were a class apart, known as Priests of Obedience, and never came to
Malta, but resided permanently in their respective countries. A number
of commanderies was allotted to the two inferior classes.

The Order, as we know, was an international one, and for purposes of
administration was divided into sections or langues. In the sixteenth
century there were eight of these divisions, which, in order of
seniority, were Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England,
Germany, and Castile. When Henry VIII. suppressed the English langue
in 1540, the Knights, with a reluctance to face the facts which was
characteristic of a proud Order of Chivalry, kept up the fiction
of its existence. In 1782, when the Elector of Bavaria secured the
establishment of a Bavarian langue, it was united to the dormant
langue of England and named the Anglo-Bavarian.

Each langue had its own quarters at the Convent known as the
"Auberge," presided over by a "conventual bailiff," who in all matters
was the head of the langue. Each conventual bailiff had an important
office in the hierarchy of the Order which was permanently appurtenant
to the headship of that langue. Thus the conventual bailiff of the
langue of France was always the Grand Hospitaller in charge of the
Hospital of the Order, while that of England was Turcopolier, or
commander of the light cavalry--a survival from the Syrian days. The
possessions of each langue in its native land were divided into grand
priories and bailiwicks. Thus England, which meant the possessions
throughout the British Isles, was divided into the Grand Priory of
England at Clerkenwell, the Grand Priory of Ireland at Kilmainham, and
the Bailiwick of the Eagle, which was situated near Lincoln and had
originally belonged to the Templars. These Grand Priors and Bailiffs
of each langue, as well as its conventual bailiff, were all Knights