We praise our names
But the paucity of quibbles will become apparent, When to raise your cross to the ramen
We won't be ready these days.
For us Christ, full of love, He died in the ground that was given to the Turks.
Fill the fields with a stream of enemy blood
Or our honor is forever ashamed!
Conan de Bethuis. Translated by E. Vasilieva
Usually, Western European knights defeated Muslims on the battlefield, and not only when they fought bravely and decisively - these were the qualities for which chivalry was always famous - but they also acted in an organized way. But it was just the organization that the knights often lacked. The reason was that every knight-feudal lord was little dependent on anyone, since his peasants were engaged in a subsistence economy, and society itself was distinguished by non-economic forms of coercion to labor. Moreover, with personal prowess, he could easily surpass both the duke and the count, or even the king himself! Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis, in his treatise "The Life of Louis VI, nicknamed Tolstoy", spoke in detail about how in 1111 he planned to punish Hugo du Puizet, because he was engaged in robbery, and besieged his castle in Bose. Although the king's army suffered heavy losses, he nevertheless took the castle of Hugo, but he acted very gently with Hugo himself: he only sent him into exile, although he could have hanged him. Then Hugo returned, declared that he had repented, and Louis VI forgave him. Then Hugo rebuilt the keep and … engaged in robbery and other atrocities, so the king was simply forced to go on a campaign against his obstinate vassal again. And again Hugo's donjon was burned, and Hugo himself was punished, and then, when he repented once again, they again pardoned! But then he repeated all the same for the third time, and it was then that the king got angry in earnest: he burned his keep, and sent Hugo himself to the Holy Land to atone for his sins before God. From there he never returned, and only after that the inhabitants of Bose were able to breathe calmly.
Crusader warrior 1163 - 1200 Fresco on the wall of the chapel of Cressac-Saint-Genis (Charente). The most famous are the frescoes painted on the north wall. The upper row of images tells about the battle with the Saracens, which took place in 1163 at the foot of the castle of Krak des Chevaliers, when the emir Nureddin, who besieged the castle, was completely defeated by a sudden attack of the Frankish cavalry.
Many other knights were distinguished by the same, if not great, arbitrariness in that era. And it would be fine in peacetime! No, and on the battlefield they behaved in the same inappropriate way! And if some proud knight rushed to the enemy camp before the others in order to rob it first, or ran away from the enemy when it was required to stand firmly in one place and fight the enemy, the king could well lose even the most successful battle that began!
Making the knights distinguished by discipline is what many military leaders dreamed of, but no one could achieve this for many years. Everything changed when the "expeditions" to the East began. There, having become closely acquainted with a completely different oriental culture for them, the leaders of the West decided that the church itself could become the "basis" of knightly discipline. And for this you just need to … make monks out of the knights and hint at the same time that in this way they will come closer to the cherished salvation!
Knights-crusaders of Palestine: from left to right - knight-crusader of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem (founded in 1099); hospitaller; Templar, Knight of the Order of St. Jacob Kampostelsky, Teutonic Knight of the Order of St. Mary of Teutonic.
And so the spiritual-knightly orders of the knights-crusaders, created in distant Palestine, appeared. But only they were copied from very similar "organizations" among Muslims! After all, it was there, in the East, at the end of the 11th - the beginning of the 12th centuries, that such military-religious orders as Rahkhasyya, Shukhainiyya, Khaliliya and Nubuviyya appeared, some of which in 1182 the Caliph al-Nasir united into one large and single spiritual order for all Muslims. knightly order of Futuvwa. The members of this order had a purely knightly rite, when the entrant was girded with a sword, after which the candidate drank the “sacred” salt water from a special bowl, put on special trousers and even, like in Europe, received a blow with the flat side of the sword or with a hand on the shoulder. That is, chivalry itself, as such, came to Europe from the East, which, by the way, is also said in Firdousi's poem “Shahname”!
Although, who was the first and from whom to borrow the very idea of a spiritual-knightly order is also, in general, unknown - or rather, this is a very controversial issue! After all, long before these events in the lands of Africa, namely in Ethiopia, there already existed … the ancient Christian order of St. Anthony, and historians quite rightly consider him the oldest among all other orders of chivalry in the whole world.
The cross was a popular figure on old knightly coats of arms.
It is believed to have been founded by the Negus, the ruler of Ethiopia, who was known in the West as "Presbyter John" after St. Anthony either in 357 or 358 rested in the Lord. Then very many of his followers decided to leave for the desert, where they took the vows of the monastic life of St. Basil and created the monastery “named after and heritage of St. Anthony ". The order itself was founded in 370 AD, although even a later date in comparison with all other orders will still be "early".
Staircase to the cave of St. Anthony the Great. Perhaps salvation can be found here …
Orders with the same name were later found in Italy, France and Spain, and were branches of the order, whose headquarters were in Constantinople. Interestingly, the Ethiopian order has survived to this day. The head of the order is its grandmaster and at the same time the President of the Royal Council of Ethiopia. Well, very rarely, new members are accepted, and as for the vows, yes, they are completely chivalrous. The badge of the order has two degrees - the Grand Knight's Cross and the Companion Cross. He has the right to indicate in their official title the initials KGCA (Knight Grand Cross - Knight Grand Cross) and CA (Companion of the Order of St. Anthony - Companion of the Order of St. Anthony).
Crosses of the Order of St. Anthony.
Both signs of the order look like a golden Ethiopian cross, covered with blue enamel, and on top they are also crowned with the imperial crown of Ethiopia. But the pectoral star is the cross of the order, does not have a crown, and is superimposed on an eight-pointed silver star. The sash is traditionally sewn from moire silk, has a bow at the hip, and its color is black with blue stripes on the edges.
The clothes of the knights of the order were black and blue robes, on the chest of which a blue three-pointed cross was embroidered. The older knights were distinguished by double crosses of the same color. The headquarters of the order were located on the island of Meroe (in Sudan), and throughout Ethiopia, the order owned both women's and numerous men's monasteries. The order was simply incredibly rich: its annual income was at least two million gold. Thus, the idea of such orders was first born not in the East, and, as you can see, not in Europe, but in … sultry Christian Ethiopia!
Well, the palm in the creation of the very first order in Palestine belonged to the Johannites or Hospitallers. Usually, non-specialists associate its foundation with the first crusade, although the real history of the order is slightly different. It all began when Emperor Constantine came to Jerusalem to find here (and he found it!) The Life-giving Cross of the Lord, well, the very one on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Then many other holy places were found in the city, which were mentioned in the Gospel, and temples were immediately erected in these places.
It is clear that any Christian would be very pleased to visit all these places, to receive grace from God and hope for the salvation of his sinful soul. But the path to the Holy Land for the pilgrims was filled with dangers. And when someone got there, they often took monastic vows and stayed to continue to do good to other pilgrims at the same monastic hospitals. In 638, Jerusalem was captured by the Arabs, but for all this "activity" the conditions remained practically unchanged.
And when, in the 10th century, Jerusalem turned into a world center of Christian piety, a pious merchant was found - yes, there were then such, by the name of Constantine di Panteleone, originally from the Italian commercial republic of Amalfi, who in 1048 asked permission from the Egyptian sultan to build in the city of another shelter for sick pilgrims. It was called the Jerusalem Hospital of St. John, and the emblem of the hospital was the white eight-pointed Amalfi cross. That is why his ministers began to be called Johnites, or hospitallers (from lat. Hospitalis - "hospitable").
Battle of Agra. Miniature from the manuscript of Guillaume de Tire "History of Outremer", XIV century. (National Library of France).
For 50 years, the Hospitallers lived quite peacefully - they went after the sick and prayed, but then Jerusalem was besieged by the crusaders. According to legend, Christians, like all other residents of the city, were "put on the walls." And then the cunning Johannites began to throw on the heads of the Christian knights not stones, but fresh bread! The authorities immediately accused the Johannites of treason, but a miracle happened: right in front of the judges, this bread turned to stone, which proved their innocence, so they were acquitted! When Jerusalem fell on July 15, 1099, Duke Gottfried of Bouillon rewarded the brave monks, and some of his knights even became members of their brotherhood in order to protect the pilgrims on their way to the holy city. First, the status of the order was approved by the ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Baudouin I in 1104, and nine years later, Pope Paschal II confirmed his decision with his bull. And this charter of Baudouin I and the papal bull have survived to this day and are in the National Library of the Island of Malta in the city of La Valletta.
Louis VII and King Baudouin III of Jerusalem (left) fight the Saracens (right). Miniature from the manuscript of Guillaume de Tire "History of Outremer", XIV century. (National Library of France).
The military brothers of the order were not mentioned in the documents until 1200, when they were divided into warrior brothers (blessed to carry and use weapons), healer brothers and chaplain brothers who performed the necessary religious rites in the order. Only the Pope and the Grand Master of the Order obeyed the military brothers. At the same time, they owned land, churches and cemeteries. They were exempted from taxes, and it was found that even the bishops, and those, had no right to excommunicate them!
Modern hospitallers-reenactors.
It was named the Jerusalem Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John in 1120 under the first master, Raymond Dupuis. Along with the usual monastic attire, the knights wore a black cloak, on the left shoulder of which a white eight-pointed cross was sewn. On the march, they wore a surcoat, usually scarlet, with a white linen cross on the chest with flared ends. They symbolized the following: the four ends of the cross are the four Christian virtues, and the eight corners are the eight good qualities of a true believer. And, of course, the cross on a bloody background symbolized knightly fortitude and loyalty to the Lord. The banner of the order was a rectangular red cloth with a white cross.
Fort in Larnaca, Cyprus. There were crusaders here too.
In 1291, the order left Palestine and moved to the island of Cyprus, and 20 years later settled on the island of Rhodes, where it remained until 1523, when the Turks drove it out of there. 42 years later, the knights of the order moved to Malta and began to be called "Knights of Malta". Well, the hospitals founded by the order in various European countries were at that time real centers of medicine.
A still from the film "Suvorov" (1940). The mantle with the Maltese cross is clearly visible on Emperor Paul. Well, he loved the romance of chivalry, what to do … In the film we see that during the meeting of Suvorov with Paul, Paul I is wearing the mantle of the Master of the Order of Malta. It is safe to say that what we see does not match the story. Paul I was indeed proclaimed Grand Master of the Order of Malta, but only on December 6, 1798, that is, more than ten months after this audience.
In 1798, Malta fell under the rule of Napoleon, which caused a massive dispersal of its members around the world. Emperor Paul I invited the "Knights of Malta" to Russia and indulged them in every possible way, but after his death they had to leave Russia for Rome. Today, the order has a complex name, which sounds like this: Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta. Note that in the battles with Muslims in Palestine, the Hospitallers competed with the Templars all the time, which is why they were put away from each other. For example, the Johannites in the rearguard, and the Templars in the vanguard, and in between all the other troops.
Bellapais Abbey, North Cyprus. Founded by the Hospitallers, but now there is an Orthodox Greek church.
And this is how she looks today inside.
Well, this is the dungeon of the abbey. When it's hot outside, a pleasant coolness reigns here.
Of course, the Hospitallers were not only warriors and healers, but also excellent builders, so many they built various abbeys, churches and cathedrals. In this they also competed with the Templars. Having moved to Cyprus, they built there many structures of a cult nature that have survived to this day.
Cathedral of St. Nicholas, converted by Muslims into a mosque.
From the back, St. Nicholas Cathedral looks no less impressive than from the façade.
