The election of Pope Leo XIV, a former Augustinian canon, has drawn renewed attention to the historical role of the Augustinian tradition within the Church. There is an often overlooked foundational influence on the origin, spiritual identity and structure of the medieval military orders. More particular, in the aftermath of the First Crusade (1096-1099) the Hospitallers as well as the proto-Knights Templar maintained a special relationship with Augustinian canons of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The characteristics of the Jerusalem Augustinian canons seem to have inspired the special character of the juvenile Templar Order.
