Raymond du Puy
[2] While traditionally cited as the direct successor upon Gerard's death in 1118 or 1120, his assumption of the magisterium was in 1121 or 1123 after one or two interim superiors, Pierre de Barcelona and Boyant Roger.
[3] Raymond divided the membership of the Order into clerical, military, and serving brothers and established the first significant Hospitaller infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The first mention of their assuming a more militant role is related to the Crusader castle built at Bethgibelin, erected by Fulk of Jerusalem in 1135 as part of a string of fortifications to protect the kingdom.
Ascalon, because of its position on the seashore on the way to Egypt, was a permanent danger for the Christians, and the enemy made continuous incursions into the southern part of the kingdom.
On the advice of Fulk, the Franks decided to fortify the position of Hisn Ibn Akkar, which belonged to the Hospitallers and was located east of Ascalon.
The work, directed with speed by William of Malines, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, was naturally entrusted to the Hospitallers, who were placed in a vanguard position.
The presence of the Grand Master of the Order earned him, in addition to what he had already obtained 17 years earlier, enormous gifts from Ramon Berenguer IV and the bishop of Lérida.
At the end of the year he was in Estopiñán del Castillo in Aragon and in the south of France where the abbot of Saint-Gilles, a certain Bertrand, gave permission to build a chapel.
The political importance of the Grand Master increased, since in June 1148 at the Council of Acre, he was among the princes who took the decision to undertake the Siege of Damascus.
In the Holy Land, the influence of the Hospitallers became preponderant with a decisive role taken in military operations with an increasingly prominent presence due to the government of Raymond.
The lay nobles, discouraged by the reverse, wished to abandon the siege; but Raymond and Fulk of Angoulême, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, persuaded the king to continue, a position that moved the barons.
After a peace treaty was broken by Baldwin III in February 1157, the constable of Jerusalem, Humphrey II of Toron, to whom Banyas and the surrounding country belonged, had to face the Zengids.
He accused them of admitting excommunicated persons, administering the last rites and burying them in their cemeteries, ringing bells in "forbidden countries or times", receiving alms, providing for the Order's cures without diocesan approval and refusing to pay tithes on their goods and revenues.
The Order's hospital, installed opposite the Holy Sepulchre, competed with it by the beauty and height of its buildings, but also, when the patriarch preached, his voice was covered by the Hospitallers' bells.
Fulk, accompanied by the archbishops of Tyre and Caesarea, the bishops of Acre, Sidon, Lydda, Sebaste and Tiberias, left for Rome in the spring of 1155.
[12] Under his magisterium, the Order received numerous donations, notably from the county of Tripoli, to defend the Holy Land against the Muslims.
It was under his mastery that the Hospitallers received its first concessions of castles: Bethgibelin in 1136, Qalaat el-Marqab, Chastel Neuf and, later, the Krak des Chevaliers in 1142/1144.
The Order also obtained numerous privileges and exemptions from the papacy, providing it with the financial resources necessary for its independence and giving it freedom from the diocesan authorities, much to their displeasure.
They are to claim nothing for themselves save bread, water and raiment; and this latter is to be of poor quality, “since our Lord's poor, whose servants we say we are, go naked and sordid, and it is a disgrace for the servant to be proud when his master is humble.” Finally, the brethren are to wear crosses on the breast of their capes and mantles, “ut Deus per ipsum vexillum et fidem et operationem et obedientiam nos custodiat.” Yet that Raymond laid down military regulations for the brethren is certain.
Their underlying principle is revealed by a bull of pope Alexander III addressed (1178–1180) to the grand master Roger de Moulins, in which he bids him, “according to the custom of Raymond,” abstain from bearing arms save when the standard of the Cross is displayed either for the defence of the kingdom or in an attack on a “pagan” city.History has left us with nothing on his end, whether he died during his journey or on his return to the Holy Land, we know nothing about it.
