Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/38

 there had already been two changes of rulers, Godfrey and his brother Baldwin I., who succeeded him, having both died. The kingdom at this period consisted only of certain isolated cities, with the districts in their immediate vicinity, the intervening country being still peopled and held by the Saracens. Intercourse was therefore very difficult, and communication was liable to constant interruption from the predatory attacks of the infidels.

Raymond du Puy had no sooner assumed the reins of office than he began to devise a material alteration in the constitution of the Order. His mind, naturally of a chivalric and warlike bent, was not prepared to rest satisfied with the peaceful functions undertaken by the fraternity. He therefore proposed that whilst they still retained all the obligations imposed on them by their vows, they should add the further one of bearing arms in defence of their religion, and in support of the new kingdom.

Although this proposition was diametrically opposed to the leading principles upon which the institution had been founded —which principles had but a few years before been accepted with the utmost enthusiasm and established by acclamation— it was nevertheless received on all sides with delight. This change of feeling is easily accounted for. When Gerard, who was himself a man of peaceful habits, and bred in an almost monastic seclusion, formed his Order on an entirely religious basis, rendering the abandonment of a warlike career a matter of course, he found plenty of ready and willing followers from amongst the ranks of the crusading army. They had passed through a period of extreme peril and hardship, they had fought their way step by step at the point of the sword, until sadly reduced in numbers and satiated with warfare they had at length achieved the main object for which they strove. Prostrate with the exhaustion consequent on so prolonged a struggle and eager for repose, filled too, at the moment, with all the veneration which the remembrance of the holy ground on which they trod was calculated to inspire, it is not a matter for wonder that they embraced with eagerness the peaceful career thus presented for their adoption, combining as it did the gratification of their religious enthusiasm with the calm