1st Edition

On the Military Orders in Medieval Europe Structures and Perceptions

By Jürgen Sarnowsky Copyright 2011
    374 Pages
    by Routledge

    This collection of articles by Jürgen Sarnowsky covers 20 years of research dedicated to the military orders in general as well as to the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights. Four of these have been translated into English especially for this volume and two articles are published here for the first time. Section one contains five papers on the self-perception, statutes, and historical writing of the orders, and on their relationship with the crusading movement. In section two, the example of the Hospitallers is used to discuss some problems of the central administration of the orders (chapters general, finances) and its relationship to the provinces (the situation in the English priory, the functioning of visitations). Section three is dedicated to the 'order states' of the Hospitallers in the Aegean and the Teutonic Knights in the Baltic. Three articles give a comparison of their rule, their self-perception, and employment of ships, two other papers deal with the legislation and the situation of the church on Rhodes, and two with certain aspects of the foreign policies of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. The last section focuses on internal features of the order's history. Three articles compare the role of the priests, the masters, and of women in the military orders, and this is complemented by smaller studies on the life of the brethren and the death of the masters of the Hospitallers on Rhodes.

    Contents: Preface; Part I General Aspects of the History of Military Orders: Identity and self-perception of the military orders; The statutes of the military orders; Historical writing in military orders,12th-16th centuries; Der Johanniterorden und die Kreuzzüge; The late medieval military orders and the transformation of the idea of holy wars. Part II Administration, Internal Government: The oligarchy at work: the Chapters General of the Hospitallers in the XVth century (1421-1522); 'The rights of the treasury': the financial administration of the Hospitallers on 15th-century Rhodes (1421-1522); Kings and priors: the Hospitaller priory of England in the later 15th century; The convent and the West: visitations in the Order of the Hospital of St John in the 15th century. Part III 'Order States', Foreign Policies: Military orders and power - Teutonic Knights, Hospitallers, and their 'order state'; Ritterorden als Landesherren: Münzen und Siegel als Selbstzeugnisse; Pragmaticae Rhodiae. The territorial legislation of the Hospitallers on Rhodes; Die Kirche auf Rhodos in 15 Jahrhundert; The military Orders and their navies; Ein Streit der Marienburger Großschäfferei mit den Grafen von Northumberland am Anfang des 15 Jahrhunderts; The Teutonic Order confronts Mongols and Turks. Part IV Life Within the Orders: Hospitaller brethren on 15th-century Rhodes; The priests in the military orders - a comparative approach on their standing and role; Der Tod des Großmeisters der Johanniter; The legacies and the bequests of the masters in the military orders; Gender-Aspekte in der Geschichte der geistlichen Ritterorden; Index.

    Biography

    Professor Dr Jürgen Sarnowsky, University of Hamburg, Germany.

    'Jürgen Sarnowsky, who has written a magnificent book on Hospitaller Rhodes, has been one of the leaders of this renaissance [in studies on the Military Orders] and it is good to be able to read twenty-one of his articles in this volume... This volume is a welcome addition to a very valuable series.' Jonathan Riley-Smith in Catholic Historical Review