The Order of the Templars consisted of three distinct _classes_, not _degrees_--knights, chaplains, and service-brethren, to which may be added those who were attached to the Order under the name of _affiliated_, _donates_, and _oblates_.[8] The strength and flower of the Order were the Knights; all its dignities and superior offices belonged to them. The candidate for admission among the Knights of the Temple was required to produce proof of his being the lawful issue of a Knight, or of one qualified to receive that distinction; and he must himself have already received the honour-conferring blow from a Secular Knight, for the Order was Spiritual, and, as members, could not deign to accept honour from a layman. The only exception was in the case of a bishop, who might draw his sword among the brethren of the Temple, without having been a secular Knight. The aspirant must moreover be free from debt, and, on admission, pay a considerable sum into the hands of the society.[9] The most unlimited obedience to the commands of his superiors in the house and in the field of battle; the total abnegation of all interests but those of the society, (for the Templar could hold no property, could receive no private letter); the most unflinching valour, (for so long as a Christian banner waved in the field, the Templar, however severely wounded, must not abandon it),--were the duties of the Knights of the Temple. If he fled, disgrace and punishment awaited him; if he surrendered, he had to end his life amid the torments inflicted by the enraged Moslems, or to languish in perpetual captivity, for the Order never redeemed its members. Hence, then, the Templar was valiant as the fabled heroes of romance; hence prodigies of prowess, such as almost surpass belief, so frequently illustrate the name of the soldiers of the Temple. Every motive that could stimulate to deeds of renown combined to actuate the soldier-monk A Knight, he obeyed the call of honour and emulation; a Monk, (but the Templar was not, as some erroneously fancy, a Priest), he was, according to the ideas of the times, engaged in the service most acceptable to God.