ABSTRACT
The same sense of insecurity, of a society on the alert for danger, appears in the regulations relating to the gathering of the harvest. Even the fire-drill of the town reflected the attitude of a society conditioned by danger and war. The important point is that these towns did not set the tone of Italian society, whereas the militarized patriciates of Castile-Leon and Aragon were the most characteristic of Spain. The caballeros villanos were by the most important class m the towns of central Spain. The great age for the military monastic foundations in Spain was the eleventh and twelfth centuries, just prior to the foundation of the Spanish military orders. The influence of the ribat on these orders is apparent in the fact that except, and then only initially, for Santiago, the Orders of Spain, Calatrava, Alcantara, Montesa and Avis, were never Hospitaller foundations, unlike either the Temple or Hospital.
