C Instructions: Fill & Download for Free

From: Holy Lance- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia-"Spear of Destiny" redirects here. For other uses, see Spear of Destiny (disambiguation).The Holy Lance, also known as the Lance of Longinus (named after Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear is legendarily known as the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross.From : Holy Lance-The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaAlternative Titles: Spear of Destiny, Spear of LonginusHoly Lance, also called Spear of Destiny or Spear of Longinus, a relic discovered in June 1098 during the First Crusade by Christian Crusaders at Antioch. It was said to be the lance that pierced the side of Christ at the Crucifixion. The recovery of the relic inspired the Crusaders to take the offensive against the Muslims, routing them in battle and securing Christian possession of Antioch. Disputes about the authenticity of the lance, however, caused internal dissension among the Crusaders, and its discoverer,Peter Bartholomew, was eventually discredited.Holy Lance The Crucifixion, tempera and gold leaf on wood panel by the Master of the Codex of Saint George, c. 1340-45; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The wound in Christ's side was said to have been made by the Holy Lance.Photograph by KaDeWeGirl. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, The Cloisters Collection, 1961 (61.200.1)Peter was a peasant who claimed that St. Andrew had appeared to him in a series of visions and revealed the location of the lance. He informed the leaders of the First Crusade of his visions, and, though BishopAdhémar of Le Puy was skeptical of their authenticity, CountRaymond of Toulouse was impressed and commanded that a solemn search be conducted for the lance. Peter led them to the Cathedral of St. Peter in Antioch and indicated where the lance would be located. After a day of fruitless digging, he leaped into the hole and produced a piece of iron that was assumed to be the relic. Most of the Crusaders accepted its authenticity and carried the lance with them into battle against the Muslims.Peter Bartholomew: Peter Bartholomew undergoing an ordeal by fire, illustration from William of Tyre's Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum (“History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea”).Fine Art Images/Heritage-ImagesAfter the recovery of the lance, Peter claimed that St. Andrew reappeared to him at various times, giving him instructions for the prosecution of the Crusade. With the proliferation of Peter’s visions and his attacks on the memory of Bishop Adhémar (died 1098)—who had never believed Peter’s claims—people began to doubt the visions and challenged the authenticity of the Holy Lance.When Peter submitted himself to an ordeal by fire to test the validity of his claims, he was fatally burned, and the Holy Lance was discredited. Raymond of Toulouse’s prestige suffered as a consequence of his acceptance of Peter’s visions.

Convent schools (also called monastic schools) emerged in Europe during the Early Middle Ages(c. 500–1000). With the disappearance of classical Roman culture in western Europe, monasteries became sites for education. Oblates, boys of six or seven handed over to the care of the monastery by their parents and intended to become monks, were trained in reading and writing also candidates for the monastic profession, had to receive instruction for at least a year before committing to monastic life. The novitiate, a separate part of the monastery with its own master and program of schooling, combined education in the liturgy and spiritual texts with acculturation in a monastic community.The Early Middle AgesIn that time a double monastery with separate wings for men and women in Yorkshire. With the rebirth of European culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, new reform efforts again encouraged learning. Church councils attempted to ensure the presence of cathedral schools, primarily for teaching candidates for the priesthood. Monastic and cathedral schools thus became the first grammar schools, teaching the rudiments of reading and writing. All instruction was in Latin, the international language of learning at the time. Meanwhile, wandering scholars were tramping across Europe in search of good teachers who were well-connected and could place them in lucrative jobs.The High Middle AgesThroughout this period, monastic institutions were being reformed and regularized, especially after the beginnings of a new monastic order that arose from the monastery at Cîteaux, founded in Burgundy in 1098. The Cistercians refused to accept oblates and imposed a minimum age of eighteen for novices. At the same time, they placed more emphasis on what was to be learned in the novitiate. They expected their recruits to monastic life to have a background in Latin, often gained from parish priests or cathedral schools.Grammar, rhetoric, and logic were the foundations of medieval education (the trivium, as they were called). Many a schoolboy had to spend painful hours in learning vocabulary and grammatical constructions by heart. Those who failed their lessons could be beaten, for the classical ideal of education left no mercy for the slow pupil. Eleventh-century monastic reform, however, gave rise to a debate about whether the punishment was a good idea. One great monastic philosopher and educator, Anselm (1033–1109), insisted on treating his novices with care and circumspection. He thought that they would learn more if they were motivated by the love of the subject and of their teacher.The end of the twelfth century saw the rise of specialization of higher education in the new universities at Paris and Oxford. Boys of fourteen would enter these institutions after their trivium educations in the parish, monastic, or cathedral schools. Religious orders such as the Cistercians at first stayed away from the universities, but around 1240 the order founded its own college in Paris and sent its intellectually brightest monks there. The new orders of friars, the Dominicans, and the Franciscans, also produced members who became professors in the Paris schools.Women did not have the same educational opportunities in the High Middle Ages (1000–1300) as they had been given in the double monasteries of the Early Middle Ages. But monasteries for women did provide instruction in reading and writing. In the twelfth-century in France, Heloïse (1098–1164), perhaps the most learned woman of her time, founded a convent for women and imposed high intellectual standards.At the same time, there was continuing pressure on cathedral schools to improve standards and educate people other than potential priests. In the growing towns of Europe, rich citizens began to found their own schools for boys, but these almost always had clerical teachers. At the end of the fourteenth century, a secular priest and theologian named Jean de Gerson (1363–1429) headed the cathedral school of Notre-Dame in Paris. In a treatise entitled On Bringing Children to Christ, Gerson recommended a combination of strict discipline and humane treatment. He also worried that some teachers might sexually abuse their pupils, so he tried to make certain that boys would never be alone with their teachers–or with each other.The ReformationIn the sixteenth century, enormous changes were made following the Protestant and Catholic reformations. A new religious order in Catholic Europe, the Jesuits, placed great emphasis on education (especially of the nobility) in order to gain political influence and win over to the Roman Church areas of Protestant Europe. The Jesuits were firm disciplinarians and educational innovators in applying the classical humanist learning of the Renaissance to their schools.The desire of women to form religious communities and obtain an education was also affected by the Catholic Reformation. The Ursulines began in northern Italy as a lay religious movement. The group did social work and opened schools, but the regimentation of reform at the Council of Trent in the mid-sixteenth century required the Ursulines to seclude themselves from the world and live a semi-contemplative life. Some nuns, however, were allowed to teach girls, and the Ursulines became an educational success in Italy and France, with up to 12,000 sisters in 320 institutions in the seventeenth century.Another French educational reform movement, the Brothers of the Christian Schools (known as the Christian Brothers) was founded by John-Baptist de La Salle (1651–1719). As canon at Rheims, La Salle had begun to found schools for poor boys, and he soon headed a religious community that specialized in teaching. He also avoided clericalization by forbidding priests to join. The order spread throughout France and opened many teacher training colleges.La Salle left a monument to his educational ideas in his Conduct of Christian Schools. Like his medieval predecessors, he saw education as an integral part of a Christian upbringing. Schools existed to fashion devout Christians, but teenage boys were also given an opportunity to understand the intellectual and historical foundations of their faith and in the convent and parochial schools of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some of the finest achievements of medieval civilization thus became available to new generations of young people. Catholic educational culture, with its emphasis on celibacy and a chronic suspicion of women and sexuality, has had to face many problems and conflicts in modern education. At its best, however, this orientation has emphasized humanistic learning, an international outlook, and a dialogue between teacher and pupil.

By the end of the 11th century, Western Europe had emerged as a significant power in its own right, though it still lagged behind other Mediterranean civilizations, such as that of the Byzantine Empire (formerly the eastern half of the Roman Empire) and the Islamic Empire of the Middle East and North Africa.However, Byzantium had lost considerable territory to the invading Seljuk Turks. After years of chaos and civil war, the general Alexius Comnenus seized the Byzantine throne in 1081 and consolidated control over the remaining empire as Emperor Alexius I.In 1095, Alexius sent envoys to Pope Urban II asking for mercenary troops from the West to help confront the Turkish threat. Though relations between Christians in the East and West had long been fractious, Alexius’s request came at a time when the situation was improving.In November 1095, at the Council of Clermont in southern France, the Pope called on Western Christians to take up arms to aid the Byzantines and recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control. This marked the beginning of the Crusades.Pope Urban’s plea was met with a tremendous response, both among the military elite as well as ordinary citizens. Those who joined the armed pilgrimage wore a cross as a symbol of the Church.The Crusades set the stage for several religious knightly military orders, including the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, and the Hospitallers. These groups defended the Holy Land and protected pilgrims traveling to and from the region.Did you know? In a popular movement known as the Children's Crusade (1212), a motley crew including children, adolescents, women, the elderly and the poor marched all the way from the Rhineland to Italy behind a young man named Nicholas, who said he had received divine instruction to march toward the Holy Land.First Crusade (1096-99)Four armies of Crusaders were formed from troops of different Western European regions, led by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh of Vermandois and Bohemond of Taranto (with his nephew Tancred). These groups departed for Byzantium in August 1096.A less organized band of knights and commoners known as the “People’s Crusade” set off before the others under the command of a popular preacher known as Peter the Hermit.Ignoring Alexius’ advice to wait for the rest of the Crusaders, Peter’s army crossed the Bosporus in early August. In the first major clash between the Crusaders and Muslims, Turkish forces crushed the invading Europeans at Cibotus.Another group of Crusaders, led by the notorious Count Emicho, carried out a series of massacres of Jews in various towns in the Rhineland in 1096, drawing widespread outrage and causing a major crisis in Jewish-Christian relations.When the four main armies of Crusaders arrived in Constantinople, Alexius insisted that their leaders swear an oath of loyalty to him and recognize his authority over any land regained from the Turks, as well as any other territory they might conquer. All but Bohemond resisted taking the oath.In May 1097, the Crusaders and their Byzantine allies attacked Nicea (now Iznik, Turkey), the Seljuk capital in Anatolia. The city surrendered in late June.The Fall of JerusalemDespite deteriorating relations between the Crusaders and Byzantine leaders, the combined force continued its march through Anatolia, capturing the great Syrian city of Antioch in June 1098.After various internal struggles over control of Antioch, the Crusaders began their march toward Jerusalem, then occupied by Egyptian Fatimids (who as Shi’ite Muslims were enemies of the Sunni Seljuks).Encamping before Jerusalem in June 1099, the Christians forced the besieged city’s governor to surrender by mid-July.Despite Tancred’s promise of protection, the Crusaders slaughtered hundreds of men, women, and children in their victorious entrance into Jerusalem.Second Crusade (1147-49)Having achieved their goal in an unexpectedly short period of time after the First Crusade, many of the Crusaders departed for home. To govern the conquered territory, those who remained established four large western settlements, or Crusader states, in Jerusalem, Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli.Guarded by formidable castles, the Crusader states retained the upper hand in the region until around 1130, when Muslim forces began gaining ground in their own holy war (or jihad) against the Christians, whom they called “Franks.”In 1144, the Seljuk general Zangi, governor of Mosul, captured Edessa, leading to the loss of the northernmost Crusader state.News of Edessa’s fall stunned Europe and caused Christian authorities in the West to call for another Crusade. Led by two great rulers, King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany, the Second Crusade began in 1147.That October, the Turks annihilated Conrad’s forces at Dorylaeum, the site of a great Christian victory during the First Crusade.After Louis and Conrad managed to assemble their armies at Jerusalem, they decided to attack the Syrian stronghold of Damascus with an army of some 50,000 (the largest Crusader force yet).Damascus’ ruler was forced to call on Nur al-Din, Zangi’s successor in Mosul, for aid. The combined Muslim forces dealt a humiliating defeat to the Crusaders, decisively ending the Second Crusade.Nur al-Din added Damascus to his expanding empire in 1154.Third Crusade (1187-92)After numerous attempts by the Crusaders of Jerusalem to capture Egypt, Nur al-Din’s forces (led by the general Shirkuh and his nephew, Saladin) seized Cairo in 1169 and forced the Crusader army to evacuate.Upon Shirkuh’s subsequent death, Saladin assumed control and began a campaign of conquests that accelerated after Nur al-Din’s death in 1174.In 1187, Saladin began a major campaign against the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. His troops virtually destroyed the Christian army at the battle of Hattin, taking back the important city along with a large amount of territory.Outrage over these defeats inspired the Third Crusade, led by rulers such as the aging Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (who was drowned at Anatolia before his entire army reached Syria), King Philip II of France, and King Richard I of England (known as Richard the Lionheart).In September 1191, Richard’s forces defeated those of Saladin in the battle of Arsuf, which would be the only true battle of the Third Crusade.From the recaptured city of Jaffa, Richard reestablished Christian control over some of the region and approached Jerusalem, though he refused to lay siege to the city.In September 1192, Richard and Saladin signed a peace treaty that reestablished the Kingdom of Jerusalem (though without the city of Jerusalem) and ended the Third Crusade.Fourth Crusade: The Fall of ConstantinopleThough Pope Innocent III called for a new Crusade in 1198, power struggles within and between Europe and Byzantium drove the Crusaders to divert their mission in order to topple the reigning Byzantine emperor, Alexius III, in favor of his nephew, who became Alexius IV in mid-1203.The new emperor’s attempts to submit the Byzantine church to Rome was met with stiff resistance, and Alexius IV was strangled after a palace coup in early 1204.In response, the Crusaders declared war on Constantinople, and the Fourth Crusade ended with the devastating Fall of Constantinople, marked by a bloody conquest, looting and near-destruction of the magnificent Byzantine capital later that year.Final Crusades (1208-1271)Throughout the remainder of the 13th century, a variety of Crusades aimed not so much to topple Muslim forces in the Holy Land but to combat any and all of those seen as enemies of the Christian faith.The Albigensian Crusade (1208-29) aimed to root out the heretical Cathari or Albigensian sect of Christianity in France, while the Baltic Crusades (1211-25) sought to subdue pagans in Transylvania.A so-called Children’s Crusade took place in 1212 when thousands of young children vowed to march to Jerusalem. Although it was called the Children’s Crusade, most historians don’t regard it as an actual crusade, and many experts question whether the group was really comprised of children. The movement never reached the Holy Land.In the Fifth Crusade, put in motion by Pope Innocent III before his death in 1216, the Crusaders attacked Egypt from both land and sea but were forced to surrender to Muslim defenders led by Saladin’s nephew, Al-Malik al-Kamil, in 1221.In 1229, in what became known as the Sixth Crusade, Emperor Frederick II achieved the peaceful transfer of Jerusalem to Crusader control through negotiation with al-Kamil. The peace treaty expired a decade later, and Muslims easily regained control of Jerusalem.From 1248 to 1254, Louis IX of France organized a crusade against Egypt. This battle, known as the Seventh Crusade, was a failure for Louis.The MamluksAs the Crusaders struggled, a new dynasty, known as the Mamluks, descended from former slaves of the Islamic Empire, took power in Egypt. In 1260, Mamluk forces in Palestine managed to halt the advance of the Mongols, an invading force led by Genghis Khan and his descendants, which had emerged as a potential ally for the Christians in the region.Under the ruthless Sultan Baybars, the Mamluks demolished Antioch in 1268. In response, Louis organized the Eighth Crusade in 1270. The initial goal was to aid the remaining Crusader states in Syria, but the mission was redirected to Tunis, where Louis died.Edward I of England took on another expedition in 1271. This battle, which is often grouped with the Eighth Crusade but is sometimes referred to as the Ninth Crusade, accomplished very little and was considered the last significant crusade to the Holy Land.The Crusades EndIn 1291, one of the only remaining Crusader cities, Acre, fell to the Muslim Mamluks. Many historians believe this defeat marked the end of the Crusader States and the Crusades themselves.Though the Church organized minor Crusades with limited goals after 1291—mainly military campaigns aimed at pushing Muslims from conquered territory, or conquering pagan regions—support for such efforts diminished in the 16th century, with the rise of the Reformation and the corresponding decline of papal authority.Effects of the CrusadesWhile the Crusades ultimately resulted in defeat for Europeans and a Muslim victory, many argue that they successfully extended the reach of Christianity and Western civilization. The Roman Catholic Church experienced an increase in wealth, and the power of the Pope was elevated after the Crusades ended.Trade and transportation also improved throughout Europe as a result of the Crusades. The wars created a constant demand for supplies and transportation, which resulted in ship-building and the manufacturing of various supplies.After the Crusades, there was a heightened interest in travel and learning throughout Europe, which some historians believe may have paved the way for the Renaissance.Among followers of Islam, however, the Crusaders were regarded as immoral, bloody and savage. The ruthless and widespread massacre of Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians resulted in bitter resentment that persisted for many years. Even today, some Muslims derisively refer to the West’s involvement in the Middle East as a “crusade.”There’s no question that the years of bloody conflict brought by the Crusades had an impact on Middle East and Western European nations for many years, and still influence political and cultural views and opinions held today.Sources:Timeline for the Crusades and Christian Holy War to c.1350: United States Naval Academy.The Crusades: A Complete History: History Today.HISTORY | Watch Full Episodes of Your Favorite ShowsKNIGHTFALLVIEW SHOWTHE MILITARY ORDERS OF THE CRUSADESKnights TemplarMedieval HistoryTHE CRUSADES: NEW WAVE ARMIESThe First Crusade took its inspiration from a passionate speech on a cold winter’s day outside Clermont cathedral in France on the 27th November 1095. Pope Urban II (1035 – 99) a religious and patriotic Frenchman addressed the largely illiterate crowd enthused by Urban’s promise of spiritual rewards in heaven. Just a year before, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I had petitioned Urban for help in his wars against the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks had begun to invade parts of the Christian empire and disrupted pilgrimage routes to the Holy Land.Urban’s call for a crusade fired up not just trained and experienced knights but also lay people to believe they had a duty before God to liberate fellow Christians in the East from the brutal subjugation of the Turks.Hundreds of preachers then went across Europe spreading the message. In return for taking up arms on the crusade, the Church offered plenary indulgences (reductions in afterlife punishment for their sins). However, for many, the reason for taking the cross to the East was for glory and wealth and very little to do with rewards in the afterlife. Over a hundred thousand men and women were persuaded to leave the safety of their homes for a journey into the unknown.THE PEOPLE’S CRUSADEIn the second half of 1096 religious fervour spurred Europe’s men, women and whole families to set out for the East. This ramshackle group of mostly agricultural labourers was part of a second crusading movement, distinct from the foot soldiers and knights of nobility that the likes of Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081- 1118) was expecting and hoping to conquer the Turk enemy threatening the Christian city of Constantinople.IN WHAT HISTORIANS HAVE DESCRIBED AS THE FIRST HOLOCAUST, THE PEOPLE’S CRUSADE ATTACKED JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN FRANCE AND GERMANYThe People’s movement, a huge gathering of around forty thousand, including knights and non-combatants from all social classes soon moved outside the Pope’s control as local preachers such as Peter the Hermit inspired its members with an apocalyptic vision of victory. However, their progress through Asia Minor’s stifling hot middle-eastern lands was to prove as violent and inhumanely merciless as they meted out the kind of savage butchery associated more infamously with the feudal armies of Europe and the Knights Templar. What the People’s movement lacked in weapons, armoury and military skill it made up with primal ferocity, as its unruly mob spared few from violent attacks as it took to pillaging villages like feral rats outside the city in search of supplies and food.Perhaps more shockingly in what historians have described as the First Holocaust, the People’s Crusade attacked Jewish communities in France and Germany, months before its official crusade and march on Constantinople. Its barbaric effects on the Jewish communities resulted in some Jewish citizens killing their own children and committing suicide, rather than witness them being brutalised by the invading crusaders. Finally, travelling thousands of miles on foot and after having carried out brutal sackings of towns in the name of Christ, the People’s mob was eventually ambushed by the Seljuk Turks in western Anatolia and mostly massacred or enslaved.THE NEW ORDERSTo continue to defend the conquests in the Holy Land, several military orders were created. The most powerful was the Knights Templar, founded in 1119. After receiving papal endorsement, they rapidly rose in power, peaking at around twenty thousand members. They were also exempted from local laws, so did not have to pay taxes. Perhaps not so well known in popular culture as the feudal army of Crusaders were the Hospitallers and Teutonic Orders.In the case of the Hospitallers, the order actually existed before the commencement of the First Crusade and was initially created as a charitable organization with its purpose focused on providing care for the sick and to aid pilgrims travelling through the Holy Land. As a result of the three Orders’ increasing military, political and economic power the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights became the essential bedrocks of the Latin East. They were granted papal support, as well as attracting charitable donations from the nobles of Christian Europe which allowed the monastic and military trio to acquire large swathes of land in the West.KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERThe Knights Hospitaller (Sovereign Military Order of Malta & Order of St John) also known as the Knights of St John, had been founded as an order to care for the sick and poor. But at some time before 1150, they assumed military duties as well, giving rise to a change from an image of religious brothers caring for the sick to the more muscular mantle of ‘warrior monks’.Like the Templar Knights, the Hospitaller Knights had their headquarters in Jerusalem. The former wore white cloaks with red crosses while the Hospitallers (Knights of St John) wore black cloaks with white crosses. They were full-time professional soldiers, trained to obey orders, unlike lay Knights who were amateurs, often unruly and difficult to discipline. Between the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers, the orders made up around 600 Knights.KNIGHTS OF CHRISTThe typical Hospitaller Knight or ‘warrior monk’ was a young physically fit man and usually, but not always, from noble birth. Although the Hospitaller Order recruited soldiers from the regions of Bohemia and Hungary, the majority hailed from France and England. Social and class divisions existed within the ranks as many of the ordinary brethren making up the Order tended to be composed of men from East European countries such as Hungary and Bosnia, while recruits from France and Italy held leadership positions.RECRUITINGThere are numerous reasons why free men would join the Hospitallers and it wasn’t always for the spoils of war, as was often the case with the Templars. Many recruits to the Hospitaller cause were illiterate and came from impoverished backgrounds seeing the Order as a means to provide support and sustenance. Others such as nobles may have joined with hopes of career opportunities and achieving greater status. More sinister and something reflecting today’s culture of radicalisation, were the misguided recruits who sought to become ‘martyrs’, believing they had a spiritual duty to fight ‘infidels’ which would reward them in the afterlife.THIS HEINOUS AND MISERABLE TRADE IN HUMANS WASN’T LIMITED TO ENEMY SOLDIERS BUT ALSO INCLUDED MASS ABDUCTIONS OF WOMENIn many ways, young men joining the likes of the Hospitallers in the middle-ages has parallels to that of males joining the military today. Be it for personal reasons such as broken relationships and marriages, bereavement or simply to escape their present-day lives in the hope for something better in life. Motivations were equally varied and complex in the middle ages. The most unique reason being back in the 11th century and rarely now, was to join a military order as a means of showing penance and being absolved of perceived sins. For others, it may have simply been the sense of adventure in foreign lands that appealed.HOSPITALLER DISCIPLINEBecause of the relatively small number of trained fighting soldiers in the Hospitaller Order, compared to the non-combatants, leaving the order was not an option. Although some knights did buy their way of their positions. This was a highly disciplined order, buffeted by religious and mythical ideals and often driven by fanaticism.Renowned for their uncompromising ideals their physical bravery, often matched with ferocious brutality was emphasised by their satanic looking apparel consisting of a heavy shirt of mail (hauberk) together with impenetrable looking protective extensions for the arms, hands and head and covered by a black cloak bearing a white cross insignia. The Hospitallers’ visual look was designed to be as psychologically terrifying as their actual legendary fighting tactics and strategies would prove on the battlefield.TEUTONIC KNIGHTSThe Order was founded in the Third Crusade (1189-1192) when German crusaders set up a field hospital outside Acre in Israel around 1190. Pope Innocent III confirmed their status as a new knightly order in 1199 after which the order embraced an increased military role.With its headquarters in Austria, the Order of Brothers of the German house of Saint Mary became known as the Teutonic Knights. Originally they were called the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of Saint Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem. Like the Knights Templar, the German orientated Order, made up of voluntary and mercenary soldiers, was formed to aid, escort and protect Christian pilgrims to the Baltics and Holy Land.At the same time as the Hospitaller Order, the Teutonic Knights set up their primary base in Rhodes' citadel, as well as locating to Marienburg in Prussia, but they made their military mark largely in north-eastern Europe.AIMS & ARMOURIt became customary for the Teutonic Knights to wear a white mantle with a black cross as their insignia along with apparel which included fearful looking wings and bull horns in their helmets, making them appear menacing to the enemy. As part of its military and monastic goals, the Teutonic Order had a papal licence to wage perpetual war against the pagans and used this licence to launch annual crusades against Lithuania. These expeditions were very popular with the nobility of Northern Europe allowing knights who enjoyed fighting to lay waste large parts of Lithuania in the name of Christ.MILITARY PECKING ORDERSThe Teutonic Knights displayed an uncharacteristically democratic system for electing members as part of its hierarchal structure. The election of the Hochmeister (High Master) took a democratic route unique for medieval times, which would begin with the nomination of a brother-knight as the elected leader. He would then proceed to elect his companion and then these two knights would elect a third member. The process would continue so on until 13 knights were picked for the electoral college, who were finally responsible for electing the Grand Master. Full members of the Order were also accompanied by half-brothers Halb-bruders, who wore grey mantles instead of white and often employed as heavy infantry. Due to not taking monastic vows the half brothers, who mainly carried out agricultural tasks, were allowed to marry and enjoy conjugal rights.COMMERCE & MERITOCRACYCapitalising their revenues from trade was one area of expertise of the Teutonic Order as they developed such a secure international system of financial administration, that they effectively became the bankers of Europe. They produced the first use of a cheque that allowed monies to be deposited in the West with a credit note that could be cashed in the Holy Land.One major difference between the Teutonic Knights and their contemporaries was the fact that a sizeable percentage of knights came from ‘peasant’ backgrounds as opposed to the Templars and Hospitallers’ recruitment of soldiers from the nobility. This was largely to do with medieval German society at the time and its policy of ‘ministerial’ a unique social strata where people were raised from serfdom and placed in positions of power within the country. But despite the Teutonic Knights’ penchant for commercial endeavours, the Order’s laws, intrinsically linked to ideals of communal ‘poverty’, meant that brothers were not allowed to keep personal items and clothes, nor even keep individual chests to store private possessions.SLAUGHTER & SLAVERYBrutal measures carried out by the Teutonic Knights on the battlefield such as killing wounded soldiers and slaughtering a fleeing enemy were not necessarily due to unbridled sadism but more about ensuring a favourable outcome during battle. However, the Teutonic Knights recognised currency in slavery and the capturing of enemy soldiers became an important source of booty. This heinous and miserable trade in humans wasn’t limited to enemy soldiers but also included mass abductions of women and children from their homelands to be used as forced labour.THE DECLINE OF THE CRUSADESThe Teutonic Order’s rule in Prussia came to an end in 1525, when the grand master Albert, first duke of Prussia, under Protestant influence, dissolved the order there and accepted its territory as a secular duchy for himself under Polish ‘Suzerainty’ – the right of a country to partly own another.With Papal authority declining in Central and northern Europe and the expansion of Protestantism due to the Reformation, the continuation of Crusades defending Christian pilgrims and the existence of the Orders themselves became less relevant.Despite a changing world of political alliances between once-warring countries, the Crusades continued to be fought against the Muslims of North Africa, such as in 1390 when an international crusade was launched against Mahdia in Tunisia, a notorious centre of piracy.REVIVAL & RESURGENCEThe Templars were dissolved as an order in 1312, but other Military Orders survived the Middle Ages. The Hospitallers established new headquarters, first on Cyprus and then Rhodes and later Malta, while the Teutonic Order carved out its own independent state in the Baltic. Yet despite all this re-evaluation of the Orders, no crusade ever reclaimed the Holy City again.To date, the Teutonic Order still has its headquarters in Vienna although since 1923 it has been an Order of priests. Likewise the Hospitaller traditions of charity and helping the sick are maintained through the St John Ambulance service. The five Orders of St John now dedicate themselves to carrying out the original Hospitaller functions of the order.In researching this piece, the author referred to The Byzantine World War a new book by Nick Holmes .Written by:RICHARD BEVANRichard Bevan is an MA Screenwriter/playwright and freelance writer specialising in history and crime investigation writing. He is currently contributing to History UK channel. Represented by MMB Creative agency.THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR: 1139 – 1244Knights TemplarOver the next century or so, the Knights Templar grew in numbers, military strength, wealth, power, privilege and fame. They established bases throughout Europe and their duties grew from the protection of pious men coming to the Holy Land to defending the Crusader states of Jerusalem, Antioch and Edessa. They fought skilfully and bravely in the Crusades, they built castles and monasteries, they garrisoned strategically important towns and they devised an ingenious form of banking we take for granted today.Since so many pilgrims were being attacked for what they were carrying, the Templars created a system whereby the travellers could place their assets under management while they were away, presumably for protection and presumably for a fee. The Templars also created a system of credit where the travellers could deposit their wealth – cash, jewels and other treasures – with a local preceptory and they’d receive a letter of credit stating the value of what they left and when they got to the Holy Land, they could ‘withdraw’ funds to an equal value.The Templars established a staggering portfolio of wealth, land, status and responsibility through donations from individuals and states. The ruling elite of Spain, France and England gave the order lordships, estates, castles and tracts of land throughout western Europe. They became bankers and accountants to nations and kings and they had the military power to transport bullion and treasures to and from the Holy Land.The Knights Templar were bankers to Europe’s royalty and rich beyond belief; they were a virtually unstoppable fighting force the likes of which the world had never before seen; they understood the intricacies and complexities of medieval geopolitics; they were devoutly religious; they owned vast amounts of land and property all over the western world. They were seemingly unstoppable. So what could possibly go wrong?Sky HistoryHistory is alive