warriors that the world has ever seen then
came existence.

This pact against the Infidel was in the first instance directed against
the barbarians who swarmed around the Holy City, and the Hospitallers, who
nearly all had been knights and soldiers of Godfrey de Bouillon, joyfully
took up their arms again to employ them in the defence of this locality
which they cherished, and in defence of the pilgrims who were robbed,
murdered, and maltreated in all the surrounding country. In becoming
warriors once more, they vowed to turn their arms against the Infidel, and
against him alone; to neither make nor meddle with arms in their hands in
any dispute between men of their own faith. The composition of the Order as
it was arranged by Raimond Dupuy caused it to consist of three classes. In
the first were placed men of high birth and rank who, having been bred to
arms, were capable of taking command. In the second came priests and
chaplains, who, besides the ordinary duties attached to their religious
profession, were obliged, each in his turn, to accompany the fighting men
in their wars. Those who were neither of noble houses nor belonging to the
ecclesiastical profession were known as "serving brothers": they were
employed indifferently in following the knights into battle or in tending
the sick in the hospital, and were distinguished by a coat-of-arms of a
different colour from that worn by the knights.

As the Order prospered amazingly, and as to it repaired numbers of the
young noblesse from all parts of Europe to enrol themselves under its
banner, it was accordingly divided into seven "Languages"; those of
Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Arragon, Germany, and England. To the
Language of Arragon was in later years allotted those of Castile and of
Portugal. The dress consisted of a black robe, with a mantle of the same
colour, the whole being called _manteau a bec_, having upon the left side
thereof a white cross in cloth, with light points. The eight-pointed cross,
or the Maltese Cross, as it came to be known in subsequent centuries, will
be seen upon the armour, engraven on the breastplate, of all the pictures
of the Grand Masters.

In the year 1259 the Pope, Alexander IV., finding that men of noble birth
objected to be habited as were the "serving brothers," ordained that the
knights on a campaign should wear a "sopraveste" of scarlet embroidered
with the cross in white; further, that should any knight abandon the ran