Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/571

Rh ‘prud’honrnes’ look after the good quality of the materials used in the preparation of the food, selecting always the best of everything. The sick, therefore, are given the best soup made of fowls, herbs, vermicelli, rice, etc., and every sort of meat that had been ordered for them, such as chicken, pigeons, poultry, beef, veal, game, hashes, fricassees, stews, sausages, etc., in such quantities as are necessary; also fresh eggs, pomegranates, plums, and grapes, and every kind of refreshment allowed to sick people, such as biscuits, apples, fruit, sugar, and all sorts of confectionery, each one according to his wants. Members of the Order receive a double portion.”

The following regulation shewed that the duties of the Hospital were considered incumbent on all members:—“The training of the brethren of the Order prescribes religious hospitality; therefore, at the dinner hour, they must come to wait on the sick, and bring to their beds the portions prescribed for them from the place where the food is issued, and if the sick do not fancy what has been prepared for them, they exchange it with the sanction of the physician. They must also warm up the portions, and render all necessary assistance. But as all being present together might create confusion, each langue has a day assigned to it for the service of the Hospital.

“Sunday for the langue of Provence. “Monday for that of Auvergne. “Tuesday for that of France. “Wednesday for that of Italy. “Thursday for that of Aragon. “Friday for that of Germany. “Saturday for that of Castile and Portugal.

“The novices are bound to assist in the Hospital as above, each on the day fixed for his langue, and that none may omit such a proper work of charity, a check is kept by the grand-cross, master of the novices and by two commissaries, his colleagues, of different langues, who bring with them a clerk to note the names of those who fail to come, so as to admonish them. On Holy Thursday the grand-hospitaller, with all the knights of the langue of France, assemble in the room where the sepulchre is represented, and with exemplary charity wash the feet of twelve poor men, to whom large alms are afterwards given.”