The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem

by Helena P. Schrader

The roots of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem go back before the founding of the Knights Templar, and indeed before the First Crusade. In about 1070, a hospice for pilgrims was established near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with funds from Italian merchants and staffed by Benedictine monks and nuns. Although the Benedictines were expelled from Jerusalem before the arrival of the first crusaders, they returned after Jerusalem was in Christian hands, and with help from the Christian secular authorities, re-established a hospital. Soon, further grants of money and land from the Christian lords enabled the monks to establish a chain of hospitals throughout the Holy Land and to set up hospices at the embarkation ports for pilgrims setting out from Europe or returning from Outremer. The monks and nuns running these hospitals and hospices soon became known as the “Hospitallers.”

Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

In 1113, the monks of the Hospital (also referred to as the Brothers of St. John and the Brothers of the Holy Sepulcher) requested and received from the Pope the right to become an order in their own right. This new order, as with the Templars a decade later, was made directly subordinate to the Pope, and in or about 1130 it adopted the Augustine Rule. Meanwhile this new order was rapidly acquiring significant donations in land and treasure in both the West and in the Holy Land, a reflection of the undiminished support for a Christian-controlled Holy Land.

Nevertheless, the Hospital of St. John remained a traditional monastic order. Although it had been granted the explicit right to defend its properties and pilgrims, members of the Order were prohibited from bearing arms. As a result, throughout the 12th century the Hospital was dependent for its protection on knights who owed feudal duty to the Hospital via their landholdings, voluntarily offered their services, or were hired mercenaries. These defensive forces, whatever their source, must have been substantial, however, because the Hospital was given very powerful fortresses, notably the most impressive crusader castle of them all: Krak des Chevaliers.

Krak de Cheveliers in Syria

It would have been pointless to turn over such vitally important military resources to an order incapable of maintaining and defending them, but the exact status of the Hospital’s fighting men remains obscure until 1206, when the Hospitaller Rule was changed to allow for fighting monks. Thereafter, the Hospitallers began to recruit fighting men, probably starting with those who were already associated with it in some way, and like the Templars they had both knights (men of noble birth) and sergeants. Within a very short time, the knights dominated the Order. The Hospitallers, however, continued to have priests, monks, and nuns devoted solely to the care of the sick, and the network of hospitals was not abandoned. At about this time, the entire Order adopted black robes (reminiscent of their Benedictine origins) adorned with a white cross. One notable difference with the Templars, however, was that there was no distinction in dress between the knights and the sergeants of the Hospital.

The Hospitallers, like the Templars, warned new recruits that “… when you desire to eat, it will be necessary for you to fast, and when you would wish to fast, you will have to eat. And when you would desire to sleep, it will be necessary for you to keep watch, and when you would like to stand on watch, you will have to sleep. And you will be sent this side of the sea and beyond, into places which will not please you, and you will have to go there. It will be necessary for you, therefore, to abandon all your desires to fulfill those of another and to endure other hardships in the Order, more than I can describe to you.” (Barber, Malcolm, The Knight and Chivalry, p. 275) Like the Templars, the Hospitallers vowed poverty and chastity as well as obedience.

The similarity between the two powerful militant orders led to open rivalry between them for recruits, resources, and power in the first half of the 13th century. This led on occasion to open fighting between members of the orders on the streets of Acre and Tripoli, but more often to subtle maneuvering behind the scenes. For decades, the Hospitallers and Templars consistently backed rival claimants to the throne of Jerusalem and rival Italian trading communities. As the end of Christian Palestine neared, however, the Hospitallers and Templars put aside their differences and jealousies to rally to the now lost cause. In the last decades of Christian Palestine, Hospitallers and Templars fought side by side, ferociously and futilely, at Antioch, Tripoli, and finally Acre.

Hospitaller HQ at Acre, Photo by HSchrader

After the fall of Acre, the Hospital also relocated its headquarters to Cyprus, but conflict with the King of Cyprus convinced the leadership of the Hospital (evidently more flexible, imaginative, and analytical than the tragic Jacques de Molay of the Knights Templar) of the necessity for independence from secular authority. The Hospitallers undertook the capture of the island of Rhodes from Turkish forces in 1306, finally seizing the capital city in 1309. With this move the Hospitallers removed themselves, and the bulk of their movable treasure, from the grasp of Philip IV – or any king inclined to follow his example. Even more important, however, from this island base the Hospitallers built up a powerful fleet capable of challenging the naval power of the Turks and of launching hit-and-run raids into Saracen territory. The Hospitallers had “reinvented” themselves and had found a new justification for their existence.

The Hospitaller and Templar Churches in Famagusta, Cyprus, Photo by HSchrader

The Hospitaller fleet remained a significant force protecting Christian shipping and commerce throughout the next two and a half centuries, and the base of this fleet on Rhodes, so close to the Turkish coast, was a constant provocation to Turkish rulers. Numerous attempts were made to capture Rhodes, notably in 1440, 1444, 1480, and 1522. During the first 3 sieges, the Hospitallers withstood vastly superior numbers, in one case (1444) driving off the enemy with a daring sortie from within the city, and twice rescued by the timely arrival of a relieving fleet from the West. In 1522, an army allegedly 100,000 strong attacked a force of just 600 knights and 4,500 local auxiliaries. After 2 months of bombardment a breach in the landward wall was made, yet 3 assaults through the breach, carried out with complete disregard for casualties, failed. Sultan Suleiman called off the costly assaults and settled down for a long siege, cutting Rhodes off from all relief. Recognizing the hopelessness of their situation, the surviving Hospitallers, now more commonly called Knights of St. John, surrendered on honorable terms.

When the Hospitallers withdrew on their ships from Rhodes, they were effectively homeless, but Emperor Charles V offered them the island of Malta as their new headquarters. From here they continued to operate their fleet so effectively that Sultan Suleiman decided he had to dislodge them from their new home. In 1565 he again assembled a large siege force. The Knights of St. John had 500 knights of the Order and 10,000 other troops. The Turks launched their first attack in May and after a month of fighting captured an outlying fort, slaughtered the garrison, and floated their mutilated bodies across the harbor to the main fortress as a warning of what was to come. The Hospitallers replied by executing Turkish prisoners and catapulting their heads into the Turkish camp. A Turkish assault on the main fortifications was undertaken on July 15, and a breach in the walls effected by August 7. Yet two assaults through the breach, on August 19 and 23, both failed. On September 7 a Spanish fleet arrived from the West and scattered the demoralized Turkish forces. The defense of Malta had cost the Hospitallers half their knights and 6,000 of the other defenders.

Thereafter, the Knights of St. John focused again on making the seaways of the Mediterranean safe for Christian shipping, a task that became increasingly easy as Turkish naval power declined. But this victory, like the defeat in Acre 300 years earlier, robbed them of their raison d’être. The Knights of St. John, now commonly known as the Knights of Malta, slid into a slow decline. They became more involved in commerce than warfare, and their fortresses turned into palaces. When Napoleon laid siege to Malta in 1798, the last frail remnants of the once mighty Hospitaller Order surrendered in just two days.

Helena P. Schrader is the author of numerous works of history and historical.  She holds a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg.  The first book in her three-part biographical novel of Balian d’Ibelin, who defended Jerusalem against Saladin in 1187 and was later one of Richard I’s envoys to Saladin, was released this fall .  Read more at: http://helenapschrader.com or follow Helena’s blogs: Schrader’s Historical Fiction and Defending the Crusader Kingdoms.

A Biographical Novel of Balian d’Ibelin

Book I

A landless knight,

                A leper King

                                And the struggle for Jerusalem.

 Buy now in Paperback or Kindle format!

Knights Hospitaller

by Scott Higginbotham

The Hospitallers’ primary mission was care and protection of the poor and sick in the Holy Land, owing to their network of hospitals and staying true to their original mission. The four arms of the Maltese cross represent: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance; while the eight points are the signs of the eight Beatitudes: Spiritual Joy, To Weep Over Thy Sins, To Love Justice, To Be Sincere and Pure of Heart, To Live Without Malice, To Humble Thyself To Those That Injure Thee, To Be Merciful, and To Suffer Persecution. [Hospitaller]

Public Domain - From Wikimedia Commons

Along the way, they seemed to have drifted from their beginnings, for they fought alongside the Knights Templar and other knightly Orders, and were oftentimes at odds with their knightly brethren. There were instances where there was bloodshed between orders that were supposed to be fighting a common foe.

As they grew in size and favor they became more of a military order. “But Raymond du Puy (master, 1119–24) permitted the Order to undertake military activities and these soon began to take precedence over the charitable work from which it took its name. Upon the surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 the hospital there was lost and the Order became completely military. Its headquarters remained in the Holy Land until removed to Rhodes in 1310 and thence in 1530 to Malta.” [British History Online]

 Popes and each successor gave the Hospitallers many rights and privileges, exempting them from paying tithes, giving the order rights of sanctuary, and authorization to keep as many lay people as needed to maintain their houses in care of the poor and sick. The order was divided into chaplains, knights, and sergeants, with the Grand Master being the head. There were also provincial leaders in their structure, much like the Templars.

 In England there were quite a number of houses, a few of which had been under Templar jurisdiction – the Templars and their leaders having been arrested in 1307 for heresy. “In 1338 there were in England 41 commanderies, eight of which had been houses of the Templars. [British History Online]

The beginning of the Order in England is not clear, because grants and dates are difficult to pin down. Moreover, the Templars seemed to have been more popular there in the early years of their Order and out-shined the Hospitallers. However, Richard the Lionheart still held the Order in high esteem, having fought alongside of them during the Third Crusade. “Richard I, who held the Order in affection as a result of services to him on Crusade, granted the English Hospitallers a charter in 1194 enlarging their privileges, and handed over to their care hospitals at Worcester and Hereford. John, too, extended his patronage to them. His relations with the Order remained amicable throughout, although, like other religious orders, they suffered from his exactions.” [British History Online]

In 1309, the direction of the Order began to change dramatically. Having purchased the island of Rhodes, Greece, they protected seafarers and merchants in the waters around that island, but eventually turned to piracy, finding many ripe pickings plying the waters and dotting the coastlines of the Middle Sea.

But in the present, they have largely returned to their original mission of charity, a worthy ideal that knows no time period.

 If you enjoy historical fiction, sometimes you begin to live the history.

For Further reading:
http://theknightshospitallers.org/
 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22121#s1
 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07477a.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Soul’s Ransom




 

Scott Higginbotham writes under the name Scott Howard and is the author of A Soul’s Ransom, a novel set in the fourteenth century where William de Courtenay’s mettle is tested, weighed, and refined, and For a Thousand Generations where Edward Leaver navigates a world where his purpose is defined with an eye to the future.  His new release, A Matter of Honor, is a direct sequel to For a Thousand Generations.  It is within Edward Leaver's well-worn boots that Scott travels the muddy tracks of medieval England.

Knights Hospitaller - The Beginning Years

by Scott Higginbotham

The Knights Templar receive a large share of press in the form of books, movies, and novels. It is said that they held great secrets and had amassed great wealth that remains hidden unto this day. Their demise was dramatic and brutal, the surviving brother knights having been scattered abroad.

But there were other knightly orders with missions that transcended solely military pursuits. The Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem had ties to the Levant prior to the First Crusade. Pilgrims from Europe found a chilly welcome in Jerusalem from the local populace, for there was the old tension between Catholics and Greek Orthodox believers, coupled with a reluctance to offend their Muslim overlords.

“In consequence of the resort of pilgrims and traders from the West to Jerusalem it had been found necessary to build there, with the consent of the Saracens, hospitia, or places of entertainment for them during their abode in the holy city… Accordingly the monk Bernard, who visited Jerusalem in the year 870, found there, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, near the church of the Holy Virgin, a hospital consisting of twelve mansions, for western pilgrims, which was in the possession of some gardens, vineyards, and corn-fields.” [1]

The 11th century saw an upsurge in pilgrimages, and there was within the walls of Jerusalem a hospital for Western pilgrims. It was there that the sick, the weary, and those seeking a place of respite from their long journey could find rest in relative safety. In 1099, the Blessed Gerard presided over the hospital and welcomed Greek and Muslims who sought aid, even while the city was under siege by Crusaders. It has been said that his character had few equals: “His benevolence was of a truly Christian character, and far transcended that of his age in general; for during the period of the siege he relieved all who applied to him for succour, and not merely did the schismatic Greek share his bounty, even the unbelieving Moslem was not repelled when he implored his aid. When the city was taken, numbers of the wounded pilgrims were received, and their wounds tended in the hospital of St. John, and the pious Duke Godfrey, on visiting them some days afterwards, heard nothing but the praises of the good Gerard and his monks.” [2]

From Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

Their popularity and standing grew as a result, and soon they developed an austere Rule. Poverty and obedience were their mainstays, and they wore a black mantle with a white cross on their breast to show their piety. The poor and the sick were their lords, and they the servants. The best flour went to others, while these monks, in sharp contrast, were satisfied to mix their flour with clay. As the Crusaders made gains across Outremer, manors and holding were given to this fledging order as gifts. Pope Paschal II ratified their Rule in 1113 and gave them great autonomy in electing leaders and allowing them to fulfill their mission, without interference from earthly and spiritual masters, save the Pope.

In short order, “The brotherhood of the Hospital was now greatly advanced in consideration, and reckoned among its members many gallant knights, who laid aside their arms, and devoted themselves to the humble office of ministering to the sick and needy.” [3] Mothers who could not care for their children could bring their infants to these monks, without conditions. The black-robed knights would nurture and raise them into adults, many of whom joined the Order once they came of age.

Pilgrims soon found succor under the protection of the Knights Templar, for the dusty roads of the Holy Land were teeming with many troubles after the First Crusade – robbery, holding rich pilgrims for ransom, and murder were all too common. The Hospitallers, as they became to be known, noticed the praise heaped upon their fellow knights. It was not long until these monks, who were also belted knights, would add armed protection to their primary mission of tending the sick and the poor – so much so, that they rivaled their Templar brethren in military skill and stature. 

However, unlike the Templars, they endured, owing to a mission that superseded Crusades.  Although their methods were oftentimes in question, especially in later years, the motto of this Order, which is an order in existence today, is simple:

                                                 Pro fide, pro utilitate hominum
                                      “For the faith and in the service of humanity.”

Be sure to watch the short video.  Historical Fiction can certainly take us back.

[1] Keightley, Thomas (2012-02-14). Secret Societies of the Middle Ages (p. 185). Kindle Edition. [2] Ibid, pp. 186-187. [3] Ibid, p. 188

A Soul’s Ransom




 

Scott Higginbotham writes under the name Scott Howard and is the author of A Soul’s Ransom, a novel set in the fourteenth century where William de Courtenay’s mettle is tested, weighed, and refined, and For a Thousand Generations where Edward Leaver navigates a world where his purpose is defined with an eye to the future.  His new release, A Matter of Honor, is a direct sequel to For a Thousand Generations.  It is within Edward Leaver's well-worn boots that Scott travels the muddy tracks of medieval England.