Structures and Regulations

Abstract

In their early years, when military orders usually consisted of just a small group of brothers under the leadership of a master, little administrative or governmental machinery was needed. As more property came to be acquired, however, and recruits attracted, it became the normal practice to establish subordinate convents, which housed a group of members and which assumed responsibility for the administration of properties in the surrounding area. Unlike the possessions of many monasteries, which were scattered over a wide area, the lands subject to a convent of a military order were usually fairly compact. Although some of Santiago’s convents in southern Spain appear to have drawn part of their revenues from possessions much further north, acquisitions made by military orders were normally administered by the nearest house. A convent and the lands attached to it came to be known as a commandery, preceptory or bailiwick, while in Spain the term encomienda was employed. Although Santiago had some encomiendas in France, the subordinate foundations of most of the lesser orders were concentrated in particular areas of western Christendom, and only the Templars and Hospitallers established convents throughout the West.