Militia of The Faith of Jesus Christ - Foundation

Foundation

In June 1221 it appears to have been approved by Pope Honorius III, who gave it permission to observe the ordinances of the Order of the Temple of Solomon. In July the Pope appears to have transferred all authority over the foundation of the order (and therefore its survival) to the papal legate Conrad of Urach.

The specific purpose of the founding was "to promise aid and succour to Amaury de Montfort and his heirs, for the defence of his person and domains" and as inquisitors for the "seeking out and destruction of evil heretics and their lands and also of those who rebel against the faith of the holy church." This was confirmed by Honorius in two letters of the summer of 1221. The order has been described as a penitential confraternity rather than a full-fledged military order, but nevertheless it was founded at the height of the Albigensian Crusade to fight Catharism and had requested of the pope the right to fight in Languedoc like the Templars did in the Holy Land. Its first master was Pierre Savary (Peter Savaric), who called himself the "humble and poor master of the militia of the order of the faith of Jesus Christ" in a document of Carcassonne dated 9 February 1221. Despite the formal organisation and the papal approval, it seems that Conrad of Urach intended to disband the order when it was no longer needed, for in February 1221 he ordered that all lands which had been or would be granted it by Amaury or any other patron should revert to the donors.