Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/538

504 convoked according to custom, and the electors nominated. Thereupon the nuncio presented his second brief, which simply restricted their powers to the choice of one out of three candidates named by the Pope. These were Chabrilian, bailiff of Manosque; Verdala, the grand-commander; and Panissa, the grand-prior of St. (lilies. The papal mandate, irregular and unauthorized though it was, received no opposition, and Hugh Louhenx de Verdala was elected to the vacancy.

Although the death of La Cassière had brought to a close the dispute of which he was the subject, the king of France was well aware that the sedition had originally sprung from the ambition and jealousy of the laiigues of Aragon and Ca.stile, fomented and encouraged by the king of Spain. He therefore directed his ambassador at the court of Rome to insist that the memory of the late Grand-Master should be vindicated from the aspersions which had been cast upon it. The Pope readily complied with this request, and nominated a commission, consisting of five cardinals and some of the leading lay officials in Rome, to investigate the accusations brought against La Cassière by Romégas and his party. Visconti having returned to Rome from Malta with the results of the inquiries which he had there made, the congress gave judgment. This was to the effect that the accusations against the late Grand-Master were malicious and unfounded; that all the proceedings taken against him were, from their manifest injustice, to be annulled, and that he was to be considered honourably acquitted of all the crimes laid to his charge. They at the same time recommended to his Holiness that he should pronounce a decree that the Order did not possess the power of deposing its chief, that authority being vested in the Pope alone. On the 3rd of September, 1582, this sentence having been ratified, was published in the consistory. Thus closed a schism which had, whilst it lasted, created a great disturbance within the convent at Malta.

The character of Verdala was eminently suited to the temper of the time which witnessed his elevation. Gentle, mild, and affable, an earnest lover of peace and concord, he strove hard to soften the bitterness which recent events had caused, and to reconcile those differences through which a spirit of disunion was still kept up in the convent. In this, however, he was not