religious lifestyle, an alternative to entering a monastery: after all, the church ban on carrying weapons, in which some saw an obstacle to development military monastic orders, applied only to the clergy. Of course, the emergence of such organizations caused many doubts and fears. Thus, one letter written shortly after the creation of the Knights Templar indicates that even some of the brothers of this order were not entirely sure of the legitimacy of their enterprise. This is partly due to the fact that in the Middle Ages any innovation took root with difficulty. Many considered the military monastic organization to be an inferior form of religious service compared to an ordinary monastery with its spiritual, contemplative direction. The military monastic orders were also opposed by those who continued to consider any violence sinful. It was against the opinion of these latter that Bernard of Clairvaux, written in support of the Templars, directed his work De laude novae militiae. However, despite all doubts and objections, the Templars quickly secured reliable support in church circles, as can be seen from the decision of the council in Troyes, at which in 1129, with the assistance of St. Bernard developed a charter for the order, approved by Pope Honorius II. At the same time, the order began to receive help from many countries of Western Europe, and after a few years branches of the order appeared there. 43

In addition to the Knights Templar, other similar organizations appeared in the Holy Land, but the history of their emergence was somewhat different. Some religious institutions that already existed in the Kingdom of Jerusalem were reorganized into military monastic orders. Shortly before the first crusade at the hospital of St. John the Merciful in Jerusalem, a religious and charitable brotherhood was organized to help the poor and sick pilgrims. 44 The activities of this brotherhood especially expanded after the conquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders, it spread a whole network of shelters and hospitals not only in the East, but in Western European countries, turning into a huge organization into which abundant offerings flowed from all over the Christian world. Already in the first half of the 12th century, the brotherhood took over (apparently following the example of the Templars) military tasks to defend Christian pilgrims and Christian possessions in the East from the "infidels". Having turned into a military monastic order of the Hospitallers (or St. John's), the brotherhood began to represent a huge material and military force in the East.

The Teutonic Order grew out of a brotherhood at a German hospital, the date of its foundation is considered to be 1199. 45 At the same time, a monastery of black clergy was founded in Acre, from which later arose the military monastic order of St. Thomas of Acre (in the 1220s). He took over military functions and the hospital of St. Lazarus for lepers, the first mention of which in the sources dates back to 1142. One of the first actions in which, as we know, members of this organization took part was the battle of La Forbier in 1244.

The sources that have come down to us do not explain the reasons for the transformation of monastic and charitable organizations into military monastic orders. Obviously the example was provided by the Templars, but it is unclear why it was followed. In some cases, the actions of specific individuals can be traced: for example, the militarization of the society of St. Thomas of Acre can be attributed to the initiative of the Bishop of Winchester, Peter de Roche, who came to the East at a time when the monastery of the black clergy was in a state of decline. But there could be other reasons as well. In particular, among the members of these organizations (except for St. Thomas of Acre) there certainly were people capable of holding weapons in their hands, and it is quite possible that they were approached for military assistance due to the constant lack of military strength among the settlers in the Holy Land.

Military monastic orders originated in the Holy Land, but very soon they spread their activities to other territories of the Christian world. The Templars and Hospitallers were the first to enter the war in Spain. At first, the Iberian Peninsula attracted the attention of the orders as a source of income and a potential opportunity to replenish their ranks, but in 1143 the Count of Barcelona persuaded the Templars to take part in the Reconquista, and by the middle of the 12th century the Hospitallers joined them. And already in the third quarter of the 12th century, several military monastic orders of their own arose in Spain. In Castile, in 1158, the Order of Calatrava was founded, and in the Kingdom of León in 1170, the Order of Santiago de Compostela. OK. In 1173, the Order of Montegaudio arose, whose possessions were mainly in the Kingdom of Aragon, and by 1176 an organization appeared in Portugal, which later became the Order of Avish, and in the Kingdom of Leon, the Order of San Julian ds Pereiro, the predecessor of the Order of Alcantara, was created. Between 1170 and 1300, the orders of San Jorge de Alfama and Santa Maria de Espana appeared. These Spanish orders were from the very beginning military organizations based on the example of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller orders. Neither in an attempt to explain the emergence of these organizations must one take into account both the hopes and plans of their founders and early members (the founder of the Montegaudio order, for example, was a disillusioned member of the Order of Santiago), and the mood of the Spanish kings who patronized these orders. The Christian rulers of Spain, of course, hoped in this way to enlist solid military support both on land and at sea (Alfonso X of Castile strongly supported the Order of Santa Maria de España, hoping for the help of sailors in the fight against Muslims for control of the Strait of Gibraltar) . It should also be noted that the Order of Calatrava appeared after the Templars, who had previously been granted the castle of Calatrava, were unable to defend it. In addition, local orders were not supposed to send funds to the Holy Land, and the rulers, patronizing several military monastic organizations at once, could control the situation so that no single order became too powerful. At first, the Spanish rulers even hoped to use these local organizations in the fight against their Christian rivals, but the orders quickly spread throughout the peninsula and took a neutral position in relation to conflicts between Christian kings.

However, despite the support of the kings, not all Spanish military orders flourished. The Order of Montegaudio in 1188 was forced to unite with the Order of the Hospital of the Holy Redeemer in Teruel, and in 1196 they joined the Knights Templar. Some of the brothers did not accept this union and settled in Monfragüe on the Tagus River in Castile; later this group entered the Order of Calatrava. These changes were due to the internal difficulties of the order of Montegaudio and the group in Monfragüe. The unification of the Order of Santa Maria de España with the Order of Santiago de Compostela took place after the latter suffered huge losses in the battle of Mauclin in 1280. Other Spanish orders survived, but remained purely local, Spanish organizations. From time to time proposals were put forward to extend their activities to North Africa, the Holy Land and even the Baltic countries, but none of these plans was carried out.

In Central Europe, unlike in Spain, the Templars and Hospitallers were not the first military monastic orders to take up arms for a just cause. At the beginning of the 13th century, Europeans relied more on the new, European military and monastic organizations and on the Teutonic Order. It was they who played the main role in the conquest of Prussia and Livonia, which were completely defeated by the end of the XIII century. The Order of the Sword and the Drbrinsky Order were founded to protect missionaries: the first arose in Livonia in 1202 with the support of Bishop Albert, 46 and the second in Prussia, probably in 1228, at the initiative of Bishop Christian of Prussia and the Polish prince Konrad of Mazovia. In the 1230s, both of these organizations became part of the Teutonic Order.

The Teutonic Order first appeared in Central Europe in 1211, when the Hungarian king Andrei II offered him the Transylvanian region of Burza under the condition of protecting it from the Polovtsian raids. The Teutonic Order saw in this proposal an opportunity to expand its activities in Europe, which he aspired to, since in the Holy Land the order had to constantly compete with the Templars and Hospitallers. But in 1225, King Andrew took away these lands from them, probably afraid of the desire of the Teutonic Order for complete independence. Around the same time, Prince Konrad of Mazovia offered the Kulm Land to the order on the condition that the knights defend it from the Prussians. The ensuing negotiations, which included the German Emperor Frederick II, led to the creation of an independent state on the territory of Prussia under the control of the Teutonic Order. Around 1230, the order became a very influential organization on the territory of Prussia, and then, having united with the swordsmen, extended its influence to Livonia.

After the Teutonic Order was expelled from Hungary and established itself in Prussia, the Hungarian and Polish rulers tried to seek help from other military monastic organizations. In 1237, Konrad of Mazovia even attempted to revive the Dobrinsky Order in the Drogichin castle on the Bug River, but was not successful. The Templars soon left the Polish lands granted to them in the 1250s. The Hospitallers also refused to defend the Severinsk region, stretching from the Transylvanian Alps to the Danube, which was granted to them in 1247 by the Hungarian king Bela IV.

Bela IV hoped for the help of the Hospitallers in the struggle not only against the pagans, but also against the schismatics. II although the Hungarian king was not provided with such assistance, the Templars, Hospitallers and Knights of the Teutonic Order contributed to the defense of the Latin Empire of the Franks, created in 1204 after the Fourth Crusade. In the thirteenth century, the crusades were increasingly directed against dissidents within Christianity, and therefore it is not surprising that the fight against the Greeks became a very suitable thing for military monastic orders. Attempts were also made to use knightly orders against heretics, opponents of the pope and other troublemakers in Western Europe. The popes repeatedly called on the military monastic orders to intervene in internal conflicts in Cyprus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and in 1267 Pope Clement IV invited the Hospitallers to side with Charles of Anjou against the last Hohenstaufen in southern Italy. There were also attempts to establish new orders in the south of France to combat heresies. However, these orders did not last long, with the exception of the Italian order of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose charter, approved in 1261, charged the knights with the duty of protecting the faith and the Church and suppressing civil unrest. Yet the main function of the military monastic orders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was to fight non-Christians on the frontiers of Western Christendom.