Order of the Holy Ghost

The lay Knights of the Holy Ghost formed on analogy to military orders, but without military function, repeatedly attempted to divert the group's assets to their own use.

Several popes made efforts to protect the order as a purely religious body, but Pope Pius V in 1619 re-created the Knights and again diverted the Order's assets into their hands.

In 1692 Louis XIV redirected the property in the possession of the Knights for the benefit of his own Order of Our Lady of Carmel, in effect a pension fund for his retired soldiers.

[1] These now focused on a single institution, the original and by this time large Arcispedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia, the buildings of which dated from the time of Pope Sixtus IV (1471–84), which at its height was capable of accommodating over 1,000 patients, with additional spaces for contagious and for dangerously insane cases, employing more than 100 medical staff with an international remit.

Over time it became a municipal hospital for the inhabitants of Rome and later the original building became a museum and conference center.