a kind of benefice or fixed revenue belonging to a military order, and conferred on ancient knights who had done considerable services to the order.

There are strict or regular commandries, obtained in order and by merit; there are others of grace and favour, conferred at the pleasure of the grand master; there are also commandries for the religious in the orders of St Bernard and St Anthony. The kings of France have converted several of the hospitals for lepers into commandries of the order of St Lazarus.

The commandries of Malta were of different kinds; for as the order consisted of knights, chaplains, and brothers servitors, there were peculiar commandries or revenues attached to each. The knight to whom one of these benefices or commandries was given was called *commander*, which agrees pretty nearly with the prepositus set over the monks in places at a distance from the monastery, and whose administration was called *obediencia*, because depending entirely upon the abbot who gave him his commission. Thus it was with the simple commanders of Malta, who were rather farmers of the order than beneficiaries; paying a certain tribute or rent, called *responsio*, to the common treasury of the order.