Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/185

Rh that during the Grand-Mastership of Elyon de Villanova, in the year 1331, the fraternity was separated into seven langues, viz., Provenee, Auvergne, France, Italy, Germany, England, and Aragon. In the year 1461 an eighth langue was added by the division of that of Aragon into two parts, the new portion receiving the title of Castile and Portugal.

The supreme head of this fraternity, which comprised amongst its members natives of almost every country in Europe, was the Grand-Master. The position of this dignitary in the scale of potentates had varied with the fluctuations that took place in the fortunes of the institution. During their stay in Palestine he was possessed of a very powerful voice in the councils of that kingdom, sharing with the Grand-Masters of the other two Orders almost the entire direction of affairs. His influence in Europe was at that time but slight. It is true that his fraternity possessed landed property to a considerable extent in every country, which property naturally gave him a certain amount of influence in its vicinity. Still, residing as he did at a point so far remote from the centre of European politics, that influence could rarely be exercised in any great degree. When the expulsion of the Latins from Syria compelled the brotherhood to seek a new home, and led to their establishment in the full sovereignty of the island of Rhodes, all this became changed. On the one hand their influence in the East gradually diminished as the prospect of re-establishing the Latin kingdom grew more and more hopeless. On the other hand, the barrier which they had set up in their new home against the encroachments of the Turk on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean led to the admission of the Order of Rhodes as a by no means unimportant member of the body politic of Europe. The Grand-Master as its head, found in consequence, that the consideration with which he was treated rapidly increased. The subsequent transfer of the convent from Rhodes to Malta led to a still further augmentation of this influence, and we shall eventually find him not only arrogating to himself the rank and privileges of a sovereign prince, but actually in correspondence upon terms almost of equality with the principal potentates of Europe.

It is curious to mark how, during these successive ages, the authority which the Pope exercised over the Order became