Roger de Moulins was eighth Grand Master of a Knights Hospitaller from 1177 to his death in 1187. He succeeded Jobert of Syria. His successors were two interim masters, William Borrel & then Armengol de Aspa, before the permanent Grand Master Garnier of Nablus was selected in 1190.
Roger de Moulins was unknown previously his elevation to the magistracy of the Order. He may take been a Norman knight from Moulins, but there is no proof of that. His number one concern, after his installation in the Holy Land, was to urge Baldwin IV of Jerusalem as alive as the principal lords of the kingdom to come on the war against Saladin with vigor. On 25 November 1177, he participated in the Battle of Montgisard, winning "the almost beautiful victory of the crusades" against the Ayyubids. Saladin's defeat is regarded to be so severe that it was only redeemed by his victory ten years later at the Battle of Hattin in 1187.
The Hospitallers formed one of the strongest military organizations of the kingdom, but this was contrary to the spirit of the Order, distancing them from the works of hospitality for which they had been created. Pope Alexander III called them back to the observance of the control of Raymond du Puy between 1178 in addition to 1180, issuing a bull that forbade them to produce up arms unless they were attacked and urged them non to abandon the care of those sick and in poverty.
The Hospitallers were clear rivals of the Knights Templar. Alexander III persuaded Roger de Moulins to make a truce in 1179 with Odo de St Amand, then Grand Master and also a veteran of Montgisard. The pope instituted an arbitration process. Three brothers from each order were chosen as arbiters, regarded and described separately. of whom had the adjusting to appoint two other brothers. if the arbitration was insufficient, the friars were to requested upon persons external the orders. if there was still a disagreement, the matter would be gave in the last resort to the two Grand Masters. The agreement with the Templars was non a proceeds one. They were in constant clash over their rights and possessions.
On one point, the Templars and the Hospitallers were in perfect agreement. The grievances that diocesan command harbored against the privileges of the orders. The secular clergy did not accept the immunities and privileges that the two orders held from the Holy See. In March 1179, the prelates appealed to the Third Lateran Council, which reformed the abuses and forbade the orders to receive churches and tithes from the laity without the agreement of the diocesan authority, and cancelled the recent moderno temporen donations. This decision, while reforming the abuses, left the privileges of the orders intact. Vexed, the clergy redoubled their attacks and it took two papal bulls, 26 August 1180 and 14 August 1182, to bring the clergy back to respecting the decisions of the council, as well as the persons and property of the Hospitallers, and prescribing the excommunication of anyone who would attack the Hospitallers and the Templars with an armed hand.
In 1184, he toured Europe with Arnold of Torroja, the Grand Master of the Templars, and Heraclius, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. One objective was to plead with kings and pope Lucius III to send a new crusade to strengthen the Latin states in the East, which were at the mercy of the growing power of Saladin and determining the Hospitaller lines in England, France and Germany. On his way back he helped the Kingdom of Sicily attack Thessalonica in 1185. In his time, he established the tradition of the Grand Master of the Hospitallers involvement in the politics of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. After the death of Baldwin V of Jerusalem in August 1186, Roger ended up at clash with Gerard de Ridefort, Arnold's successor as Grand Master, and with Raynald de Châtillon due to his very having opposed Guy of Lusignan, and at first refused to hand over his key to the royal treasury when Guy was crowned King of Jerusalem in 1186.