Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom

The historical fallout of the actual Military/Chivalric Orders has been both good and bad. If taken out of the context of the current trend of political correctness, the influence of these organizations was objectively and long-term more good than bad. For example, the first of all Orders, the Knights Hospitallers, of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (also known as the Knights of Malta, where they built and defended a fortress against one of the most famous seiges in history), essentially invented and administered the first organized hospital in history. They also conceived and implemented the first ambulance service and were the first to realize that patients with contagious disease should be quarantined. They considered their patients (the sick and the poor)their "liege lords," and it is hard not to admire the fact that they took an oath to serve them upon becoming knights of the Order. The Knights of Malta, no longer of any militaristic attribute, save under obligation if called upon to defend the Church against enemies of religion (largely a ceremonial oath), continue this tradition of serving the sick and poor in the modern world, including AIDS wards and hospitals in the Americas. One wishes for a little more explication of the peaceful and charitable attributes of the chivalric orders in Walsh's book, but it is otherwise excellent. The typeface alone transports one into the Middle Ages! Highly recommended for any history buff.

Many are genuinely surprised when they learn that monks and monastic orders were not always dedicated to peaceful pursuits of prayer and public service. While the prevailing image of monks today is that of cloistered, contemplative people, with the occasional order who sends their members out into the world to work in non-profit, community service activities, this has not always been image. Indeed, for well over half the history of the Christian church, monks were far more than this. They were the professors who ran schools, keepers of the libraries, some of the greatest landlords (which made them feudal lords to serfs), governmental administrators for the territories around their monasteries, and, for a brief but significant time, they were soldiers, defending their powers and lands as fiercely as any other soldier.There are many monastic orders whose names come down to us today - the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of Malta - whose purpose was more for war than for peace. In the name of the Church (and therefore, by extension, of God), they fought Crusades and other battles trying to secure the borders, or expand the borders, of Christendom, against the Muslims in the south and east, and Huns and barbarians to the north.Michael Walsh argues that the Knights Templar may well have been the first Christian 'order'; while Benedictine orders, Franciscan orders, and other such still survive (including the Cistercian order, another claimant for honour as the first 'order'), the Templars and other military-oriented orders have ceased. Perhaps this is because military might is, in most of the modern world, now the exclusive province of the state, and private militaries even for institutions such as the Church are not only discouraged, but illegal. (The Vatican has very minor military orders, but then, Vatican City is its own nation-state.) The bishops had need of 'police' forces that these orders served; the bishop of Rome, particularly when organised papal states were formed, needed a proper military establishment that nonetheless reflected the idealistic concerns of the church. Kings and princes would also rely on the church, the most powerful overall institution in the world, and the only one that was 'world-wide' (at least to the world that counted in their eyes), for military support; the popes relied on the final loyalty being to the papacy rather than any given crown through these orders to maintain influence and sway throughout the world. However, like many powerful, wealthy institutions, the various orders of Knights fell under suspicion, disarray, and ultimately, military defeat. Walsh traces the history of decline and dissolution, and also talks about the mythology that has arisen around the most famous military order, the Templars. London's legal establishment still finds its heart in the same Temple the Templars built and used; the downfall of the Templars was dramatic, but its cause remains controversial. Som