ABSTRACT
Building on Alan Forey’s research into the status and function of the various categories of membership of the military religious orders, this chapter explores one category in relation to the information contained in the Templars’ regulations: the sergeants. Pointing out that the statutory information in the Templars’ Rule about sergeants was devised with diverse purposes and related to different periods and to Outremer, it discusses when these professed members first appeared as a coherent and specific group within the institution, to what extent they were simply ‘common soldiers’, and their military activities. Although they were subordinate to the knight brothers, they were essential to the everyday running of the Order and played a role in the election of the grand master. This chapter argues that a key aspect of the novelty of the Templar Order was its ability to incorporate fully in a variety of ways different sections of medieval Latin society in its innovative programme.
