Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/134

108 voluptuousness which from the earliest ages had been its characteristic; and the Hospitaller, returning from a successful cruise, and released from the restraint and privations of life on board his galley, sought to make amends for the toils he had undergone by an outburst of luxurious dissipation.

Two chapters-general were held by order of John de Villiers, in which laws were passed to check this rising tendency to display and self-gratification. No knight was for the future to be allowed the possession of more than three horses, and all adornment of his equipments was once more strictly forbidden. Stringent regulations were at the same time laid down respecting the debts left by a brother at his death, specifying the mode in which they were to be defrayed. From the fact that such a regulation as this was found necessary, it appears evident that there were numerous members of the fraternity, not content with spending the proceeds of their successful cruises in a manner little becoming those who had taken upon themselves the oaths of poverty and chastity, but who were also incurring the incubus of debts. It cannot be said that the rules framed on this subject by the council were well adapted to put an end to the practice, the regulation being that in case the household and personal properties of the knight were insufficient to liquidate his liabilities, the balance was to be defrayed out of the funds he had originally transferred to the Order on his admission. This decree must have pressed far more hardly on the treasury than on the individual. It must also have increased greatly the facilities for running into debt, as creditors would feel that they had undeniable security to fail back upon in case of a failure of the knight’s assets. On the whole, however, the decrees passed by these two chapters had the desired effect of checking the excesses of the turbulent, and by degrees something approaching the old state of discipline and good order was once more established.

During the remainder of the rule of John de Villiers, maritime expeditions continued without intermission, and the knights gradually curbed the power of the infidel in this branch of warfare to such an extent as to render the navigation of the Levant comparatively secure for the commerce of Europe. This was a boon which every nation could feel and appreciate,