Did non-Far-Eastern monks ever learn how to fight?

Did non-Far-Eastern monks ever learn how to fight?

your under the impression that most monks could fight, that is wrong. If a temple needed defended they would more likely hiring the local warriors/thugs into a militia, perhaps make the leaders laymonks

monks as in clerics? i believe scandinavian armies employed heavily armoured monks who only wielded maces since they were not allowed to shed blood by the sword, as for unarmed combat.....i dunno

I have hard time thinking your post is serious.

>Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
>but you can't use it*

the norse war clerics in me2 is not a meme, it has basis in real history such as the danish bishop Absalon. Absalon was equally great as churchman, statesman and warrior. His policy of expansion was to give Denmark the dominion of the Baltic for three generations. That he enjoyed warfare there can be no doubt; yet he was not like the ordinary fighting bishops of the Middle Ages, whose sole indication of their religious role was to avoid the shedding of blood by using a mace in battle instead of a sword. Absalon never neglected his ecclesiastical duties.

but then again clerics and priests arent really monks, i guess the closest to that would be something like Brother Tuck in robin hood haha

Jesus said turn the other cheek

So western monks studied cuck-fu

>Absalon
Let's not forget Odo, bishop of Bayeux and half-brother to William of Normandy. He helped his half-brother during the Norman Invasion, famously wielding a sword. And many crusader orders required their members to take both religious and chivalrous vows, effectively making them warrior-monks. It's also why the Templars weren't allowed to own anything themselves (which resulted in them effectively inventing banking because it's not a violation of the vow of poverty if you're using someone else's money).

>Jesus said turn the other cheek
Because it forces the other guy to either smack you with a backhand (like a bitch) or with his left hand (like a bitch). It was using shame as an alternative to escalating violence, not mindless pacifism.

There was a whole buddhist i think faction of monks who were considered warrior monks. They even had to be put down by one of the shoguns in the 1600s?

>avoid the shedding of blood by using a mace in battle instead of a sword.
That's not how that works.

...

Absolutely HEMAfag here of the German school and most of our earliest sources. I.33, Dobringer Lekuchner and many others were written by monks and in the case of said names Priests.

Monks were also known for lifting weights and doing all sorts of physical activities. To be honest the more I read about this breed of monk the more I wish it was still a thing.

Also monk hood was a sweet retirement plan for lifelong warriors.

Ikko-Ikki, maybe? Or sohei?

To be honest, I think this whole fable is spun off some medieval depiction of a bishop at a siege wielding a mace.

The scepter (see; mace, club, ect) is however a universal symbol of authority.

MEME'D

you seem to be mixing up sohei and ikko-ikki

sohei were monastic militias, most of them never took tonsure. They were essentially samurai who served a Buddhist temple. they also had a reputation for thuggery.
Much about them has been romanticized, like that they were all monks or that they overwhelmingly preferred the naginata. Perhaps they preferred polearms and unmounted tactics in mountainous regions but over all they fought like samurai

ikko ikki were an ostensibly egalitarian Buddhist militant movement made up of peasants and low rank samurai following pure land Buddhism. They were incredibly fervent and popular and it took a long time to put them down

Battle of Kulikovo

One of the oldest European fencing treatises from the high middle ages shows a monk practising fencing with sword and buckler. And the prince-bishops of the Empire were among the most powerful local sovereigns of the medieval world who fought in many wars and battles for their worldly ambitions.

This. Russians vs Mongols:
>The battle opened with single combat between two champions. The Russian champion was Alexander Peresvet, a monk from the Trinity Abbey sent to the battle by Saint Sergius. The Horde's champion was Temir-murza (also Chelubey or Cheli-bey). Though each champion killed the other during the first pass of the contest, Peresvet did not fall from the saddle, while Temir-murza did (according to Russian sources).

thats against monastic rules, how would they pay the militia?

thats taken out of context and not literal

>Templars and Hospitalers together
They had quite the friendly hate to each other though.

>le monks can't shed blood so used maces maymay

Yeah, because this injury resulted in no blood being she'd whatsoever.

are you serious? its because they circumvent the "do not shed blood by the sword" by doing it with a hammer instead, they take it literally so they can keep bashing skulls

Ever heard of Knights Templar?

From their lands. temple complexes were often major landholders.

There is no "no shedding blood" rule. Anywhere. Smashing someones face in with a hammer is going to cause a fuckton of bloodshed.

Literally the Crusades.