(Ebook) The Military Orders. [Volume 1.] Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick by Malcolm Barber (ed.) ISBN 9780860784388, 086078438X

(Ebook) The Military Orders. [Volume 1.] Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick by Malcolm Barber (ed.) ISBN 9780860784388, 086078438X

First published 1994 by Ashgate Publishing.
Editorial committee: Peter Edbury, Anthony Luttrell, Jonathan Riley-Smith.
This volume contains papers from a conference held on 3-6 September 1992 at the Museum of St John, St John's Gate, Clerkenwell, London, under the auspices of the London Centre for the Study of the Crusades. The perception of the organizers that there is a growing interest in, and enthusiasm for, the study of military orders was fully borne out. Scholars from twenty countries took part and, between them, presented forty-eight papers encompassing a vast geographical spread from Lithuania to Spain and from England to the Crusader States. It was particularly pleasing to welcome colleagues from eastern Europe now able to participate much more readily than in the past.
The conference covered every period from the origins of the military orders in the eleventh and twelfth centuries down to the present day, and a large proportion of the papers has been published here, following the overall conference format in which four main papers were given, supported by shorter communications. The event culminated in a visit to the two magnificent timber-framed barns at Cressing Temple in Essex, where the whole site of the Templar preceptory is being surveyed and excavated. It is hoped that this conference will be the first of a series, to be held at four-year intervals, and that the research presented here will stimulate further work on this multifaceted subject.