ABSTRACT
During the second century of the Hospitallers' domination of Rhodes and its neighbouring islands, from the death of Master Fr. Philibert de Naillac in 1421 to the final Ottoman siege in 1522, the Order and its territories in the East faced increasing danger from Muslim attacks. As one document of 1501 put it, the defence of Rhodes and the territories of the Order in the East was impossible 'without the imposition and payment of the rights of the treasury upon all and single priories, the castellany of Amposta, the bailiwicks, preceptories and benefices of this Order'. Keeping the deficiencies of a modern public financial administration in mind, it is easy to imagine that late-medieval institutions were even less perfect. If financial transactions had been ordered by the Master and convent and made known to the grand preceptor, the money was taken in or paid out by the conservator general.
