ABSTRACT
In the 18th century the management of all Spanish military hospitals was contracted to the St John’s Order of the Roman Catholic Church. The sacred mission of the Order required that they had a significant role to fulfil outside the Church in the care and treatment of the sick by providing hospitals throughout Spain and across the lands that it had conquered. Provision of military hospitals required the Order to be financially and operationally accountable to the government. The need for the Order to be accountable to the State was not regarded as profane and antithetical to their religious beliefs. They accepted that accounting and accountability processes were relevant to their search for God’s love and to showing this love to others.
