SAINT JOHN, KNIGHTS OF, or 110SPITALLERS, a military order of religious persons. They derived their name from a church and monastery dedicated to St. John the Baptist, founded at Jerusalem about 1018, by merchants from Amalfi, the brotherhood of its mem bers being devoted to the duty of taking care of poor and sick pilgrims. The order was instituted as a military brotherhood by Raymond du Puy, its principal, early in the 12th century. It sons divided into three ranks—knights, chaplains, and ser vitors; and in its military capacity it was bound to defend the church against the infidels. It possessed various posses sions and settlements at different times in different parts of the East. In the 13th century, being driven from Palestine, the knights of thix order fixed their prin cipal seat first in Cyprus, and afterwards at Rhodes, where they remained from 1309 to 1522, when the island was cap tured by Solyman 11. Alter several changes of settlement, they were fixed in 1530 by Charles V. at Malta and its de pendent islands, whence they took the name of Knights of Malta. here they maintained themselves until 1798, when the island was taken by Napoleon. The
order, however, continued to subsist, notwithstanding the loss of its sovereign possessions both in Malta and in Tuscany. the seat of the chapter is now at Ferrara. Before the French Revolution the num ber of knights was estimated at 3000. The temporal powers of the order were chiefly concentrated in the hands of the grand master ; but he was, in fact, con trolled by the governors of the eight languages. These were, of Provence, Auvergne, Frame, Italy, Aragon, Ger many, Castile, and England. The lands were divided into priories, commander ies, and bailliages. The spiritual power was exercised by the chapter, consisting of eight ballivi conventuales. The knights were under the rules of the order of St. Augustine; but Protestants were nut bound to celibacy. They were required to be necessarily of good descent ; but those whose proofs of noble ancestry were unquestionable were termed earn lieri di giustizia, while others who could not show such proofs might be admitted on account of their merits as caratieri rli grazia.