increased, and lands and other endowments were showered upon them in
all parts of Europe. As monks they were under the triple vow of
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and the regulations of the Order
which governed their daily life were among the most severe. As knights
it was their duty to maintain war against the Saracens. For
administrative purposes the possessions of the Order were grouped in
ten provinces, each province being further subdivided into
preceptories or commanderies, and each of these into still smaller
units. Each division and subdivision had its own periodical chapter of
members for settling its concerns, and at the head of the whole Order
stood the Grand Master with a staff of officers who formed the general
chapter and acted as a restraint upon the conduct of their head. In
addition to the knights the Order contained chaplains for the
ecclesiastical duties, and serving brethren of humble birth to help
the knights in warfare. Their possessions in Western Europe were used
as recruiting-grounds for their forces in the East; but it was only in
towns of some importance that they erected churches on the model of
the Holy Sepulchre in connection with their houses.

[Sidenote: Knights Hospitallers.]

The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem was a reorganisation
of a hospital dedicated to St. John the Baptist. This had been erected
for poor pilgrims by the merchants of Amalfi before the Crusades
began. But it remained merely a charitable brotherhood living under a
monastic rule and attracting both men and endowments, until the
example of the Templars caused the then master, Raymond du Puy, to
obtain papal sanction some time before 1130 for a rule which added
military duties without superseding the original object of the Order.
Their possessions were divided into eight provinces with subdivisions