Presented at St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, October 2001
Introduction
The Military Religious Orders came into existence in the twelfth century during the age of the Crusades. The earliest Orders were those of the Temple and the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (later known as the Knights of Rhodes, and still later as the Knights of Malta). Both were established in the Holy Land in the years immediately following the conquest of the Holy City by the crusaders in 1099. Soon, knowledge of those Orders penetrated the Iberian peninsula and prompted King Alfonso I of Aragón (1100-1134), known as the Battler, to will his kingdoms to the Orders of the Temple and the Hospital and to the Holy Sepulcher. Although his will was not implemented it did result in the establishment of the Templars and the Hospitallers in Spain around the years 1130-1140.[1]
After the middle of the twelfth century the first indigenous Military Religious Orders made their appearance in the peninsula, a critical time in the history of the struggle between Christianity and Islam. Ever since their invasion in 711 the Muslims had enjoyed an ascendancy in Spain under the rule of the emirs and caliphs of Córdoba. Most of the Christian population, known as the Mozarabs, was reduced to a protected, tributary status. Although some Christians maintained their independence in the mountainous regions of the north, they were unable to challenge Islamic domination. Nevertheless, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031 a congeries of tiny statelets known as taifas emerged, enabling the Christian rulers of León, Castile, Portugal, Aragón, Navarre, and Catalonia to demand tribute from them. Then in 1085 Alfonso VI, king of León-Castile (1065-1109) seized the city of Toledo, the ancient seat of the Visigoths, and advanced his frontiers to the Tagus river, in the very center of the peninsula.
That served as a wakeup call to the reyes de taifas or petty Muslim of Granada, Seville, and Zaragoza, who realized that they were all likely to be swallowed soon if they did not receive external assistance. Consequently, they appealed to the Almoravids, a Muslim sect from Morocco, who halted the Christian advance and, by absorbing the taifas, reestablished the unity of Islamic Spain. Nevertheless, by the early years of the twelfth century Almoravid rule also began to crumble, making it possible once again for the Christians to achieve significant territorial gains, for example, the capture of Zaragoza on the Ebro river in 1118, and the fall of Lisbon at the mouth of the Tagus, Almería on the southeast coast, and Tortosa at the mouth of the Ebro, the only military successes of the Second Crusade. Soon afterward, however, still another Moroccan Muslim sect, the Almohads, invaded the peninsula and again established a united front against the Christians. As warfare intensified in the second half of the twelfth century the Christian rulers recognized that the Military Religious Orders could help to contain the Almohads.[2]
Recognizing the value of these communities, pledged to the permanent defense of the Christian frontiers, the Christian kings gave them custody of castles and fortresses, possession of villages and other properties, and a share in royal booty. At the same time that the Orders were struggling against the Moors (a word derived from the Latin Mauri, meaning the inhabitants of ancient Mauretania, modern Morocco) they were trying to develop a new way of life, a combination of the very different lives of knights and monks. This would be an arduous and formidable task in ordinary times, but in the midst of the violent circumstances of the frontier it was especially difficult. Today I want to examine the intentions of the Orders and the essential aspects of their life as revealed in their primitive statutes, that is, the earliest texts of the twelfth century and the first years of the thirteenth.
Foundation of the Military Orders
At the outset, let me say something about the foundation of the Spanish Military Orders. While the peninsular rulers were happy to utilize the eastern Orders of the Temple and the Hospital, they were concerned that the primary service of the knights established in Spain should be rendered there, rather than in the Holy Land. The sense that they would not be able to rely fully upon the Templars and the Hospitallers to defend the frontiers against the Almohad threat, encouraged the Christian rulers to call upon the newly established Military Orders of Calatrava, Alcántara, Avis, all linked to the French Order of Cîteaux, and the Military Order of Santiago.[3]
In January 1147 Alfonso VII of León-Castile (1126-1157) seized the fortress of Calatrava situated on the Guadiana river guarding the approaches to Toledo, and granted it to the Templars, but their inability or unwillingness to defend it created a crisis. When Abbot Raimundo of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero and his monks responded to King Sancho III’s (1157-1158) appeal for help, a grateful king in 1158 entrusted them with the defense of Calatrava.[4] Archbishop Juan of Toledo "on hearing this holy intention, gave thanks to God and immediately provided help from his goods and caused it to be preached publicly that all those who went to the aid of Calatrava would merit remission of all their sins." In doing so he conferred on them the same indulgence as the popes had given to crusaders to the Holy Land.[5] From then on the Order of Calatrava acquired extensive holdings in the kingdoms of Castile, León, and Aragón.
Calatrava also seems to have set down roots in both León and Portugal, where the Orders of San Julián del Pereiro and Évora, appear to have been affiliated branches of Calatrava. The Order of San Julián del Pereiro, founded in the kingdom of León,[6] received papal protection from Alexander III in December 1176.[7] A few years later, in 1183, Lucius III confirmed the rule and customs of Master Gómez and his friars[8] Given the fact that San Julián and all its properties were included among the possessions of the Order of Calatrava in a papal confirmation of 1187, an affiliation of the two Orders before that date seems certain.[9] Once its headquarters was transferred in 1218 to the fortress of Alcántara on the Tagus river, not far from the Portuguese frontier, the community came to be known as the Order of Alcántara.[10]
The first notice that we have of the Order of Évora in Portugal is also dated 1176, when King Afonso I (1128-1185) granted property to Gonzalo Viegas, the Master of Évora, and his friars, "following the Order of St. Benedict."[11] Like San Julián, Évora also seems to have been affiliated to the Order of Calatrava by 1187.[12] In 1202 Innocent III described the friars of Évora as "professed to the Order of Calatrava."[13] Although they were given the castle of Avis about seventy miles east of Lisbon, in 1211, only after they transferred their headquarters there about 1223-1224 did they become known as the Order of Avis.[14]
In the long run, the most powerful and the most widely diffused of all the Spanish Military Orders was the Order of Santiago. The foundations of the Order were laid at Cáceres in the kingdom of León in 1170 by a group of friars, under their Master Pedro Fernández, with the collaboration of King Fernando II of León (1157-1188), who gave them lordship of the town, with the expectation that they would defend Extremadura and the road leading to Seville.[15] In the following year the friars of Cáceres concluded a pact of friendship and brotherhood with Archbishop Pedro of Santiago de Compostela, who placed them under the protection of the Apostle St. James.[16] The Order was further augmented in 1172 when the friars of Ávila, a municipal military order, were incorporated into the community. The agreement stipulated that once the Saracens were driven from Spain, the friars of both Santiago and Ávila would cross over into Morocco and ultimately would advance on Jerusalem.[17] The recurrence of the idea that after Spanish Islam was eradicated, Morocco could be conquered and Christian forces could march across North Africa to Jerusalem, is especially noteworthy.
In 1175 Pope Alexander III gave his approbation to the Order of Santiago, noting that its sole purpose was the defense of the Christian name, and praised the friars who protected the frontier against the incursions of the pagans, “the enemies of the cross of Christ.”[18] From its inception the Order was conceived as an international organization on the model of the Temple and the Hospital. Although Leonese in origin,[19] the new Order quickly expanded into the neighboring kingdoms of Portugal[20] and Castile, where its principal seat was Uclés in the Tagus valley, east of Toledo.[21] Before the decade was over the Order had property in France, England, and as far away as Carinthia.
There were also some ephemeral Orders, such as Trujillo, a Castilian branch of San Julián,[22] and the Order of Mountjoy or Monte Gaudio, whose existence was also of short duration.[23] The Order of San Jorge de Alfama was also established near the frontier of the kingdom of Valencia about the end of the twelfth century, but little is known of its activities.[24] Still later in the second half of the thirteenth century Alfonso X founded the Order of Santa María de España but it was soon incorporated into the Order of Santiago.[25] Following the dissolution of the Order of the Temple at the beginning of the fourteenth century the Order of Montesa and the Order of Christ were established in Aragón and Portugal respectively.[26]
If one looks at the map it is apparent that the twelfth-century Christian rulers were attempting to establish a first line of defense along the frontier from southern Aragón and following the Tagus river to Lisbon, by entrusting important castles to the military orders. In Portugal the Order of Avis was dominant, though Santiago was close behind; in the kingdom of León defense of the frontier was shared principally by Santiago and Alcántara. The Order of Calatrava controlled the direct route northward from Córdoba to Toledo, while Santiago (and to some extent the Hospital) defended the approaches to the east. In Aragón and Catalonia the Temple and the Hospital were paramount, but south of the Ebro Calatrava, through its commandery at Alcañiz, had the chief role, until the end of the twelfth century. In sum, the Military Orders maintained permanent garrisons along the frontier and were the first to respond to the call to war.
Sources for the Study of the Life of the Orders
In order to study the life of the Military Orders during the first years of their existence, that is, in the second half of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, we have at hand a variety of sources. They include texts given to Calatrava by the General Chapter of the Order of Citeaux, papal bulls confirming all the Orders mentioned, and the Rule of the Order of Santiago. These texts reveal for the first time the reason for the existence of the Military Orders and the type of life that they followed. Let me make a short commentary on these documents.
The primitive statutes of the Order of Calatrava consist of a Forma vivendi, or Way of Life, dictated by the Cistercian General Chapter in September 1164;[27] another charter of the General Chapter of 1187, repeating the previous Forma vivendi with some modifications, and affiliating Calatrava to the French monastery of Morimond, whose abbot received the right to conduct an annual visitation of Calatrava;[28] and a third letter of the General Chapter dated 1199, again confirming the Forma vivendi of 1164.[29] We can identify these texts as the first, second, and third Forma vivendi. None of them occupies more than two printed pages. Popes Alexander III, Gregory VIII, and Innocent III confirmed each one of these documents in 1164,[30] 1187,[31] 1199, and 1214, respectively.[32] In addition, in January 1195, Guy I, abbot of Morimond, visited Calatrava and published a short text establishing important relations between the Order of Calatrava and the Cistercian monastery of San Pedro de Gumiel.[33] Finally we have some statutes in thirty-nine chapters given to the Order when it was located at Salvatierra and known as the Order of Salvatierra, during the years between the battles of Alarcos in 1195 and Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, or more precisely between 1198 and 1213. Derek Lomax, the great historian of the Order of Santiago, thought that these statutes were promulgated by the abbot of San Pedro de Gumiel as the delegate of the abbot of Morimond.[34]
There are no independent statutes for the Orders of San Julián del Pereiro (Alcántara) or that of Évora (Avis) from this early period. Nevertheless, if both Orders were branches of Calatrava in León and Portugal, at least from 1187, as I believe they were, then we can say that they followed Calatrava’s Forma vivendi. Alexander III's bull of 1176 and another of Lucius III dated 1183 shed some additional light on the life of the friars of San Julián.[35] Moreover, during his visit to the Order of Avis in 1238 the Master of Calatrava promulgated several short statutes.[36] Finally, Alexander III’s bull given to Santiago in 1175[37] and the so-called Rule of the Order of Santiago, written probably around the same year,[38] tell us much about the primitive life of the friars of Santiago and their relations with the other Military Orders.[39]
Fratres, Militia, and Ordo
In order to understand the nature of these communities as their members and their contemporaries perceived them, we ought to begin by noting the words used in the earliest texts to refer to them. In the first place the documents speak simply of fratres or brothers, or friars.[40] This word suggests a small community or association, one not well defined, still without a complex organization and without any great properties. It is a word that one might use to speak of any monastic community and does not offer any suggestion of a military function.
In the 1170s, however, our documents often refer to militia.[41] Alexander III, for example, in 1174 addressed himself to the magister militie of Calatrava and spoke of the milites or knights of Calatrava.[42] Other papal bulls mention the magister militie of Santiago.[43] The word militia gives an indication of a military purpose and tells us that the fratres or brothers were joined together as a military force.[44] The title of magister or master used to designate the leader of the community did not have any academic or monastic connotation but recalled the ancient magister militum or commander of troops of the Roman empire.[45]
Nevertheless, the word militia had been used for many centuries in monastic literature, for example, in the Rule of St. Benedict, to describe the life of the monks engaged in a spiritual combat against the devil.[46] In his Liber de laude nove militie, dedicated to the newly-established Order of the Temple, St. Bernard of Clairvaux used the word militia in a double sense, referring both to the daily struggle of the monastic life, but also to the military activities of the Templars. St. Bernard argued that the Order was a new form of militia, different not only from the brutal militia secularis, but also from traditional monasticism. Wielding the two swords, the spiritual and the temporal, the Templars were engaged in a double struggle against both flesh and blood and also against the spirit of evil.[47] St. Bernard's justification of the Order of the Temple as a new way of life, combining the ideals of monasticism and of knighthood, gave the word militia a double meaning, reflected in the Spanish texts of this period.
From the last quarter of the twelfth century the word ordo or ordo militie, that is, order or order of knighthood, entered into common usage to refer to these military religious societies.[48] Ordo signifies a state of life in the society of that epoch and also has a monastic connotation. It suggests certain characteristic observances that distinguish the monastic life of the monks of the Order of Cluny, for example, from that of the monks of the Order of Cîteaux.[49] Thus ordo militie refers to a troop of knights under the command of a master, joined in a monastic association or order.[50] The Rule of Santiago, for example, speaks of the "fratres ordinis militie beati Iacobis Apostoli."[51]
The Purpose of the Orders
We must now ask ourselves what were the intentions of those who founded the Military Orders? What did they want to do? What were they thinking about? We cannot ask them directly after so many centuries have passed, but the extant documents throw some light on these questions.
I think we can see in these texts the influence of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and of his Liber de laude nove militie, and also of his letters exhorting the faithful to take part in the Second Crusade.[52] Sancho III, king of Castile, for example, in his charter giving Calatrava to Abbot Raimundo of Fitero, ordained that the abbot and his brethren should defend the fortress "against the pagans, the enemies of the cross of Christ . . . so that the Christian religion may be propagated and our kingdom increased and protected.”[53] In phrases reminiscent of St. Bernard, the Cistercian General Chapter in 1164 praised the intention of Master García and the brethren of Calatrava to convert from the militia mundi to the militia Dei, - that is, from the knighthood of this world to the knighthood of God - in order to fight against “the enemies of the faith.”[54] Similarly Pope Alexander III on 25 September in the same year approved the friars’ desire to fight against the Saracens in defense of Calatrava.[55] The General Chapter again in 1187 praised their intention to turn from the militia mundi to the militia Christi and to combat the enemies of the faith.[56] King Alfonso VIII (1158-1214) of Castile also praised those who dedicated their lives and shed their blood in combat "against the adversaries of the cross of Christ." He also spoke of the knights as a shield and a wall in defense of the faith against the pagan multitude. [57]
The first documents of the Order of San Julián del Pereiro, dated in 1176, give no explicit idea of that community’s purpose. Nevertheless, Pope Lucius III, on 4 April 1183, noting that San Julián "was situated in the mouth of the Saracens," expressed the hope that Master Gómez and his friars "would struggle more effectively in defense of Christendom."[58] It is very likely that the community of San Julián, if it had not been established for military purposes, was transformed into a Military Order in the seven years between 1176 and 1183.
As for the friars of Santiago, Alexander III received Master Pedro Fernández and his brethren as "special sons," whose only intention was the defense of the Christian name. Rejoicing at their conversion, the pope confirmed their possessions and their way of life.[59] He praised the friars as "men of the Lord, fearing and desiring the law of the Lord" who exposed themselves to extreme danger in defense of the faith and protected the Christian frontiers against the incursions of the pagans, the enemies of the cross of Christ. He added that their religious life was pleasing to God and acceptable and necessary to Christendom.[60] The prologue of the Rule of the Order of Santiago also employed words evocative of St. Bernard’s Liber de Laude Nove Militie. The Rule stated that some “knights of the devil" - "equites diaboli” - abandoned the malitia, that is the evil and perverse life of wars against their Christian neighbors. Accepting the militia, they turned to a life that was truly Christian, exposing their very bodies to the yoke of Christ and to the yoke of martyrdom. Dedicated to combat against the enemies of Christ and the defense of the Church of God, under the invocation of Santiago, they placed on their breasts the sign of the cross in the form of a sword. The archbishops and bishops of Castile and León approved their new way of life, their new viuendi forma.[61] Here again we encounter the same words, Forma vivendi, previously used of Calatrava in 1164.
The preceding texts are full of significant ideas reflecting the language of the crusades.[62] In the manner of St. Bernard they speak in the first place of the conversion of the knights from a wicked life of brigandage, or in Latin, of their conversion from malitia to militia, a word meaning the proper and good life of true knights. They were now changed from knights of the devil - equites diaboli - to knights of Christ - milites Christi. In the second place the Rule of Santiago speaks of the possibility of martyrdom, again touching on an idea that arose during the preaching of the Second Crusade. Those who gave their lives in defense of the faith, like the ancient Christians massacred by the lions in the Roman coliseum, would be martyrs of the faith and would gain eternal life. In the third place, the texts exalt these defenders of the faith and the Church of God, assuring them that what they were doing was a meritorious work pleasing to God. Thus the texts speak to us of a religious war undertaken to exalt the Christian faith against those variously described as infidels, pagans, or enemies of the cross of Christ.[63]
In spite of St. Bernard’s prestige, a fellow Cistercian, Isaac, abbot of the monastery of l'Étoile in France (d. c. 1169), expressed some doubts in a sermon about the life of the Military Orders. He spoke of a nova militia, a new knighthood, without naming it, that used lances and staves against the infidels to force them to convert to Christianity. Those who did not convert were killed. Isaac said that this was not a nova militia but rather a new monster - monstrum novum - which was called the Order of the Fifth Gospel because its members did not follow the four gospels.[64] Although Raciti suggested that Isaac was speaking of the Order of Calatrava, Leclercq thought that he referred to the Templars. I think that is more probable. We will never know for sure what Order Isaac was speaking about, but we can say that in none of the documents of the Spanish Military Orders do we find anything concerning the forced conversion of the infidels. It is true that Alexander III warned the friars of Santiago to fight in defense of the Christians and to try to attract the Saracens to the Christian faith, but they ought also to avoid vainglory and the effusion of blood and rapine. In any case the pope's words cannot be understood as approving forced conversion.[65] Nor is their any indication that the friars of Santiago or of any of the other Military Orders tried to convert the Moors in this way. In point of fact the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Spain generally do not reveal any serious attempt by anyone to convert the Muslims, but rather to expel them.[66]
The Life of the Orders
Now I want to look closely at the daily life of the Orders, which was an adaptation to military necessity of the traditional monastic life. In the principal convent or monastery of each Order, the friars, under the command of the Master or his lieutenant tried to follow the rule and customs of their Order. The dispersal of the friars in encomiendas under the administration of commanders, but especially their participation in military campaigns, necessitated some modification of the ordinary life of the convent. Nevertheless, the friars had to observe the rule as best possible in the circumstances.
The friars of Calatrava,[67] San Julián or Alcántara,[68] and Évora or Avis[69] followed the Rule of St. Benedict and the customs of Cîteaux, while the friars of Santiago had their own Rule.[70] Despite that we can note certain similarities among them. In each Order there was a group of knights, perhaps the most numerous, and another group of clerics, chaplains, or conventual brothers, who spent their lives within the convent.
Given the necessities of recruitment, it is very probable that the first members of the Military Orders came from every state in life, without special consideration of their social rank. They had to be men of adult age, whether knights or footsoldiers, capable of carrying out the religious and military labors of the Order.[71] Alexander III in 1177 allowed San Julián del Pereiro to receive clerics and laymen, with the sole condition that they be freemen.[72] He also referred to the first friars of Santiago as "certain noble men"- "nobiles quidam viri."[73] Although there is no statute from the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth limiting entrance solely to those of noble birth, knights with their horses and arms emerged as the dominant element in each Order.[74] Some like Pedro Fernández, the first Master of Santiago, and Count Rodrigo de Sarria, were magnates, while others were likely members of the lower nobility. For that reason the Rule of Santiago (cap. 72-73) condemned those who showed any sign of vainglory concerning their family or their riches or looked down on another family.[75] Santiago apparently was the only Order to receive married men as full members (cap. 1).[76]
According to the Rule of St. Benedict (cap. 58) anyone seeking admission into a monastery had first to spend a novitiate year following the daily routine of the community. At the end of the year he could make his profession or leave.[77] The first Forma vivendi of Calatrava of 1164 commanded everyone to make profession to the Master as if to an abbot.[78] The friar, like a Benedictine monk, had to follow the life of a novice during the year prior to profession.[79] Canon law prohibited the transfer of a monk from one monastery to a less rigorous one.[80] Count Rodrigo de Sarria obtained ecclesiastical authorization to leave the Order of Santiago to establish the Order of Monte Gaudio or Mountjoy according to the Cistercian observance, because the Order of Cîteaux was stricter than that of Santiago. However, in order to preserve the integrity of Santiago, he was forbidden to admit into his community members of that Order.[81]
A very important group in each Order were the conventual brothers who lived in the principal convent following the traditional monastic life. The first Forma vivendi of Calatrava declared that the friars could choose priests as they wished to be their chaplains, hearing their confessions and celebrating mass for them.[82] After the affiliation of Calatrava with Morimond in 1187, the General Chapter ordered that "two monks from that same monastery [of Morimond] after its construction, should live, for as long as may be necessary, with the friars" of Calatrava, doubtless to instruct them in the Cistercian observance.[83] Guy I of Morimond in 1195 ordered the Master to choose the monks who would live at Calatrava.[84] The Order of Santiago also recruited clerics to serve the spiritual necessities of the friars. They lived in a convent under a prior and received the tithes of the friars for their maintenance; they also had the duty to teach the children of the knights their letters.[85]
As noted, the head of each Order had the title of Master.[86] The Master was the general administrator of his Order with a position comparable to that of an abbot. In the most important affairs the Master had to act with the consent of his convent or chapter.[87] According to the statutes of Salvatierra (art. 20) the Master had to render accounts in the presence of the visitor and of the elders (seniores) of the community. The Master of Calatrava received from the abbot of Morimond the right to assist at the visitation of San Pedro de Gumiel, and to offer his counsel in the affairs of that monastery.[88] The Master of Calatrava also claimed the right to visit the Order of Alcántara "according to the Order of Citeaux" (1218). However, he could not alienate or transfer any of Alcántara’s property without the consent of the Master and convent of that Order.[89] The Master of Calatrava also exercised the right to visit the Order de Avis - a "filia de Calatraua" - in 1238.[90]
The Master of Santiago was assisted by a council of thirteen persons, the trece. When he died, the thirteen, summoned by the prior, had the right to elect the new Master within fifty days. If the Master was pernicious or ineffective, the thirteen could admonish him and even depose him with the counsel of the prior and of the sanior pars, the wiser part, of the General Chapter.[91]
The other Orders followed the Rule of St. Benedict concerning the election of the Master, who held office for life, like a Benedictine abbot.[92] Pope Lucius III declared that the friars of San Julián "with common counsel or with the pars sanior could elect [the Master] in the fear of God and according to the Rule of St. Benedict."[93] The Masters of Alcántara[94] and of Avis had the right to attend the election of the Master of Calatrava.[95] The Master could resign freely, but if his government proved intolerable, he could be deposed. It seems that Nuño, Master of Calatrava (1183-1197), renounced his office two years after the disaster of Alarcos, and that the former Master Martín Pérez de Siones replaced him, but he resigned within a year.[96] In 1199 Pope Innocent III ordered two Masters who had resigned to restore to the Order whatever property they held,[97] and the General Chapter of Cîteaux in the same year ordained that if the Master was deposed or resigned, he could not retain any of the Order's property for his personal use.[98] According to the statutes of Salvatierra (art. 1), no one other than the abbot of Morimond or his delegate, could depose the Master and install another in his place.[99] Whether it was the result of infirmity, wounds, old age, or internal opposition, it would seem that few of the Masters in the first century of the existence of the Military Orders governed until death. Most appear to have resigned or to have been deposed.
We have a short description of the ceremonies celebrated during the installation of Martín Fernández, the new Master of Avis, in 1238 by Martín Ruiz, Master of Calatrava. Determining that the Master of Avis was not elected "according to the form of the Order," the Master of Calatrava, stated that he took him "by the hand and placed him in his place and we confirmed him in the Mastership and he made a promise to us as the Masters of Avis and Alcántara had previously made to the Master of Calatrava and we gave him his seal and we commanded that everyone make a promise to him." Presumably that was a promise of obedience. The friars of Avis also promised that in the future they would not elect a Master in the absence of the Master of Calatrava.[100]
Just as the prior in monastic communities was the abbot's lieutenant, so too the prior in the Military Orders was the superior of the convent and of the conventual brothers.[101] The statutes of Salvatierra state that there was a prior from the beginning of the Order (art. 3).[102] According to the second Forma vivendi of Calatrava in 1187 the prior ought to receive the profession of the clerics of the community.[103] From that year onward the prior of Calatrava, the subprior, and the cellarer were a delegate of the abbot of Morimond or of the abbot of San Pedro de Gumiel. The prior, with the counsel of the Master or Commander, had to correct all grave faults, but ought not to involve himself in the temporal affairs of the Order unless asked by the Master.[104] When the Master of Calatrava ceded the fortress of Alcántara to the friars of San Julián in 1218, he commanded that they should never receive any monk as their prior without his consent; they could choose one from Calatrava itself or from its affiliates.[105] The prior of Santiago was also the superior of the Order's clerics, with responsibility for the spiritual life of the brothers; he also summoned the thirteen to elect the new Master.[106]
Besides the Master and the Prior, knights with the title of Commander had the responsibility to guard and administer the houses or properties of the Order outside the principal convent.[107] The Rule of Santiago (cap. 26) stipulated that in every house where there were two brothers, the Master should name one of them as Commander.[108]
All the brothers of the Order assembled together in chapter to treat matters of common interest and especially to correct faults and offenses. The first Forma vivendi of Calatrava required the Master to hold a daily chapter. Pope Gregory VIII in 1187 prohibited any change in the "regular and ancient customs of the Order" or any alienation of the Order's property without the consent of the Master and of the "greater and wiser part of the chapter."[109] According to the Rule of Santiago (cap. 7) the chapter was supposed to be held after daily mass and another longer chapter was held every Sunday to discuss the affairs of the house. The Rule was to be read every month.[110] Alexander III ordered the celebration of a General Chapter by the Thirteen and the Commanders on All Saints' Day, to deal with matters of greater importance, as for example, war against the Moors. During the Chapter visitors would be elected to visit the houses of the Order and to admonish those who had failed in the observance of the Rule.[111]
As in the traditional monastic communities the life of the Military Orders was founded on the practice of poverty, chastity, and obedience.[112] In the Order of Calatrava and its affiliates the new friar had to give up all his personal possessions on entering the Order and to live thereafter on what the Master gave him for his basic necessities.[113] According to Alexander III, the friars of Santiago ought to live without having anything of their own - "sine proprio" - selling their goods and giving the money to the Order and being content with whatever the Order gave them for their sustenance.[114]
All the friars of Calatrava and its affiliates had to live a life of celibacy and would incur severe penalties if they violated the statutes concerning chastity. The first Forma vivendi of Calatrava ordered that anyone who committed public fornication would have to eat on the ground for a year, three days a week on bread and water, and receive the discipline every Friday.[115] To these penalties the statutes of Salvatierra (art. 30) added that a friar guilty of fornication should lose his horse and arms for a year. Grounding of that sort was a severe penalty in that it deprived the knight of his military capability and, in some measure, of his dignity as well.[116]
There was a fundamental difference between Calatrava and its affiliates, on the one hand, and the Order of Santiago on the other, in that the friars of Santiago could marry if they wished. Married knights had to live in conjugal chastity and single friars were bound by the vow of celibacy.[117] Repeating the words of St. Paul "it is better to marry than to burn," the Rule of Santiago required that the friars live without sin in conjugal chastity and not approach their wives during fast days (Proemium, cap. 12).[118]
A fundamental principle
of the monastic life was the obligation to obey the abbot. Praising the
intention of the friars of Santiago to live in common in obedience to the
Master, Pope Alexander III affirmed that the first thing to observe was
obedience. The Rule of Santiago (cap. 28) demanded that the friars "obey
the Master in everything and through everything."[119] Saying the same thing, the first Forma vivendi of Calatrava required that
anyone who was disobedient should eat on the ground for three days. If anyone
struck another, he would lose his horse and arms for six months.[120]
The spiritual life of the Military Orders was organized around the celebration of mass and the canonical hours. According to the first Forma vivendi of Calatrava the chaplains were to hear confessions and to sing the mass.[121] It is also very likely that the knights joined the chaplains at the canonical hours in the convent of Calatrava. Obviously they could not do so when they were on campaign, but then they probably recited a certain number of Our Fathers and Hail Marys.[122] Although Alexander III did not prescribe anything on this theme, the Rule of Santiago (cap. 1, 7) required attendance at daily mass and the reception of the Eucharist on the three feasts of Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, but also, if it were possible, every Sunday after confession (cap. 32). The friars should participate in the canonical hours, reciting a prescribed number of Our Fathers for each hour, and for the Pope, the Church, and the members of the Order (cap. 4-6).[123]
In all the Orders the friars ate in common, in silence, listening to the reading of certain spiritual books. The first Forma vivendi of Calatrava allowed the use of meat (only one dish) three days a week, that is, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and on the principal feasts of the year. This was a concession made in view of their strenuous activities, because Cistercian custom permitted the use of meat only to the weak and infirm.