Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/93

Rh nothing short of complete isolation from the world would have sufficed to keep the fraternity in the path laid down by their chief. Rules, which in the days of Raymond merely engendered simplicity of life and an absence of ostentation, would, when carried out a century later, have involved a degree of austerity never contemplated by him. Impressed, however, with the necessity for a rigid observance of the oaths taken on his assumption of office, Alfonso at once began to enforce the antiquated discipline.

In this endeavour he met with the most vehement opposition from the council. So strenuously and pertinaciously were the objections of its members urged, that he lost his temper. Thundering forth the imperious mandate, “I will be obeyed, and that without reply,” he sought to silence remonstrance by an appeal to authority. Language such as this had not of late been heard at the council board, and an immediate outcry proclaimed the resentment of those present. Open rebellion soon succeeded to remonstrance, and Alfonso was, before long, taught that the estimate he had formed of his magisterial power was greatly exaggerated. Disgusted at the failure of his attempt, and cowed by the storm of opposition he had evoked, he resigned his office, abandoned the Holy Land, and retired to Portugal, where he shortly afterwards fell in an engagement during one of the civil wars of that country.

Numerous attempts were made by the powers of Western Europe to recover some of the lost ground in Palestine during the first half of the thirteenth century. Had these efforts been properly directed, and not diverted to objects other than those for which they were organised, they would probably have proved successful. The history. of the times is, however, filled with the rancorous hatreds and petty jealousies which were constantly arising to thwart any vigorous or concerted movement. Wave after wave of attack surged on the shores of Palestine, only to recede again, rather through the ignorance and impatience of the leaders than the resisting power of the infidel. One of these expeditions had turned its arms against the city of Constantinople, and wresting it from the enfeebled grasp of the Byzantine dynasty, converted it for a short time