Prayer, Meals and Discipline in the Templars and Hospitallers

In the medieval military orders, prayer and communal life were part of the same institution as fighting, managing property and, for the Hospitallers, caring for the sick. Rules and later statutes set expectations for worship, food, clothing, possessions and conduct. They were not identical across orders or periods: the Templars’ rule, approved at the Council of Troyes in 1129, addressed life both in western convents and in the order’s eastern military centres, while the Hospitallers’ rule developed around a community whose work included receiving and serving the sick in Jerusalem and Acre.

These texts describe how members were expected to live, not a record of every brother’s daily conduct. Their successive revisions nevertheless show how each order sought to make religious obligations workable within its particular duties. The clearest comparisons concern the Templars from the twelfth century onward and the Hospitallers under rules associated with Raymond du Puy in the twelfth century and statutes added later.

On this page5 sections

Rules for life in a religious and military community

The Council of Troyes approved the Templars’ Latin Rule in January 1129. It drew chiefly on the Rule of Saint Benedict, with some influence from the Rule of Saint Augustine, but was adapted for brothers who were active soldiers rather than cloistered monks. The distinction mattered: rules for worship and common life had to operate alongside military service and the need to remain fit for it.

The original rule was translated into French and revised in the mid-1130s under Robert de Craon, the order’s second master. Later additions, known as Retraits, developed subjects including hierarchy, justice, penalties and conventual life. They were produced in stages, and the surviving manuscripts do not allow every provision to be dated precisely. The rule was therefore a body of norms that grew over time, rather than a single, unchanging handbook.

The Hospitallers’ rule, associated with Raymond du Puy around 1130 and approved before 1153, had a different institutional emphasis. Its chapters addressed the brothers’ conduct, service in churches, food and bedding, care of the sick, silence, personal property and correction. By the mid-twelfth century the order also had priest-brothers, whose work included religious services. These provisions belonged to an institution that combined religious observance with its original responsibility for a hospital in Jerusalem and its later work at Acre.

Prayer and the service of churches

For the Templars, worship followed an established liturgical model: the rule directed the brothers to observe the liturgy of the canons regular of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Canons regular were clergy who lived in a religious community under a rule while serving a church. The Templars’ connection to this model reflects the order’s origins in Jerusalem, even as it developed a military role. A papal privilege in 1139 also enabled the Templars to have their own priests, known as chaplains, within the order.

The Hospitaller rule likewise treated church service as a defined part of communal life. Its provisions included worship and services for deceased brothers, as well as the reception of the sick. The order’s members included priest-brothers, brothers-at-arms and brothers responsible for service. This division meant that religious observance and the practical work of the institution were assigned within a community of different roles, rather than being tasks performed by an undifferentiated group.

Prayer divided the day through the canonical hours, scheduled services from night or early morning through evening. The Templar Rule required a brother absent on business to replace missed services with the Lord’s Prayer: thirteen recitations for matins, the night office, seven for other hours and nine for vespers, the evening service. Campaign duties therefore altered attendance without removing the prayer obligation.

Meals, food and fasting

Templars ate together in the refectory, the common dining hall, while a reader delivered sacred texts. The Rule required quiet requests for necessities and sharing dishes in pairs. The Hospitaller rule explicitly included food and bedding among the matters governed for the brothers. Such provisions made the supply and sharing of basic necessities part of institutional discipline, rather than leaving them solely to individual preference.

Fasting illustrates how religious practice could be adjusted to military work. The Templar rule prescribed less severe fasts than those associated with Benedictine monks, so that fasting would not weaken brothers expected to fight. This was a practical accommodation within a religious rule: abstinence remained part of observance, but its demands were moderated for an active military community. The original Rule allowed meat three times weekly, with exceptions for major feasts; vegetables and other cooked dishes supplied the other meals.

The Hospitallers’ statutes and customs developed rules for two ordinary meals, associated with midday and evening prayer, and reduced meals on fast days. Bread and cooked vegetable dishes formed staples, while permitted meat, fish, eggs and wine varied with the religious calendar. Food for hospital patients was regulated separately and could be more varied than that provided to brothers.

Clothing and possessions

Clothing marked membership and, within the Templars, distinctions between brothers. The order provided the habit and retained the right to take it back. Knight-brothers of noble background could wear a white mantle, while sergeant-brothers wore a coarser garment of woollen cloth. The rule’s preference for a plain or less valuable garment discouraged clothing from becoming a display of status. In serious cases of misconduct, the loss of the habit could mean temporary or permanent expulsion.

Hospitaller clothing also expressed humility and membership. Their statutes prescribed dark, usually black, mantles bearing a white cross. A papal decision in 1259 permitted brothers-at-arms to wear a red military surcoat with a white cross in battle; Hospitaller statutes of 1278 prescribed the dark mantle for the brothers and the red surcoat for military activity. The distinction marked a change of function, not simply a separate social rank.

Possessions were subject to religious discipline as well. Poverty was among the vows made by Templar brothers, and the rule treated the habit as the property of the order rather than an opportunity for personal display. The Hospitaller rule included a chapter on brothers found to possess property of their own, indicating that private possessions were a matter for regulation. Food, clothing and lodging were supplied through the house; brothers were expected to obtain permission rather than accumulate private possessions.

Correction and the enforcement of discipline

Rules required ways to address misconduct as well as statements of ideal behaviour. The Templars’ later Retraits included provisions on justice and penalties, and their statutes addressed the conduct of communal chapters. A chapter was a formal meeting of the religious community; the Templar order held both general and weekly chapters. The developing rules gave these assemblies a place within the order’s system of discipline and governance.

The Hospitaller rule named specific problems and procedures, including conflict between brothers, sexual misconduct, silence, bad conduct, correction and the accusation of one brother by another. Accusations were brought before the house’s authority and could result in fasting or loss of privileges. In both orders, eating separately or on the ground could mark penance, making correction visible within the community.

Across both orders, regulation connected the ordinary features of life to institutional purpose. Shared worship affirmed religious identity; provisions for food and clothing organized communal resources; and correction helped maintain obedience among brothers with different duties. The details varied between the Templars’ military community and the Hospitallers’ religious and charitable institution, and changed as their statutes accumulated. These provisions tied personal conduct to a community that controlled its members’ time, supplies and work.