The Royal Military Order of Saint George for the Defense of the Faith and the Immaculate Conception (), also known as the Royal Bavarian House Equestrian Order of Saint George (), was founded by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria in 1726 to provide for a means of honouring the nobility and recognizing distinguished civil and military service. Its status as a Catholic Order was confirmed in a papal bull of 15 March 1728 specifically comparing the Order with the Teutonic Order, which had likewise been transformed from a Crusading Order to an exclusive chivalric religious institution for the Nobility. Establishment There are rumors that the order was founded as early as the twelfth century, or by Emperor Maximilian I, but historical records do not support these claims. Allegedly, the tradition of loyalty to the patron saint of chivalry, Saint George, was long established in Germany, and various Bavarian Princes, who in the fifteenth century had made pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulcher and were there invested as knights, had each made a promise to Saint George. The Order was founded by Elector Charles Albert on April 24, 1729, who gave it its title of Order of the Holy Knight and Martyr Saint George and the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary and established its statutes on March 28, 1729, as a Military Order of Chivalry for Roman Catholic noblemen The Grand Master always was the elector, later the king of Bavaria. It was originally divided in the German and the Foreign class or tongue, the latter including every member with non-German ancestors. By a reform of 1741, a clerical class was introduced, also limited to noblemen, including a bishop, provosts, four deans, and chaplains. The order was divided in four classes: Three Grand Priors Six Knight Commanders Twelve Commanders Knights. The Order was organised in three Grand Priories: Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate. The rank of the Grand Prior was limited to the princes of Bavaria. Knights were promoted to Commanders and Commanders to Knight Commander alternating by the Grand Master (de grâce) and by seniority (de justice). The statutes in forty articles dedicate the members to an ardent Christian devotion unparalleled among institutions founded in the eighteenth century, the age of the Enlightenment. They require that the knights "must honour God above all else; You must be strong in faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, honor