Similar movements have existed throughout history including Christian monastic orders that have, at times, been combative in nature.
The period of the Christian Crusades became a period of highly religiously charged combat and combat orders such as Teutonic Knights, The Knight's Templar, The Hospitalers, The Knights of St. John. The crusading orders were not alone in this period where nobles and peasants alike were drawn by evangelical concepts of martyrdom in the name of God as a manner of salvation for the sinners. What had largely started out as relatively disorganized movements became more organized as orders were established and nation states took up the call.
Later, after the crusades had resulted in failure, the returning knights and combative orders presented a problem for the nation states. Many had developed banking and financial systems outside of the control of these states, holding more assets and income than the states themselves. To these states, these orders presented a direct threat to their own control, holding transnational assets that could form a large state, dwarfing the state in revenue and as often as not, dwarfing the state's armies.
There were also large numbers of unemployed knights and men at arms who were outside of the service of the monastic orders as well as the noble houses, roaming the countryside as self-organized groups that committed general banditry, kidnapping, extortion, etc. Where once noble religious ideas no longer served to organize or control their purpose. This was the first breakdown of that original religious fervor and order.
The second came as monarch's realized the danger of a transnational combat organization to the very survival of their states and moved to break the orders, such as the Knight's Templar, killing their leadership, stripping them of land and money and propagating stories about the group's fall into Satanic or Heretical worship. Free ranging knights were motivated to become members of houses or return home lest they face the same fate as their monastic brothers.
Other concepts that this period and combative religious orders held in common besides martyrdom, included puritanical views of sexuality and women; ascetic living, renouncing all material goods or giving those goods and any income to the order, to live closer to the model of the prophet/savior; belief that their cause was just and for the defense of a weaker community; belief that the "other" was a pagan or infidel and thus killing them was a just act; belief they were acting as tools of God and at his command as determined by a holy book and establishment of stringent rules of conduct where any infringement was forgiven by doing combat in the name of this cause or achieving martyrdom would abrogate these sins.
Thus, the slaughter of innocents was justified even if those innocents shared the same religion or were not combatants. Even the killing of captured enemy who were hors d' combat was considered a noble and just act. The rape of women, particularly not of their religion, was not considered a foul crime as much as proliferating the religious race. Even as the monastic combat orders forbade it as a sin and adultery outside of marriage and, in many cases, forbade even marriage for their monastic members in order to prevent their attention from being split from the cause and the order.
Other concepts included the migration of warriors between groups with Hospitalers sometimes joining Templars or St. John merging with Hospitalers. There were also wondering priests who went from village to village, preaching this new gospel and compelling simple people to leave their homes to join the crusades. Trains of knights and men at arms were followed by a large numbers of civilians, some motivated by the religious fervor, others in the potential for economic gain or social movement.
At one point, the preaching had reached such a fevered pitch that an entire army of poor civilians was raised up and marched towards the Holy Land, eventually ending before they reached their destination in starvation and disease. Along the way, this army was provided with food and tinder, if only to get them to move along and not raid all the wares from the local store houses and farms.
This was not the first and certainly not the last organization of western combat around religious ideas. The reformation of the church and the proliferation of puritanical Christianity saw both the Church and the puritanical movements take up arms, sometimes as "free armies" and just as often in the service of one kingdom or another. This same organization became resurgent in England as Rounders or "Round Heads" (so called because they would cut their hair short while fashion had men in long curls and lace) espousing Calvinist ideas unseated the king of England not once, but twice.
Much later, one can even see this similar religious combat order being reconstituted within the Nazi doctrine where purity of race and idea became a pseudo-religion that gripped whole parts of the German nation. Soldiers were lauded as defenders of the race and presented as modern knights. Units of specially hand picked and trained men were imbued with nearly religious mysticism, embodying the virtues of the movement and even inducted with mystical or pseudo-religious rites.
Like their future counterparts in modern Global Jihad, they were considered a vanguard for future expansion of this idea, encouraged to marry and create future soldiers in the name of their pseudo-religio-political idea. They were the symbol and propagators of propaganda, spreading the ideas through presence, image, words and actions.
Western history is not the only history replete with these types of movements. Islam itself was propagated through similar means from the 7th century through the 17th century until it had created one of the largest empires on the face of the earth. The Caliphate that currently resides as the primary goal of Global Jihad and the proliferation of Puritanical Islam. Asia and India have seen similar combative religions and cults, each becoming part of the historical fabric and historic mythology of the various nations.
From thugees in India to Shaolin monks, combat organized around a religious idea is not new or original. It most happens in societies were economic and social movement are stagnated or rigid, where religious orders and combat become a method for movement as well as a means of new political order. At times, it's been coopted by states to further their political agendas and, at others, destroyed because it threatened the accepted order.
In some cases, it either established an entire new political system or was subsumed or annexed by the existing system as a new "norm". Many have sought to draw a distinction between the various movements, judging one as more moral or just than the other. However, moral judgment is not the point of this article, but a simple review of the rise of puritanical idealism and combative, militant orders, their precepts and place within context of time and politics.
All of which seems repetitive throughout history and yet we see them as completely separate phenomena. Accept through the lens of history and sociology.
The period of the Christian Crusades became a period of highly religiously charged combat and combat orders such as Teutonic Knights, The Knight's Templar, The Hospitalers, The Knights of St. John. The crusading orders were not alone in this period where nobles and peasants alike were drawn by evangelical concepts of martyrdom in the name of God as a manner of salvation for the sinners. What had largely started out as relatively disorganized movements became more organized as orders were established and nation states took up the call.
Later, after the crusades had resulted in failure, the returning knights and combative orders presented a problem for the nation states. Many had developed banking and financial systems outside of the control of these states, holding more assets and income than the states themselves. To these states, these orders presented a direct threat to their own control, holding transnational assets that could form a large state, dwarfing the state in revenue and as often as not, dwarfing the state's armies.
There were also large numbers of unemployed knights and men at arms who were outside of the service of the monastic orders as well as the noble houses, roaming the countryside as self-organized groups that committed general banditry, kidnapping, extortion, etc. Where once noble religious ideas no longer served to organize or control their purpose. This was the first breakdown of that original religious fervor and order.
The second came as monarch's realized the danger of a transnational combat organization to the very survival of their states and moved to break the orders, such as the Knight's Templar, killing their leadership, stripping them of land and money and propagating stories about the group's fall into Satanic or Heretical worship. Free ranging knights were motivated to become members of houses or return home lest they face the same fate as their monastic brothers.
Other concepts that this period and combative religious orders held in common besides martyrdom, included puritanical views of sexuality and women; ascetic living, renouncing all material goods or giving those goods and any income to the order, to live closer to the model of the prophet/savior; belief that their cause was just and for the defense of a weaker community; belief that the "other" was a pagan or infidel and thus killing them was a just act; belief they were acting as tools of God and at his command as determined by a holy book and establishment of stringent rules of conduct where any infringement was forgiven by doing combat in the name of this cause or achieving martyrdom would abrogate these sins.
Thus, the slaughter of innocents was justified even if those innocents shared the same religion or were not combatants. Even the killing of captured enemy who were hors d' combat was considered a noble and just act. The rape of women, particularly not of their religion, was not considered a foul crime as much as proliferating the religious race. Even as the monastic combat orders forbade it as a sin and adultery outside of marriage and, in many cases, forbade even marriage for their monastic members in order to prevent their attention from being split from the cause and the order.
Other concepts included the migration of warriors between groups with Hospitalers sometimes joining Templars or St. John merging with Hospitalers. There were also wondering priests who went from village to village, preaching this new gospel and compelling simple people to leave their homes to join the crusades. Trains of knights and men at arms were followed by a large numbers of civilians, some motivated by the religious fervor, others in the potential for economic gain or social movement.
At one point, the preaching had reached such a fevered pitch that an entire army of poor civilians was raised up and marched towards the Holy Land, eventually ending before they reached their destination in starvation and disease. Along the way, this army was provided with food and tinder, if only to get them to move along and not raid all the wares from the local store houses and farms.
This was not the first and certainly not the last organization of western combat around religious ideas. The reformation of the church and the proliferation of puritanical Christianity saw both the Church and the puritanical movements take up arms, sometimes as "free armies" and just as often in the service of one kingdom or another. This same organization became resurgent in England as Rounders or "Round Heads" (so called because they would cut their hair short while fashion had men in long curls and lace) espousing Calvinist ideas unseated the king of England not once, but twice.
Much later, one can even see this similar religious combat order being reconstituted within the Nazi doctrine where purity of race and idea became a pseudo-religion that gripped whole parts of the German nation. Soldiers were lauded as defenders of the race and presented as modern knights. Units of specially hand picked and trained men were imbued with nearly religious mysticism, embodying the virtues of the movement and even inducted with mystical or pseudo-religious rites.
Like their future counterparts in modern Global Jihad, they were considered a vanguard for future expansion of this idea, encouraged to marry and create future soldiers in the name of their pseudo-religio-political idea. They were the symbol and propagators of propaganda, spreading the ideas through presence, image, words and actions.
Western history is not the only history replete with these types of movements. Islam itself was propagated through similar means from the 7th century through the 17th century until it had created one of the largest empires on the face of the earth. The Caliphate that currently resides as the primary goal of Global Jihad and the proliferation of Puritanical Islam. Asia and India have seen similar combative religions and cults, each becoming part of the historical fabric and historic mythology of the various nations.
From thugees in India to Shaolin monks, combat organized around a religious idea is not new or original. It most happens in societies were economic and social movement are stagnated or rigid, where religious orders and combat become a method for movement as well as a means of new political order. At times, it's been coopted by states to further their political agendas and, at others, destroyed because it threatened the accepted order.
In some cases, it either established an entire new political system or was subsumed or annexed by the existing system as a new "norm". Many have sought to draw a distinction between the various movements, judging one as more moral or just than the other. However, moral judgment is not the point of this article, but a simple review of the rise of puritanical idealism and combative, militant orders, their precepts and place within context of time and politics.
All of which seems repetitive throughout history and yet we see them as completely separate phenomena. Accept through the lens of history and sociology.
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