Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/544

510 body had been his, gave him, in addition, the dignity and privileges of a ruling prince. Though his dominion was but small and his subjects few, the military colony at Rhodes was not unimportant. The powerful navy which the brethren organized, and with which they scoured the Levant to the terror and hindrance of the Ottoman pirates with whom those waters swarmed, rendered most valuable assistance to the commerce and general interests of Europe. The knights ere long, therefore, raised themselves to a far higher position than they had held in Palestine, and the Grand-Master, in his new rank of sovereign prince, entered into communication with the various courts of Europe very much on terms of equality. The transfer of the convent to Malta, and the terror inspired on all sides by the establishment of the Algerine corsairs upon the northern shores of Africa, enhanced this consideration. The island, when garrisoned by the knights of St. John, became an advanced post and bulwark of Christianity. Sicily and Italy were protected by this barrier from the aggression of the Moslem. The Pope and the Spanish monarch, both feeling the importance of the services rendered, invariably held out the right hand of friendship to its ruler, and treated him with a consideration and respect which his position would scarcely otherwise have warranted.

Having thus assumed sovereign functions and dignities, we find that he also, by degrees, surrounded himself with much of the state usually attendant on royalty. The revenue attached to his office during the last century of its existence at Malta amounted to upwards of £40,000 a year. This sum was derived from the following sources:—

1st. In every priory one commandery was set apart for the benefit of the Grand-Master, and was called the magisterial commandery. He was entitled to nominate its holder without reference to seniority, and its revenues for the first two years after each appointment were appropriated to him, and a pension therefrom afterwards.

2nd. He was entitled to nominate to a commandery in every grand-priory once in each five years, and the first year’s revenue of such commandery, termed an annate, was paid to him.