A Hospitalis infirmorum Sancti Lazari de Jerusalem before the first crusade

Abstract

The origins of the Military Hospitaller Orders, which saw their establishment during the Crusader Period, are shrouded in a haze of reality and myth stemming from the fact that 17th-18th century historians writing about these Orders assumed the role of enthusiastic eulogists to the detriment of objective history writing. The exact origins of the Leprosis ecclesia Sancti Lazari qua est in Jerusalem Confratribus and the Fratrum Sancti Lazari extra muros Jerusalem leprosis as referred in the deeds of donation dated 1144/1150 remain questionable. The earliest mention in the available cartulary of an ecclesiam de Caciaco, totam videlicet partem nostram, beatis pauperibus Sancti Lazari is made in an 1112 Charter given by Louis VI the Fat of France. This, however, specifically refers to the Maladrerie de Saint-Lazare-lés-Orléans and not directly to the Jerusalem establishment. Another undated document attributed to Henri I of England (dated circa 1106-1120) by the 18th century historian of the Order P.E. Gautier de Sibert is, in fact, a charter document given by Henri II of England.