Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/66

44 church of St. John exceeded in splendour that of the Holy Sepulchre, to which it was in close proximity, and that the bells of the former were rung with violence whilst service was being conducted in the latter to the great annoyance and interruption of the congregation. Other complaints of a similar character, and framed in the same spirit, were made. The Pope decided against the appellants, and confirmed the privileges of the Order, thus stigmatizing as vexatious the opposition that had been raised against them. This was the first time that any disputes had arisen between the Hospitallers and the regular clergy, but having once been started they soon became almost chronic, and the reader of the histories of those times has to wade through long dissertations on both sides, in which the most trivial matters are made to bear a malicious and invidious interpretation.

Amongst the most bitter of the writers on the ecclesiastical side was William, archbishop of Tyre, who was himself an eyewitness of most of the events which he records. He does not hesitate to accuse the Pope of having been bribed to give his decision in favour of the Hospital, and in every possible way he garbles and distorts his narrative of the dispute. The animus with which he writes is palpable on every page. This discord embittered the last days of Raymond du Puy. He had lived long enough to see his Order settled on a permanent basis honoured and respected throughout Europe, wealthy and powerful from the endowments it had received, and increasing annually in numbers. There was at this time scarcely a noble house in Europe which did not send one or more of its members to bear the white cross on his breast, and the aristocratic connections thus formed tended much to increase the high estimation in which the fraternity was held.

At length, in the year 1160, Raymond died. He had attained the age of eighty years, of which sixty had been spent in constant warfare. Nothing seemed to affect his iron constitution, and he bore apparently a charmed life through innumerable scenes of danger. He breathed his last in the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem, whither he had retired to meet his end in peace and repose. History has recorded nothing but good of his character. Even William of Tyre speaks of him in the most glowing terms.