This week I have chosen to expand my knowledge of the military orders of the Catholic church. The Knights Templar, Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon were the kinda start of my love of history (and I still think they were represented at Bannockburn) but the various other noble orders that were created for the sole purpose of the protection and care of pilgrims are of equal interest, if maybe only lacking in infamy and intrigue. So with that in mind and in my usually laid back approach to learning, lets do one a day and see where end up. First off, The Order of Saint James of Altopascio, also called the Knights of the Tau (Cavalieri del Tau) or Hospitallers of Saint James, was a military order, perhaps the earliest Christian institution to combine the protection and assistance of pilgrims, the staffing of hospitals, and a military wing. According to American historian Ephraim Emerton, who produced the first systematic study of the Order, the fame of the house drew visitors, both well and sick, [including] women in childbirth and infants from around Italy. The Order was founded by Matilda of Canossa between 1070 and 1080 at Altopascio, a town on the Via Francigena in what is now Tuscany. The earliest datable reference to a hospital edificatus in locus et finibus ubi dicitur Teupascio (built in the place called Teupascio) is from 1084. Ludovico Muratori thought Teupascio to be an eighth-century corruption of the Latin Altopassus. The variants Taupascio and Topascio have led some to suppose a relationship between the (alternative) name of the town and the Order sometimes known as of the Tau, after their symbol, which would once have been a common sight in the town. This derivation is highly unlikely, however, and the name appears to be Germanic in origin. According to the Orders own tradition it was founded between the Palude di Fucecchio, the Lago di Sesto, and the forest of Cerbaie towards 1050 by twelve citizens of nearby Lucca, a tradition which is preserved in a couple of lines of poetry appended to the Italian version of its rule: That house which belongs to the hospital Which was founded by the Choir of twelve. Probably the choir of twelve refers to the founding twelve members (brethren, friars, fratres), not to twelve founders. In his Memorie di Pescia, Francesco Galeotti wrote that the Order was founded by a rich and pious personaggio (individual). The Order was dedicated to James the Greater and Egidius. Its head was initially a rector, later a grand master (magister generalis), custos (custodian), warden, and eventually even bore the title Signore dAltopascio (Lord of Altopascio). The Order was suppressed by the bull Execrabilis issued by Pius II on 18 January 1459 along with five other religiones (religious orders). Their property was transferred to the fledgling Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem founded by that same bull: Further, we suppress and annul their former ordinances (ordines), the names of their associations, their titles of priority (priorales) and other dignities, and we decree that henceforth they shall be called, held, and named as of that military order of Saint Mary of Bethlehem. Moreover, in this order there shall be brethren and knights and priests as also in the aforesaid Order of Rhodes [Knights of Saint John], and the head of the aforesaid Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem shall be the Master, elected by the brethren in the same way (pariformiter) [as in the Order of Rhodes]. The suppression, however, was imperfectly carried out, or perhaps was never carried out at all. The Order certainly retained some Italian property until, on 14 March 1587, Sixtus V, at the request of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, merged the Order of Altopascio with the Order of Saint Stephen. In France it was finally absorbed into the Order of Saint Lazarus in 1672.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 19:41:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015