§ 60. THE MILITARY ORDERS. 299
up in Jerusalem. Raymund systematized the rules of the brotherhood and gave it a compact organization and in 1113 it gained papal sanction through Pascal II. At that time there were affiliated houses at St. Giles, Asti, Pisa, Otranto, and Tarentum.1 In 1122 Calixtus II. made the important announcement that those giving protection to pilgrims were entitled to the same reward as the pilgrims themselves and all who gave to the Hospital in the earthly Jerusalem, should receive the joys of the heavenly. Bull followed bull, grant ing the order privileges. Innocent III. exempted the mem bers from excommunication at the hand of bishops and made the order amenable solely to the pope. Anastasius IV., 1154, gave them the right to build churches, chapels, and grave yards in any locality.2
The military feature of the organization was developed after the philanthropic feature of nursing and caring for unfortunate pilgrims and it quickly became the dominant feature. Raymund du Puy makes a clear distinction in the order between cleric and lay brethren. Innocent II., 1130, speaks of its members as priests, knights, and lay brethren, the last taking no vows. In its perfected organization the order was divided into three classes, knights, chaplains, and serving brethren. The knights and chaplains were bound by the threefold pledge of charity, poverty, and obedience.3 The military brothers or knights formed the majority of the
1 Woodhouse, p. 20, gives a list of no less than fifty-four houses belonging to the Hospital in England.
2 The bull in Mansi, XXI. 780.
3 They were monks. The order had no priests until the time of Alexan der III., who gave it the right to receive priests and clerics. Priests became necessary in order that the new custom might be followed which gave to priests alone the right, of absolution. During the first century of their existence, the members of military orders made confession of their sins in the open chapters and were punished at the order of the Master by public scourging or otherwise. The strict church law of confession and of absolution by the priest was not defined till later by the Fourth Lateran Council, and Thomas Aquinas. See Lea, The Absolution Formula of the Templars.
300 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
order and from them the officials were elected.1 The hospital work was not abandoned. In 1160 John of Wizburg states from personal observation that more than two thousand sick were cared for in the hospital of Jerusalem, and that in a single day forty deaths occurred. After the transfer of the order to Rhodes, the knights continued to carry on hospital work.
After Clement IV., 1267, the title of the chief official was " Grand master of the Hospital of Jerusalem and Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ." The distinctive dress of the order was, after 1259, a red mantle with a white Maltese cross worn on the left breast that " God through this emblem might give faith and obedience and protect us and all our Christian benefactors from the power of the devil." Its motto was pro fide, "for the faith."2 The whole body was divided about 1320 into seven langues or provinces, Pro vence, France, Auvergne, Italy, Germany, Aragon, England. Castile was added in 1464. Affiliated houses in Europe and the East sent two- thirds of their income to Jerusalem.3 One of the interesting rules of the order was that the knights always went two and two and carried their own light with them.
After the fall of Acre, the Hospitallers established them selves on the island of Cyprus and in 1310 removed to the island of Rhodes, where massive walls and foundations con tinue to attest the labor expended upon their fortifications and other buildings. From Rhodes, as a base, they did honorable service.
Under the grand master La Valette, the Knights bravely defended Malta against the fleet of Suleymon the Mag-
1 Le Roulx, 290 sq.
2 For the formula of admission, see Le Roulx, 288 sq.
8 See Uhlhorn for the amount of linen and other goods expected from the various houses in Europe. There was a female branch of the order of which, however, very little is known. In 1188 Sancha, queen of Aragon, founded a rich convent for it at Sixena near Saragossa.