The Hospitallers Change

Founded originally to care for the sick and poor in Jerusalem, there were new statutes for the Hospitallers in March 1182 under the leadership of their grandmaster, Roger de Moulins. These new statutes tried to formalize certain practices:

1. To welcome 30 poor people each day at meals.

2. To give alms to anyone who came to the door of the hospital three days each week.

3. To wash the feet of 13 poor people on the Saturday of Lent and provide them with clothes and shoes.

This was when they officially became a charitable Order. This is also when members began to be listed as doctors and surgeons, brought on because the ordinary members did not have sufficient medical knowledge.

Also, this is when they officially declared themselves a religious-military Order. At the death of a member, a Mass was to be said and the coffin would be covered with a red sheet with white cross, as if they were a priest.

Roger did not get along with the new head of the Templars, Gerard de Ridefort. Besides the general rivalry felt between the Hospitallers and the Templars, the two men had opposing political views. Roger was part of the group that felt Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem needed a new husband to replace Guy of Lusignan. Gerard supported Sibylla and Guy.

Both groups, however, cared about the survival of the Christian kingdoms established by the Crusades, so Templars and Hospitallers worked together. Roger's recent trip to England had motivated King Henry II to send money for the defense of the Holy Land (in lieu of going on Crusade himself, which he had vowed to do after the death of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket). Gerard used Henry's money that went to the Templars to hire extra troops to mount an offensive against Saladin.

Roger and some Hospitallers joined Gerard and 100 Templars in an attack against Saladin's son in May 1187. Saladin's son, al-Afdal, had 5000 men, however, and the Christians were hopelessly outnumbered. Gerard was one of the few to escape the Battle of Cresson, though wounded. Roger was killed by a spear.

Gerard has come down to us in literature (and video games) as arrogant, headstrong, uncompromising. Let's see what other problems he might have had tomorrow.

Roger de Moulins

Roger de Moulins was not known to history until 1177 when he became Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller. His chief concern seemed to be urging King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem to be aggressive in the war with Saladin.

Roger was part of the Battle of Montgisard (pictured) against the Ayyubid Sultanate (the dynasty founded by Saladin when he came to power). The fighting was fierce: Roger's own report was that 1100 men had been killed and a further 750 wounded. It was one of Saladin's few defeats, but completely redeemed by him at the Battle of Hattin ten years later.

The full name of the Hospitallers was Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. They had founded a hospital for the care of the sick and wounded in Jerusalem in 1113. The Order's increasing involvement in military affairs made them well-known and powerful, but distracted them from their original purpose. Their second Grandmaster, Raymond de Puy, had started them on a more military bearing.

Pope Alexander III issued a papal bull, declaring that they were not allowed to fight anyone unless attacked and urging the Order to focus on caring for the sick and the poor. Alexander also urged the Order to forget their rivalry with the Templars for the sake of unity in the Holy Land. The two Orders soon got together to negotiate a truce. The Orders, however, retained their rivalry.

Roger traveled Europe along with his Templar counterpart, Arnold of Torroja, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius, to persuade Pope Lucius III and European nobles to form a new Crusade for the support of the Holy Land and to find a husband for Queen Sibylla to replace Guy of Lusignan. Roger also intended to establish the Hospitallers in England, France, and Germany.

Arnold died along the way. Roger clashed with Arnold's successor, Gerard de Ridefort, Templar and Marshall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem who supported Guy of Lusignan as husband for Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem. Roger had been given the privilege of holding the key to the royal treasury, and at first refused to turn it over to Guy when Guy was crowned King of Jerusalem.

In 1182, Roger made a significant and interesting change in the Order's statutes that changed the atmosphere surrounding it. I'll explain more tomorrow.

Templars versus Hospitallers

In the 12th century, while the kingdoms established in the Holy Land by Western Europeans were struggling to maintain themselves against their Muslim neighbors, two of their chief means of support were the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. Each of these Orders had been recognized by popes, and their chief function was to provide safe escort for pilgrims.

This meant, of course, that they needed to be effective militarily. The Hospitallers additionally were supposed to provide care for the sick and injured; they had started with a hospital built in 1113 (right after the First Crusade) in Jerusalem on the site of the Benedictine monastery of St. John the Baptist.

Orders cannot live on faith, so they need donations and other means of financial support. One method of financial support was fighting. Each Order joined military excursions when asked, which allowed them to partake of the spoils of war. By the 1180s, the two Orders were public rivals.

Pope Alexander III (reigned 1159-1181) did not want their rivalry to create its own internal problem when all Christian forces in the Middle East needed to be united, so he called for mediation. He persuaded the two Orders to call a truce in 1179 and then set up a mechanism for resolving their differences. Before the mediation could be arranged, however, Alexander died. Pope Lucius III (reigned 1181-1185) presided over the mediation, along with King of Jerusalem Baldwin IV.

The respective Grandmasters of the Templars and Hospitallers, Arnold of Torroja and Roger de Moulins, chose three brothers from each of their Orders. Each brother had the right to choose two additional brothers. The brothers were to gather and find a negotiation on which they could agree to prevent inter-Order hostility. They would the bring their conclusions to the Grandmasters.

One thing they all agreed on: diocesan authorities were opposed to the privileges given to the military Orders. The Orders had privileges and immunities that secular clergy did not have. The Third Lateran Council of 1179 forbade the military Orders from accepting property and tithes unless the local diocesan authority (bishop) approved.

The two Orders resolved their differences, and two papal bulls forced the secular clergy to accept that the Templars and Hospitallers were important and excommunication would be the punishment for anyone attacking the knights.

Tomorrow I'll say a little more about Grandmaster Roger de Moulins and a big change for the Hospitallers.