Who were Knights?
The people in the order consisted of three major classes:
Knights, servers of God and Chaplains.
The Grand master of the Order was elected for life. The knights
had royal or noble descent and were rich and wealthy people of Europe. They
served the order without any payments. When they died their goods and property
passed became property of the Order. During the peace times, they could travel
freely to their countries and take care of the land and property. But time of
war, they returned the their castles as quickly as possible. The knights came
from various countries and major provinces of France. The order of the Knights
of John was not purely religious order and people did not follow strict orders
of a monastic life. However, the rules of the order were strict and young knight
were trained extensively.
The knights were divided into several groups due to the language
they spoke. They were Knights from England, Italy, Germany and various districts
of France. Since this was the time, France and Spain were divided into major
principalities; Provence, Auvergne and Aragon were also major Langues at the
Order.
