a hundred years before
the time of Richard's crusade, a company of pious merchants from
Naples, who went to Jerusalem, took pity, while they were there, on
the pilgrims who came there to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and who,
being poor, and very insufficiently provided for the journey, suffered
a great many privations and hardships. These merchants accordingly
built and endowed a monastery, and made it the duty of the monks to
receive and take care of a certain number of these pilgrims.

They named the establishment the Monastery of St. John, and the monks
themselves were called Hospitalers, their business being to receive
and show hospitality to the pilgrims. So the monks were sometimes
designated as the Hospitalers and sometimes the Brothers of St. John.

Other travelers, who came to Jerusalem from time to time, seeing this
monastery, and observing the good which it was the means of effecting
for the poor pilgrims, became interested in its welfare, and made
grants and donations to it, by which, in the course of fifty years, it
became much enlarged. At length, in process of time, a _military_
order was connected with it. The pilgrims needed protection in going
to and fro, as well as food, shelter, and rest at the end of their
journey, and the military order was formed to furnish this protection.
The knights of this order were called Knights Hospitalers, and
sometimes Knights of St. John. The institution continued to grow, and
finally the seat of it was transferred to Acre, which was a much more
convenient place for giving succor to the pilgrims, and also for
fighting the Saracens, who were the great enemies that the pilgrims
had to fear. From this time the institution was called St. John of
Acre, as it was before St. John of Jerusalem, and finally its power
and influence became so predominant in the town that the town itself
was generally designated by the name of the institution, and it has
been called St. Jean d'Acre to this day.

The order became at last very numerous. Great numbers of persons
joined it from all the nations of Europe. They organized a regular
government. They held fortresses and towns, and other territorial
possessions of considerable value. They had a fleet, and an army, and
a rich treasury. In a word, they became, as it were, a government and
a nation.

The persons belonging to the order were divided into three classes:

1. _Knights._--These were the armed men. They fought the
battle