Article received: The Order of St Lazarus in the Latin East

The Order of St Lazarus in the Latin East

The First Crusade culminated with the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and within decades new institutions military orders, were founded in the newly claimed Latin East.[1] These orders consisted of members who lived according to rules which resembled existing monastic regulations. The defining feature of these orders was that this religious way of life was combined with fighting.[2] They existed as the only authority to hold an always ready standing army. These orders also had many rights of exemption and often pursued their own policies, in effect making them a state within a state.[3] The Knights Templar, the Knights of St John and the Teutonic Order are all examples of military orders which were born out of the Latin East. However, one military order stood unique above the rest. No where else in Christendom had anyone conceived of forming a military organization which allowed lepers to join and fight. The Order of St Lazarus was a military order similar to the aforementioned ones, but it was very different in that it allowed lepers to take up military duties in its name.

Lepers have existed as a marginalized group for hundreds, if not thousands of years and this phenomenon in the Latin East is worthy of attention when one considers the medieval attitudes concerning the affliction. In Europe, a stigma with negative moral implications and severe social consequences was attached to leprosy.[4] Leprosy was seen by many, including the church as a punishment for moral failing.[5] Those diagnosed as lepers were often segregated from society for the rest of their lives and in many areas were declared legally dead.[6] There was another view of lepers which pervaded the medieval landscape in which the leper was seen as someone enduring purgatory on earth as a special reflection of Christ's suffering.[7] Overall, most medieval thinkers appeared to regard the disease of leprosy as something which degraded the individual in both a physical and a moral sense.[8] Keeping with these ideas in mind one should be able to appreciate the exceptionality of a military order of leprous knights within the crusader states, the home of Christendom's holiest city, Jerusalem. A brief history of the order, an examination of the leper hospital from which the order grew out of, and an exploration of the known military exploits shall be tackled in an attempt to illuminate the history of the only military order of leprous knights.

Any account of the Order of St Lazarus must begin with a brief look at the leper hospital from which it sprang. The origins of the leper hospital in Jerusalem are controversial and ambiguous.[9] Empress Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius (383-408), was known to have instituted a leper hospital at Jerusalem, however, this particular hospital cannot be concretely linked to the crusading period.[10] Others claim that St Basil founded the hospital in the 4th century[11], and even other possibilities such as Judas Maccabeus have been suggested.[12] The hospital existed under the protection of the Greek patriarchs of Jerusalem from 629 until 1054. From 1098 until 1187 it was under the authority of the Latin patriarchs.[13] At the time of the First Crusade it stood as one of three hospitals in the city. Collectively these hospitals, St Mary Latin, St John the Almoner and St Lazarus were known as the Hospital of Jerusalem.[14] Pilgrim accounts contemporary to the time of the crusades, place the leper hospital near the northwestern corner of the city, between the Tower of Tancred and St Stephen's Gate.[15] The hospital had a wide range of benefactors, even noble and royal patrons, these supporters included King Fulk, Queen Melisende, Baldwin III and Amalric I.[16]

The military order of St Lazarus was established sometime in the 12th century[17] to accommodate those who were diagnosed with leprosy in the crusader states.[18] By 1255 the order is known to have followed the Augustinian rule. However, it is unknown which rule the order followed prior to that.[19] Another important landmark in 1255 included recognition of the order's existence by Pope Alexander IV.[20] Their habits were black and resembled those of St John. The green cross associated with the Order of St Lazarus was not adopted until the 16th century.[21] While this order is unique in that it consisted of lepers, healthy men did serve alongside the leprous knights. As noted by Pope Alexander IV in 1255.[22] These knights with leprosy often came from other military orders after they were diagnosed.[23] The Templars decreed that a member who developed leprosy should join the Order of St Lazarus.[24] The Hospitallers stated in their rules that a member who is a leper cannot remain amongst their order.[25] Instead of simply ostracizing these leprous knights, those in the crusader states continued to utilize them, through the conduit of the Order of St Lazarus....

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