ORDERS. Under the general title of orders are usually included monastic orders, orders of chivalry. and orders of merit. There is a certain connection bet wren the first two, as the members of the earliest orders of knights took monastic vows. Again, there is a connection bet wren the last two, as formerly persons distinguished by meritorious service were sometimes, even when not noble, admitted to an order of knights, and gradually in these orders became wholly an honorary distinction. Thus. in spite of the vast difference bet ueen an ancient nninas tie order and the present 'Legion of llonor,' it is possilde to see the evolutionary process which included under a MI11111011 designation such widely different organizations.
:Monastic orders were the earliest and beeame very important in :Middle Ages. ruder the general term 'monastic' may be included the various orders of eanons, such as the Premon stratensians (q.v.), as well as of monks and nuns. Of these orders many are Ito longer in existence, but the total number, of those extant and extinct, is over five hundred; of these about hundred and seventy-five adopted the Rule of Saint Augustine; about one hundred and twenty fiVe the little of Saint Benedict ; and about seventy-five the Rule of Saint Francis; the others adopted various special rules. For a fuller dis cussion of monastic orders, see AloNAsTictsm; CANON; and the 1111111es of the several orders.
Orders of knighthood are coin pa natively modern in their origin. although some have at tempted to ascribe to in Ones great :antiquity. In the ancient societies there was nothing of a similar nature. The 'equestrian order' or the `order• of dominions' in Rome was en tirely different. (See EQUESTRIAN ORDER.) It
was believed formerly that Clovis had founded in the fifth century an Order of the lloly Ina this is purely legendary. Equally mistaken is the attempt to attribute the beginnings of the orders of ehivalry to Charles Martel, who is said to have established the Order of the Genette in The romances of chivalry usually attributed the creation of knightly orders to Charles the Great or 'King Arthur; but the 'twelve peers of Charlemagne' and the 'Knight:, of the Table Round' are equally mythical. The media.val orders, in reality, had their beginning in the Iloly T.,and during the time of the Crusades. The Knights of the Ilospital and the Knights of the Temple were the earliest orders, and were alike in requiring their members to be of noble birth, and also to take the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. (See SAINT .Toth OF JERUSALEM. KNICIITS OF ; These religions military orders came very renowne(1 and gained enormous wealth. Their example led to the founda tion of other similar orders for the protection of the Holy Land. In all there were about twenty which originated in the Kingdom of Jeru salem. Later some transferred their sphere of action to crusades against the heathen in the West, or to service in the Papal armies. As their members were bound by no national ties, they were of great service to the Church in its wars. The destruction of the Templars and the temporal weakness of the popes in the fourteenth eentnry led to a decline in the importanee of these religions orders. Those which still exist, as the Hospit niers do under the name of the 'Knights of Malta, are merely honorary orders of nobility.