Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/146

132 St. John the Almoner. During the siege of Jerusalem many of the sick and wounded Crusaders were brought into the hospital; and, in gratitude for the benefits they received there, they determined to dedicate their lives to charitable acts, and to enter the Monastery of St. John. They assumed as a dress a black robe, with the figure of a white cross with eight points. Pope Pascal II. bestowed many valuable privileges upon the order, and the Poor Brothers of the Hospital of St. John became a wealthy community, famed throughout Europe. During the reign of Baldwin of Bourg, the third King of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers resumed the sword, binding themselves by a vow to draw it only against the enemies of Christ. The order of St. John was then divided into the several classes of knights, clergy, and serving brothers. The knights were highest in rank, and commanded in battle or in the hospital; the serving brothers filled the offices of esquires, or assisted the clergy in attendance upon the sick. The vows, which were taken by all, without distinction, included the duties of chastity, of obedience to the council, and of a renunciation individually of all worldly possessions.

The order of the Red Cross Knights, or Templars, is to be referred to a different origin, though the objects for which it was instituted were of a similar kind. The military order of Knights Templars was founded by Baldwin II., King of Jerusalem, in 1118, and they first came to England in 1185. They took vows of obedience to a Grand Master whom they had appointed, and also bound themselves to purity of life, to mutual assistance, and that they would fight continually against the infidel, never turning back from less than four adversaries. Having no fixed dwelling-place, these knights lived in the Temple, whence they derived the title of Templars, which afterwards became so famous. They wore a white robe, to which was attached a red cross. In addition to their great standard, which also displayed these colours, they carried in battle a banner with black and white stripes, which was intended to signify charity and kindness to their friends, and destruction to their enemies. The Knights Templars, whose rules, like those of the Hospitallers, enjoined humility and poverty, soon became the proudest and wealthiest order in Christendom; and while the Knights of St. John remained during several centuries honoured and respected for acts of benevolence, the Templars became hated and feared for their vices and their cruelty. Much of the chivalry of Europe



afterwards became merged in these two orders of knights hood, to which it became a matter of high distinction to be attached; and men did not hesitate to assume the religious habit, and assent to rules of mortification, while they neither revered the one nor were bound by the other.





The money which William Rufus paid to his brother for the possession of Normandy was obtained in his accustomed manner, by inflicting new burdens and exactions upon his people. The account taken from the old chroniclers is thus related by Holinshed:—"He did not only oppress and fleece his poor subjects, but rather with importunate exactions did, as it were, flay off their skins. All this was grievous and intolerable, as well to the spirituality as 