Notwithstanding the austerity of the monastic rule [based on the Cistercian reform of the Benedectine Rule], recruits flocked to the new order, which thenceforth comprised four ranks of brethren:
-the knights, equipped like the heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages;
-the serjeants, who formed the light cavalry;
and two ranks of non-fighting men:
-the farmers, entrusted with the administration of temporals;
-and the chaplains, who alone were vested with sacerdotal orders, to minister to the spiritual needs of the order.
From newadvent.org.
3 comments:
It's interesting to note that Masonic literature considers the Knights Templar as forerunners of the Lodge.
Yeah, well, the Templars are still around but in a different form, the SMOM (Sovereign Military Order of Malta). After the disslution of the Templars by the Pope much of their property and many of their brothers joined the Knights of Malta, today known as the SMOM which is still a genuine religious military order of the Catholic Church.
Actually I think youll find that when the Templars were found inocent by pope clement V but disbanded because of the scorn to their name, many members were adobted into the Knights Hospitaller(Knights of St John), who were still fighting in the crusades, and later became the Knights of Malta.
The Teutonic Knights were a third order set up before the 3rd crusade and continued to prosper in Germany under the Father figure of the Holy Roman Empire, pushing eastwards Slaughtering pagens who didnt worship Crist or didnt convert.
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