ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF THE HOSPITAL OF, known also later as the KNIGHTS OF RHODES and the SOVEREIGN ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA. The history of this order divides itself naturally into four periods: (I) From its foundation in Jerusalem during the First Crusade to its expulsion from the Holy Land after the fall of the Latin kingdom in 1291, (2) from 1309-1310, when the order was established in Rhodes, to its expulsion from the island in 1522; (3) from 1529 to 1798, during which its headquarters were in Malta; (4) its development, as reconstituted after its virtual destruction in 1798, to the present day.
Early Developments.—Ever since Jerusalem became a centre of Christian pilgrimage, a hospital or hospice for pilgrims had existed there; and early in the nth century one of these was restored, served by Benedictines, and later dedicated to St. John the Baptist. When, in 1087, the crusaders surrounded the Holy City, the head of this hospital was a certain Gerard or Gerald, who earned their gratitude by assisting them in some way during the siege. After the capture of the city he used his popularity to enlarge and reconstitute the hospital, and adopted for his order the Augustinian rule. Donations and privileges were thereafter showered upon the new establishment. In 1113 Pope Pas chal II. took the order and its possessions under his immediate protection (bull of Feb. 15th to Gerard), his act being confirmed in 1119 by Calixtus II. and subsequently by other popes. Gerard was indeed, as Pope Paschal called him, the "institutor" of the order, if not its founder. It retained, however, during his life time its purely eleemosynary character. The armed defence of pilgrims may have been part of its functions, but its organization as an aggressive military force was the outcome of special circum stances—the renewed activity of the Saracens—and was the work of Raymond du Puy, who succeeded as grand master on the death of Gerard (3rd of September 112o). The statesman like qualities of Raymond du Puy rendered his long mas tership epoch-making for the order; and from 1137 onwards they took a regular part in the wars of the Cross. During the Second Crusade Raymond was present at the council of the leaders held at Acre, in 1148, which resulted in the ill-fated expedition against Damascus. The failure before Damascus was repaired five years later by the capture of Ascalon (August 1153), in which the grand master and his knights had a conspicuous share.
Meanwhile, in addition to its ever-growing wealth, the order had received from successive popes privileges which rendered it, like the companion order of the Temple, increasingly independ ent of and obnoxious to the secular clergy. During the 3o years of
Raymond's rule the Hospital, which Gerard had instituted to meet a local need, had become universal, and establishments were formed in East and West. After October 1158, when his presence is attested at Verona, this master builder of the order disappears from history; he died some time between this date and 116o, when the name of another grand master, Gilbert d'Assailly, appears.
Share in the Crusades.—The rule of the Hospital, as formulated by Raymond du Puy, was based upon that of the Augustinian Canons (q.v.). Its further developments, of which only the salient characteristics can be mentioned here, were closely analogous to those of the Templars (q.v.), whose statutes regu lating the life of the brethren, the terms of admission to the order, the maintenance of discipline, and the scale of punishments, culminating in expulsion are, mutatis mutandis, closely paralleled by those of the Hospitallers.
In two important respects the Knights of St. John differed from the Templars. The latter were a purely military organization ; the Hospitallers, on the other hand, were at the outset preponderat ingly a nursing brotherhood, and, though this character was subordinated during their later period of military importance, it never. disappeared. It continued to be a rule of the order that in its establishments it was for the sick to give orders, for the brethren to obey. The chapters were largely occupied with the building, furnishing, and improvement of hospitals, to which were attached learned physicians and surgeons, who had the privilege of messing with the knights. The revenues of particular properties were charged with providing luxuries (e.g., white bread) for the patients, and the various provinces of the order with the duty of forwarding blankets, clothes, wine and food for their use. The Hospitallers, moreover, encouraged the affiliation of women to their order, which the monastic and purely military rule of the Templars sternly forbade. So early as the First Crusade a Roman lady named Alix or Agnes had founded at Jerusalem a hospice for women in connection with the order of St. John. Until 1187, when they fled to Europe, the sisters had devoted themselves to prayer and sick-nursing. In Europe, however, they developed into a purely contemplative order.