Chivalric and Religious Orders

Organizations of knighthood or vowed religious life bound by a rule, founded chiefly in the medieval and early modern periods, whose members combined military, religious or ceremonial duties under a common order. Belongs here: the crusading military-religious orders (the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Order), the Society of Jesus as a vowed religious order, and chivalric orders of honor such as the Order of the Garter. Does not belong here: an international humanitarian body founded on a similar ideal of service but organized as a modern secular institution, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, filed under International and Intergovernmental Organizations.