Viver face a uma sociedade multicultural e multirreligiosa: enquadramentos normativos medievais definidos pelas ordens religioso-militares

Abstract

The Military Orders are the most singular institutions regarding the relation between church, powers, and the territory, namely in the medieval times. Having in mind the role played by the Military Orders within the so-called Reconquest process, and within the Mediterranean world, as a special space of coexistence of different ethnicities and faiths, and the complex relationship between Portugal and Latin East across the Medieval times, as well as the matrix of the Military Orders, it is relevant the approach to the multicultural and to the multireligious challenges they were involved in. Trying to understand deeply this perspective, we analyze the normative texts produced by these institutions. The core questions are: would be the friars prepared to face multicultural and multireligious societies? Did the Portuguese friars adopted different behaviors from the conventual ones who were living at Latin East? Were the Portuguese friars aware of the difference? Did the daily life promote the coexistence behaviors, or, even more, a cohesive society? Considering the period defined for the discussion, the otherness in the Latin East and in the Iberia was a relevant stimulus for the society, and shaped the intervention of the different powers and the historical evolution of these two territories. This is a very complex issue that goes beyond the religious dimension. Indeed, the economic and the political approaches are also determinant and reflect distinct points of views.