Charity and Religion in Medieval Europe

3. To Shelter the Pilgrim: Military Orders, Hospices, and Bridges

89 3 To Shelter the Pilgrim Military Orders, Hospices, and Bridges Just as bishops, monasteries, and lay patrons were laying the foundations for almshouses, hospices, and leper shelters across Europe, groups of men and women coalesced into religious communities for the pursuit of a caritative apostolate. Some of these individuals established religious orders, groupings of affiliated houses and communities joined together under a shared Rule to fulfill a common mission. Most prominent among these were the military orders, many of whom operated shelters and hospitals in addition to their better-known combat activities in Spain, Palestine, and eastern Europe. Less visible were smaller orders who guarded mountain passes through the Alps or Pyrenees and sheltered pilgrims on their way to Rome, Santiago, or the Holy Land. There are, in addition, those independent congregations of professed and nonprofessedindividualswhoseworknevercoalescedintoaformal religious order but who nonetheless provided similar hospitality and also built and maintained bridges. The common 90  To shelter the pilgrim element that ties these movements together is that their service was directed toward pilgrims and travelers. The Major Military Orders Military orders and lay conversi have been called the two most distinctive creations of the twelfth-century Church.1 The latter, who staffed the independent hospitals and made up much of the membership of the hospitaller orders that are discussed in the next chapter, are prominent practitioners of Christian charity. The charitable role of the military orders, however, has generally been overshadowed by their seemingly contradictory work as soldiers. Indeed, not all military orders practiced charity in the same way. For some, it was merely an accident of the asceticism mandated by their Rule, but for others it was a principal focus of their work. This difference arises from the fact that the military orders sprang from two very different religious traditions . Some, such as the Templars, were offshoots of monasticism, so their spirituality is highly colored by Cistercian perspectives; others are canonical in origin and practice the Rule of St. Augustine. Because monasticism focuses upon the inner perfection of an individual, its practices of charity are highly symbolic and ritualistic. Canonical spirituality, on the other hand, sees its perfection in terms of service to the external world.2 The connection between canonical reform and hospitallerism is rooted in the Gregorian reform movement and its efforts to impose a regular discipline upon clergy who resided outside of the cloister. While the term “canon” is difficult to define because canons, just as monks, pursued a variety of vocations, it has come to denote members of the chapters of cathedrals and collegiate churches as well as 1. Constable, The Reformation of the Twelfth Century, 75, 169. 2. On the relationship between religious rule and function, see James W. Brodman, “Rule and Identity: The Case of the Military Orders,” Catholic Historical Review 87 (2001): 383–400. Interestingly, in discussing the spiritual and historical roots of the military orders, A. J. Forey speaks almost exclusively of the Templars and the monastic roots of this movement , recognizing implicitly at least the divergence of the Hospitallers of St. John and its progeny. “The Emergence of the Military Orders,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 36 (1985): 175–95. To shelter the pilgrim 91 members of congregations that practiced a Rule, such as the Rule of St. Augustine. A Roman text of the late eleventh or early twelfth century provides a list of works appropriate to canons, including building churches, reproving vice, ransoming captives, and treating people well.3 While charity and the custody of hospitals are not explicitly mentioned in this text, canons in the eleventh and twelfth century are counted among the practitioners of charity. For example, among the earliest canons who practiced hospitality were those at Montsalvy (1066) in the diocese of Rodez, at the Church of Saint-Gilles (ca. 1080) near Liège, and at the Church of Flône in the diocese of Liège.4 At first canons retained something of the eremetical character of monasticism . Many lived in relatively isolated communities and so avoided either pastoral or charitable activities. This is also true of two of the three major canonical orders—the Arrouaisians and the Premonstratentians —but the third, the Victorines, in addition to their betterknown devotion to learning, also dispensed alms to the poor, cared for the infirm, and provided shelter to pilgrims.5 It is within this context of canonical charity that the first of the military orders arose. Hospitallers...