Walter Alison Phillips

“ At the Reformation the master and knights of the bailiwick of Brandenburg adopted the new religion. They continued, however, like other Ritterstifter, to enjoy their corporate 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. On the 30th of October 1810, under stress of the miseries of the Napoleonic occupation of Prussia, the order was secularized and its estates confiscated ”

“ Candidates for knighthood have to prove sixteen quarterings of nobility and, if under age, must be sons of a landowner of the province and of a mother born within its limits. If an Austrian subject, the postulant must obtain the emperor's leave to join the order; the election is by the chapter, and subject to confirmation by the pope. Knights of justice take a yearly oath to fulfil the duties laid on them by the order. After ten years they may take the full oath as professed knights. ”

“ Alone of the bailiffs (bailivi) , as the officials of the order were generically termed. he held office for life. His authority was very great, but not absolute. The supreme legislative and controlling power was vested in the general chapter of the knights, at the periodical meetings of which the great officers of the order had to give an account of their stewardship, and which alone had the right to pass statutes binding on the order The executive power of the grand master, like that of the great dignitaries immediately subordinate to him, was in the nature of a delegation from the chapter. ”

“ Jean de Villiers, wounded, was carried on board a ship, and sailed to Limisso in Cyprus, which became the headquarters of the order. For the remaining two years of his life Jean de Villiers was occupied in attempting the reorganization of the shattered order. The demoralization in the East was, however, too profound to admit a ready cure. The knights, represented by the grand dignitaries, addressed a petition to Pope Boniface VIII. in 1295 asking for the appointment of a permanent council of seven difinitores to control the grand master, who had become more and more autocratic. ”

“ The cross is the gold, white-enamelled Maltese cross, differenced by two lions and two unicorns placed between the arms. The order also gives medals to persons of all ranks “for service in the cause of humanity.” Among other good works, it supports an ophthalmic hospital at Jerusalem. Unlike the Prussian order, the members need not be Protestants, though they must profess Christianity. [57]
Authorities.-From the 12th century onwards the knights exercised peculiar care in the preservation of their records, and the vast archives of the order are still preserved, all but intact, at Malta. ”

“ ST JOHN OF JERUSALEM, KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF THE HOSPITAL OF (Ordo fratrum hospitalariorum Hierosolymitanorum, Ordo militias Sandi Johannis Baptistae hospitalis Hierosolymitani) , known also later as the Knights of Rhodes and the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Rhodes and the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta. The history of this order divides itself naturally into four periods: (1) 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 ”

“ Garin de Montaigu died in 1228, after consolidating by his statesmanlike attitude the position and power of his order, on the eve of Frederick II.'s crusade. In this crusade, conducted in spite of a papal excommunication, the Hospitallers took no part, being rewarded with the approval of Pope Gregory IX., who, in August 1229, issued a bull to the patriarch of Jerusalem ordering him to maintain the jurisdiction of the Hospital over the Teutonic knights, who had dared to assist the German emperor. ”

“ At any time before doing so, however, they are free to retire from the order and may receive the croix de dévotion as honorary knights, their sole obligation being an annual subscription to the order. The croix de dévotion is also bestowed on ladies of sufficiently impeccable descent. The grand master also has the right, motu proprio, to bestow the cross on distinguished people not of noble birth, who are known as knights of grace. ”

“ Yet that Raymond laid down military regulations for the brethren is certain. Their underlying principle is revealed by a bull of Pope Alexander III. addressed (1178–1180) to the grand master Roger des Moulins, in which he bids him, “according to the custom of Raymond,” abstain from bearing arms save when the standard of the Cross is displayed either for the defence of the kingdom or in an attack on a “pagan” city. [10]
The statesmanlike qualities of Raymond du Puy rendered his long mastership epoch-making for the order. ”

“ About 1023 certain merchants of Amalfi had purchased the site of the Latin hospice established by Charlemagne, destroyed in 1010 with the other Christian establishments by order of the fanatical caliph Hakim Biamrillah [2] and had there founded a hospital for pilgrims, served by Benedictines and later dedicated to St John the Baptist. [3] When, in 1087, the crusaders surrounded the Holy City, the head of this hospital was a certain Gerard or Gerald. [4] who earned their gratitude by assisting them in some way during the siege. ”

“ Gerard was indeed, as Pope Paschal called him, the “instituter” of the order, if not its founder. It retained, however, during his lifetime 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 circumstances—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 1120) . ”

“ 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 (1530) , handed over to the Hospitallers 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 profoundly affected the order. ”

“ They had long ceased to be effective fighting ships, and survived mainly as gorgeous state barges in which the knights sailed on ceremonial pleasure trips.
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, and six years later the Directory resolved on the forcible seizure of Malta itself. ”

“ In 1296 Eudes was succeeded by Guillaume de Villaret, grand prior of St Gilles, who for three years after his election remained in Europe, regulating the affairs of the order. In 1300, in response to the urgent remonstrances of the knights, he appeared in Cyprus. In 1299 an unnatural alliance of the Christians and Mongols gave a momentary prospect of regaining the Holy Land; in 1300 the Hospitallers took part in the raid of King Henry II. (de Lusignan) of Cyprus in Egypt, and gained some temporary successes on the coast of Syria. ”

“ Not that Raymond can be proved to have given to his order anything of its later aristocratic constitution. There is no mention in his Rule [8] of the division into knights, chaplains and sergeants; indeed, there is no mention of any military duties whatever. It merely lays down certain rules of conduct and discipline for the brethren. They are to be bound by the threefold vow of chastity, poverty and obedience. They are to claim nothing for themselves save bread, water and raiment ”

“ The satisfactory arrangement was possibly affected by the result of a combined attack made in 1259 on the Hospitallers by the Templars and the brethren of St Lazarus and St Thomas, which had resulted in the practical extermination of the aggressors, possibly also by the crushing defeat of the Templars and the Syrian barons by the Turcomans at Tiberias in 1260. ”

“ In France at least the Hospitallers complained that they were actually out of pocket. See Finke, Papisttum und Untergang des Tempelherrenordens, i. ad fin. None the less, the great accession of territorial property necessitated the subdivision of the great regional jurisdictions, notably that of the priory of St Gilles, into new grand priories. ↑ The question is discussed in detail by M. Le Roulx, Hospitaliers, pp. 278 sqq. He himself dates the surrender of the castle of Rhodes in 1308. Cf. Hans Prutz, “Anfänge der Hospitaliter auf Rhodos” in Sitzungsber. der K. Bay. ”

“ Akad. d. Wissenschaften (1908) , i. Abhandlung. ↑ Foulques de Vil1aret's head seems to have been turned by his success. His early vigour and statesmanlike qualities gave place to luxury, debauchery and a tyrannical temper. He was ultimately deposed, and died at the castle of Teyran in Languedoc in 1327. ↑ The great dignitaries were distributed as follows: Grand commander of Provence, the grand preceptor; Auvergne, the grand marshal; France, the grand hospitaller; Italy, the grand admiral; Aragon, the grand conservator or draper; England, the turcopolier; Germany, the grand bailiff ”