Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/334

Rh Suedre, (of Dingete and Ringenburg), and his wife, Beatrix, of all their estates situated in the diocese of Utrecht.

The first Great Commander of this Bailiwick, was the Chevalier Anthony of Ledersake of Printhagen.

Since 1231, thirteen Commanderies were established, besides that of the Great Commander, eleven of which are still extant, viz: Dieren, Maasland, Tiel, Rhene, Leyden and Katneyk, Schooten, Doesburg, Schaluinen, Middelburg and Schoonhoven.

The Commander of Dieren is always Co-adjutor of the Order and is next in rank to the Great Commander.

Since the 8th September, 1837, there are, in addition to the actual Knights, noblemen who have obtained the expectancy or reversion of a Commandery, and are on that account allowed to wear a small cross.

When the Reformation was introduced into the Netherlands, and the Protestant became the established religion of the country, the Bailiwick of Utrecht was withdrawn from the authority of the then Grand Master, Mergenthein, as were, indeed, all the old church domains then disposed of for the benefit of the towns. The States of Utrecht, however, took in 1580, the Bailiwick under their protection, under the conditions that the Grand Master should follow their instructions, exclude priests from the Order, receive into it those noblemen only who professed the new religion, and enjoin the Commanders to renounce celibacy, in fine, dissolve all ties that might bind the Order to Rome. Of all the vows, there remained, consequently, but one: that of obedience.

In course of time, however, the Grand Masters endeavoured to bring the Bailiwick back under their own jurisdiction, and the consequence was, that at the meetings of the General Assembly of the States, the chair of the Grand Master remained vacant, its arms being turned towards the table. Things remained in this state of uncertainty until the war with France, in 1795,