ABSTRACT
After Pope Clement V had abolished the Templars in 1312, only two of the greater military orders remained. The Teutonic Knights still had houses in Greece, southern Italy, France and Spain, but mainly concentrated on the Empire and the Baltic. Only the Hospitallers, who mainly operated in the Eastern Mediterranean, had a very large area from which they received support and recruited their members, 1 stretching from Spain to southern Germany and from England to southern Italy. And while the Teutonic Knights were able – at least for longer periods – to maintain their power in Prussia with the help of their regional resources, the Hospitallers depended heavily on men and money from the West. 2 It was this situation that made it necessary to organize an effective control of the houses in the West by the leading brethren in the convent. The responsions had to be paid, and the transport of men and materials had to be arranged, and both were only possible if the institutions functioned, the morale of the brothers was of a sufficient level, 3 and the single houses were efficiently administered so that they were able to produce a surplus. One means of achieving these goals was to influence the election of officials, especially priors and preceptors, in which the chapters general, master, and convent on Rhodes played an important role. 4 Another means was that of visitations, as they were conducted in many other ecclesiastical institutions. 5 The visitations had to inquire into the status of the houses in the West. This paper aims to offer some preliminary considerations on the role of visitations in the Order of the Hospital of St John in the fifteenth century.
