Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem

The character and aims of the order were also profoundly affected by their newly acquired sovereignty. The Hospitallers ruled an island too narrow to monopolize their energies, but occupying a position of vast commercial and strategic importance. Close to the Anatolian mainland, commanding the outlet of the Archipelago, and lying in the direct trade route between Europe and the East, Rhodes had become the chief distributing point in the lively commerce which, in spite of papal thunders, Christian traders maintained with the Mohammedan states ; the Hospital lers were thus divided between their duty as sovereign, which was to watch over the interests of their subjects, and their duty as Christian warriors, which was to combat the infidel. In view of the fact that the crusading spirit was everywhere declining, it is not surprising that their policy was henceforth directed less by religious than by political and commercial considerations. Not that they altogether neglected their duty as protectors of the Cross. Their galleys policed the narrow seas; their consuls in Egypt and Jerusalem watched over the interests of pilgrims ; their hospitals were still maintained for the service of the sick and the destitute. But, side by side with this, secularization pro ceeded apace. Even towards the infidel the attitude of the knights was necessarily influenced by the fact that their supplies of pro visions were mainly drawn from the Muslim mainland. By the 15th century their crusading spirit had grown so weak that they even attempted to negotiate a commercial treaty with the Ottoman sultan; the project broke down on the refusal of the knights to accept the sultan's suzerainty.

Their history during the two centuries of the occupation of Rhodes, so far as its general interest for Europe is concerned, is that of a long series of naval attacks and counter-attacks; its chief outcome, for which the European states owed a debt of gratitude but ill acknowledged, the postponement for some two centuries of the appearance of the Ottomans as a first-rate naval power in the Mediterranean. The Ottoman peril, however, grew ever more imminent, and in 1395, under their grand master Philibert de Naillac, the Hospitallers shared in the disastrous defeat of Nicopolis ; and this was followed in a few years by the loss of Smyrna. It was after this disaster that the knights built, on a narrow promontory jutting from the mainland opposite the island of Kos, the fortress of St. Peter the Liberator. The castle, which still stands, its name corrupted into Budrun (from Bedros, Peter), was long a place of refuge for Christians fleeing from slavery. Some years later the position of the order as a Mediterranean sea-power was strengthened by commercial treaties with Venice, Pisa, Genoa, and even with Egypt (1423). The zenith of its power was reached a few years later, when, under the grand master Jean Bonpar de Lastic, it twice defeated an Egyp tian attack by sea (144o and 1444). A new and more imminent peril, however, arose with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, for Mohammed II. had announced his intention of making Rhodes his next objective. After a long series of naval battles had been carried on by the Hospitallers, the dreaded sul tan Suleiman the Magnificent directed his attack on Rhodes. In 1522 he besieged the island, reinforcements failed, the European powers sent no assistance, and in 1523 the knights capitulated, and withdrew with all the honors of war to Candia (Crete). The

emperor Charles V., when the news was brought to him, exclaimed, "Nothing in the world has been so well lost as Rhodes!" But he refused to assist the grand master in his plans for its recovery, and instead, five years later (153o), handed over to the Hospital lers the island of Malta and the fortress of Tripoli in Africa.

The Knights in Malta.

The settlement of the Hospitallers in Malta was contemporaneous with the Reformation, which pro foundly affected the order. In England the refusal of the grand prior and knights to acknowledge the royal supremacy led to the confiscation of their estates by Henry VIII., and, though not formally suppressed, the English organization practically ceased to exist. The knights of Malta, as they came to be known, none the less continued their vigorous warfare. In 1550 they defeated the redoubtable corsair Dragut, but in 1551 their position in Tripoli, always precarious, became untenable and they capitulated to the Turks and concentrated their forces in Malta. On May 18, 1565, the Ottoman fleet appeared before the city, and one of the most famous sieges in history began. It was ultimately raised in September, on the appearance of a large relieving force despatched by the Spanish viceroy of Sicily, after 25,000 of the enemy had fallen. The memory of La Vallette, the hero of the siege, who died in 1568, is preserved in the city of Valletta, which was built on the site of the struggle.

In 1571 the knights shared in the victory of Lepanto; but this crowning success was followed during the 17th century by a long period of depression, due to internal dissensions and culminating during the Thirty Years' War, the position of the order being seriously affected by the terms of the peace of Westphalia (1648). The character of the order at this date became more exclusively aristocratic, and its wealth, partly acquired by com merce, partly derived from the contributions of the command eries scattered throughout Europe, was enormous. The wonderful fortifications, planned by French architects and improved by every grand master in turn, the gorgeous churches, chapels and auberges, the great library founded in 165o, were the outward and visible signs of the growth of a corresponding luxury in the private life of the order. Nevertheless, under Raymond Perellos (1697– 172o) and Antonio Manoel (1722-1736), the knights restored their prestige in the Mediterranean by victories over the Turks. In 1741 Emmanuele Pinto, a man of strong character, became grand master. He expelled the Jesuits, resisted papal encroach ments on his authority and, refusing to summon the general chap ter, ruled as a despot. Emanuel, prince de Rohan, who was elected grand master in succession to Francesco Jimenes de Texada. in 1775, made serious efforts to revive the old spirit of the order; and the last great expedition of the Maltese galleys was worthy of its noblest traditions ; they were sent to carry supplies for the sufferers from the great earthquake in Sicily. They had long ceased to be effective fighting ships, and survived mainly as gor geous state barges in which the knights sailed on ceremonial pleasure trips.