its religious military aspect; in that phase it accepted the sacrifice
of all the affections, it abandoned the renown of the soldier and the
repose of the cloister, and it exposed its votary to the hardships
of both, by devoting him in turn to the perils of the battle-field,
and to the labours attendant upon the succouring of the distressed.
Other knights courted adventure for the sake of their honour and the
lady of their love; these incurred it in order to help the unfortunate
and to assist the poor. The Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers
was proud of the title of _Guardian of the Redeemer’s poor_; he
of the order of St. Lazarus was of necessity always a leper; while
the knight-companions termed the poor ‘our masters.’ Such were the
admirable effects of religion, which, at a period when the sword
decided every question, knew how to chasten the failings of valour,
and make it forget the pride that generally accompanies it.”
As early as the middle of the eleventh century some merchants of Amalfi
had obtained from the Caliph of Egypt permission to build a hospital at
Jerusalem, which they dedicated to St. John, and in which were received
and sheltered the poor pilgrims who visited the Holy Land. Godefroy de
Bouillon and his successors encouraged this charitable institution,
and bestowed upon it several large donations. Pierre Gérard, a native
of the Island of Martigues, in Provence, proposed to the brothers who
managed the hospital to renounce the world, to don a regular dress,
and to form an uncloistered monastic order under the name of the
_Hospitallers_. Pope Pascal II. appointed Gérard director of the
new institution, which he formally authorised, took the Hospitallers
under his protection, and granted them many privileges.
[Illustration: Fig. 137.--Knight of the Order of the Holy
Sepulchre, afterwards called the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
Fig. 138.--Knight of the Order of Rhodes.
Fac-similes of Woodcuts by Jost Amman, in a work entitled “Cleri
totius Romanæ ecclesiæ ... habitus:” 4to., Frankfort, 1585.]
The regulations of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem not only
imposed upon the brethren the triple vow of chastity, poverty, and
obedience; they enjoined upon them, besides the duties of hospitality,
the exercise of arms, in order that they might defend the kingdom of
Jerusalem against the attacks of the unbelievers. The opportunity was
soon afforded them of putting aside their purely charitable character,
and of becoming men of war (Fig. 139).
[Illustration: Fig. 139.--Fortress of the Knights Hospitallers,
in Syria, taken from the Kurds by the Franks about the
year 1125, and rebuilt in 1202. A representation of it as
restored.--Engraving from “Monuments of the Architecture of the
Crusaders in Syria,” by M. G. Rey.]
Driven out of Jerusalem by the victorious Saladin, who retook that
city on the 19th of October, 1191, the Hospitallers were the last to
leave the Holy Land, and transferred their hospital to Margat, after
ransoming from the Saracens more than a thousand captive Crusaders;
they remained there until the end of the siege of Acre by the
Christians, in which they took an active and glorious share, and they
then established themselves in the reconquered city and took the name
of Knights of St. John of Acre. Again driven from their new residence
by the infidels, the Hospitallers asked the King of Cyprus to allow
them to settle in his dominion, and to re-establish the central house
of their order in the town of Limisso, at which they arrived in small
knots, as fast as they were able to escape from the cruisers of the
Mussulman fleet. As they, disembarked, exhausted with war’s fatigues,
covered with wounds, and unable to console themselves for having
survived the loss of Palestine, they presented a really touching
spectacle.
The grand master of the knights of St. John of Acre, Jean de Villiers,
assembled a chapter general in Cyprus to deliberate upon the best
policy to adopt after the last disasters of the crusade, and to take
measures to prevent the complete extinction of the order, which had
been decimated in the war against the infidels. The Hospitallers of
all nations answered the appeal of Jean de Villiers. Never had a
meeting been so numerously attended since the foundation of the order;
the knights present, carried away by the eloquent appeal of their
grand master, swore that they would shed their last blood to recover
possession of the Holy Sepulchre.
In spite of the wise measures recommended by Jean de Villiers, the
Hospitallers were no longer in safety at Limisso. They had to defend
themselves from two equally formidable enemies; from the Saracens, who
were ceaselessly threatening their naval and military organization, and
from the King of Cyprus, who seemed to desire the ruin of the order,
upon which he had just imposed a heavy tax. Indeed, Villaret, the new
grand master, proposed to his brothers in arms that they should retire
to the island of Rhodes, entrench themselves there, and wait until a
more propitious moment should arrive for their return to Palestine.
Unfortunately the forces of the order of St. John were not sufficient
for such a daring enterprise, and the grand master invited the Western
Christians to undertake a new crusade, keeping the real motive of the
expedition a secret. The Crusaders assembled in great numbers at the
port of Brindisi, in Italy, and the grand master, selecting the noblest
and the best equipped, set sail for Rhodes. There he successfully
disembarked his little army, with provisions and warlike materials,
and laid siege to the capital, which was well fortified and thronged
with defenders. After an investment of four years the town was taken by
assault; the other strongholds met with a similar fate, and the whole
island passed under the sway of the Hospitallers in 1310. But for more
than two centuries they had to defend it against the constant attacks
of the infidels.
Under the leadership of Joubert or Jacques de Milly, the grand prior
of Auvergne, the Knights of Rhodes (the Hospitallers had assumed this
name in memory of a victory that so redounded to the fame of the Order
of St. John) inflicted a first repulse upon the Ottomans in 1455. All
danger, however, was not banished. A rupture seemed imminent with the
Sultan of Egypt, quite as formidable an adversary as Mahomet II., the
Sultan of Constantinople; and the knights were also obliged to bestir
themselves against the Venetians, who had effected a landing on the
island, and had been guilty of greater cruelty and violence than the
Saracens and the Turks. Raymond Zacosta, the successor of Jacques de
Milly in the grand mastership, took advantage of an interval of truce
to build a new fort intended to defend the town and port of Rhodes.
This impregnable fortress, constructed upon a rocky promontory,
received the name of St. Nicholas, from a chapel dedicated to that
saint standing within its walls (Fig. 140).
As, in spite of the truce, the Turkish corsairs made continual descents
upon the island, the grand master dispatched his galleys to the Ottoman
shores, and inflicted a series of reprisals. These so aroused the anger
of Mahomet II., that he swore to drive the knights of Rhodes right
out of the island. With this purpose he organized an expedition, and
entrusted its command to Misach Paleologus, a Greek renegade of the
imperial household, who had been appointed grand vizier by the sultan,
and who was continually urging his master to take possession of Rhodes.
A hundred and sixty vessels of war and an army of a hundred thousand
men arrived off Rhodes on the 23rd of May, 1480. The Turkish fleet
endeavoured, under cover of the fire of their artillery, to effect
the disembarcation of their troops, while the knights of the order,
supported by the guns of the town and its forts, waded up to their
waists in the sea and attacked the Ottoman boats sword in hand.
[Illustration: Fig. 140.--Plan of the Island of Rhodes.--Reduced
Fac-simile of one of the large Topographical Plans in the
“Saintes Pérégrinations de Hiérusalem,” by Breydenhach; in folio,
with copperplate figures: Lyons, 1488. (Library of M. Ambr.
Firmin-Didot.)]
The infidels at last succeeded in making good their landing, and
entrenched themselves on Mount St. Stephen. After the knights had been
vainly summoned to surrender, a German engineer who had accompanied
Paleologus, and who was the superintendent of the siege operations,
advised the latter to concentrate his attack on the tower of St.
Nicholas, the capture of which would be certain to make him master of
the place. After more than three hundred discharges of cannon a breach
was effected, and the Turks rushed to the assault. Pierre d’Aubusson,
grand prior of Auvergne, recently elected grand master, stood aloft in
the breach and set an example of the highest courage to his knights:
“Here,” said he, “is the only post of honour worthy of your grand
master.”
Exasperated by such an energetic resistance, the vizier determined to
rid himself by foul means of Pierre d’Aubusson; but an engineer who had
undertaken the treacherous commission was detected, and torn in pieces
by the inhabitants of Rhodes on his way to the scaffold.
Misach Paleologus proposed to hold a conference to discuss terms
of capitulation. To this the grand master gave his consent, his
real object being to gain time to construct new defences in place
of those the enemy had destroyed; and the interview, between one
of the principal officers of the Turkish army and the castellan of
Rhodes, took place at the edge of the moat. The vizier’s envoy urged
that in the extremity to which the town was reduced, with its walls
levelled, its towers shattered, and its ditches filled up, it would
be perfectly possible to take it by assault in a couple of hours; and
that it behoved the knights companions to prevent, by an honourable
capitulation, a general massacre of the inhabitants. D’Aubusson,
concealed hard by, overheard these specious proposals: in pursuance
of his orders the castellan made answer to the Ottoman officer that
his spies had misinformed him; that, behind the moat, defences had
been constructed, the capture of which would cost many lives; that the
town was defended by Christians all animated with the same spirit and
perfectly resigned to sacrifice their lives for their religion; and
that the order would entertain no proposal inimical to its honour or to
the interests of its faith.
The haughty vizier, irritated by this noble reply, swore to put every
knight to the sword; he even ordered a large number of stakes to be
sharpened on which to impale the inhabitants, and, under cover of a
still hotter fire from his guns, gave the signal for the assault.
The Turks succeeded for a moment in planting their standard on the
ramparts, but they were soon beaten off by the defenders, led by their
grand master in person: five times wounded, and covered with blood,
Pierre d’Aubusson refused to leave the scene of the struggle, which
he animated by his example. His lofty heroism infused new energy into
his knights, who rushed on the Turks with the courage of despair and
put them completely to the rout. But victory as it was, it was not
sufficiently definitive or decisive to secure to the order the tranquil
possession of the island, and leave them for the future free from
Turkish aggression. Ever since the death of Mahomet II., they had had
in their power a precious hostage, Zizim, a brother of Sultan Bajazet,
and his most formidable competitor for the throne (Figs. 141 and 142).
[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Death of Mahomet II. (1481): the devil
flying away with his soul.--His two sons, Bajazet and Zizim,
disputed the throne, and the latter was defeated.
Fig. 142.--Zizim, who had been kept a prisoner at Rhodes, to
which he had fled after his defeat, and had afterwards been
transferred to Rome, is handed over to Charles VIII., King of
France.
“Description of the Siege of the Island of Rhodes,” by G.
Caoursin (Ulm, 1496: Gothic folio).--Library of M. Ambr.
Firmin-Didot.]
In 1522, Sultan Soliman II., surnamed the Magnificent, discovered
amidst his father’s archives an exact account of the island of Rhodes,
and resolved to attack it. He put forward, as a pretext, a desire
to punish the knights of the order for the losses they were daily
inflicting on the Turkish navy, and the hope of paralyzing their
efforts in favour of the Holy Land. The treachery of André Amaral, the
chancellor of the order and the grand prior of Castile, who wished
to revenge himself on his brother knights for having preferred to
himself as their grand master, Philippe de Villiers de l’Ile-Adam,
made Soliman aware of the scanty material resources of the island,
and persuaded him to undertake the fatal siege, in which treachery
and deceit were his most powerful allies. In vain did he collect a
fleet of four hundred sail, an army of one hundred and forty thousand
men and sixty thousand pioneers; in vain he swept the ramparts with
the fire of his guns, in vain he dug ditch after ditch, mine upon
mine, and endeavoured to wear out the besieged by his harassing and
ceaseless attacks. His want of success would have certainly exhausted
his patience, and he would probably have raised the siege had not the
traitor Amaral revealed to him the weak condition of both the town and
its garrison. At last, however, on the 30th of November, the Turks made
what was supposed to be their final effort. They penetrated as far as
the inner defences, and the struggle was a terrible one. Roused by the
tocsin, the grand master, the knights, and the inhabitants poured on to
the ramparts and threw themselves on the enemy, who had already deemed
themselves successful, and forced them to retreat.
Grieved and discouraged by this final check, Soliman proposed a
capitulation. He threw letters into the town exhorting the inhabitants
to yield, and threatening them with the utmost severities if they
persisted in a useless resistance. At first Villiers de l’Ile-Adam made
answer that he only treated with infidels sword in hand; but he had
to give way to the urgent remonstrances of the principal inhabitants,
who showed a determination to take at all hazards measures to ensure
the honour and the lives of their wives and their children. The
sultan having hung out a white flag, the grand master did the same,
and demanded a truce of three days to draw up the capitulation. But
Soliman, fearing lest assistance might arrive in the interval, rejected
this proposal, and ordered a fresh assault. The knights of Rhodes,
reduced to a mere handful, and having only the barbican of the Spanish
bastion left to protect them, obliged the enemy once more to retire. On
the morrow, however, another attack of the Turks drove the defenders
of the bastion back into the town, and the terror-stricken inhabitants
implored the grand master to resume negotiations. Achmet, Soliman’s
minister, who knew how impatiently his master desired the end of the
war, obtained at last the surrender of Rhodes on terms so honourable
and so advantageous to its defenders, that they spoke volumes for the
esteem with which the conquered had inspired their conquerors. The
knights, to the number of four thousand, abandoned the island under the
guidance of their grand master, Villiers; after touching at Candia
and Sicily, they finally settled at Malta, which was ceded to them by
Charles V., and which became the definitive residence of the order.
This was in 1530.
[Illustration: Fig. 143.--Barracks of the Knights of Rhodes.
State of the Ruins in 1828.--From “Monuments of Rhodes.”]
Thirty-five years later, at the end of Soliman II.’s reign, the Turks
once more attacked the order under the pretext of avenging the capture
of a galliot laden with costly merchandise, the property of the
sultana; and Mustapha, Pasha of Buda, a brave officer, the general of
the Ottoman army, landed on the island on the 18th of May, 1565. After
a few skirmishes the Turks made a fierce attack on Fort St. Elmo, and
captured it in spite of the brave defence of the Knights of Malta (the
new title of the members of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem)--a
defence which lasted twenty-four days, and cost the lives of four
thousand of the assailants, amongst them that of the famous pirate
Dragut, the vice-sultan of Tripoli. The fort of St. Michael, and the
suburb of that name, were reduced to ashes by the fire of the enemy;
and it was only the invincible courage of the grand master, Jean de
la Valette, and of a small number of his knights, all to the last man
prepared to die for their faith--even after more than two thousand of
them had already perished--that still enabled Malta to hold out.
Fortunately, Don Garcias de Toledo, the viceroy of Sicily, came with
sixty galleys to their assistance. During the four months of the siege
the Turkish forces fired seventy-eight thousand rounds of artillery,
and lost fifteen thousand soldiers and eight thousand sailors.
[Illustration: Fig. 144.--The French Priory at Rhodes (Fifteenth
Century).--State of the Ruins in 1828.]
The knights of the order had on their side to deplore the loss of more
than three thousand of their brethren. Their grand master decreed that
annually, on the eve of the festival of Our Lady of September, prayers
should be offered up in all the churches of the order, thanking God for
the providential succours which had delivered the besieged, and that
on the preceding day a commemorative service should be celebrated in
honour of those who had fallen in defence of the faith.
Henceforward neither the town nor the island, which remained the head
quarters of the order, was again disturbed by the Turks, and Jean de la
Valette built a new city in Malta, which was called Valetta, after him.
The members of the Order of Malta were divided into three classes: the
knights, the chaplains, and the serving brothers. The first comprised
those whose noble birth and previous rank in other armies marked
them out for military service. The second consisted of priests, and
ecclesiastics who performed all the ordinary religious duties, and
who acted as almoners in time of war. The last were neither nobles
nor ecclesiastics; and all that was necessary to admit an individual
to this class, was for him to prove that he was born of respectable
parents, who had never exercised any handicraft. The serving brothers
were distinguished at a later period by a coat-of-arms of a different
colour to that of the knights. The aspirants were termed _douats_
or _demi-croix_. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem had merely
a nominal existence in the statutes of the Order of Malta, although
the knights of the latter, on their reception into the order, were
still termed “servants of the sick and needy.” For a long time
there existed in Spain, Lady Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem,
who devoted themselves to hospital work and deeds of charity (Fig.
145). Every country in Europe furnished its quota to the Order of
Malta, which had entirely replaced that of St. John, and was divided
into eight different tongues or nations, each under the direction
of a grand prior, viz., Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon,
Germany, Castile, and England. These national grand priors were termed
_piliers_, or _monastic bailiffs_. Each nation was subdivided
into a number of lesser commands, to hold one of which was equivalent
to holding an ecclesiastical benefice, and which were subordinate to
their grand prior alone.
[Illustration: Fig. 145.--Tomb of Beatrix Cornel, Prioress of
the Lady Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, in the Convent
of Sigena, in Aragon (Fifteenth Century).--From the “Iconografia
Española” of M. Carderera.]
The regular dress of the order consisted, in each nation, of a black
robe, with a pointed cape of the same colour; on the left sleeve of
each robe was a cross of white linen having eight points, typical of
the eight beatitudes they were always supposed to possess, and which,
according to a MS. preserved in the library of the Arsenal, were:--1,
spiritual contentment; 2, a life free from malice; 3, repentance for
sins; 4, meekness under suffering; 5, a love of justice; 6, a merciful
disposition; 7, sincerity and frankness of heart; and 8, a capability
of enduring persecution. At a later period the regulations became less
austere, and permitted the knights to wear an octagonal golden cross
inlaid with white enamel, and suspended from the breast with black
ribbon.
A candidate for the robe of St. John of Jerusalem was obliged to
present himself at the high altar, clad in a long gown without girdle,
in order to denote that he was free from all other vows, and with a
taper in his hand. The knight assessor then handed him a gilt sword,
saying, “In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,”
to remind him that henceforth it would be his duty to devote his life
to the defence of religion. A girdle was then fastened round his waist,
to signify that he was bound for the future by the vows of the order.
The professing knight then brandished the sword round his head, in
token of defiance of the unbelievers, and returned it to its scabbard,
first passing it under his arm as if to wipe it, as a symbol that he
intended to preserve it free from stain. The knight who received his
vows then placed his hand on his shoulder, exhorted him to succour the
poor of Jesus Christ, to undertake works of charity, and to devote
himself to the welfare of the faith. The new knight having promised to
observe these exhortations, golden spurs were placed on his heels as
emblems that he was bound to fly wherever honour called him, and to
trample under his feet the riches of this world. His taper was then
lighted and he continued to hold it during the celebration of a mass,
and while a preacher passed in review the rules which should bind, and
the duties which should sway a true knight. He was then asked if he was
in debt, if he was married or betrothed, if he already belonged to any
other religious order, and, finally, if he really and sincerely desired
to belong to the Order of St. John. If he answered these questions in
a satisfactory manner, he was admitted into the brotherhood, and led
up to the high altar. There he pronounced the oath upon the missal,
and was declared formally invested with the privileges granted to the
order by the pontificate. He was told that henceforward he must daily
recite fifty paters, fifty aves, the service of the Virgin, the burial
service, and several prayers for the repose of the souls of departed
knights companions. Whilst he was donning the dress of the order he
was further instructed in his duties. As he put his arms through his
sleeves he was reminded of the obedience he owed to his superiors; as
the white cross was being adjusted next his heart, he was told that
he must be always ready to shed his blood for Christ, who by his own
death had redeemed mankind. All the insignia of the Order of Malta were
symbols. The pointed black mantle with its peaked cape, worn only on
occasions of solemn ceremony, was typical of the robe of camel’s hair
worn by John the Baptist, the patron of the order. The cords which
fastened the mantle about the neck, and fell over the shoulder, were
significant of the passion our Saviour suffered with such calmness and
resignation. In time of battle the members of the order wore a red
doublet embroidered with the eight-pointed cross.
About twenty years after the first establishment of the Hospitallers,
Hugues de Payens, and Geoffrey de Saint-Aldemar, having crossed the
seas with nine other nobles, all of French birth, obtained from
the patriarch Guarimond, and from Baldwin II., King of Jerusalem,
permission to form an association, the objects of which were to act
in concert with the Hospitallers against the infidels, to protect
pilgrims, and to defend Solomon’s Temple. Baldwin granted them a
dwelling within the Temple walls, a circumstance which gave them the
name of _Templars_, or _Knights of the Temple_. At first they
led a simple and regular life, contenting themselves with the humble
title of _poor soldiers of Jesus Christ_. Their charity and their
devotion obtained for them the sympathy of the kings of Jerusalem
and the Eastern Christians, who made them frequent and considerable
donations.