A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Knights

by Hannah Adams

*KNIGHTS: three orders of knighthood were instituted in the twelfth century for the defence of christianity, and for the annoyance of infidels.[1]. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem were designed to relieve and assist the vast number of pilgrims who visited Jerusalem and the holy land. [2]. The templars (so called from a palace adjoining Jerusalem) were purely a military order, who were to guard the roads and protect the christians from the Mahometans. [3]. The teutonic Knights of St. Mary chiefly devoted their service to the care of the soldiers wounded in the holy wars. The two latter orders have been long extinct; but the former found an asylum in the Isle of Malta^[1]

Original footnotes

1. Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 18—20. N. Ed.