Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/539

Rh very successful. During the whole of his career as Grand- Master—a period of thirteen years—he was constantly troubled and harassed by the dissensions fomented against him. No conciliation on his part availed to appease the angry feelings that were aroused, and every decree which his sense of justice compelled him to promulgate, was cavilled at, and made the subject of seditious opposition. In 1587 the grand-marshal Sacconai dared to rescue by open force one of his valets who had been arrested on a charge of theft. The punishment which this audacious act brought down on him created such a ferment that Verdala deemed it advisable to proceed in person to Rome and request the intervention of the Pope against his mutinous fraternity. He was received with every mark of approval by Sextus V., who, to mark his sense of the undeserved attacks made on him, presented him with a cardinal’s hat, trusting that this accession of dignity would induce the turbulent knights to receive their chief with greater respect. It is to be doubted, however, whether the honour was a judicious one either for him to offer or for Verdala to accept. The position of a Grand-Master was such as entitled its holder to rank far higher than a mere cardinal, and when a similar proposal had been made to La Valette he declined it for that reason. Be this as it may, the cardinal’s rank did not in any way tend to improve the position of Verdala; he became so harassed by the factious conduct of the knights that he once more returned to Rome, where he expired on the 4th of May, 1595.

It was during his rule in 1592 that Gargallo, bishop of Malta, hoping to strengthen his power and gain additional support in the constant warfare he was maintaining against the authority of the Grand-Master, summoned the Jesuits to the island. There they speedily established themselves, and in their turn endeavoured to form a separate jurisdiction of their own. Malta was from this time destined to be the seat of four distinct religious powers—the bishop, the inquisitor, the Jesuits, and the Grand-Masler—a source of endless dispute and jealousy, and one which much aided in aggravating the discord between the rival nationalities of France and Spain. Pope Gregory XIII. had already decreed that the offices of the bishop of Malta and prior of the church were to be held exclusively by conventual