Order of Montesa
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The Order of Montesa was a Christian military order, territorially limited to the Kingdom of Aragón.
After the break-up of the Templar Order in 1312, Kings of Aragón and Portugal objected to the amalgamation of the Templar benefices with those of the Knights Hospitaller. James II of Aragon ("Jaime II") persuaded the Pope to permit him to regroup the Templar properties in Aragón and Valencia and confer them on a new Order, dedicated to Our Lady, and based at Montesa. The Order of Montesa received the approval of Pope John XXII on 10 June 1317, when it was given the Cistercian rule.
It derived its title from St. George of Montesa, its principal stronghold. The Templars were received with enthusiasm in Aragon from their very foundation in 1128. Alfonso I, "The Fighter", King of Aragon, having no direct heir, bequeathed his dominions to be divided among the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, but naturally this bequest was annulled by his subjects in 1131. The Templars had to be contented with certain castles, the chief of which was Monzon. Although the Aragonese branch of the order was pronounced innocent at the famous trial of the Templars, Pope Clement V's Bull of suppression was applied to them in spite of the protests of Jaume II in 1312. By way of compensation, however, this monarch obtained from Pope John XXII authority to dispose of the possessions of the Templars in his Kingdom of Valencia in favour of a military order not essentially differing from that of the Templars, which should be charged with the defence of his frontier against the Moors and the pirates. It was affiliated to the Order of Calatrava, from which its first recruits were drawn, and it was maintained in dependence upon that order. The first of the fourteen grand masters was Guillermo d'Eril. D'Eril and subsequent grandmasters ruled the Order of Montesa until the office was united with the Crown by Philip II in 1587. In 1485, Philip of Viana renounced the Archdiocese of Palermo to become Grand Master. He died fighting the Kingdom of Granada in 1488.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
