出典:Wikipedia
出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/06/11 17:40 UTC 版)
A military order is a Christian society of knights that was founded for crusading, i.e. propagating and/or defending the faith (originally Catholic, after the reformation sometimes Protestant), either in the Holy Land or against Islam (Reconquista) or pagans (mainly Baltic region) in Europe. Many orders became secularized later.