elf to the pilgrims for many years.

Godfrey de Bouillon, having defeated the Saracens outside the walls of
Jerusalem, entered that city and visited the Hospice of St. John; he there
found many of the Crusaders who had been wounded during the siege, and who
had been carried thither after the taking of the place: all of these men
were loud in their praises of the loving kindness with which they had been
received and tended.

Great was the honour and reverence in which these simple monks were held
ever after by the Crusaders; for was it not common talk that these holy men
had themselves subsisted on the coarsest and most repulsive fare in order
that the food in the hospice should be both pure and abundant? Fired by
this fine example of Christian charity, several noble gentlemen who had
been tended in the hospice gave up the idea of returning to their own
countries, and consecrated themselves to the Hospice of St. John, and to
the service of the pilgrims, the poor, and the sick. Among these was
Raimond Dupuy.

The great Prince Godfrey de Bouillon fully approved of the steps taken by
these gentlemen, and for his own part contributed to the upkeep of the
hospice the seigneurie of Montbirre, with all its dependencies, which
formed a part of his domain in Brabant. His example was widely copied by
the Christian princes and great nobles among the Crusaders, who enriched
the hospice with many lands and seigneuries, both in Palestine and in
Europe. All these lands and properties were placed unreservedly in the
hands of the saintly Gerard to do with as he would for the advancement of
his work. In 1118 Gerard died in extreme old age; "he died in the arms of
the brothers, almost without sickness, falling, as it may be said, like a
fruit ripe for eternity."

The choice of the Hospitallers as his successor was Raimond Dupuy, a
nobleman of illustrious descent from the Province of Dauphiny, and it is he
who first held rule under the title of Grand Master. In all charity and
loving kindness the life of Gerard had been passed, the brethren of St.
John occupying themselves merely in tending the sick, in helping the poor
and the pilgrims; but Raimond Dupuy was a soldier of the Cross, and he laid
before the Order a scheme by which, from among the members thereof, a
military corps should be formed, vowed to a perpetual crusade against the
Infidel. This, in full conclave, was carried by acclamation, and the most
remarkable body of religious