Precursors and Imitators of the Military Orders: Religious Societies for Defending the Faith in the Medieval West (11th–13th c.)

Abstract

A considerable number of associations of armed men existed during the central and high Middle Ages, fulfilling diverse purposes, such as the defense of churches or of Christian territory and the fight against heresy, as well as preserving the peace. Founded on a tradition of brotherhood taken from the Gospels, these militias had varying degrees of organization. Some were juridically constituted confraternities, whereas others were more loosely structured, following forms inherited from monastic associations for laypeople. Between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries, such groups have been found on the Iberian peninsula, in southern France, and in the Holy Land, as well as Italy. Although some of these militarized brotherhoods have already been analyzed by historians, no study has yet examined this phenomenon in a comprehensive way. Analyzing these various initiatives over three centuries and within a comparative approach reveals important observations about their recruitment among different social groups, the reasons behind their creation, and the role of the church in legitimizing combat. Coming into existence in the eleventh to twelfth centuries in the context of the Peace of God and of sacralized warfare, in the thirteenth century, these brotherhoods became instruments of social and religious control. However, most of them disappeared fairly rapidly, as they were either too closely linked to specific political contexts or, in some cases, judged subversive by the church. This broad investigation of armed brotherhoods provides a framework within which to understand the origins and the development of the Military Orders.