Per giustificare la guerra. Alcune osservazioni sul percorso ideologico e sul caso dei Templari

The First Crusade had gathered together a new cavalry in defence of Christianity and of the Church of Rome, which was composed of milites whose aim was the liberation of the soul by means of exercising a military role. This was made possible thanks to the ideological glorification of the profession of arms and to the Christianisation of the cavalry, which was by then no longer a secular militia but rather a religious community of warriors at the service of faith, the Church and the Christian society. By referring to distinguished precedents such as Augustine, Gregory the Great, Gelasio, Girolamo and Ambrose, the war became legitimate, or rather, just and necessary, because as in fact occurred following the first Crusade, it enabled the Christians to rescue the Holy sites, to free the holy sepulcher and to defend the faith. In achieving these aims, the warrior was exempt from the guilt of murder since he was acting out of zelo matris ecclesiae. In the light of the above-mentioned observations this contribution will examine, by recalling the noteworthy events in this process of legitimation and regarding them as the outcome of a profound and difficult reflection within the Christian world dating back to the Gregorian Reforms, the role of the monacus-miles as a member of the Knights Templar, a peculiar monastic organisation based on the uncommon bond between religious and military tasks. The creation and subsequent promotion of a religious Order with a knightly, warlike calling sanctioned the entry of the bellatores amongst the oratores, legitimizing the use of arms even for the churchman. By means of the sanctification of the Christian warrior, the “monachus miles”, the doctrine of the Church of Rome accepted the idea of a holy war.