Knights Hospitaller

The Knights Hospitaller are a remnant Chapter from the era of the crusades and religious military orders. Like their more popular cousins, the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller are an old Chapter shrouded in mystery, secrecy, honor and glory. 
Status: Active.
== Facts: ==
-Unlike the Templars who are fragmented into a thousand splinter cells, the Knights Hospitaller are much more centralized. Templar sects espouse all sorts of theology and fight for different goals, but the Hospitallers still have a clear chain of command and statement of beliefs. Members of the Chapter generally know what they and their brethren stand for and what their political goals are. 
-Also, unlike the Templars, the Hospitallers remain largely Roman Catholic. The Chapter has expanded itself, of course, with several Protestant sub-sects operating under the Hospitaller banner, but the Chapter still has a clear Catholic ethos. 
-For a brief time, the Tsar of Russia was Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. While it helped the Chapter to spread into Russia, it wasn't the best time of leadership for the Hospitallers as they became mired in political rivalries. 
-The islands of Cyprus and Rhodes are bastions to the Chapter, as is Malta. 
-The Hospitallers have gone by several different names down through the centuries, everything from the Knights Hospitaller, to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, to the Knights of Rhodes and the Society of Malta. The truth is that each of these was a planned reincarnation of the Chapter. Every century or so, the Grand Master of the Hospital, leader of the entire Chapter, will lead the Hospitallers to adopt a new name. This is to help the Chapter avoid stagnation by undergoing periods of forced rebirth. 
-The Hospitallers are not a secret Chapter so much as one that keeps an incredibly low-profile. Despite having a presence at the United Nations, World Health Organization, and other international centers of power, few people ever really hear about the Hospitallers. This is just how the Chapter prefers it, since by not raising too many eyebrows they avoid the detection of potential enemies. 
-While the end of the crusades and the invasion of Eastern Europe by Turkish forces pushed the Hospitallers to the breaking point, the one person who finally broke he Chapter was Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon captured Malta without resistance and shipped the bulk of the Hospitaller's resident Relics and documents off on his personal ship the L'Orient. 
-However, the L'Orient was sunk by attacking British patriot ships who had been following the French naval forces. The loss of so much Hospitaller heritage, as well as the island of Malta, sent the Chapter into a deep recession which took years to heal. To this day, the Chapter has spent considerable resources in their continuing search to locate and salvage the L'Orient. 
-The Protestant wings of the Chapter do not recognize Rome as head of their ecclesiastical communities. They do, however, honor Hospitaller lore and tradition, and they pay service to the Grand Master of the Hospital during meetings and ceremonies. These Protestant 'commanderies' are left to operate as they will, only being curtailed by Grand Masters when their actions are deemed dangerous to integrity of the Hospitallers as a whole. 
-Like the other famous crusader Chapters (Templars, Teutonic Knights, etc.) the Hospitallers gained fame and fortune. But they never lost their humble vocation of hospice and protecting the disenfranchised. While the Chapter has undergone several rebirths in its history, to this day they remain committed to medical care, humanitarian aid, and global security. 
-St. John the Baptist is the Patron Saint of the Knights Hospitaller. At least he's the primary one, by any means. 
-The medical community is large, well-financed and politically powerful. While the average doctor is normally one of thousands, hospitals and medical companies (collectively called Big Pharma) are easily worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Senators campaigning for Congress are often financed by Big Pharma, so you can bet they have political clout. And the Knights Hospitaller have agents in many of their highest offices. 
-The Archangel Raphael had a direct hand in the creation and spread of the Knights Hospitaller. There's a reason that strongholds of this Chapter are often referred to as 'Raphael Centers.' Raphael helped to empower and mold the early members of the Chapter into a fighting force that would protect hospitals, the sick, and the vulnerable. 
-In medieval times, the Hospitallers and Templars were friendly rivals. But in the modern world they have moved away from each other. The Hospital serves the Catholic Church and doesn't really hide itself from society. The Templars operate behind the scenes, moving through secret circles and operating underground. The two Chapters share a common heritage but they rarely cross paths anymore. 
-The Knights Hospitaller are proud members of the Church and their leaders take positions of authority within the Sanhedrin. Hospitaller forces are a separate entity and cannot, technically, be commanded by the Sanhedrin proper, but the Hospitallers usually fulfill the requests of the Church out of love for their faith. 
-The Knights Hospitaller engaged in the slavery of non-Christiain enemies, often keeping them as rowers in the war-ships of their fleets or as laborers in their estates. Obviously, this practice is now outlawed (or at least out of fashion) among the modern Chapter. 
-In Rome, the Convent of Saint Maria del Priorato sits atop the ancient Catacomb of the Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller. Hospitallers from around the world frequently visit here to tour the Catacomb and meditate amid the heritage of their Chapter. 
-Since Napoleon's capture of Malta, the KH have since returned and refounded their Chapter on this historical island amid the Mediterranean. It now serves as the global HQ for the Chapter. 
== Infrastructure: ==
Today there are 4 major divisions within the Knights Hospitaller; Infirmarians, Knights proper, Corsairs and Chaplains. Infirmarians are the first group and were, originally, the actual hospital workers (doctors, surgeons, nurses, etc.) but today this classification has expanded to include pretty much anyone who works in a secular job to continue the work of the Hospital. Lawyers, doctors, politicians, all these and more are the kind of Infirmarians to be found within the Knights Hospitaller. 
The actual rank of 'knight' is awarded to those who prove themselves as capable fighters. In times past they would form armies and go out to fight on the field of battle. However, modern warfare is different and today the Knights of Malta (the elite fighters of the Chapter) operate as espionage agents, operating in cells to counter and kill agents of the Darkness. 
Corsair is essentially a fancy term for seamen, possibly even pirates. While the Hospitaller Fleets are a thing of the past, the Chapter does still maintain a small naval presence which it uses for various purposes. The shipping of medical supplies and personnel is a lucrative business, and it just so happens to fall within the paradigm of the Chapter. 
Chaplains were the spiritual confessors and religious leaders of the Chapter. Today they are still comprised of priests (or pastors, in the case of the Protestant Commanderies). This division of the Chapter has the most dealings with the Church itself. 
There is a growing 5th Division within the modern Hospitaller Chapter, that of Medical Investigator. Due to the rapid progress of modern medicine, the study of strange and elusive medical conditions has become big business. Taking part in this, the Hospitallers have wasted no time in recruiting top scientists and medical technicians, outfitting whole bio-labs and research groups. Hospitaller forces are increasingly being sighted at the sites of major viral outbreaks and biohazard quarantines. 
== Maltese Pirates: ==
Copying their Saracen foes at the time of the Crusades, many of the crusaders (including the Hospitallers) took to naval warfare. Whole flee were furnished by the Chapter, complete with Hospitaller sailors and captains. 
These fleets were originally used to counter Saracen and Berber pirates, Muslim corsairs who consistently victimized Christians merchants on the Mediterranean. The Hospitallers sought to counter and outdo them, forming privateer ships of their own to harass Muslim merchant ships and take prisoners for ransom. 
The modern Hospitallers do have some smaller, privately owned fleets but these ships are often guard cutters with medical ships that sail from one international crises to another. 
== Origins of the Hospitallers: ==
The Knights Hospitaller's origins are strange. For one, they didn't start off as a knightly Chapter, but instead as a Benedictine abbey stationed in Jerusalem which had been setup by merchants from Amalfi. This abbey eventually took on the role of hospice, thanks to the steady flow of pilgrims from abroad. Eventually, the hospice care grew into a full-blown hospital, giving the Chapter its namesake. 
Brother Gerard, then head of the abbey, officially sanctioned the building of other hospitals at waystations between Jerusalem and Europe. This idea struck with the Vatican because soon enough the Pope issued a papal bull legitimizing the Chapter and dubbing them officially the Hospitallers. 
The Chapters final metamorphosis into knights took place under Gerard's immediate successor, Raymond de Puy. Raymond replaced the Chapter's Benedictine rule with that of the Augustinians and, more to the point, he took in trained knights to defend the Chapter's hospitals. Modern scholars speculate that Raymond was attempting to copy the Templars, although most Chapter members believe he was inspired by the success of the early crusades (of which he was a witness).
== Protestant Reformation: ==
The period leading up to the Protestant Reformation was a time of internal decay for the Knights Hospitaller. Years of violence and enslaving of enemy forces had drained them of their most precious resource - the power of their Faith.
The leadership of the Chapter was faltering as various outside forces vied against each other to have one of their own number placed as head of the historical Knights Hospitaller. Having a family member or friend in such a prestigious position was a prize many were willing to kill for (and they often did). This constant buzz of external interference severally hampered the organization of the Chapter and prepared the way for the shattering that was the Protestant Reformation 
Moral laxity among the common members was also a problem. Internal schisms and even outright revolts became the norm as younger knights rose up to enforce their own ideals on the established traditions of the Hospital. 
Note: It was during this time that the Czar of Russia was briefly made Grand Master as noted above. However, he was soon relieved of this vocation, mostly because leading a Chapter of holy knights and running the world's largest country don't go well together in terms of time management. 
However, the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation was a God-send for the Knights Hospitaller. It cost them dearly in earthly resources as many of their estates were lost or stripped away by now Protestant authorities, but it removed the cancer of earthly obsession that had set in. Once the purging was done, the only people looking to join were the kind of people not interested in attaining money, social rank or a chance to kill for pleasure. Instead, it was the kind of people any decent Chapter would seek if it wanted to be a force for justice and order in the world, and that's exactly what happened. 
== References: ==
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller
-http://www.carnaval.com/malta/history/knights/
-http://theknightshospitallers.org/
-http://historymedren.about.com/od/hospitallers/p/hospitallers.htm
-http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller
-http://www.medievalwarfare.info/hospitallers.htmCategory:God
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