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 316 THE DECLINE AND FALL the temple of Solomon ; ^^" on the str^ge association of a mon- astic and military life, which fanaticismuiight suggest, but which policy must approve. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to prol-ss the vows, of these respectable orders ; their spirit and discpline were immortal ; and the speedy donation of twenty-eigh thousand fairns, or manors,!^^ enabled them to support a regUar force of cavalry and infantry for the defence of Palestine. %e austerity of the convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arns ; the world was scandalized by the pride, avarice, and corruptiti of these Chris- tian soldiers ; their claims of immunity and juris'iction disturbed the harmony of the church and state ; and te public peace was endangered by their jealous emulation. Bi; in their most dissolute period, 'the knights of the Hospita and Temple maintained their fearless and fanatic character ; hey neglected to live, but they were prepared to die, in the ser ce of Christ ; and the spirit' of chivalry, the parent and off&ring of the crusades, has been transplanted by this institution l^m the holy sepulchre to the isle of Malta. ^^^ Eleemosvnary, for the more august character of St. John the Baj^t. (See the ineffectual struggles of Pagi, Critica, a.d. 1099, No. 14-18.) The^ssumed the profession of arms about the year 1120 ; the Hospital was ma(er, the-empleyf/m/ the Teutonic order was founded A.D. 1190, at the siege of Acre (Mosjjm^ Institut. p. 380, 390). [The order of the Temple was founded about 1118. Kg Hospital was an older foundation, instituted by merchants of Amalfi for th^Ugf of gjck pilgrims; but as a military order it was younger than the Temple ; Uact it was the foundation of the Templars which suggested the transformation olg Hospital into a military order. The Templars were distinguished by a whf^cloak and red cross, the Hospitallers by a white cross. Bishop Stubbs, dwe^g ^^ i^ie degeneration of the Franks in Palestine at the time of the Secoror Third Crusade, observes: "The only sound element in the country was tlorganiza- tion of the military orders. These procured a constant succession frgsh and healthv blood from Europe, they were not liable to the evils of min^igs^ (j^gj^ selfish'interests were bound up with the strength of the kingdom. I.'ng grand master fell another took his place. ... It may be safely said that Palestine could have been recovered and maintained by the Western powers ,vould have been by the knights of the Temple and the Hospital. If their sy% had been adopted, Palestine might have been still in Christian hands; or at l,t have con- tinued so as long as Cyprus" (Introduction to Itin. Regis Ricardi, p-i. cvii.).] 13^ See St. Bernard de Laude Novas Militias Templi, composed A 1132-1136, in Opp. torn. i. p. ii. p. 547-563, edit. Mabillon. Venet. 1750. Such encomium, which is thrown away on the dead Templars, would be highly ^ed by the historians of Malta. i-'8 Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to the Hosners 19,000, to the Templars 9000 maneria, a word of much higher import (aiucange has rightly observed) in the English than in the French idiom. A/ano a lordship, mavoir a dwelling. ., , , , 139 In the three first books of the Histoire des Chevaliers de Mai; par l'Abb6 de Vertot, the reader mav amuse himself with a fair, and someti; flattering, picture of the order, hile'it was employed for the defence of Palest x^e sub- sequent books pursue their emigrations to Rhodes and Malta.