Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/596

562 and to settle the dispute as to the discontinuance of payments by the bailiwick of Brandenburg. It was then agreed that the ancient connection between the Order and the Lutheran knights should be renewed, and that the latter should once more pay responsions into the general treasury, in the same manner as the Roman Catholic commanderies. From that time the knights of Brandenburg were treated as brethren by the Order, and recognized as knights of St. John.

Things continued in this state until the French Revolution and the expulsion of the Order from Malta shattered its organization. The bailiwick of Brandenburg underwent the same fate as the other branches of the fraternity. By an edict of the 30th October, 1810, it was ordained that in Prussia all monasteries, chapters, commanderies, and bailiwicks should be treated as the property of the state, and be gradually secularized. With regard to the bailiwick of Brandenburg the king had resolved to postpone the execution of the decree until the death of the Herren Meister. who was then in his 81st year, being the same Ferdinand, brother of Frederic the Great, already referred to as Master of the bailiwick in 1763. That prince, however, declared that for the sake of example he would not avail himself of the royal grace. A compact was accordingly entered into between the commissioners of the state and the Master, by which the details of the transfer were settled. By deed signed in Berlin on the 12th January, 1811, the prince ceded and renounced to the state the Mastership of Sonnenberg and its commanderies. The king accepted this act on the 23rd January, 1811, and by a further deed, dated 23rd May, 1812, ratified the complete dissolution and extinction of the bailiwick of Brandenburg, and the sequestration of all its property to the state. He at the same time founded a new and royal Order of the knights of St. John, making himself its sovereign protector,