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 HOSPITALLERS

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HOSPITALLERS

by the merchants of Amalfi, who at that time had commercial relations with the Holy Land. Attempts have been made to trace the origin of the Hospitallers of St. John to this foundation, but it is obvious to remark that the Hospitallers had St. John Baptist for their patron, while the Italian hospice was dedicated to St. John of Alexandria. Moreover, the former adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, while the latter followed that of the Benedictines. Like most similar houses at that time, the hospice of Amalfi was in fact merely a dependency of a monastery, while Gerard's was autonomous from the beginning. Before the Crusades, the Italian hospital languished, sustained solely by alms gathered in Italy; but Gerard profited by the presence of the crusaders, and by the gratitude felt for his hospitality, to acquire territory and reve- nues not only in the new Kingdom of Jerusalem, but in Europe — in Sicily, Italy, and Provence. In the acts of donation which remain to us, there is no men- tion of the sick, but only of the poor and strangers. In this respect the hospice of Gerard did not differ from others, and his epitaph defines his work: —

Pauperibus servus, plus hospitibus

Undique collegit pasccret unde suos.

Thanks to the resources accumulated by Gerard, his successor, Raymond of Provence (1120-60), caused the erection of more spacious buildings near the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and henceforth the hospice became an infirmary served by a community of hospitallers in the modern sense of the word.

Strictly speaking, therefore, the Hospitallers of Je- rusalem only began with Raymond of Provence, to whom they owe their rule. This rule deals only with their conduct as religious and infirmarians, there being no mention of knights. It especially sets forth that the hospital shall permanently maintain at its ex- pense five physicians and three surgeons. The broth- ers were to fulfil the duties of infirmarians. A pil- grim, about the year 1150, places the number of sick persons cared for at 2000, a figure evidently exagger- ated, unless we make it include all the persons har- boured in a whole year. Raymond continued to re- ceive donations, and this permitted him to complete his foundation by a second innovation. To accom- pany, and defend at need, the arriving and departing pilgrims, he defrayed the cost of an armed escort, which in time became a veritable army, comprising knights recruited from among the crusaders of Europe, and serving as a heavy cavalry (see Chivalry), and Turcopoles recruitetl from among the natives of mixed blood, and serving as a light cavalry armed in Turkish fashion. With this innovation originated the most ancient military dignities in the order: the marshal, to command the knights, the turcopolier, for the Turco- poles. Later the grand masters themselves went into battle, tiosbert (c. 1177), the fifth successor of Ray- mond, distinguished himself, and Roger de Moulins per- ished gloriously on the field of battle ( 1 187). Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military with- out losing its eleemosynary character. The statutes of Roger de Moulins (11S7) deal only with the service of the sick; the first mention of military service is in the statutes of the ninth grand master, Alfonso of Portugal (about 1200). In the latter a marked dis- tinction is made between the secular knights, externs to the order, who served only for a time, and the pro- fessed knights, attacheil to the order by a perpetual vow, ami who alone enjoyed the same spiritual privi- leges as the other religious. Henceforth the order numbered two distinct classes of members: the mili- tary brothers and the brothers infirmarians. The brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service, formed a third class.

While the Order of St. John became a mixed order, that of the Templars was purely military from the be- ginning, and on this point it can claim priority, despite

the contrary assertions of the Hospitallers. The Templars followed a different monastic rule and wore a different habit — the white habit of the Cistercians, whose rule they followed, with a red cross, while the Hospitallers had a black mantle with a white cross. In war the knightly brothers wore above their armour a red surcoat with the white cross. Mutually emulous from the outset, they soon became rivals, and this rivalry had much to do with the rapid decline of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In other respects the two orders held the same rank in Church and State, both being recognized as regular orders and endowed by the papacy with most extensive privileges, absolute inde- pendence of all spiritual and temporal authority save that of Rome, exemption from tithes, with the right to have their own chapels, clergy, and cemeteries. Both were charged with the military defence of the Holy Land, and the most redoubtable strongholds of the country, the splendid ruins of which still exist, were occupied by one or the other (Rey, "Monuments de I'architecture militaire des Croises", Paris, 1865). On the battlefield they shared between them the most perilous posts, alternately holding the van and rear guard. The lustory of the Hospitallers of Jerusalem is involved in that of the Latin kingdom of the same name, with which the order was associated in prosper- ity and adversity. When the kingdom was at the height of its glory, the Hospitallers possessed no fewer than seven strongholds, some situated on the coast, others in the mountains; of these Margatand Krals, in the territory of Tripoli, are the most famous. They en- joyed the revenues of more than one hundred and forty estates {casalla) in the Holy Land. As to their Euro- pean possessions, a writer of the thirteenth century credits them with about nineteen thousand manses or manors. It was necessary to organize a financial administration in order to assure the regular payment of the revenues of these widely scattered possessions. This was the task of Hugh of Ravel, seventeenth Grand Master of the Holy Land (c. 1270). The lands attached to a single house were placed uniier the com- mand of a knight of the order, who formerly was called a preceptor, but afterwards took the title of comman- der. This official was charged with collecting the revenues, one portion of which was devoted to the support of his community, formed of a chaplain and some brothers, the other portion being destined for the houses of the Holy Land. This latter portion consisted of an annual and invariable impost called "Responsions".

Thanks to these resources, drawn from Europe, the order was al)le to survive the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which involved the lo.ss of all its posses- sions in Asia. After the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin (1187), the Hospitallers retained only their possessions in the Principality of Tripoli, and these they lost a century later by the fall of Acre (1291). They were obliged to seek refuge, under their grand master, Jean de Villiers, in the Kingdom of Cyprus, where they already had some possessions. King Amaury assigned them as a place of residence the town of Limassol on the coast. Having become islanders, the Hospitallers were obliged to modify their manner of warfare. They equipped fleets to fight the Mussulmans on the sea and to protect the pil- grims, who had not ceased to visit the Holy Places. But it was chiefly the conquest of the island of Rhodes, under the Grand Master Foulqucs de Villaret, that brought about a complete transformation of the order.

The Knights of Rhodes (1309-1522), the succes.sors of the Ho.spitallers of St. John, were distinguished from the latter in many ways. In the first place, the grand master of the order was thenceforward a tem- poral sovereign in that island, which constituted a true ecclesia.stical principality, imder the nominal suzerainty of the Emperors of the East. Secondly,