THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
Before proceeding to trace the history of the last two centuries
of the Knights at Malta it will perhaps be advisable to examine the
organisation of an Order which was the greatest and most long-lived
of all the medieval Orders of Chivalry. The siege of 1565 was its last
great struggle with its mortal foe; after that there is but little
left for the historian but to trace its gradual decadence and fall.
And, as might be expected in a decadent society, though outwardly
the constitution changed but little in the last two centuries, yet
gradually the Statutes of the Order and the actual facts became more
and more divergent.
There were three classes of members in the Hospitallers, who were
primarily distinguished from each other by their birth, and who were
allotted different functions in the Order. The Knights of Justice[1]
were the highest class of the three and were the only Knights
qualified for the Order's highest distinctions. Each langue had its
own regulations for admitting members, and all alike exercised severe
discrimination. Various kinds of evidence were necessary to prove the
pure and noble descent of the candidate. The German was the strictest
and most exacting of the langues, demanding proof of sixteen quarters
of nobility and refusing to accept the natural sons of Kings into the
ranks of its Knights. Italy was the most lenient, since banking and
trade were admitted as no stain on nobility, while most of the other
langues insisted on military nobility only.
The chaplains, who formed the second class of the Order, were required
to be of honest birth and born in wedlock of families that were
neither slaves nor engaged in base or mechanical trades. The
same regulations were in force for the third class--that of
servants-at-arms, who served under the Knights both on land and sea.
As the military character of the Order became less and less marked
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these servants-at-arms
became fewer and fewer, but in earlier days they were of considerable
importance. The chaplains performed their duties at the Convent or on
the galleys; the priests at the various commanderies throughout Europe
were a class apart, known as Priests of Obedience, and never came to
Malta, but resided permanently in their respective countries. A number
of commanderies was allotted to the two inferior classes.
The Order, as we know, was an international one, and for purposes of
administration was divided into sections or langues. In the sixteenth
century there were eight of these divisions, which, in order of
seniority, were Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England,
Germany, and Castile. When Henry VIII. suppressed the English langue
in 1540, the Knights, with a reluctance to face the facts which was
characteristic of a proud Order of Chivalry, kept up the fiction
of its existence. In 1782, when the Elector of Bavaria secured the
establishment of a Bavarian langue, it was united to the dormant
langue of England and named the Anglo-Bavarian.
Each langue had its own quarters at the Convent known as the
"Auberge," presided over by a "conventual bailiff," who in all matters
was the head of the langue. Each conventual bailiff had an important
office in the hierarchy of the Order which was permanently appurtenant
to the headship of that langue. Thus the conventual bailiff of the
langue of France was always the Grand Hospitaller in charge of the
Hospital of the Order, while that of England was Turcopolier, or
commander of the light cavalry--a survival from the Syrian days. The
possessions of each langue in its native land were divided into grand
priories and bailiwicks. Thus England, which meant the possessions
throughout the British Isles, was divided into the Grand Priory of
England at Clerkenwell, the Grand Priory of Ireland at Kilmainham, and
the Bailiwick of the Eagle, which was situated near Lincoln and had
originally belonged to the Templars. These Grand Priors and Bailiffs
of each langue, as well as its conventual bailiff, were all Knights
Grand Cross, and, as such, entitled to seats in the Chapter-General of
the Order.
The supreme control of the Order was vested in the Chapter-General,
consisting of all the Knights Grand Cross. Though these
Chapters-General were often convened in the early history of the
Order, their difficulty of assembly and their clumsy method of
procedure made them less and less frequently summoned, as the Grand
Master had it in his power to convoke it when he pleased, though an
interval of five years--later extended to ten--had been sanctioned
by custom. In the seventeenth century the institution fell into utter
disuse, and there was no meeting of the Chapter-General from 1631 to
1776, when its uselessness was finally demonstrated.
When the Chapter-General was not sitting the government of the Order
was carried on by the Grand Master and the Councils, known as the
Ordinary, Complete, Secret, and Criminal. The Ordinary Council
consisted of the Grand Master, the conventual bailiffs, together with
any Grand Cross residing at the Convent. This Council, as its name
indicates, transacted the ordinary business of government, which
mainly consisted of appointing to these offices and making those
arrangements which were not definitely assigned to the Grand Master
himself. The Secret and Criminal Councils, respectively, dealt with
foreign affairs and offences against the Statutes, while the Complete,
consisting of the Ordinary Council with the addition of two Knights
from each langue of more than five years' residence at the Convent,
dealt with appeals from the other Councils. In the later days of the
Order the pernicious practice of appealing to the Pope destroyed all
semblance of authority in this Council.
The election of the Grand Master was an exceedingly complicated
affair, the intention being to prevent intrigue. Each langue solemnly
elected three Knights to represent it, and this body of twenty-four
chose a triumvirate, which consisted of a Knight, a chaplain, and a
servant-at-arms. These three co-opted a fourth, and the four a fifth,
and so on, till the number of sixteen was reached, and this body of
sixteen elected the Grand Master. Every stage of the proceedings
was hedged about with meticulous precautions to prevent intrigue and
corruption, and it was a thoroughly typical medieval attempt to secure
an honest election.
The framers of the Order's Statutes had taken the precaution of
limiting the authority of the Grand Master by a minute enumeration
of all his rights. But, as the Order developed into a purely military
body, even officially his powers became greater. No subject for
discussion could be introduced at the Councils except by himself; he
had a double vote, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote
also; he had the right of nomination to many administrative posts
besides all those of his own household, and in each priory there was
a commandery in his own gift whose revenues went to himself. But even
such wide powers were less than the reality. While the Order was at
Rhodes, and during the first half-century at Malta, it was obviously
necessary that the Grand Master should possess the powers of a
commander-in-chief. As a purely military body, surrounded by powerful
foes, the Order was in the position of an army encamped in enemy
territory. Further, the absolute possession of Rhodes, and later
of Malta, tended to give the Grand Masters the rank of independent
Sovereigns, and the outside world regarded them as territorial
potentates rather than as heads of an Order of aristocratic Knights.
But when the Order's existence was no longer threatened the Grand
Master's position was assailed from many sides. No one, while reading
the history of the Knights, can fail to be impressed by the numerous
disturbances among them during the last 200 years of the Order. Drawn
from the highest ranks of the nobility, young, rich, and with very
little to occupy their time (except when on their "caravans"), the
Knights were perpetually quarrelling among themselves or defying the
constituted authorities of the Order.
Charles V. had insisted on keeping in his own hands the nomination
of the bishopric of Malta, and the custom grew up that the Bishop of
Malta and the Prior of St. John--the two most important ecclesiastics
in the Order--should be chosen from the chaplains who were natives of
the island. This was intended as a compensation for an injury which
had been inflicted on the Maltese. To prevent the Grand Mastership
falling into the hands of a native, the Maltese members of the Order
were unable to vote at the election. The Bishop was often engaged
in quarrels with the Grand Master, and the disputes were generally
carried to the Pope, who, as the Head of Christendom, was regarded as
having supremacy over all Religious Orders. But the Pope himself often
encroached upon the rights of the Order, not only by sending nuncios
to Malta with large and undefined powers, but by arrogating to himself
the patronage of the langue of Italy when he wished to bestow gifts
upon his relatives and friends. This led to bitter resentment among
the Italian Knights, who saw all the lucrative posts of their langue
given away to strangers. The introduction of the Inquisition in 1574
and the Jesuits in 1592, brought additional disputes about the chief
authority in the island, and these different ecclesiastical personages
had no hesitation in interfering in matters which should have been
entirely beyond their province. Many a Grand Master of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries had his time occupied in efforts to assert
his authority.
The Grand Mastership was also weakened by the practice of electing
very old men to the post, as the short tenure of the office and
the feebleness of its holder meant a lax control over the turbulent
Knights. This practice became very common in the last two centuries
of the Order's existence. But many of the Grand Masters, though over
seventy at the time of election, disappointed expectation by living
till eighty or even ninety.
We possess detailed accounts of the financial system of the Order in
the work of two Knights, Boisgelin and Boisredon de Ransijat, accounts
which agree almost entirely.
The average revenue of the Order before the French Revolution was
£136,000 per annum--i.e., the revenue which definitely reached Malta.
It is to be remembered that this sum only represented the residue
which was sent to the _chef-lieu_. The Knights possessed over
600 estates throughout Europe, each of which, besides sending
contributions to Malta, maintained several members of the Order,
gave a liberal income to its commander, and contributed towards the
revenues of the Grand Priory in which it was situated. The chief items
of the above sum were:
1. RESPONSIONS.
A proportion of the net income of each commandery fixed by the
Chapter-General and liable to increase in case of need--£547,520 per
annum.
2. MORTUARY AND VACANCY.
On the death of a commander all the net revenues from the day of
his death to the following May 1 went to the Treasury: this was the
MORTUARY; the whole revenue of the succeeding year was also sent to
Malta: this was called the VACANCY--£521,470 per annum.
3. PASSAGES.
These were sums paid for admission into the Order, and were especially
heavy for those who wished to enter the Order at an age earlier than
that laid down in the Statutes--£520,324 per annum.
4. SPOILS.
These were the effects of deceased Knights, who were only allowed to
dispose of one-fifth of their property by will, the remainder going to
the Treasury--£524,755.
These made up about five-sixths of the total revenue, the remainder
being small sums accruing from various sources, such as the proceeds
from the timber of the commanderies (which went entirely to the
Council), rents from buildings in Malta, and so forth.
At the height of their prosperity the Knights derived a very
considerable revenue from their galleys, and just as Algiers,
Tunis, or Tripoli throve on piracy, even so the wealth of the
East contributed largely to the splendour of Malta. But during the
seventeenth century various Christian Powers, such as Venice or
France, insisted on restricting the Knights' claims to unlimited
seizure of infidel vessels and infidel property on board ship. As
early as 1582 the Pope had forbidden the Order to seize in a Christian
harbour Turkish ships or Turkish property on Christian ships,
and, despite the strenuous opposition of the Knights, enforced his
commands.
The expenditure of the Order was, on the whole, within the limits of
its revenue. The chief charge upon the expenditure was the fighting
forces--the fleet and the garrisons--which together absorbed about
half the revenue. Of the other items, the most important were the
Hospital, the Churches of the Order, and the support of its officers
both at the Convent and in the various European countries. The Knights
were never seriously threatened financially till the French Revolution
wiped out half their revenues at one fell swoop. Emergencies were
always successfully met by an appeal to the self-denial of the members
of the Order and the generosity of Europe.
The control of the revenues was in the hands of the Chambre de Commun
Trésor, which consisted of eight officials, the most important of whom
were the President, who was always the Grand Commander (the conventual
bailiff of Provence, the senior langue of the Order), and the
Secretary through whose hands all the revenues passed. In each langue
certain specified towns were used as receiving Treasuries, under
the control of receivers who paid the money direct to the Central
Treasury; these towns numbered twenty-nine in all. These receivers
obtained the revenues from each estate or commandery within their
district. At first the Order had possessed one common chest, but with
the growth of its possessions each Grand Prior was put in control
of his Priory's revenues; this proving unsatisfactory, from the
difficulty of exercising control over these powerful Knights,
the finances of each estate were administered by the commanders
themselves, who dealt directly with the receivers in their area. They
paid their quota or "responsions" biennially, and were subject to
inspection from their Grand Priors; commanderies were rewards to aged
Knights, and good administration brought promotion to richer estates.
The Criminal Council, which consisted of the Grand Master, the Bishop
of Malta, the Prior of St. John, the conventual bailiffs, and any
Grand Crosses present at the Convent, dealt with offences against the
estates of the Order. The accused were brought in, the evidence taken,
and the verdict declared. All evidence was verbal and no written
testimony was accepted; each Knight, unless he could show good
reason to the contrary, had to plead in person. Any English or German
Knights, who knew only their own tongue and so had difficulty in
being understood, were allowed advocates. The Order, by its Statutes,
discouraged litigation to the utmost, desiring to promote concord and
harmony among its members, and for that reason all legal procedure was
made as simple and as summary as possible.
In such an exclusive and aristocratic Order there was naturally much
jealousy of the power of its head. Facts gave the Grand Master a very
strong position, but technically he was only _primus inter pares_. To
make sure the Knights were not oppressed, they were always at liberty
to disregard the Grand Master's or any superior's command and to
appeal to a Court of Égard to prove that the given command was a
violation of the Order's Statutes. The Court of Égard consisted of
nine members, each langue choosing one from its own ranks, and the
Grand Master appointing the President. Either disputant could object
to any member of the Court, whereupon that member's langue chose a
substitute. After hearing the evidence, which was entirely oral, the
Court discussed the case behind closed doors and came to a decision.
The litigants were called back, and if they agreed to accept the
verdict the Court's decision was announced and was deemed final; if
they refused to accept it, an appeal lay to another Court, called the
Renfort of the Égard, which was constituted by each langue electing
another member, thus doubling the original number. The same procedure
was carried out as in the first Court, and if the litigants expressed
themselves still dissatisfied, a new Court was summoned, called the
Renfort of the Renfort, which was formed by the election from each
langue of another member, thus making twenty-five with the President.
If their decision was not accepted a final Court of Appeal, called
the Bailiffs' Égard, was formed by the addition of the conventual
bailiffs, or, if absent, their lieutenants, and their decision was
final. This admirable Court of Equity existed almost unaltered right
down to 1798.
The Hospital was a characteristic institution of the Order, and
deserves some mention. Originally the chief scene of their activities,
the Hospital was never forgotten by the Knights. Their first duty,
wherever they went, was always to build a Hospital to tend the sick,
and to the end every Knight at the Convent, in theory at least, went
to take his turn in attending at the Hospital for one day in the week.
The site of the Hospital, on the south-east side of Valetta, has been
condemned by science as unhealthy, and it is very easy with modern
knowledge to find many faults in its organisation. Howard, in his
"Lazarettos in Europe," in 1786, gave a vivid description of its
condition and exposed its defects. At that time, however, the Hospital
was sharing the general decadence of the Order, and discipline had
become very lax. But, even so, the Hospital was far superior to most
other hospitals in Europe and still kept much of that distinction it
had acquired in the great days of the Order. We must remember that
hospital organisation is a very recent science, and it would be unfair
to accuse the Knights of neglecting what had not yet been discovered.
Their Hospital was one of the most famous in Europe, and was used
by many from Sicily and Southern Italy as well as by the natives of
Malta. It was open to all who wished to use it, and the attendance of
patients from a distance proved that it supplied a need. The hospital,
which had generally over 400 invalids, was maintained at great cost to
the Order, and the regulations were drawn up with great care, though
they reveal an amazing ignorance of some fundamental laws of health.
Patients, for instance, who were members of the Order received meals
twice as large as other patients.
[Footnote 1: So called because they were Knights "by right" of noble
birth.]