Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

the Teutonic Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary was founded as a hospital
for German pilgrims by German crusaders during the Third Crusade in
1191, and was militarized by about 1198, while that of the Hospital of St.
Thomas of Acre was founded as a hospital for English pilgrims by English
crusaders about 1191 and was militarized only in 1227 or 1228. Despite
their origins (and continuing minor vocation) as hospitallers, the Teutonic
Knights adopted a rule based quite closely on that of the Templars.
By the time the Third Crusade had begun in 1188, however, several
military orders had already been founded to support the Iberian Reconquista
(the irredentist war against the Moors of southern Iberia that had
been in progress since shortly after the original conquest in 711–718 and
had been declared to be a crusade by Pope Eugenius III in 1147). The Order
of Calatrava was founded by the Cistercian Abbot of Fitero in 1158,
just to the south of the Castilian frontier, and quickly acquired lands and
houses in southern Castile and Aragon. A second order was founded ca.
1166 at Evora in Portugal under the name the Order of St. Benedict of
Evora, but it was soon affiliated with Calatrava, became its Portuguese
branch, and after moving its seat to Avis called itself the Order of Avis. The
Order of St. Julian of Pereiro was similarly founded as an independent order
in Leon by 1176, but it affiliated with Calatrava, became its Leonese
branch, and took new names from its successive seats at Trujillo (in 1188)
and Alcántara (in 1218). All three of these orders remained affiliated with
the Cistercian Order and were treated as direct or indirect dependencies of
the Cistercian Abbey of Morimond. The Order of St. James (or Santiago)
of Compostela in Galicia, by contrast, was created by the archbishop of
that pilgrimage city in 1170 by imposing a semimonastic rule on the older
military confraternity called the Fratres de Caceres, based far to the south.
Its knights were actually permitted to marry. Its Portuguese branch, called
the Order of São Thiago or Sant’ Iago, became independent in 1290.
The three branches of the Cistercian Order of Alcántara and the two
branches of the peculiar Order of Santiago were the most important indigenous
orders in Iberia, but several other orders were founded in the later
twelfth and thirteenth centuries that ultimately proved less successful. The
Order of Mountjoy (in Spanish, Montegaudio) was established in Leon ca.
1173 by Rodrigo, former count of Sarria and a former knight of Santiago
who wanted a stricter way of life; it started with another name, but after it
had been given some properties in the crusader states, it took that of the
hill from which pilgrims first saw Jerusalem. It does not seem to have taken
part in the Levantine crusade, however, and after several further changes of
seat and name (including those of Trafac and Monfragüe) and several partial
amalgamations with other orders (including the Temple), what remained
of the order was suppressed in 1221, and its members and posses-
Orders of Knighthood, Religious 373