a brief statement of the reasons why they went proudly and sometimes
stoically to their final downfall, and why the Hospital Order, though
not always keeping up to its earlier standards, nevertheless so
far eclipsed them, as to become the recipients of very much of the
Templars' enormous resources and wealth, being thought worthy to be
thus entrusted. And so it happened that, in 1307, Philip of France had
all the Templars in France arrested and their property sequestrated.
This led to a tripartite dispute in which were involved the Templars,
the Pope and the King. In 1310 fifty-four Templar Knights were burned
alive in Paris. At last the Pope, to prevent their property from
falling into secular hands, made over to the Hospitallers most of the
Templar estates, excepting however those in Spain. The Grand Master
Molay and another Templar were burned to death on an island in the
Seine.
So much then in brief, for purposes of contrast. Now to the avowed
subject of this paper.
During the seventeenth century there rose a controversy as to the
foundation of a hospital already in existence in Jerusalem, named
after the Asmorean prince John Hyrcanus, (the son and successor of
Simon Maccabaeus, who restored the independence of Judea and founded
a monarchy over which his descendants reigned till the accession of
Herod. He died 105 B. C.). This was at a time when the pious merchants
of Amalfi planned a refuge for their pilgrims. It was this John whom
many suppose to have been the patron of the order, though it seems
now clearly established that the first sponsor or the first St. John,
in this connection, was the Greek patriarch John surnamed Eleëmon,
or the Charitable, because of his practical philanthropy. (See "St.
John the Almsgiver," Rev. H. T. F. Duckworth, 1901). But by the time
the Crusaders, under Godfrey of Bouillon, had taken Jerusalem from the
Saracens, St. John Baptist seems to have become the acknowledged patron
saint of the hospital, his image being worn by epileptic patients, and
being later adopted as the regular badge for those engaged in hospital
work.
But this term _hospital_ must not be regarded in its present
acceptance; it was used in a broader sense to imply any house of
refuge, even from wild animals; in fact a _hospice_.
This particular hospice seems to have been erected on the ruins of
one founded by St. Gregory in 603, where it is known that the French
Benedictines worked. Two centuries later Charlemagne had claimed the
title of Protector of the Pilgrims. ("De Prime Origine Hospitaliorum,"
by La Roulx. Paris. 1885).
This institution was naturally located in close proximity to the most
sacred places, which early Christian traditions made such to the
pilgrims who came from all over Western Europe. It was in existence in
1099. It was made doubly necessary by not only the hardships of travel,
but by the ill usage of the natives, at a time when the Holy City was
in the hands of the Moslems, who demanded an entrance fee often beyond
the pilgrims' means. Thus subjected to indignities indescribable,
robbed often before their arrival, these misguided pilgrims often died
of want, or returned with their primary pious object unattained. Had
it not been for one Gerard, the first administrator of the hospice,
their hardships had been even greater.
The buildings of the Order, at first meagre, were finally enlarged to
cover a square, nearly 500 ft. on each side, with one side on the Via
Dolorosa and another fronting the Bazaar, and all a little south of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Nearby were other churches and hospices.
This was the arrangement before the establishment of the kingdom of
Jerusalem in 1099. During the next century the Order, under Raymond du
Puy, had enlarged the church of St. John Eleëmon into the conventual
church of St. John Baptist, while along the south of the square above
mentioned ran an excellent building, the hospital of St. John. When
Saladin recaptured Jerusalem, in 1187, this church was converted by the
Turks into a mad-house, known as the "Muristan," this being finally
ceded to Germany in 1869.
From the new kingdom of Jerusalem the Hospitallers obtained a
constitution, and the Gerard above mentioned was made their first
"Master." He was succeeded in 1118 by du Puy, while Baldwin II was
the Latin King of Jerusalem. The Hospital had been recognized by the
Archbishop of Caesarea in 1112, and had widely extended its sphere
of usefulness. It was King Baldwin who was anxious to stamp upon the
Order a military character, similar to that conferred upon the Order of
the Temple in 1130. This was natural since the kingdom was isolated,
surrounded by fanatic enemies and always beset by and in danger from
them. Thus the necessities of the times and the environment made it
requisite that all who were able should bear arms, and coöperate for
mutual defence.
Thus it came about that the Order was divided into three divisions, the
first in rank being the Knights of Justice, each of whom must be of
noble rank or birth, and have received the accolade of knighthood from
secular authority. The second division comprised the ecclesiastics,
who were later divided into two grades, the Conventual Chaplains, who
were assigned to duty at headquarters, and the Priests of Obedience who
served other priories and commanderies in various parts of Europe. The
third grade were the Serving Brothers, also divided into the Servants
at arms or Esquires, and the Servants at office. The Servants at arms
attended the Knights of Justice as their Esquires, and might eventually
become eligible to the first division. The Servants at office were
little if anything more than menials or domestics. Even these latter,
however, possessed certain privileges and emoluments which made
admission to this grade advantageous to men of humble origin and
faculties.
The dress of the Order was a black robe with cowl, having a white linen
cross of eight points over the left breast, and was at first worn by
all. Later, under Pope Alexander IV, the fighting knights wore their
white crosses upon a ground gules.
The first recorded appearance of a body of Hospitaller knights in
actual war was at Antioch, in 1119, while the complete military
constitution of the Order of St. John was achieved in 1128. During the
balance of the existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem then, two colleges
or companies of military monastic knights existed, side by side, in
the Holy Land, the "chief props of a tottering throne." (Bedford).
Between these rival bodies arose in time such jealousy, and within them
such intrigues,--aggravated always by the animosities of the ordinary
clergy, who took offense at the patronage bestowed upon the orders
by the Popes, aggravated also by similar difficulties on the part of
the knights of the Teutonic Order and that of St. Lazarus,--that the
best interests of the kingdom and of the Church suffered as much from
intestine dangers as from those arising from the Moslems surrounding
them. Nevertheless it may be said that the Order of the Hospital
never lost sight of its primary purposes, and never disgraced itself
by the treasonable and treacherous dealings, and correspondence with
enemies which disgraced not a few members of other and rival Christian
organizations.
The result of such disreputable actions lead--as ever--to disunion
and final disruption, and this to final capitulation and surrender
of Jerusalem, in 1187. This meant the abandonment not only of their
old home, but of their usefulness there. The Saracens occupied their
buildings and premises from that time till ruin overtook them. Thus
rudely compelled to emigrate the Order moved the same year (1187) to
the town of Margat, where was also a castle of the same name. But the
work in Jerusalem had not been abruptly discontinued, since Sultan
Saladin, in evidence of his esteem, allowed them possession of their
hospital for another year, in order that their charitable work should
not be abruptly interrupted, and even made them liberal donations.
When during the third Crusade, in which Richard Coeur de Lion bore so
valiant a part, Ptolemais was captured, it was then and there that the
Order established its headquarters, in 1192, wherefore the town became
named St. Jean d'Acre. Here they abode nearly a century.
Various other towns in Palestine held out for a time against the Turks,
e. g., Carac, Margat, Castel Blanco and Antioch, and in spite of the
intense rivalry between the Orders, Thierry, the Grand Master of the
Templars, reported in a letter to King Henry II, that the Hospitallers
bore themselves even with fervor and the greatest bravery, and praised
the aid they gave in the capture of the Turkish fleet, at Tyre, when
seventeen Christian galleys manned by friars, and ten Sicilian vessels
commanded by General Margarit, a Catalan, defeated the infidels, and
captured their admiral and eight Emirs, with eleven ships, the rest
being run aground, where Saladin later burned them, to keep them from
falling into Christian hands. (Bedford).
Notwithstanding all this, however, the joint occupation of Acre with
the Templars had a bad effect on both Orders, who turned not only to
luxury and license, but their swords against each other. Acre was at
this time a most cosmopolitan city; here mingled at least seventeen
different nationalities and languages, each occupying its own part of
the city, so that in time extravagance and lust flourished to the last
degree of demoralization. The Hospitallers were at this time far more
wealthy than the Templars, who were exceedingly jealous thereof, and
both at Margat and still worse at Acre this jealousy was exhibited in
many bloody affairs. Weakened thus by this intestine strife they were
in reverse proportion strengthened. The Pope who had defended them as
against the scathing censure of Emperor Frederick, found need, in 1238,
to accuse the knights--alike of both orders--of sheltering loose women
within their precincts, of owning individual property, both of these in
violation of their vows of chastity and poverty, and of treacherously
assisting the enemy. Yet many bore witness to the actual good they
accomplished, even at this time. In 1259 Pope Alexander, bewailing
the lack of a more distinctive dress, permitted the decree that the
fighting knights might wear black mantles, while in war they were
permitted to wear red surcoats, with a white cross.
Later it was permitted to women to join the Order, and many ladies of
high degree took advantage of the permission, rivalling in religious
zeal and in charitable deeds the most sanctified of the brethren. As
the King of Hungary wrote, at one time, after visiting some of their
houses, "In a word the Knights of St. John are employed, sometimes like
Mary in contemplation, and sometimes like Martha in action, and this
noble militia consecrate their days either in their infirmaries or else
in engagements against the enemies of the cross."
The deterioration of Acre was not so great as to make cowards of our
Knights, however, and with the continued and aggressive siege laid
by the Saracens against that city the Hospitallers and the Templars
finally made common cause, each endeavoring to outdo the other in deeds
of bravery and daring. Though defeated again and again, the Moslem
ranks were renewed by fresh soldiers, while the militant and other
monks imprisoned within the city saw their combined members steadily
diminish. At last it remained for John Villiers, Grand Master, with his
few surviving fighters, to carve their way to their boats, leaving no
combatants behind them, and then to embark in their galleys to seek a
harbor of refuge in the island of Cyprus.
_Cyprus and Rhodes._ Settled in Cyprus, the Knights renewed their zeal
and their resources. Here they began to build that fleet of galleys
which, increased later in Rhodes, became most formidable. When they and
the Templars left forever the Holy Land the Templars took the position
that their vow to protect the holy places was now either fulfilled
or at least at an end, and they distributed themselves among their
numerous preceptories all over Europe, where they made themselves
_personae non gratae_ to their civil rulers, because of their own
real power, their oriental ostentation, and their secularization
and distasteful entrance into and interference with the social and
political life and customs of their new environment. Things went from
bad to worse, public feeling was more and more aroused, and their
extermination was only a matter of time. Finally Pope Clement V and
King Phillip le Bel undertook this task with barbarous ruthlessness.
Kings, nobility and the people joined hands in the common task. The
Templars had acquired various properties, by capture, by bequest, and
in every lawful and unlawful manner, which yielded in the aggregate
relatively enormous revenues, too strong a temptation for needy secular
rulers to resist. The Pope had at last to intervene in order to prevent
the total secularization of all this great spoil, and thus it happened
that no small proportion of it was, after its sequestration, allotted
to the Order of St. John, whose Grand Masters and Knights had not
forgotten nor abandoned their original vows and purposes, and who held
that the inviolacy of their obligations required their continuous
residence in some such oriental city as Rhodes.
And here we may part company, as did they, only quite peacefully, with
the Templar Knights. Driven from Europe they made their last stand
in Great Britain, and of their lives and deeds there we have no more
readable nor interesting historical account than Scott has given us
in Ivanhoe. Any further allusion to them here will be most casual.
They offer the conventional picture, only _in extenso_, of original
poverty and self-abnegation, coupled with devotion and valor, changed
to arrogance, treason, abandonment of purpose, unbridled lawlessness
leading to crime and cruelty, all brought about because of affluence,
acquired power, selfishness, cupidity and every debasing human
weakness. Small wonder then, that they could be no longer tolerated in
Christendom.
So turn we again to the Hospitallers, now made rich and powerful at
the expense of their old rivals and at last enemies. It had soon been
made evident that Cyprus did not meet their wants and necessities. Its
king was not over friendly, and they sought further. Their gaze fixed
on the island of Rhodes, which possessed a fertile soil, a city with
an excellent harbor, not too far from the main land, i. e. not too
isolated, which was under the--by that time merely nominal--suzerainty
of the Emperor of the Eastern or Greek empire. After several futile
efforts they at last, in 1310, under the twenty-fourth Grand Master
Villaret, captured the island, where under their ceaseless energy both
hospitals and forts were built. To Rhodes were brought also Christian
refugees from the various Turkish provinces, and thus their numbers
were rapidly strengthened. Their fleet, already begun (_vide supra_)
was greatly increased, and with it they had many a conflict with the
Turkish corsairs, whose inroads they practically checked.
About the beginning of the fourteenth century changes had been made in
the Order, which was now divided into Langues, or arranged according to
nationalities, yet without materially altering the original division
into the three classes (Knights, Chaplains and Serving Brothers). In
this way the Order was apportioned between seven nations or languages,
Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England and Germany.
Finally under pressure from Spain the Langue of Aragon was divided
into two, Aragon and Castile, the latter including Portugal. The
various dignities and offices were divided among these langues, whose
principals became a kind of Privy Council to the Grand Master, and were
known as Conventual Bailiffs. They were given different names in each
country; thus the Grand Commander of the English langue was known as
the Turcopolier, of France the Grand Hospitaller, of Italy the Admiral,
etc. As the new fortifications arose around the city of Rhodes, each
was placed in charge of one of these langues or divisions, while each
erected quarters for its own men. It did not follow, however, that
every member of each langue came from the country which it represented.
While Scotland was an independent kingdom it contributed to the
Turcopolier, while many Scotchmen belonged to the French or even the
other langues. At this time the inhabitants of the City of Rhodes
consisted largely of Christian refugees, who owed their security, even
their lives, to the fact that the Knights Hospitaller still adhered
to their primary objects, the liberation of the captive and giving
assistance to the sick and distressed. This they afforded through
their fleet and their hospices. When Smyrna nearly fell into the hands
of Timour the Tartar, about the middle of the fourteenth century,
the Order strengthened their harbor by erecting a new fort, which
they named Budrum (corrupted from Petros-a Rock), where any Christian
escaping from slavery found shelter. Here was also kept a remarkable
breed of dogs, who were trained not only as watch dogs but to render
services similar to those afforded by the Alpine dogs of St. Bernard.
As time went on the Sultans became more and more jealous of the naval
power possessed by the Order. With the fall of the Eastern Empire
and the final retaking of Constantinople by Mahomet II, in 1453 (See
"Prince of India"), it was made evident that danger to the Order from
this direction was rapidly increasing. This became so urgent that
in 1470, after Mahomet had taken the island of Negropont, the Grand
Master commanded that all members of the Order should repair at once
to Rhodes. In 1476 d'Aubusson began the most active measures for the
defense of the place, and thus was ready for the attack, in May, 1480,
when 80,000 men in 160 ships, landed on the island coast. In this siege
no small part was played by renegade traitors, the most prominent being
one George Frapant, a German, whom the Grand Master finally hung in
July. In the last sorties which terminated this siege deeds of the
greatest bravery were performed; yet here we can only commemorate the
fact that the Turks were summarily defeated, leaving 3,500 corpses on
the ground after the last decisive attack. The losses of the besieged
were small as compared with those suffered by the Turks.
Later in the same year the island suffered from a severe earthquake.
Mahomet died not long after this, was succeeded by his son Bo-jazet who
made truce with the Order, presenting them with a relic of supposedly
inestimable value, namely the hand of St. John, which the Turks had
taken at Constantinople.
Years of comparative quietude succeeded until in the following century,
in 1522, Solyman the Magnificent landed upon the island in July, with
100,000 soldiers and 60,000 pioneers. Again ensued all the horrors of a
siege. The defenders did their part so bravely that the Sultan publicly
disgraced his generals. But the inevitable famine wrought consequent
disaffection on the part of the native population, who clamored for
capitulation, and sought treasonable terms therefor, because of which
one of the most prominent of them was tried, found guilty and executed.
Finally under stress of circumstances no longer endurable Grand Master
Adam agreed to honorable surrender, and on the first of January, 1523,
the Hospitaller Knights relinquished the island, the Sultan himself
speaking in terms of extravagant praise of their heroism, while at
the same time he scathingly censured the Christian monarchs of Europe
who had failed to come to their relief. Thus after two hundred and
twenty years of occupation and rule of the island of Rhodes, some 5,000
Knights and other members of the Order, and natives, left it to take
abode for a short time in their Priory at Messina. Driven from here by
plague, they moved on to Viterbo, while their Grand Master travelled in
search of a new home.
_Malta._ Malta had been early proposed for this purpose, and offered by
Charles V, while many wishes turned to the city of Modon, in Greece.
After seven years of wandering and indecision Grand Master L'Isle Adam
accepted Malta as the best solution of the difficulty. Thither the
Order now removed, and there Adam died in the Castle of St. Angelo,
erected by the Norman Count Roger of Sicily, still active in improving
its existing defences. In 1555 the Order lost nearly all of its fleet
in consequence of a violent hurricane, which accident for a while laid
the island open to piratical attacks, especially of a corsair named
Dragut; but he did little damage, save that with the knowledge of the
island and its defences thus gained he persuaded Solyman to undertake
another attempt to crush the Order, the latter being justly furious
because some galleys belonging to the Order had captured a ship that
happened to be loaded with rich valuables belonging to the ladies of
his harem. Therefore war was again declared in 1565.
The Turkish fleet was made up of 130 galleys with 50 smaller boats, and
carried the Janissaries and 34,000 other soldiers, against whom the
Grand Master could only oppose some 9,000 men, 700 of whom, however,
were desperate men, released from the galleys of the enemy, and eager
for vengeance. On May twenty-fourth the siege of St. Elmo was in
reality begun by a fierce bombardment, the walls being soon battered,
and the garrison forced to take shelter in excavations made in the
solid rock. And now the besiegers' force was augmented by the arrival
of Dragut, in those days the dreaded corsair of the sea, who came with
thirteen more ships and 1,500 more men. June thirteenth saw a desperate
conflict when, after six hours of fierce fighting and the loss of
only 300 men, the besiegers were repulsed. Soon after this Dragut was
killed. Again on June twenty-third another general attack was repulsed,
though the garrison was thereby reduced to 60 men. Even this small
force, many crippled and maimed, repulsed the first onslaught of the
Turks, but had later to sell their lives as dearly as they could.
The Turkish general Mustapha took barbarous revenge, even on the
corpses of the Knights which he decapitated and then tied to planks
that they might float past St. Angelo. La Vallette retaliated by
beheading some of his captives and firing their heads at the Turks from
his cannon.
At this juncture the garrison was reinforced by the arrival of 700 men
and 42 Knights from Sicily. Refusing all opportunities to surrender
and all parley under flags of truce, Grand Master La Vallette built
new defences and strengthened the old, in spite of a fierce July sun.
Meanwhile the Turks, also reinforced, prepared for still more desperate
sorties, selecting for the land attack men who knew not how to swim,
in order that they might fight the more fiercely, and drawing off the
boats as soon as their loads were emptied, so that no retreat could be
possible. One thousand Janissaries were embarked in ten large barges,
but nine of these were sunk by the artillery fire from the forts. On
the other side of the defences a large attacking column was completely
routed. The loss to the Turks this day was 3,000 men, that of the
garrison 250.
And so the siege went on; attack after attack, with but small success
to the investing army. But the heroic defenders suffered increasingly
under the constant strain, and both armies were exhausted, the Turks
losing 800 men from dysentery alone. To such an extent was this true
that when the Turkish officers drove their soldiers to the charge by
blows of their own swords, it was but necessary to cut down those who
led the charges, when the rest would turn and fly.
And now came other long expected reinforcements from Sicily, when a
fleet landed 8,500 men and returned for 4,000 more. Being now quite
unequal to the continuation of the siege the Turks evacuated all the
ground they had gained, and finally made a hasty and complete flight,
harassed in every way, in their endeavors to escape, by the now
victorious garrison.
The losses during the period of siege, with its numerous engagements,
were estimated at some 30,000 Turks, and 8,000 men and 260 Knights of
the Order. Is it strange that by contributions from all over Christian
Europe there was soon built up a town bearing the name of Valetta, thus
commemorating the heroism and military prowess of the Order's Grand
Master La Valette, as well as the "glorious issue" of the struggle for
Malta, and the confirmation of the Order as a sovereign independent
community?