The French Revolution was fatal to the order. Rohan made no secret of his sympathy with the losing cause in France, and Malta became a refuge-place for the émigrés. In 1792 the vast possessions of the order in France were confiscated; six years later the Directory resolved on the forcible seizure of Malta itself. With this the history of the order of St. John practically ends. Efforts were, however, made to preserve it. Efforts to restore the order through Russian influence failed; and a chapter now granted the right of nomination to the pope, who appointed Giovanni di Tommasi grand master. From his death in 18o5 until 5879, when Leo XIII. restored the title of grand master in favour of Fra Giovanni Ceschi a Santa Croce, the heads of the order received only the title of lieutenant master. In 1814 the French knights summoned a chapter general and elected a permanent commission for the government of the order, which was recognized by the Italian and Spanish knights, by the pope and by King Louis XVIII. In the Italian states much of the property of the order was restored at the instance of Austria, and in 1841 the emperor Ferdinand founded the grand priory of Lombardo Venetia.
In addition to the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta, there exist two Orders of St. John of Jerusalem of Protestant origin :—the Prussian Johanniterorden and the English Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Of these the Prussian order has the most interesting history. At the Reformation the master and knights of Brandenburg adopted the new religion. They continued, however, like other Ritterstifter, to enjoy their corpoitte rights; they even continued to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the grand preceptor of the German langue, in so far as the confirmation of official appointments was concerned, and to send their contributions to the common fund of the order. All members of the order must be of noble birth and belong to the Evangelical Church. The cross worn is of white enamelled gold with four black eagles between the arms; a white linen cross is also sewn on the left breast of the red tunic which forms part of the uniform. The order has founded, and supports, many hospitals.
The English "langue," though deprived of its lands, had never been formally suppressed. In 1826-1827 the commission insti
tuted by the French knights in 1814, which was aiming at taking advantage of the Greek War of Independence to reconquer Rhodes or to secure some other island in the Levant, suggested the restoration of the English "langue," obviously with the idea of se curing the help of Great Britain for their project. The negotiations resulted in articles of convention formally reviving the English "langue." For fifty years this was all the official recognition ob tained by this curious and characteristic sham-Gothic restoration of the Romantic period. The English "langue," however, though somewhat absurd, did good service in organizing hospital work, notably in the creation of the St. John's Ambulance Association, and this work was recognized in high quarters, the princess of Wales (afterwards Queen Alexandra) becoming a lady of justice in 1876 and the duke of Albany joining the order in 1883. In 1888 Queen Victoria granted a charter formally incorporating the order, the headquarters of which had been established in the an cient gateway of the priory at Clerkenwell. The sovereign is its supreme head and patron, the heir to the throne for the time being its grand prior.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—For further study of the subject the work of J. D. Le Roulx is of fundamental importance. In 1883 he published Les Archives de l'Ordre de Saint-Jean, an analysis of the records pre served at Malta. This was followed in 1904 by his monumental Cartulaire general des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem (Imo 13io), 4 vols. folio. This gives (I) all documents anterior to 1120, (2) all those emanating from the great dignitaries of the order, (3) all those emanating from popes, emperors, kings and great feudatories, (4) those which fix the date of the foundation of particular com manderies, (5) those regulating the relations of the Hospitallers with the lay and ecclesiastical authorities and with the other military orders, (6) the rules, statutes and customs of the order. Hitherto unpublished documents (from the archives of Malta and elsewhere) are published in full ; those already published, and the place where they may be found, being indicated in proper sequence. Based on the Cartulaire is Le Roulx's Les Hospitaliers en Terre Sainte et en Chypre (Paris, 1904), an invaluable work in which many hitherto obscure problems have been solved. It contains a full list of published authorities. Of English works may be mentioned J. M. Kemble's Historical introduction to The Knights Hospitallers in England (Cam den Soc., London, 1857) ; W. Porter, Hist. of the Knights of Malta (2 vols. 1858, new ed. 1883) ; Bedford and Holbeche, The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (1902), for the modern order.