left for the historian but to trace its gradual decadence and fall.
And, as might be expected in a decadent society, though outwardly
the constitution changed but little in the last two centuries, yet
gradually the Statutes of the Order and the actual facts became more
and more divergent.

There were three classes of members in the Hospitallers, who were
primarily distinguished from each other by their birth, and who were
allotted different functions in the Order. The Knights of Justice[1]
were the highest class of the three and were the only Knights
qualified for the Order's highest distinctions. Each langue had its
own regulations for admitting members, and all alike exercised severe
discrimination. Various kinds of evidence were necessary to prove the
pure and noble descent of the candidate. The German was the strictest
and most exacting of the langues, demanding proof of sixteen quarters
of nobility and refusing to accept the natural sons of Kings into the
ranks of its Knights. Italy was the most lenient, since banking and
trade were admitted as no stain on nobility, while most of the other
langues insisted on military nobility only.

The chaplains, who formed the second class of the Order, were required
to be of honest birth and born in wedlock of families that were
neither slaves nor engaged in base or mechanical trades. The
same regulations were in force for the third class--that of
servants-at-arms, who served under the Knights both on land and sea.
As the military character of the Order became less and less marked
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these servants-at-arms
became fewer and fewer, but in earlier days they were of considerable
importance. The chaplains performed their duties at the Convent or on
the galleys; the priests at the various commanderies throughout Europe