Tongue (Knights Hospitaller)

A langue or tongue (Italian: lingua) was an administrative division of the Knights Hospitaller (also known as the Order of St. John of Jerusalem) between 1319 and 1798. The term referred to a rough ethno-linguistic division of the geographical distribution of the Order's members and possessions. Each langue was subdivided into Priories or Grand Priories, Bailiwicks and Commanderies. Each langue had an auberge as its headquarters, some of which still survive in Rhodes, Birgu and Valletta.

The Knights Hospitaller began to take the features of a state following its acquisition of Rhodes and nearby islands in the early 14th century. The subdivision of the Order into langues began in 1319 during a meeting of the Chapter General in Montpellier. For the purposes of administration of the Order's possessions in Europe, the langues were divided into grand priories, some of which were further divided into priories or bailiwicks, and at the lowest level into commandries dealing with regional or local administration.

The head of each langue was known as a pilier or bailiff. The piliers, together with the Knights Grand Cross, the bishop, the bailiffs of the convents and the prior of the Conventual Church, sat on the Grand Council of the Order. Each pilier also had specific responsibilities within the order; that of France was the Hospitaller, that of Italy was the Admiral of the Order's fleet.

The headquarters of each langue was known as an auberge, a French word meaning inn. Auberges were first built in Rhodes in the late Middle Ages. After the Order moved to Malta in 1530, auberges were built in Birgu between the 1530s and the 1550s, and later in Valletta from the 1570s onwards.

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