Desertions and Transfers from Military Orders (Twelfth to Early-Fourteenth Centuries)

Abstract

The taking of vows in a military order, as in other religious foundations, created a lifelong obligation. The phrasestabilitas loci, which is encountered in some documents relating to these orders, did not imply an undertaking to stay permanently in the same convent, but signified that those who had made their profession should remain in the same order for life. This requirement found expression especially in papal decrees, although orders' regulations give information about the punishment of apostates. As in other religious establishments, a transfer to another order provided the sole permitted exception, but this was allowed only under certain conditions.