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A military order (Latin: Militaris ordinis) is a chivalric order with military purpose originally established as Catholic religious societies during the medieval Crusades for protection of Christians against violent persecution of the Islamic conquests (623–) in the Holy Land and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as by Baltic paganism in Eastern Europe.
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Most members, often titled Knights, were and still are laymen, and not prelates, yet cooperating with the clergy, sometimes even taking religious vows such as poverty, chastity, and obedience, according to monastic ideals. As such, it was in the military orders that the Medieval concept of chivalry reached its apogee in an exceptionate fusion under Just war theory of military discipline and Christian virtues.
Prominent examples include the Knights Hospitaller, and the Knights Templar in Outremer, as well as the Teutonic Knights in the Baltics.
Many military orders were suppressed by the Holy See in Rome around the end of the Middle Ages, with few new recognised establishments afterwards. However, some persisted longer in its original functions, only later evolving into purely honorific and/or ceremonial chivalric orders with charitable aims in modern times, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, both Papal orders of knighthood conferred still today. Notably, the Teutonic Order became exclusively monastic except a limited associated confraternity of honorary Knights.
Today a Western cultural heritage and legacy, besides those officially recognised by the Holy See, parallel honorific institutions of unilateral Catholic adherence exist in continuous or revived forms among a few current and former European royal houses.
These traditions in turn eventually influenced honorific orders of modern states today, including that of secular republics, such as orders of merit, and other parts of honour systems and phaleristics.
Moreover, it inspired many subsequent modern era secular Western cultural phenonomens, such as fraternities, or brotherhoods, such as the Freemasonry.
History
Already in 1053, for the Battle of Civitate the Knights of Saint Peter (Milites Sancti Petri) was founded as a militia by Pope Leo IX to counter the Normans.
The larger threat that would definitively establish the tradition, however, came from the east. In response to the Islamic conquests of the former Byzantine Empire and Christianity in the Holy Land, numerous Catholic military orders were set up following the First Crusade. The founding of such orders suited the Catholic church's plan of channelising the devotion of the European nobility, and also complemented the Peace and Truce of God. The foundation of the Knights Templar in 1118 provided the first in a series of tightly organised military forces for the purpose of fighting invading Islamic conquests in the Holy Land and in the Iberian Peninsula — see the Reconquista — as well as Islamic invaders and pagan tribes in Eastern Europe.
The first secularised military order was the Order of Saint George, founded in 1326 by the King Charles I of Hungary, on which he made all the Hungarian nobility swear loyalty to him. The next secular order which is known to appear was the Order of the "Knights of the Band", founded in 1332 by the King Alfonso XI of Castile. Both orders existed only for about a century.
Purpose
The original features of the military orders were the combination of religious and military ways of life. Some of them, like the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights of Saint Thomas, also had charitable purposes and cared for the sick and poor. However, they were not purely male institutions, as nuns could attach themselves as convents of the orders. One significant feature of the military orders is that clerical brothers could be, and indeed often were, subordinate to non-ordained brethren.
In 1818, the orientalist Joseph von Hammer compared the Catholic military orders, in particular the Knights Templar, with certain Islamic models such as the Shia Islamic sect of Assassins. In 1820, José Antonio Conde suggested they were modeled on the ribat, a fortified religious institution which brought together a religious or hospital way of life with fighting the enemies of Islam. However popular such views may have become, others have criticised this view, suggesting there were no such ribats around the Outremer until after the military orders had been founded.
Yet, the innovation of the role and function of the military orders has sometimes been obscured by the concentration on their military exploits in the Holy Land, Prussia, and the Baltics. In fact, they had extensive holdings and staff throughout Western Europe. The majority were laymen. They provided a conduit for cultural and technical innovation, for example the introduction of fulling into England by the Knights Hospitaller, or the banking facilities of the Knights Templars.
Because of the necessity to have a standing army, the military orders were founded, being adopted as the fourth monastic religious vows.
List of military orders
These are military orders listed chronologically according to their dates of foundation and extinction, sometimes approximate due to scarce sources, and/or repeated suppressions by Papal or royal authourities. Their militarisation may vary from case to case, the foundation of an order, its ecclesiastical approval, and occurring on different times and for different purposes. Presently active institutions are listed in consideration with their legitimacy according to the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry.
They are divided into international and national according to their adherence, mission, and enrolment, disregarding the extent of eventual gradual geographical distribution outside of their region of concern.
Other
Chivalric and/or military orders that could qualify depending on definition.
Modern development
A few of the institutions survived into honorific and/or charitable organisations, including the papal orders of knighthood.
While other contemporary Catholic societies may share some military organisational features and ideology, such as the Society of Jesus (1540), they differ from the medieval military orders in absence of military purposes or potential.
As for several national, state and even dynastic military orders of merit, such as the Dutch Military Order of William and the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, they are not military orders other than nominally.
Echoing the medieval institutions, however, it is possible for modern orders to be founded explicitly as a military order, for instance the Military Order of Loyalty (Spanish: Orden Militar de la Constancia), founded in 1946 by the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. Awarded to both Spanish and Moroccan military officers and soldiers, the single-class order was abolished in 1956.
In contrast, inspired by the legacy of the original military orders, besides legitimate chivalric orders, in addition, vast modern imitations flourish, referred to as "self-styled orders".