Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom [Hardcover]

Michael Walsh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

The great religious orders of Christianity — the Benedictines, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Jesuits — are well known for their monasteries, their learning, and their missions around the world. But in the Middle Ages and beyond, there was another kind of religious order whose profession it was to bear arms in defense of Christendom. This lavishly illustrated work tells the extraordinary story of the military orders of the Church.

From their humble beginnings in the early twelfth century as caretakers of the sick and protectors of pilgrims to the Holy Land, military religious orders quickly expanded their numbers and goals. They not only fought for the holy places but also helped turn back the advance of Muslim armies into western Europe and aided the spread of Christianity to lands along the Baltic. The Knights of St. John, the Knights Templar, the Knights of Santiago and of Calatrava, the Teutonic Knights, and other formal military orders played a fearsome, sometimes brutal, but currently neglected role in the history of Christianity.

Coupling a compelling narrative with striking historic art, Michael Walsh examines the development, beliefs, spirituality, and cultural contributions of these determined soldier-monks. Walsh draws on a wide range of historical documents, introducing readers to the missions, lifestyles, writings, and buildings of the various military orders and highlighting their spiritual, intellectual, artistic, and educational legacies.

Fascinating, informative, and attractively laid out, "Warriors of the Lord" will thrill anyone interested in Christian or cultural history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Many people know that Franciscans are kind to animals and Benedictines are renowned for their hospitality, receiving every guest as they would receive Christ. But what about Christian orders that are famous not for such dove-like pacifism, but for hawkish determination to defend Christendom by force? In the Middle Ages, writes Walsh, these "military orders" flourished as they fought the Crusades, fueled the "reconquista" and furthered missionary outreach to distant lands. Most of these once-famous orders, such as the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights and the Knights of St. John, have not survived to the present day, their influence declining after "the crusading spirit grew colder." But their story is a fascinating glimpse into a distant past in which being a "soldier-monk" was not an oxymoron. Walsh's text is wonderfully accessible and well written, and is complemented by more than 100 illustrations and maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Despite other implications of its title, this is a book of religious history, with few accounts of tactics and battles and much on the life and organization of the military orders, including the little-known women's houses of some of them. At least half the book is taken up with the evolution of Christian and Muslim doctrine regarding religious warfare, and with the secular and sacred factional brawling involved in shaping the confrontation that led to the first and subsequent Crusades. The three best-known orders--the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Knights--emerged from those Middle Eastern broils, but the most enduring achievement of any order was the role of the Knights of Calatrava and other Spanish orders in the Christian Reconquista of Iberia. Walsh packs his brief book with valuable information, argues that the alleged link between the Templars and the Freemasons is "a farrago of nonsense," and generously decks the pages with well-chosen illustrations of major sites of the orders' activities. A solid introductory text on the subject. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; No Amer edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080282109X
• ISBN-13: 978-0802821096
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,430,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not-so-spiritual warfare..., August 5, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom (Hardcover)

Many are genuinely surprised when they learn that monks and monastic orders were not always dedicated to peaceful pursuits of prayer and public service. While the prevailing image of monks today is that of cloistered, contemplative people, with the occasional order who sends their members out into the world to work in non-profit, community service activities, this has not always been image. Indeed, for well over half the history of the Christian church, monks were far more than this. They were the professors who ran schools, keepers of the libraries, some of the greatest landlords (which made them feudal lords to serfs), governmental administrators for the territories around their monasteries, and, for a brief but significant time, they were soldiers, defending their powers and lands as fiercely as any other soldier.

There are many monastic orders whose names come down to us today - the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of Malta - whose purpose was more for war than for peace. In the name of the Church (and therefore, by extension, of God), they fought Crusades and other battles trying to secure the borders, or expand the borders, of Christendom, against the Muslims in the south and east, and Huns and barbarians to the north.

Michael Walsh argues that the Knights Templar may well have been the first Christian 'order'; while Benedictine orders, Franciscan orders, and other such still survive (including the Cistercian order, another claimant for honour as the first 'order'), the Templars and other military-oriented orders have ceased. Perhaps this is because military might is, in most of the modern world, now the exclusive province of the state, and private militaries even for institutions such as the Church are not only discouraged, but illegal. (The Vatican has very minor military orders, but then, Vatican City is its own nation-state.)

The bishops had need of 'police' forces that these orders served; the bishop of Rome, particularly when organised papal states were formed, needed a proper military establishment that nonetheless reflected the idealistic concerns of the church. Kings and princes would also rely on the church, the most powerful overall institution in the world, and the only one that was 'world-wide' (at least to the world that counted in their eyes), for military support; the popes relied on the final loyalty being to the papacy rather than any given crown through these orders to maintain influence and sway throughout the world. However, like many powerful, wealthy institutions, the various orders of Knights fell under suspicion, disarray, and ultimately, military defeat.

Walsh traces the history of decline and dissolution, and also talks about the mythology that has arisen around the most famous military order, the Templars. London's legal establishment still finds its heart in the same Temple the Templars built and used; the downfall of the Templars was dramatic, but its cause remains controversial. Some charges of magic, others of blasphemy and obscenity of various types, others of secret and dangerous knowledge possessed by the Templars, still float around to this day in scholarly and popular imaginations.

Walsh has presented in this text a wonderful narrative history of the military orders, primarily focusing upon the Middle Ages, around the Crusades, with preliminary history and aftermath surrounding that pivotal time. He has an appendix which lists the various military orders with brief descriptions for ready reference. There is a good bibliography and a useful index. However, what will stand out most to anyone who first picks up the volume is the beauty of the book itself, with full-colour pages throughout. Pictures of places, uniforms, buildings, artwork and maps are presented in glorious colour. Added to these are many line-art and grayscale drawings and impressions. The text is not densely packed, making reading very easy on the eye as well as interesting to the imagination.

This is a text that will definitely serve to make history interesting to those who might otherwise be bored with the subject, and make for wonderful reading experiences for those who have no such issues with history.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The True History of Chivalric Orders, September 14, 2003

By 

K Culbertson (Greensboro, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom (Hardcover)

The historical fallout of the actual Military/Chivalric Orders has been both good and bad. If taken out of the context of the current trend of political correctness, the influence of these organizations was objectively and long-term more good than bad.
For example, the first of all Orders, the Knights Hospitallers, of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (also known as the Knights of Malta, where they built and defended a fortress against one of the most famous seiges in history), essentially invented and administered the first organized hospital in history. They also conceived and implemented the first ambulance service and were the first to realize that patients with contagious disease should be quarantined. They considered their patients (the sick and the poor)their "liege lords," and it is hard not to admire the fact that they took an oath to serve them upon becoming knights of the Order.
The Knights of Malta, no longer of any militaristic attribute, save under obligation if called upon to defend the Church against enemies of religion (largely a ceremonial oath), continue this tradition of serving the sick and poor in the modern world, including AIDS wards and hospitals in the Americas. One wishes for a little more explication of the peaceful and charitable attributes of the chivalric orders in Walsh's book, but it is otherwise excellent. The typeface alone transports one into the Middle Ages! Highly recommended for any history buff.

3.0 out of 5 stars Warriors of the Lord, September 1, 2011

By 

C. Repicky "Marshal of the Temple" (Fortress of Jacob's Ford) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom (Hardcover)

A solid purchase for any fan or follower of the Military Orders of the Crusades. This one doesn't dig too deeply into any of the Orders but gives the reader a compas heading as to what they were about.
Fun read!