honor and executed any act not proper for a perfect gentleman, or who lacked means of support. The prospective member then had to live three months in the galleys and reside for a month in the monastery to learn the Rule. Later the King and the Council of the Orders abolished many of these prerequisites. The convents The Order of Santiago operated convents, both male and female. Aside from the convents for friars of Uclés and San Marcos (León), the Order had other convents in Vilar de Donas (a church in Palas de Rei, Lugo), Palmela (Portugal), Montánchez (Cáceres), Montalbán (Teruel) and Segura de la Sierra (Jaén). In 1275, the Order also had six convents for nuns, who called themselves the Mothers Superior. The wives and family of the friars could stay there when they went to war or died. The friars only professed conjugal chastity, but not everlasting, and because of this they could leave the convent and marry. The convents that are mentioned are: Santa Eufemia de Cozuelos (Palencia), founded in 1502; Convento de Sancti Spiritus of Salamanca, given to the Order in 1233; San Vicente de Junqueras (Barcelona), founded in 1212; San Pedro de la Piedra (1260), in Lérida; Santos-o-Velho (1194), in Lisbon and Destriana (León). The convents of Membrilla (Ciudad Real) and the Mothers Superior of Madrid (1650) came after these dates. Territorial division The Order was divided into several provinces, the most important ones being Castille and León because of their number of properties and vassals. At the head of each province there was a military commander with headquarters in Segura de la Sierra, Castilla and Segura de León, León. The province of León was divided into two parts, Mérida and Llerena; in each of them there were various encomiendas. The most important internal subdivision of the military orders were called "encomiendas", which were local units directed by a knight commander of military order. The "encomienda" could place the headquarters or residence of the knight commander in a castle or fortress or in a small town and was the administrative or economic center in which the rents of the estate and properties relevant to that "encomienda" were paid and received; it was the habitual residence of the knight commander and some other knight. Each "encomienda" had to support the knight commander and the other knights living there, and to pay and arm a certain number