Read on about the Knights of St. John -
The first rector of what was to become known as the "Order
of the
Hospital" was the Blessed Gerard. With his Bull of 15 February 1113, Pope
Paschal II sanctioned the establishment of the Hospitallers' order, dedicated to
its patron, Saint John the Baptist. The Pontiff placed the Order under the
direct protection and ecclesiastical authority of the Holy See. Pope Callixtus
and subsequent Pontiffs granted the Order additional privileges over the next
century. Gerard himself died in 1120 but the work of the hospice, which at one
point was said to house two thousand patients, continued. By 1126, the Order had
begun its military role in the defence of pilgrims in the Holy Land, building
castles and other fortifications throughout Palestine. Their seat was the vast
Krak-des-Chevaliers, acquired in 1142. Built upon an older Arab structure, it
was the knights' chief stronghold by 1144 and finally fell during a siege in
1271. The imposing fortress still stands today.
The Order of the Hospital was not only the first military-religious order of
chivalry, but indeed the first order of knighthood of any kind. Previously,
knights did not serve in corporate bodies other than the armies of particular
sovereigns. The Order of the Temple, the Teutonic Order and the Order of Saint
Lazarus were founded soon after the Order of the Hospital. Each of these orders
had its own purposes, of which military defence was but one. Until this time,
most knights had been minor feudatories obliged, as part of the feudal system,
to undertake military service for a prescribed number of days each year; some
were full time soldiers who served in garrisons.
Even at this early date, the Order of Malta was both a religious order and a
military brotherhood. Today, its Grand Master is accorded the singular style
"His Most Eminent Highness" and accorded a precedence in the Roman
Catholic hierarchy immediately following that of the most junior cardinal. There
are still professed knights of the Order, from among whose number Grand Masters
are elected, who take religious vows namely celibacy, obedience and poverty.
The earliest members of the Order were drawn from throughout Europe. Most were
of noble birth, being the younger sons of enfeoffed knights and other feudal
lords. They belonged to one of three ranks, namely knights, who were of noble
birth, chaplains, and serving brothers. Much later, the Order instituted the
practice of investing as knights worthy gentlemen who, though not of noble
birth, were received by the grace of the Grand Master. In our own times, this
has become a specific grade of the Order (that of Magistral Grace), and the one
into which into which the majority of knights and dames are accepted. This is
due in part to the three American associations which do not demand noble proofs
of candidates.
To arrive in Palestine, postulants might travel over land across the Balkans.
More often, however, they would travel by land down the length of the Italian
peninsula to Calabria, the toe of Italy, then cross over to Messina to board a
galley for Palestine. Each aspirant would pay his own passage. Thus was
instituted the tradition of making a monetary donation (droit de passage) upon
entering the Order.
At first, the surcoats and habits of the knights of the Order were of coarse
black cloth bearing a simple Latin cross in white. A little later this was
forked at the ends, what a herald terms a "cross moline," when later
still the cross had straight sides, so famous as the cross of Malta. In 1126,
the Blessed Raymond du Puy, second Grand Master of the Order, adopted as its
distinctive emblem the white Cross of Malta, whose eight points represent the
Beatitudes. The heraldic insignia, on which the flag of the Order was based,
became a plain white Cross of Malta on a red field. This appears to have been
used for some years before its approval by Pope Innocent II in 1130, and is
generally considered the oldest extant vexillogical device used by a sovereign
European government.
During this early period, though it could be said to have been an international
organisation, the Order drew a large number of its knights from France and from
the Norman-ruled territories of England and Sicily, and within its ranks the
spoken language was French. So famous was the Order of the Hospital that it
became known simply as "The Religion." Sometimes called the Order of
Saint John (after its Heavenly Patron), the Order of the Hospital grew in wealth
and power throughout Europe. Toward the middle of the twelfth century, it was
introduced in England, where a number of Hospitaller structures still stand,
particularly the Gate House of Clerkenwell.
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was invaded by Saladin "the Great" in
1187, and Jerusalem itself was captured following a series of bloody battles.
Within five years, Saint John of Acre, the last fortified Christian town in
Palestine, had fallen to the forces of Islam.
1187-1523
It was at this point that the Order of the Hospital moved to Cyprus,
establishing its seat at Limasol, from whence it continued its war against Islam
--on land but now also at sea.
The King of Cyprus would not grant the Order any genuine form of sovereignty,
and in 1310 the knights occupied Rhodes. It was at Rhodes that the eight Langues,
or tongues, were formed, with knights divided into national branches, each under
the administration of a Bailiff.
In 1343, the Order conquered Smyrna, which it held for six decades. The knights
of Malta took part in battles in Egypt and Syria, and supported the Armenians'
in their valiant defence against the Muslims.
Though the Order was becoming an important naval power in the eastern
Mediterranean, the knights were expected to perform hospitaller tasks in
addition to their military and naval duties. It is this role that has survived
to the present. However, not everybody associated with the Order was a knight.
There were chaplains, surgeons and serving brothers, as well as soldiers and
sailors, men-at-arms who were not invested as knights but known as
sergeants-at-arms.
At Rhodes, the Order was attacked by Muslim forces that it successfully repelled
in 1440, 1444, 1469, and during a particularly fierce battle in 1480. The Middle
Ages were nearly at an end, and the discovery of a new continent beckoned, but
the Mediterranean was still the focus of maritime commerce for Europe, western
Asia and northern Africa. It was the battle of 1522 that proved decisive to the
Order. Suleiman the Magnificent launched an attack with 400 ships and, according
to the best estimates, some two hundred thousand soldiers. Following a
courageous defence for six months by a few thousand knights and other troops,
the Order surrendered on Christmas Eve and the knights were allowed to depart on
1 January 1523.
Though without actual territory, the Order of Saint John was still recognised as
a sovereign power. During the next few years, it established temporary seats at
Crete and elsewhere.
1523-1600
In 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, as King of Sicily, ceded to the Order
the island of Malta. At first, the Order's Maltese dominion, which also included
the nearby islands of Gozo and Comino was considered a fief of the Kingdom of
Sicily, its Grand Master a vassal. It was for this reason that an annual feudal
tax was paid, though it was largely symbolic. It included, for example, a
"Maltese falcon." The Order would remain a military dependency of the
Kingdom of Sicily until 1798, though, like the feudal tax rendered to the King,
this was to be largely symbolic in actual practice during the centuries to
follow. Pope Clement VII sanctioned this act in with a Bull of 7 May 1530, and
the Order established its grand magistry on the island later in the year. The
Order was also granted Tripoli, which it relinquished in 1551.
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