ABSTRACT
Historians have sought the origins of the Hospital's female branch in the most authoritative source, the chronicle of William Archbishop of Tyre who died between 1184 and 1186. The dress worn by men and women associated with the orders served to demonstrate their status. Contracts of oblature, while common in most regular orders, were particularly important to the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic brethren. The extensive discussion of the obscure origins of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem began with tales related from the twelfth century onwards by the Hospitallers themselves or by others close to them. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Jean Lang, Abbot and chronicler of the Flemish monastery of Saint Bertin, re-examined the subject within the context of the comparative history of the military orders in Christendom. The Hospitaller Commandery of San Giovanni di Pre at Genoa showed how closely a mixed or a double foundation could be involved in charitable activities.
