Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/627

Rh council thereupon enjoined him to ask pardon, but this he positively refused to do, and, flying into a violent passion, began cursing and swearing most vehemently, and throwing his mantle upon the ground, said that if he deserved condemnation at all he ought to be deprived of his habit and put to death. Thereupon he drew his sword and left the council chamber, to the great scandal of all present. He was in consequence deprived of his habit, and of the dignity of Turcopolier. As soon as this news reached England great exertions were made to restore West to his office. The knight, John Sutton, was despatched by the grand-prior of England and the duke of Norfolk to beg that he might be reinstated. From the letters which this envoy presented to the council on the 23rd February, 1533, it appeared that the feeling in England was that West had been unjustly condemned, and that a bad feeling had sprung up against him owing to his wearing an Order appertaining to the king of England. The council feeling much aggrieved at this calumny, a commission was appointed to inquire into the matter, consisting of Sir Edward Bellingham (English), Aurelio Bottigello (Italian), and Baptiste Vilaragut (Spanish). The report of these commissioners is not in existence, but by a decree dated April 26th, 1533, West was reinstated as Turcopolier, he having expressed contrition. The lesson bestowed on this turbulent knight appears, however, to have been thrown away, for in 1537 he was again in trouble for acts of disobedience and for provoking another knight to fight a duel, and in 1539 he was once more placed in arrest by decree of the council for disrespect to their body (vide list of crimes in Chapter XXI.), and finally, he was again deprived of the dignity of Turcopolier, on the 3rd September in the same year, at the instance of the English knights then resident at the convent. He had, nevertheless, evidently been held as a person of consideration, for on the death of Dupont, in 1534, he was nominated lieutenant of the Grand-Mastery during the interregnum.

, Turcopolier in 1539. At the death of this knight in 1643, it was decreed that there should be no further nomination to the dignity until the Catholic religion should be re-established in England.

was appointed lieutenant of the Turco