Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/119

Rh the envoys returned with the required amende; a ring and a shirt being tendered to Louis, the first signifying that he should be encircled by the protection of the tribe, and the second that they would cling to him with attachment.

Louis left the Holy Land in 1254, and the next few years were spent by the military Orders in securing themselves within those posts which they still retained. During this lull in the political storm, the quarrels which had so often arisen between them, but which the urgency of their mutual peril had temporarily quelled, once again broke forth. Beginning in single combats or in struggles of small parties, the ifi-feeling grew gradually so rancorous that eventually they rarely met without bloodshed, and not contented with isolated encounters it was not unusual for the warfare to be carried on by considerable numbers on either side. The mutual exasperation at last became so envenomed, that in the year 1259, the whole force of the respective Orders met in a general engagement. Victory favoured the side of the Hospitailers, and the slaughter was such that scarce a Templar was left to survive the fatal day. It was long ere that fraternity rallied from the blow, and by the time that their ranks had been sufficiently recruited to enable them to show front against their rivals, the breaking out of renewed hostilities against the common enemy overcame the bitterness of civil discord. It was during this, the last year of Chateauneuf’s rule, that the Pope issued a bull decreeing a distinctive dress for the knight of justice. This bull is dated in August, 1259.

Shortly after the sanguinary contest above referred to, William do Chateauneuf died in the month of October, 1259, and Hugh de Revel was elected to succeed him. This knight, the nineteenth Master of the Order, was the first who received from Pope Clement II. the title of Grand-Master. The bull conveying this dignity was dated on the 18th November, 1267. The chiefs of the Temple had, from their first foundation, taken the rank of Grand-Master, whilst those of the Hospital had, until this date, contented themselves with the simpler appellation of Master.

Under the auspices of Hugh do Revel some vital changes