Finally, we begin delving into more obscure territory as we fill out our historical map. I would like to point out the "History" tab, where I am attempting to group these more minor Orders together to make them easier to locate in the future. While the Hospitallers of Saint Lazarus can be considered as a more major military organization, information on future projects shall become more and more sparse --- "History" will be extremely beneficial for locating and connecting information.
Onwards.
The Hospitallers of Saint Lazarus: The Leper Knights
The Knights of Saint Lazarus may not reside in the pit of unknown, but even placing one foot in the cusp leads to significant gaps in information. The birth of this organization alone is heavily convoluted due to an absence of proper documentation for many of its early years. The common tale goes a little bit like this:
During the 1130s, the order arose just outside the walls of Jerusalem, close to the St Lazarus postern (a small, inconspicuous door in a city's fortification), as a hospital for those who had contracted leprosy. In 1142, land within Jerusalem was given to the "Church of Saint Lazarus" in order to provide a more secure location to care for the sick. They were certainly not the first organization of their kind, although they claimed to be a continuation of past legacies in order to appear older and more respectable.
The order saw an influx of former sergeants and knights from various neighboring organizations, including the Knights of Saint John and Templars who had contracted leprosy during the thirteenth century, as neither group wanted to risk further infection (although, it is worth noting that the Knights of Saint John never made an explicit rule that lepers should/could defect, as they felt capable of handling the sick by themselves). Due to this, the Knights of Saint Lazarus are often depicted as a sort of diseased love-hate child between the Templars and Knights of Saint John. However, key differences exist, especially in regard to the hospitals of Saint John v Saint Lazarus. The Hospitallers of Saint John took the sick in as temporary additions to nurse them back to health, but those taken by the Hospitallers of Saint Lazarus were oft condemned to a permanent, secluded residency due to the nature of Leprosy. Once under the care of the OSLJ, individuals were treated as a member of the greater house and referred to as "brother" or "sister," subject to the same rules as their caretakers. Often, the master of the order was chosen from among the lepers. Despite this, the first master whose name has not been lost to time, Bartholomew, is suggested to have been a Templar who abandoned his original order to bask in the glory of being a minister for the terminally ill.
The connection with the Templars grows ever stronger when one considers that, after the Templars were forced to give up Acre by Saladin, the Knights of Saint Lazarus took over former Templar claims and refortified them. During the war of Saint Sabas (a conflict between Italian city-states that pitted the Knights of Saint John and the Templars against each other), the grandmaster of the Templars even took refuge with the OSLJ. Finally, in 1260 it was absolutely required that all leprous Templars defect to the Knights of Saint Lazarus.
Although it was pulling from incredibly successful pools of warriors, the sickly Knights of Saint Lazarus were not particularly successful on the battlefield. They were often forced into precarious positions, separated from the main, protective body of their allies, due to their disease. Their will to continue battling is something worth admiring, but nevertheless, they were often the most severely diminished force on the battlefield. Their introduction was largely out of necessity since manpower had begun to dwindle with the fall of the overall crusading spirit, and they were far from a first choice. The Knights of Saint Lazarus finally followed the example of similar organizations at the time and abandoned Jerusalem in 1291.
As they gradually shifted to a military order alone, the Knights of Saint Lazarus were deemed rather useless. They began to leech off of Christian charity organizations until, in 1490, Pope Innocent VIII attempted to pass their properties to the Hospitallers of Saint John, who had little interest in OSLJ holdings outside of Germany. Despite this, the Order of Saint Lazarus was gradually reinstated as an organization, facing only minor conflict in regaining their claims from the Knights of Saint John, who had decided to cling to earlier declarations to preserve their power. The Knights of Saint Lazarus still exist today as a charity organization against poverty, disease, and intolerance.
Further Reading:
Those are some really interesting sources you found.
ReplyDeleteWhat an odd order – even the fact that there would be so many Leper Knights that they would need an order in the first place is a bit startling, and the picture of them going off to war and being shuffled around like hot potatoes is rather sad.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they would be called "sister" as a member of the order is interesting in suggesting that women were playing a role in the order (not as knights or actual members presumably, but in some capacity)?
Thanks for pointing us toward the "history" tab (on your own blog obviously).