Militia of The Faith of Jesus Christ - Merger With The Dominicans

Merger With The Dominicans

It has been asserted that a letter of Gregory IX in 1231 shows the Militia, lacking even support from Amaury, being merged into the Order of Santiago, but the militia being referred to is the Order of the Faith and Peace and not the Faith of Jesus Christ. It has also been asserted that the Militia was brought across the Alps and established in Italy as the Milizia di Gesù Cristo, but the soundness of this hypothesis is unknown. Neither Militia should be confused with the modern Militia Jesu Christi, which is unaffiliated with either. Nor is the Militia to be confused with the 19th-century Italian movement known as the Order of the Holy Ghost or Santafedisti, though there were some commonalities.

The Militia of the Faith of Jesus Christ appears to have been under heavy Dominican influence at this time. In a bull of 18 May 1235, Gregory IX confided the Militia to the care of Jordan of Saxony, second master-general of the Dominican Order. In the same year he decreed for the knights a Dominican-inspired habit of black and white. Lastly, the Militia was very largely influenced by a famous Dominican, Bartolomeo of Braganza (or of Vicenza).

According to the research of Raymund of Capua, who became a Dominican about 1350, the Militia was merged with the Dominican Order of Penance (Ordo de Poenitentia Sancti Dominici) to form the Third Order of Saint Dominic. The constitutions of the two orders, that of Gregory IX for the Militia in 1235 and that of Muñón de Zamora for the Order of Penance in 1285, were very similar, though Muñón de Zamora expressly forbids the carrying of arms except in defence of the Church, which may have covered the Militia's activities. According to later Bollandist historiography, the amalgamation of the orders became general in the 14th century.