ORDER. This word is applied to an aggregate of conventual communities compre hended under one rule, or to the societies, half military half religions, out of which the institution of knighthood sprang. Religious orders are generally classified as monastic, military, and mendicant..
The earliest comprehension of monastic societies under one rule was effected by St. Basil, archbishop of Caesarea, who united the hermits and cenobites in his diocese, and prescribed for them a uniform constitution, recommending at the same time a vow of celibacy. The Basilian rule subsists to the present day in the eastern church. Next in order of time was the'Benedictine order, founded by St. Benedict of Nursia, who con ' sidered a mild discipline preferable to excessive austerity. The offshoots from the, Benedictine order include some of the most important orders in ecclesiastical history, amonr; others the Carthusians, Cistercians, and Prtemonstrants. The order of Angusti nians professed to draw their rule from the writings of St. Augustine; they were thu first order who were not entirely composed of laymen, but of ordained priests, or persons destined to the clerical profession.
The military orders, of which the members united the military with the religions pro fession, arose from the necessity under which the monks lay of defending the possession.
which they had accumulated, and the supposed duty of recovering Palestine from Saracens, and retaining possession of it. The most famous orders of this kind were the Ilospitallers or Knights of St John of Jerusalem, the Knights Templars, and the Teu tonic order. Many other military orders existed, and not a few continte to exist, particularly in Spain and Portugal. The phraseology of the old military orders is, preserved in the orders of knighthood of modern times, into which individuals are. admitted in reward for merit of different kinds, military and civil.
The three mendicant orders of Franciscans, Dominicans, and Carmelites were insti tuted in the 13th century. Their principal purpose was to put down the opposition to the church, which had begun to show itself, and also to reform the church by example and precept. At a later period the order of the Jesuits was founded, with the object of increasing the power of the church, and putting down heresy.—Notices of the more important orders, monastic, military, and medicant, will be found under separate articles. See also KNIGHTS wind MONACHISM.