Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/262

236 equally ready in the discharge of theirs, sent a special citation to the various receivers of the Order to press for the payment of all responsions that were due. These officials were becoming weary of the constant demands made on them to facilitate preparations against an attack which was always impending, but which seemed never to take place. They therefore appealed to the Pope against these new requisitions of their chief. Paul II., upon receipt of their complaint, directed that the chapter-general, which had been convoked to meet at Rhodes, should assemble at Rome instead, and that the Grand-Master should appear there in person. Although Zacosta might easily, had he chosen, have pleaded the necessity of his remaining in the convent at that most troublous epoch, he preferred to obey the mandate, being anxious to confront his enemies and calumniators. His success at Rome was so complete, and the explanations which he gave so satisfactory, that his enemies were clothed with shame, and the Pope hastened to make an earnest though tardy reparation for the wrongs which his suspicions had inflicted. Zacosta was laden with honours and distinctions, and enabled to compel the refractory commanders, now no longer supported by papal authority, to remit their just tribute to the treasury.

Whilst still at Rome, Zacosta was seized with pleurisy, which ended in his death on the 21st February, 1467. The Pope. decreed that his remains should be honoured with a burial in St. Peter’s, and in that cathedral his funeral obsequies were performed with great magnificence. His tomb lay on the left side of the chapel of St. Gregory. There it remained until, on the occasion of some repairs, it was transferred to the foot of the confessional of St. Peter. The monumental slab was at the same time placed in the crypt of the church, where it still exists.

The opportunity thus offered to the Pope by the death of a Grand-Master, and the consequent necessity for a new election, within the limits of his own immediate jurisdiction, was not thrown away by Paul. He at once convoked the required assembly from amongst such members of the chapter-general as were still in the city, and there, under his dictation, the prior of Rome, John Orsini, was raised to the vacant dignity. In spite, however, of the papal influence, the election was keenly