acquired a certain degree of glory, later even of magnificence.
From all parts of Europe, wherever any commandery of the Order was
maintained, was paid tribute to the Grand Master, as may be adjudged
even to-day, long after French rapacity had robbed the city of many of
its treasures. Individual Knights vied with each other in their gifts,
and palaces arose wherein were received the envoys and even ambassadors
of foreign courts. The fleet was constantly busied in clearing the
Mediterranean of Moslem and other pirates, and many Christians were
released from the galleys in which they had been chained to the oars.
In this restoration the English langue took a rather small part, and
their officers and members had often to be rebuked or punished for
insubordination or worse crimes. The Reformation in England interfered,
and furnished some reason for their diminishing zeal. The galleys of
the Order became more and more like pleasure boats, and many of their
cruises were in effect pleasure excursions. Later in their decadence
their adventures became more like piratical incursions, until, under
letters of marque issued by a decadent Admiralty, the Malta privateer
was equivalent to the pirate. (Maroyat). These facts were scarcely
offset by that other, that the last fleet of the Order, which left
Valetta in 1783, was sent to the relief of earthquake sufferers in
Sicily.
With regard to their activities in the matter of succoring the sick let
it be noted that the Knights found on their arrival at Malta a hospital
or hospice already existing. In the buildings of a nunnery still
standing may be seen the gateway of their own first hospital. In 1575
they erected one much larger, which had a passageway connected with
the waterfront, so that patients could be brought directly from the
ships. This building in some part still remains in use as a military
hospital. Its great ward is 500 feet in length, and 30 feet high,
divided by partitions 15 feet in height. In its best days patients were
served from silver utensils. It was under the charge of the Regent
of the French Knights, who had as his staff five doctors and three
apothecaries. Other knights and servants acted as male nurses. The
knights were luxuriously cared for, and 150 beds were always in reserve
for those returning from expeditions who might need them.
In 1796, only a year before the disintegration of the Order began, the
patients numbered from 350 to 400. There existed also a hospital for
women, with 230 beds, and a foundling hospital where some fifty waifs
were sheltered.
A curious bit of history connecting the middle ages with the more
recent past relates to the hospital interests of the Order. The nobles
of Dauphigny had founded a fraternity of Hospitallers for the relief
of sufferers from St. Anthony's fire (erysipelas), which was erected
into the regular Antoine order in 1218. About 550 years later, or to be
exact in 1777, a compact was made by which the Order of St. John took
over their property, under certain conditions, which involved, among
other considerations, a larger expenditure. The Antonine estates, in
France and Savoy, were confiscated in 1792, thus entailing a tremendous
loss to the Order, so great, in fact that the Valetta treasury became
insolvent. (Bedford). From this time we may date the rapid downfall of
the Order. Malcontents and traitors gained the supremacy, and in 1798,
after treacherous negotiations, Napoleon landed part of his army in
Malta, and Valetta surrendered.
Thus, as Bartlett says, "ignominiously came to a close, on June 12th,
1798, the once illustrious Order of St. John of Jerusalem, having
subsisted for more than 700 years."
At this time it consisted of 328 enrolled knights, and a military force
of some 7,000 men.
Napoleon expressed his surprise at the strength of the fortifications,
furnished them with one thousand cannon, left a garrison of 3,000
men, took with him the disciplined soldiers he found there, rifled
the island of its treasures, its art work and its bullion, and sailed
for Egypt. Several of the traitor knights were put to death by the
infuriated populace, whose anger was not appeased by Nelson's victory
at Aboukir--the battle of the Nile--but took form in open insurrection.
The French garrison finally took refuge in the old fortifications,
where they withstood for two years a siege by the combined insurgents
and an English fleet. Finally reduced by famine and disease they
capitulated to the English forces under Gen. Pigot. The latter then
selected Capt. Sir Alexander Ball, Nelson's representative, Governor of
the Island. At the Peace of Amiens the effort was made to restore the
Order as ruling authority, under the protectorate of the Great Powers,
but the Maltese themselves objected so vehemently that after no small
amount of trouble and dispute the inhabitants of the island elected to
place themselves under the sovereignty of Great Britain, an arrangement
finally and definitely confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.
Thus disappeared from history one of the most interesting and longest
enduring institutions recorded in its pages, and certainly the most
long-lived of any of its kind. I say disappeared, meaning thereby only
to indicate its disruption, as it were into fragments, its primary
purpose, i. e. aid to the needy, being kept ever in view by some, while
others preferring the life of a soldier, took service under various
rulers or military leaders. The traitors who were responsible for
surrender to Napoleon fared badly according to their deserts, though
it does not appear that any of them were hung. In the migration England
seemed to attract many, perhaps the majority of those who were still
inclined to good deeds. The title of Grand Master was still continued,
under some pretension to perpetuation of the Order. In Russia the Czar
Alexander, in 1801, upon the death of his predecessor Paul, announced
himself a Protector of the Order, and designated Count Soltikoff to
exercise the functions of the Grand Master.
Thus dismembered, disunited and scattered, the fragmentary langues
of the Order underwent, on their way to final dissolution, various
vicissitudes, through which they cannot here be followed. Complete
extinguishment was the eventual fate of most of them. I shall only
concern myself now with that of the English langue, and its partial
revival in 1830.
Rev. Dr. Peat, chaplain to George IV, was one of those to whom the
remnants of the English langue appealed, with the result that in 1827
certain notable English gentry, of eminent attainments, undertook to
revive the Order in England, only under quite different conditions from
those previously obtaining. In 1831 Dr. Peat was invested with the
authority and functions of Grand Prior. It will be at once seen how the
matter of religious belief now separated the English Order from all the
survivors of the previous regime, and why the last ties were severed.
Under the new regime members of the Order dropped all pretense of
playing a military role; one may read thereafter of real hospital
activity. The Life Boat movement and ambulance work were gradually
incorporated into their plans and scope. When First Aid to the Injured
began to be publicly taught public and general interest was quickly
aroused, and the energetic cooperation of eminent men was assured. In
other words the Order gradually took up just that class of work which
is now done under the Red Cross. Sir Edward Lechmere established, in
1867, a commandery of the Order in one of his castles, and in 1874
was instrumental in the acquisition of the St. John Gate, which still
stands, an example of Tudor architecture as also a well preserved
monumental relic of the time, beginning about 1180, when the Order had
founded a hospital in Clerkenwell, while the ladies of the order were
housed in Bucland, in Somersetshire. The old Priory of the Order in
Clerkenwell was practically destroyed in 1381, by the mob led by Jack
Straw, in an insurrection which had, along with other results, as an
incident, the beheading of Sir Robert Hales, the Prior of the Order. In
the slow process of rebuilding the present Gate was not completed till
1504. On the North and South fronts remain projecting towers, while in
the Western tower a spiral stair case is still in use. Bedford's work,
from which I have drawn heavily, gives excellent pictures of the Gate
as it appears to-day, and of the old priory restored.
Colonel Duncan, also, deserves honorable mention in this connection;
he became Director of the Ambulance Movement in 1875. Finally we have
to record here that under a new Charter, granted in 1888, the then
Prince of Wales, later King Edward, became the Grand Prior. Therefore
the Order of the Hospital, in England of St. John of Jerusalem is, in
fact, the legitimate successor--one might say the lineal descendant--of
the old Order of Knights Hospitaller, though it is to-day a secular and
voluntary society, keeping to the traditions of the past, no longer
military nor militant, save as it fights disease and best of all
teaches others how to do the same. To follow it further is no longer
necessary. Its work is essentially that of the Red Cross. It has, for
instance, a depot at old St. John's Gate, whence all the material
required in teaching and illustrating as well as rendering first aid is
issued. Its work was begun with a two-wheeled litter, an old Esmarch
triangular bandage from Germany, and a stretcher from France. Now it
distributes all these things throughout the British Empire. Now, too,
it maintains ambulances all over the city of London, which do for
their own hospitals just what each of our hospitals at home has to
do for itself. The German "Samariter-Verein" is virtually a Chapter
of the English Order in its revivified form. In 1883 a branch of the
Order was organized in India, where among others the native police are
instructed in "First Aid." In 1882, by a Firman of the Turkish Sultan,
an Ophthalmic Hospital was opened, under the auspices of the Order, in
Jerusalem. Only those who have travelled in the East can appreciate
what this means to the poor, where squalor vies with ignorance, and, as
in Egypt though not so universally, both conspire to the ruin of that
greatest of all blessings--eyesight.
But I will not delay to write further of what the Ambulance Brigade of
London, and its affiliated corps, have accomplished in many parts of
the world; in South Africa, for example, it works under the general
supervision of the Order of St. John, as it now exists in London.
It does everything that in our country is accomplished by the Red
Cross for the general public, and by the Hospital Corps and their
Medical Officers for our Army and Navy. Over the graves of eleven
members of the brigade, who died at their posts in South Africa, in
St. Paul's, London, not far from the crypts where lie the remains of
Nelson and Wellington, has been erected a monument to their memory.
Another bearing among other inscriptions this beautiful scriptural
quotation:--"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his
life for his friends," was unveiled by His Royal Highness, acting
as Grand Prior, in St. John's Church, Clerkenwell, June 11th, 1902.
Fifteen hundred men enrolled in the Order had left that church before
their departure for the Front, and of these about seventy sacrificed
their lives to this sort of duty. Do not the dead deserve all praise
and respect, and the survivors all commendation?
A few years ago my friend Sir George Beatson, surgeon to the Royal
Infirmary in Glasgow, published a little monograph--"The Knights
Hospitallers in Scotland and their Priory at Torphichen" (Printed by
Hedderwick and Sons, Glasgow,)--which aroused my interest sufficiently
to prompt a visit to this, the last home of the old Order in that
part of the world. The little village Torphichen lies about midway
between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and three miles south from the town of
Llinlithgow. Here had been founded, in 1124, one of the great Priories
or Preceptories under control of the English _langue_. Here they
settled in a magnificent and fertile area, the Grampian hills to their
north; to their west could be seen the snow-capped top of what is now
known as Ben Lomond. By donation, by cultivation of the arable soil,
and by wise management of their resources, they prospered greatly, from
the worldly point of view. Here they erected that building, a part of
which still exists, and which makes a picturesque ruin which is not yet
a scene of desolation.
The members of the Order took, here as elsewhere, the view that the
best way to serve God was by _remaining in it_ and working, not by
_fleeing from it_ into lazy, selfish and profitless solitude as did too
many of the monks.
In common with other monasteries the Torphichen Preceptory possessed
the Right of Sanctuary, and in its churchyard still stands the short
stone pillar, carved with a Maltese cross on its upper surface,
which meant that within a mile in every direction therefrom all
those charged with any crime, save murder only, might find temporary
protection.
Here for four hundred years, and until the Reformation upset
everything, the Hospitallers carried on their affairs. In 1560 their
last Preceptor or Grand Prior made over to the Crown all their
properties and effects. The Crown in return made these possessions a
temporal Barony, carrying with it the title of Lord of Torphichen. From
this time the property began to suffer--from time, storm, vandalism of
the people and neglect. Still the present Lord Torphichen has proven
himself a better guardian than did some of his predecessors. A parish
church has been built, partly upon the sight of the old structure,
partly into it. Dr. Beatson has urged that a combination between the
present Order of St. John, in London, and the St. Andrew's Ambulance
Association might be effected which might work to the benefit of both,
by reviving some of the work done here in days gone by.
I have ventured this brief reference to Torphichen, partly because
of my interest in the place itself, associated with my visit there,
and partly because every such visit to the monuments of past grandeur
and usefulness should strengthen our interest and zeal in what man is
accomplishing to-day, and should help link together the Past and the
Present in a manner not merely fascinating but inspirational, and keep
us from forgetting that motto of the Order,
"Pro utilitate Hominum"
For the Welfare of Mankind.
VII
GIORDANO BRUNO
The Renaissance was the fourth of the great events in the history of
the Christian Era; the first being the decline of Rome, the second the
introduction of the Christian cult, and the third, the intrusion into
Southern Europe of the Teutonic and Slavonic tribes. With none of these
however, save the fourth, is this paper primarily concerned, and not
even with the fourth save indirectly, though it deals with a special
feature of it. Protestants and Catholics alike impeded progress and
the self-evolution of reason in every possible way. Italy gave the
world the Roman Republic, then the Roman Empire and finally the Roman
Church; after that arose a new storm centre in the North which swept
toward the Mediterranean. The Teutons effaced the Western Empire,
adopted Christianity, and completely modified what remained of Latin
civilization. Then the Roman Bishops separated the Latin from the Greek
Church, and under the captious title of The Holy Roman Empire bound
Western Europe into what has been called a "cohesive whole." While
Romans and Teutons never actually blended homogeneously, they had
yet a common bond of union. When this coalition was for a time freed
from both Papacy and Empire--then began intellectual activity and
independence of thought, taking form in Italy as the Renaissance; in
Germany as the Reformation. In the South it was known as the Revival
of Learning. It furnished a _lux a non lucendo_. Italy gave freedom
rather to the mind, Germany rather to the soul. Toward the South men
still took refuge behind that form of modified paganism which became
Catholicism. In the North they attained a more complete emancipation
because of their violent opposition to the Papacy and all that went
with it.
In the long run both attained the same result, i. e., liberation of
the mind from artificial impediments and fetters, though they of the
North achieved it in its full extent far earlier. (I am speaking of
course, relatively; men's minds are far from free even today, but the
state we have reached is a great advance upon that of Bruno's time).
The Reformation led men to be far more outspoken than they dared be in
the South; the free thinkers of Italy were still content to do homage
to a thoroughly corrupt Papal hierarchy. As critics and warriors Luther
and Calvin rank as liberators of the human mind, but later, as founders
of mutually hostile sects, they only retarded civilization, and the
churches they founded are today as stagnant pools.
In 1548, in the midst of this stormy period in Italian history Bruno
was born, in the little village of Nola, not far from Naples, whence
Vesuvius was visible in the picturesque distance. His father was a
soldier, his mother of very humble origin. Of his family history
nothing is known; little explanation is thus afforded, by the doctrine
of heredity, for the marvelous mental faculties which he subsequently
displayed. Nevertheless his father was a man of some culture, at
least, for he was a friend of Tansillo, a poet, under whose influence
the growing boy subsequently came. Bruno has told us himself how one
Savolino (probably an uncle) annually confessed his sins to his Curé,
of which "though many and great" his boon companion readily absolved
him. But only once was full confession necessary; each subsequent
year Savolino would say: "Padre mio, the sins of a year--to-day,--you
may know them;" to which the Curé would reply "son, thou knowest the
absolution of one year ago;--go in peace, and sin no more."
In those days as in many others superstition was everywhere rife and
effective. Its influence must not be disregarded as one studies the
formation of Bruno's character.
When he was about eleven years old Bruno was sent to Naples to be
taught logic, dialectics and humanities. When fifteen he entered the
Dominican Monastery in Naples, and assumed the clerical habit of that
order. Here he gave up his baptismal name of Filippo and assumed that
of Giordano, according to the monastic custom. In 1572 he was ordained
priest.
His reasons for thus entering the Church are scarcely far to seek. Of
intellectual bent, and studious rather than martial in his habits and
inclinations, there was but one career open to him. To be sure the
Dominican Order was the most narrow and most bigoted of all, as the
current punning expression "_Domini canes_" will indicate. Still it was
at that time the most powerful, especially in the kingdom of Naples,
which was then ruled by Spain. The old cloister had been once the home
of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose works Bruno claimed at his trial he had
always by him, "continually reading, studying and restudying them, and
holding them dear."
This was the age when efforts to put down every heresy had been
redoubled. The fanaticism of Loyola, and the decision of the Council of
Trent "to erase with fire and sword the slightest traces of heresy,"
made a poor frame work in which to place the picture of a liberal
minded scholar. Bruno soon learned this at his cost. Even during his
novitiate he was accused of giving away images of the saints, and
of giving bad advice to his associates. In 1576 he was accused of
apologizing for the heresy of Arius, that the Son was begotten of the
Father, and so not consubstantial nor coeternal with Him, but created
by Him and subordinate to Him; (which was condemned by the Council
of Nice, 325, and contradicted in the Nicene Creed;) admiring its
scholastic form, rather than its abstract truth. Disgusted with his
treatment he left Naples and went to Rome. Even here he was molested
in the Cloister of Minerva (note the pagan name), and was met with
an accusation of 130 specifications. He then abandoned his garb and
his cloister and escaped from Rome, beginning thus the nomadic life
which he continued until immured in the dungeons of the Inquisition at
Venice, sixteen years later. Through these wanderings one must follow
him, if one would become familiar with his life and traits.
He now resumed for a time his baptismal name, and traveled to a town on
the Gulf of Genoa, where he taught youth and young gentlemen. Then he
passed on to Turin and Venice, where he spent weeks in futile attempts
to find work. But the schools and the printing houses were closed
because of the plague. In Venice however he managed to print his first
book on "The Signs of the Times;" or rather this was his first book to
appear in print. It seems that before he left Naples he wrote "The Ark
of Noah," a satirical allegory. In this he represented that the animals
held a formal meeting in the Ark, to settle questions of precedence
and rank, and that the presiding officer, the Ass, was in danger of
losing his position and his influence, because his power lay rather in
hoofs than horns. Throughout most of his life Bruno constantly scored
and criticised Asinity; it was frequently the topic of his invective,
and those who read between his lines were probably quite justified in
regarding these frequent allusions as references to the ignorance,
bigotry and credulity of the Monks.
From Venice Bruno went to Padua, where some of the Dominican friars
persuaded him to resume monastic costume, since it made travel easier
and safer. Thence by way of Brescia and Milan he may be followed to
Bergamo. At Milan he first heard of his future friend Sir Philip
Sydney. From Bergamo he resolved to go to Lyons, but learning that he
would find anything but welcome there he turned aside and crossed the
Alps, arriving in Geneva in the Spring of 1579. Here he was visited by
a distinguished Neapolitan exile, the Marquis De Vico, who persuaded
him again to lay aside his clerical garb, and who gave him the dress of
a gentleman, including a sword.