Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/136

110 with unseemly haste, where settling themselves in their various European preceptories, they gave way to the most unbridled luxury. Their gross licentiousness, and the arrogance of their bearing, soon drew down on them universal distrust and hatred, and there were not wanting those who possessed both power and will to accomplish their overthrow. These enemies only waited until public feeling had been sufficiently aroused to justify them in the steps they already contemplated taking. No doubt, during the last years of their existence, little can be said in favour of the Templars, and although the barbarous cruelty with which their extinction was accomplished has raised a feeling of compassion on their behalf, which to some extent effaces the memory of their misdeeds, it cannot be denied that they had of late years gravely deviated from the original design of their institution. They seemed, therefore, to be no longer fit depositaries of that emrmous wealth which had been bequeathed to them for purposes so different from those to which they had appropriated it.

In the year 1294, John de Villiers, who had greatly raised his Order in public estimation, died at his convent home in Cyprus. His place was filled by Odon de Pins, a knight of Provence of great age, more noted for piety of life than for military prowess. Had he been elected to the supremacy of a fraternity of monks, he would probably have proved a most edifying selection, but in the turbulent days in which his lot was cast, and with the fierce spirits under his charge, he proved a sad failure. Occupied in the peaceful duties of his convent and Hospital, he utterly neglected those other obligations of his office which were more congenial to the temperament of his subordinates, and which were absolutely necessary to keep in check the aggressive neighbours by whom he was surrounded.

Having lost their all at the abandonment of Acre, the fraternity was still burning to recruit its finances by a continuation of those maritime forays which had been so successfully commenced under the auspices of Villiers. Whilst the galleys of the Turk, laden with the wealth of the East, were still to be found ploughing their way through the blue waters of the