CRUSADING KNIGHT ORDERS
INTRODUCTION
A military order is a Christian order of knighthood that is founded for crusading, i.e. propagating and/or defending the faith (originally Catholic, or Orthodox, after the reformation sometimes Protestant), either in the Holy Land or against Islam (Reconquista) or pagans (mainly Baltic region) in Europe, but may become 'secularized' later.
History
Christian military orders appeared following the First Crusade. The foundation of the Templars in 1118 provided the first in a series of tightly organized military forces which protected the Christian colonies in the Middle East, as well as fighting non-Christians in Spain and Eastern Europe.
The principle feature of the military order is the combination of military and religious ways of life. Some of them like the Knights of St John and the Knights of St Thomas also cared for the sick and poor. However they were not purely male institutions, as nuns could attach themselves as convents of the......
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