Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/585

Rh religious enthusiasm which had stimulated its first members, so did the dissolute conduct of the knights become more outrageously opposed to the principles of their profession. After the successful termination of the siege of Malta had left the brethren in undisputed sovereignty of that island, and had raised their military renown to the highest possible pitch, they appear to have become intoxicated with the admiration they had excited throughout Europe, and throwing off all restraint, to have abandoned themselves to the most reckless debauchery. At this period the city of Valetta was positively teeming with women of loose character. The streets were thronged with the frail beauties of Spain, Italy, Sicily, and the Levant, nor were the dark-eyed houris of Tripoli and Tunis wanting to complete an array of seduction and temptation too strong for aught but a saint to resist. Saints, however, there were but few in the convent in those days, so that the demireps and their supporters had it all their own way. We have seen that during the governance of La Cassière the attempt of that Grand-Master to check the evil led to an open revolt, and his own imprisonment, a sentence which was carried into effect amidst the derisive jeers of crowds of flaunting Cyprians whom he had in vain endeavoured, for decency’s sake, to banish into the neighbouring casals.

This period may be noted as the worst and most openly immoral epoch in the history of the fraternity. The evil, to a certain .extent, brought with it its own remedy, and after a while the knights became themselves scandalized at the notoriety of their licentiousness. Still, the morality at Malta remained at a very low ebb, and up to the latest date of the Order’s residence there its society abounded with scandalous tales and sullied reputations. The vice prevalent in the island was probably no more than that of any other locality where the bulk of the population was young and unfettered by the obligations of marriage. 1’he error lay in supposing that a vow of chastity, rendered compulsory upon all seeking admission, could by any possibility act as a check upon the natural depravity of youth, unrestrained as it was in any other manner.

The following extracts from the records of the criminal council during the sixteenth century have been selected as