The election of the Grand Master was an exceedingly complicated
affair, the intention being to prevent intrigue. Each langue solemnly
elected three Knights to represent it, and this body of twenty-four
chose a triumvirate, which consisted of a Knight, a chaplain, and a
servant-at-arms. These three co-opted a fourth, and the four a fifth,
and so on, till the number of sixteen was reached, and this body of
sixteen elected the Grand Master. Every stage of the proceedings
was hedged about with meticulous precautions to prevent intrigue and
corruption, and it was a thoroughly typical medieval attempt to secure
an honest election.

The framers of the Order's Statutes had taken the precaution of
limiting the authority of the Grand Master by a minute enumeration
of all his rights. But, as the Order developed into a purely military
body, even officially his powers became greater. No subject for
discussion could be introduced at the Councils except by himself; he
had a double vote, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote
also; he had the right of nomination to many administrative posts
besides all those of his own household, and in each priory there was
a commandery in his own gift whose revenues went to himself. But even
such wide powers were less than the reality. While the Order was at
Rhodes, and during the first half-century at Malta, it was obviously
necessary that the Grand Master should possess the powers of a
commander-in-chief. As a purely military body, surrounded by powerful
foes, the Order was in the position of an army encamped in enemy
territory. Further, the absolute possession of Rhodes, and later
of Malta, tended to give the Grand Masters the rank of independent
Sovereigns, and the outside world regarded them as territorial
potentates rather than as heads of an Order of aristocratic Knights.