This essay aims to investigate the visual and symbolic language of banners and standards belonging to two Swedish temperance organizations, the Independent Order of Good Templars, and the Swedish Blue-Ribbon Movement. The examined material is 98 banners and standards from Folkrörelsearkivet för Uppsala län. Mieke Bal and Norman Bryson's semiotic starting point in the article "Semiotics and Art History" (1991), mainly based on Charles Sanders Peirce's semiosis, has been used as the method of analysis. Support has also been taken from Roland Barthes' semiotic concepts of denotation and connotation. Visual culture studies, with support from Nicolas Mirzoeff's Introduction to Visual Culture (1999) has been used as a theoretical and structural starting point of the essay. The analysis has shown a rich use of symbolic signs within the material, and that – and how – the use of said symbolic signs is both similar and different between the organizations. The analysis has further demonstrated the possibility to interpret meaning which were communicated through the banners and the standards visual and symbolic language. In the essay's discussion, these meanings have been divided into different themes which can be said to reflect the ideals, ideas, and activities of the organizations. The visual communication is understood based on the activities and religious history of the organizations, and on the political, social, historical, and cultural context of the collective symbols.

Si la confrérie des Pauvres chevaliers du Christ est née en Terre sainte, l’ordre du Temple est né en Champagne. Créé par Hugues de Payns, seigneur champenois qui en devint le premier maître, favorisé par deux comtes (Hugues, devenu Templier, et Thibaud II qui assista au concile fondateur de l’ordre), conseillé par Bernard de Clairvaux (Bourguignon installé en Champagne), l’ordre du Temple est une émanation de l’aristocratie champenoise.Nous nous proposons d’étudier l’implantation de l’ordre du Temple en Champagne, à la croisée du renouveau monastique et d’un essor économique sans précédent.Nous étudierons aussi la nature du patrimoine que les Templiers réunirent autour de Troyes, capitale du comté, grâce à un réseau familial et aristocratique étroitement impliqué, le tout dans le contexte de croisades. / If the brotherhood of the Christ Knights Poor was born in the Holy Land, the Order of the Temple was born in Champagne.The Order was created by Hugues de Payns, a Champagne lord who became the first master, favored by two counts (Hugues became Templar and Thibaud II was one of the principals members of the founder Council of this order) and supervised by Bernard de Clairvaux.Templars were in fact a child of the Champagne’s aristocracy.So, I propose to study the implementation of the Templars in Champagne, at the crossroads of the monastic’s renewal and an unprecedented economic boom. I would study nature of Templars’s patrimony too, around Troyes, capital of the county, thanks to family’s and aristocratic’s networks, all in the context of the crusades.

L’ordre du Temple et celui de l’Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem se sont implantés dans les diocèses de Cahors, de Rodez et d’Albi dès la première moitié du XIIe siècle. Leur installation résulte d’une politique volontariste d’insertion locale et du développement de rapports étroits noués avec les élites laïques et religieuses méridionales, largement réceptives à la nouvelle spiritualité promue au sein du monachisme militaire. Les Templiers et les Hospitaliers ont ainsi fondé un réseau de commanderies rurales et urbaines. La toile tissée révèle une conception propre de l’espace au sein de ces trois diocèses et témoigne d’une pratique particulière de ces territoires par les frères des ordres militaires. À l’image de leur propositum vitae, la domus, lieu de vie de ces communautés religieuses, mêle différents espaces et différentes fonctions, dont la traduction matérielle emprunte autant au vocabulaire architectural religieux que castral. Ces édifices qui évoluent tout au long du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle en même temps que les communautés régulières qu’ils abritent, participent, d’une certaine façon, de la construction identitaire du monachisme militaire. / The order of the Temple and that of the Hospital of St. Jean of Jerusalem were established in the French dioceses of Cahors, Rodez and Albi in the first half of the twelfth century. Their foundation resulted from a conscious policy to integrate into the local community and to develop close relationships with lay and religious elites in southern France, who were considerably receptive to the new form of spirituality promoted by military monasticism. The Templars and the Hospitalers thus founded a network of rural and urban commanderies. This network reveals a particular conceptualization of space within these three dioceses and evidences practices specific to these territories by the brothers of the military orders. As a reflection of their propositum vitae, the domus, the focal point of these religious communities’ daily life, blends together different kinds of spaces and different functions, whose material objects were named borrowing terms both from religious architecture as well as castra. These buildings, which evolved throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries along with the regular communities they housed, participated in the construction of the identity of military monasticism.

Le concile de Troyes qui s'ouvre le 13 janvier 1129, permet de confirmer une initiative née en Orient neuf années auparavant. Des chevaliers avaient alors exprimé la volonté de vivre de façon religieuse, en faisant le triple vœu monastique de pauvreté, de chasteté et d'obéissance, tout en continuant à pratiquer le métier des armes afin de protéger les pèlerins sur les routes de Terre sainte. Reconnus par la papauté à Troyes et dotés d'une règle, les « pauvres chevaliers du Christ et du Temple de Salomon » devenaient le premier ordre religieux-militaire de l'histoire. L'ordre de l'Hôpital, qui existait déjà à Jérusalem et dont la mission consistait à soigner les pauvres malades, se militarisa progressivement au milieu du XIIe siècle, s'inspirant de l'exemple du Temple. Templiers et Hospitaliers ont inspiré par la suite tous les autres ordres militaires. Une tradition historiographique des croisades a longtemps entretenu l'idée de deux ordres ennemis dont les conflits ont provoqué la perte des États latins d'Orient. L'étude de deux siècles de coexistence commune entre Templiers et Hospitaliers en Terre sainte permet d'enterrer cette image et constater combien ces deux ordres religieux-militaires se sont influencés. Elle permet également de rétablir la vérité sur les relations entre les frères des deux ordres. Aux frontières de l'histoire comparée, cette étude suit la trame chronologique des maîtres du Temple et de l'Hôpital, permettant de mettre en relief l'importance des décisions de ces hommes. Des études thématiques sur l'organisation de ces deux ordres, leurs structures, leurs règles, les images qu'ils transmettent et sur leur rôle dans certains grands évènements des États latins d'orient permet de comprendre les liens qui les unissaient, ainsi que la façon dont ils s'influencèrent. On a trop souvent relevé leur rivalité politique, dans un royaume de Jérusalem où l'absence d'un pouvoir royal fort leur a rapidement laissé toute liberté. De la même façon, on a trop souvent oublié le prix que Templiers et Hospitaliers ont payé ensemble sur les champs de bataille de Terre sainte, se comportant comme ce qu'ils étaient : des frères d'armes. / The Council of Troyes, wich opened on January 13, 1129, confirms an initiative born in the East nine years earlier. Knights had then expressed the will to live in a religious way, by making the triple monastic vow of poverty, chastity and obedience, while continuing to practice the profession of arms in order to protect pilgrims on the roads of the Holy Land. Recognized by the papacy in Troyes and endowed with a rule, the « Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon » became the first military order in history. The Order of the Hospital, which already existed in Jerusalem and whose missions was to care for the poor sick, gradually became militarized in the middle of the 12th century, drawing inspiration from the example of the Temple. Templars and Hospitallers subsequently inspired all other military orders. A historiographical tradition of the Crusades has long maintained the idea of two enemy orders whose conflicts caused the loss of the Latin States of the East. The study of two centuries of common coexistence between Templars and Hospitallers in the Holy Land allows us to bury this image and see how much these military orders influenced each other. It aslo helps to restore the truth about the relationship between the brothers of the two orders. At the frontiers of comparative history, this study follows the chronological framework of the masters of the Temple and the Hospital, making it possible to highlight the importance of the decisions of these men. Thematic studies on the organization of these two orders, their structures, their rules, the images that they transmit and their role in some great events of the Latin States of the East make it possible to understand the links wich united them, as well as the how they influenced each other. We have too often noted their political rivalry, in a kingdom of Jerusalem where the absence of a strong royal power quickly gave them complete freedom. In the same way, we have too often forgotten the price that Templars and Hospitallers paid together on the battlefields of the Holy Land, behaving like what they were : brothers in arms.

Beata Maria/Dea Vults is a thesis for the degree of master (one year) in theology.   The thesis explores the role of the Virgin Mary as a martial saint in catholic combat with Islam and muslims between the years 1119 AD to 1648 AD with a focus on symbolism. The paper is focusing on symbolism in war banners, patron saints and semiotic symbols on arms and armour. There are three different events or phenomenons in the study, separated in time as well as space.   Firstly the war banner used at the battle of Las Navas (1212 AD) during the reconquista of Spain. The banner of Mary with child is the prime subjekt as well as the myths appearing in the aftermath of the battle, and the ceremony that was devised from it.   The second phenomenon is the knights templars use of Mary as patron saint, and the ceremony that followed this relationship. There is also discussion of the belts worn that were related to Mary, the use of wich is attested in documents from the trials of the templars between 1307 and 1312 AD. Lastly the paper focuses on the armours of the polish winged husars of 1648 AD and the seige of Vienna. The thesis explores the relationship between the symbols of the armour of the husars and the religious views of King John III Sobieski of Poland.   The main question of the study is:   What were the meaning of the symbols of Mary as she was carried as a ritualistic symbol for war?   The subsequent questions are:   How do you trace a progression in the useage of Mary as a symbol from the templars all the way to the use of Mary as a symbol for the winged husars?   Which types of worship of Mary as a symbol were used primarliy in wars with muslims?   The paper is researched by qualitative methods including text analysis as well as semiotic symbolism reading. There are two theories used in the analysis. Smarts dimensions and Andersons and Hulls Warrior elites, with Smarts dimensions as the dominant theory.