Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/137

Rh Levant, and requiring but a few daring spirits to seize them for their own, it is not surprising that the inertness and monastic seclusion of Odon de Pins soon gave rise to murmurings on the part of the more active and restless members of the Order. Greater and greater became the dissatisfaction as time wore on, and the harbour of Cyprus no longer bore on its bosom those prizes which, in the time of his predecessor, had so often lain there in triumph. Utterly heedless of the increasing marks of discontent which showed themselves on all sides, Odon continued as regular as ever in his attendance on the religious duties of his profession, and as negligent as ever of its military obligations. At length, unable longer to submit to this enforced inactivity, the knights made a general appeal to the Pope for permission to depose their chief, enumerating the different causes for dissatisfaction to which they considered his conduct had justly given rise. The Pope summoned Odon to appear before him in Rome, in order to decide in his presence as to the justice of the appeal. The Grand-Master, as an obedient son of the church, instantly prepared to obey the mandate, and set forth on his journey. He was never destined to accomplish his purpose, for having been seized with illness on the road, he gradually sank under the disorder; and death, whilst it put an end to his troubles, at the same time terminated all the disputes and disagreements of which he had been the cause.

His successor was William de Villaret, also a knight of Provence, who at the time of his election was grand-prior of St. Gilles, and at the moment residing in his priory. His brother Fulk was also a knight of St. John, and greatly distinguished; so much so, that at the death of William, he was unanimously chosen to fill the vacancy; his sister Jourdam was the superior of the convent of Hospitaller ladies at Quercy, so that the family were destined, all of them, to attain the highest dignities possible in the fraternity. Villaret used no haste to quit France upon receiving the intelligence of his elevation, but availing himself of the authority with which the appointment invested him, made a magisterial inspection of all the priories in that country, instituting the most searching reforms and eradicating many