Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages: Knights Templar

Full Title:
The Military Religious Orders of The Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights, And Others. With An Appendix Of Other Orders Of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, And Modern.
Published in 1879 in London by the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge
Written by Frederick Charles Woodhouse 1827 - 1905

Contents:

PART I. —THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS — 20 Chapters
Appendix I.— List of the Convents of the Order in England
Appendix II.— Extracts from the martyrology of the Knights of Malta

PART II. —THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS — 7 Chapters

PART III. —THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS — 3 Chapters

PART IV. — PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH ORDERS
The Knights of the Order of Avis.
The Knights of the Order of St. James of Compostella.
The Knights of the Order of Calatrava.
The Knights of the Order of Alcantara.

PART V. — ENGLISH ORDERS
The Order of the Bath.
The Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Thistle.
The Order of St, Patrick.

APPENDIX.
Orders of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, and Modern

Excerpt:

.......If we can grasp the idea of European and English life and thought that all this implies, we shall see how much of present feeling and prejudice we must put away before we can be in a position to judge fairly of the age and the circumstances which gave rise to the Military Religious Orders, and to contemplate fairly the history of the Orders themselves.
The idea itself was certainly noble and grand. In those times the military and the religious life alone offered a promising field for great and energetic minds. But there would be men whose religious instincts drew them to the cloister, while their vigorous flames and fiery energy disposed them also to the soldier's life. It was a happy thought, therefore, that devised a method to combine these two vocations, and put a sword into the monk's hand who had little taste for the spade or the library.
The Christian calling is that of a soldier, and the exigencies of the times made it honorable to fight not only against spiritual but against human foes.
But in reality this idea, like all other great ideas, was one of gradual growth and development. It did not spring, Minerva-like, fully equipped from the head of any.
The hardships that pilgrims to the Holy Places endured led to the formation of societies of men who devoted themselves to their relief and maintenance, while they remained at Jerusalem.
And thus the terrors and dangers of the road became known, and the cruel sufferings and indignities that pilgrims were made to undergo before they could set foot in the Holy City, till those who sheltered and succored the pilgrim when he arrived at his destination saw that if their work was to be complete and thorough, they must protect him also on his way.
And so the nursing brother and the hospitable monk became an armed and fighting soldier.
Then as the Mahometan conquest advanced, and the birthplace of Christ, and the very tomb in which He had been laid, fell into the hands of the anti-Christian host. Christian men's blood boiled, and the cry went up from all Europe that this should not be. And so men bound themselves into bands and Orders for mutual support and to gain strength, and vowed to devote life and all to this great work, and to succeed, or to perish in the attempt.
So the work began, originating in the highest Christian instincts, and carried out with self-sacrifice and enthusiasm. It attracted many devoted men, and so grew and spread and flourished.