ks,
and fly from the battle, he should be deprived of his order and his habit.
The form of government was purely aristocratic, all authority being vested
in the Council, of which the Grand Master was the chief, the case of an
equal division of opinion being provided for by giving to the Grand Master
the casting vote. There were in the Order certain aged knights who were
called "Preceptors," who, under authority delegated to them by the Council,
administered the estates and funds accruing, and also paid for the hire of
such soldiers or "seculars" whom the Knights took into their service.

Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the establishment of the Knights of
St. John led to the foundation of the famous Order of the Knights Templars.
In 1118 Hugues de Payens, Geoffrey de St. Aldemar, and seven other French
noblemen, whose hearts were touched by the sufferings which the pilgrims
underwent in their journey to Jerusalem, formed themselves into a society
with the object of the protection of these inoffensive persons on their
transit from the coast inland. Hugues de Payens, received in audience by
Pope Honore II., was sent by the Pontiff to the Peers of the Council, then
assembled at Troyes in Champagne; the Council approving of so charitable an
enterprise, the Order was formed, and Bernard, known as "Saint" Bernard,
drew up the code of regulations by which it was to be governed. The
movement spread, and many princes and nobles returned to the Holy Land in
the train of de Payens and his companions.

So famous did the Order of St. John become, that in 1133 Alfonzo, King of
Navarre and Arragon, who called himself Emperor of Spain, carried his zeal
so far as to bequeath to the knights his kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon:
this, however, was naturally and hotly contested in these places, and
Raimond Dupuy, who attended a Council to regulate the matter, was content
to compromise on certain lands and benefits being allocated to those whom
he represented.

On August 15th, 1310, the knights, under the Grand Master, Fulke de
Villaret, conquered the Island of Rhodes and established themselves there,
and from this time onward, while they held the island, were known as the
Knights of Rhodes. No sooner were the knights firmly established in Rhodes
and the fortifications placed in a proper state of repair, than a tower was
built on the highest point of the island, of great height, from which a
view could be obtained of the sea and the s