The choice of the Hospitallers as his successor was Raimond Dupuy, a nobleman of illustrious descent from the Province of Dauphiny, and it is he who first held rule under the title of Grand Master.  In all charity and loving kindness the life of Gerard had been passed, the brethren of St. John occupying themselves merely in tending the sick, in helping the poor and the pilgrims; but Raimond Dupuy was a soldier of the Cross, and he laid before the Order a scheme by which, from among the members thereof, a military corps should be formed, vowed to a perpetual crusade against the Infidel.  This, in full conclave, was carried by acclamation, and the most remarkable body of religious warriors that the world has ever seen then came existence.

This pact against the Infidel was in the first instance directed against the barbarians who swarmed around the Holy City, and the Hospitallers, who nearly all had been knights and soldiers of Godfrey de Bouillon, joyfully took up their arms again to employ them in the defence of this locality which they cherished, and in defence of the pilgrims who were robbed, murdered, and maltreated in all the surrounding country.  In becoming warriors once more, they vowed to turn their arms against the Infidel, and against him alone; to neither make nor meddle with arms in their hands in any dispute between men of their own faith.  The composition of the Order as it was arranged by Raimond Dupuy caused it to consist of three classes.  In the first were placed men of high birth and rank who, having been bred to arms, were capable of taking command.  In the second came priests and chaplains, who, besides the ordinary duties attached to their religious profession, were obliged, each in his turn, to accompany the fighting men in their wars.  Those who were neither of noble houses nor belonging to the ecclesiastical profession were known as “serving brothers”:  they were employed indifferently in following the knights into battle or in tending the sick in the hospital, and were distinguished by a coat-of-arms of a different colour from that worn by the knights.

As the Order prospered amazingly, and as to it repaired numbers of the young noblesse from all parts of Europe to enrol themselves under its banner, it was accordingly divided into seven “Languages”; those of Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Arragon, Germany, and England.  To the Language of Arragon was in later years allotted those of Castile and of Portugal.  The dress consisted of a black robe, with a mantle of the same colour, the whole being called manteau a bec, having upon the left side thereof a white cross in cloth, with light points.  The eight-pointed cross, or the Maltese Cross, as it came to be known in subsequent centuries, will be seen upon the armour, engraven on the breastplate, of all the pictures of the Grand Masters.