Military order (society)

A military order (Latin: Militaris ordinis) is a chivalric order with military purpose originally established as Catholic religious societies during the medieval Crusades for protection of Christians against violent persecution of the Islamic conquests (623–) in the Holy Land and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as by Baltic paganism in Eastern Europe.

Most members, often titled Knights, were and still are laymen, and not prelates, yet cooperating with the clergy, sometimes even taking religious vows such as poverty, chastity, and obedience, according to monastic ideals. As such, it was in the military orders that the Medieval concept of chivalry reached its apogee in an exceptionate fusion under Just war theory of military discipline and Christian virtues.

Prominent examples include the Knights Hospitaller, and the Knights Templar in Outremer, as well as the Teutonic Knights in the Baltics.

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