scholarly journals ASPECTS AND PROBLEMS OF THE TEMPLARS' RELIGIOUS PRESENCE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURY

Traditio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 273-302
Author(s):  
JOCHEN SCHENK
Keyword(s):  
Religious Involvement ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Military Orders ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Critical Overview ◽  
Lay Public

The medieval military orders were religious institutions whose members had professed a life of combat and prayer that integrated them into a religious landscape sharply defined by diversity. And yet still very little is known about the military orders’ religious functions in the dioceses in which they held ecclesiastical possessions. By focusing on one military order in particular, the Order of the Temple, this study aims to achieve two goals: first, to provide a critical overview of recent scholarship in the emerging field of military order (and especially Templar) religion, and second, to examine aspects of Templar religious involvement in medieval society in general and the reactions of senior clergymen to the Templars’ religious engagement on the parish level in particular. It argues that the Templars proved very keen to expand their network of parish churches and that in so doing they proved willing to engage with the lay public on a much larger scale than has hitherto been believed.

The Military Orders in the Crusading Proposals of the Late-Thirteenth and Early-Fourteenth Centuries

Traditio ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 317-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Forey
Keyword(s):  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Secular Clergy ◽  
Military Orders ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Establishment ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Temple

The most outstanding event in the history of the military orders at the end of the thirteenth and start of the fourteenth centuries was, of course, the dissolution of the Temple. This was not, however, an isolated happening. Although the accusations which led to the abolition of that order had been publicly voiced only shortly before the Templars‘ arrest, the proceedings against the Temple took place at a time when criticism of the military orders in general was mounting, and this growth of hostile opinion no doubt facilitated Philip IV's attack on the Templars. Ever since their foundation the military orders had been subjected to some criticism, but much early censure had been of a kind which might be directed against any religious establishment, especially by members of the secular clergy who found that their authority and resources were being impaired by the privileges which the military orders and other religious institutions enjoyed: it was not primarily concerned with the orders’ contribution to the struggle against the infidel. But as the fortunes of the crusading states declined, the military orders became increasingly criticised for their inadequacies as defenders of Christendom. Defeat in the Holy Land had to be explained by faults on the Christian side rather than in terms of Muslim superiority, and the military orders were an obvious target for attack. The authors of the numerous crusading proposals which were put forward in the late-thirteenth and early-fourteenth centuries were inevitably influenced by this growing criticism, and many crusading plans therefore included suggestions concerning the military orders. Those who drew up proposals did not themselves provide a reasoned or detailed account of the orders' faults or attempt to judge to what extent these failings contributed to Christian defeats, but the criticisms on which they based their plans were clearly not altogether groundless: although some strictures were ill-informed or excessive, the policies which the orders themselves pursued certainly provided a starting-point for the growth of hostile opinion. Yet some writers did not seek merely to remedy existing defects in the orders; they sought also to discuss what the role of the military order should be in the struggle against the infidel, and thus viewed the subject in a rather wider context.

A Wall and a Shield: Alfonso VIII and the Military Orders

2019 ◽  
pp. 102-117
Author(s):  
S.J. Sam Zeno Conedera
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Rapid Response ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Clear Preference ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Military Orders ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Temple

This chapter assesses how the military orders had an important place in Alfonso VIII's Castile as defenders and settlers of the frontier with Islam, as well as contingents in major campaigns and rapid response forces in smaller engagements. They also acted as caretakers of the sick and liberators of captives; occasional keepers of the peace between quarreling Christians; and as intercessors before the heavenly court. Their mission—and the structure of life that was meant to fulfill it—came from the hierarchical Church, but Alfonso VIII's mediating role between the hierarchy and the orders meant that royal prerogative was normally decisive for how that mission was carried out. Alfonso VIII's patterns of giving show a clear preference for Calatrava and Santiago over their “universal” counterparts, the Hospital and the Temple. The king saw the Iberian orders as a wall and a shield of Christendom, a view that the orders themselves shared, but within the framework of their particular type of religious life.

Millennial Missionaries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Dugan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Gender Essentialism ◽  
Craft Beer ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Religious Piety ◽  
Religious Landscape

This book is an ethnography of millennial-generation Catholic missionaries. The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) began hiring young adults to evangelize students on college campuses in 1998. Since then, FOCUS missionaries have developed a style of Catholic evangelization that navigates between strict and savvy interpretations of Catholic teaching in contemporary US youth culture. The Catholicism that FOCUS missionaries embrace and promote grew up with them and amid their middle-class American norms—missionaries own iPhones, drink craft beer, and create March Madness brackets. Born in the 1990s, millennial missionaries in their skinny jeans and devotional tattoos, large-framed glasses and scapulars embody an attractive style of Catholicism. They love saints and have memorized the “Tantum Ergo,” are fluent in college-student slang, but reject hook-up culture in favor of gender essentialism dictated by papal teachings. Missionaries rely on their social capital to make Catholicism cool. Many of their peers have been characterized as defectors from religious institutions. Yet, underneath the rise of “nones” is a story of increased religious piety. This book studies religion in the United States from the perspective of proud Catholic millennials. As they navigate their Catholic and US identities, these missionaries propose Catholicism as uniquely able to overcome perceived threats of secularism, relativism, and modernity. How, why, and with what implications is this Catholicism enacted? These questions, which point to power struggles between US culture and religious identity, drive this book. Through their prayers and evangelization efforts, missionaries are reshaping Catholic identity and shifting the religious landscape of the United States.

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