ABSTRACT
The military orders in the Societas Christiana The role of the laity in the Societas Christiana has long been examined by historians. The relations between the laity on the one hand and ecclesiastical offi cials, clergy and monks on the other refl ect the dualism between the Church and the secular world that is characteristic of medieval society; that narrow link between the spiritual and the material which was a constant feature of daily life in the Middle Ages. 1 The military orders belonged to society as a whole, but in order to understand which role they played in lay society specifi cally, their individual characteristics and the context in which they operated need to be examined carefully.
