ABSTRACT
The term ‘military-religious order’ sounds like an oxymoron. In fact, the concept of such an order is one that has perplexed contemporaries of the military orders and modern historians alike. When it did not perplex, it attracted criticism, notably from within the contemplative religious orders that were competing with the military orders for patronage. This chapter focuses on the discrepancies between the culture of the military-religious order of the Hospital of St John, as expressed in the order’s normative documents, and the realities of Hospitaller life. It aims to assess how the Hospitallers dealt with abuses of, and derivations from, their customs and to investigate to what extent such abuses were tolerated.
