Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem
The most important of all the military orders, both for the extent
of its area and for its duration. It is said to have existed
before the Crusades and is not extinct at the present time. During
this long career it has not always borne the same name. Known as
Hospitallers of Jerusalem until 1309, the members were called
Knights of Rhodes from 1309 till 1522, and have been called
Knights of Malta since 1530.
The origins of the order have given rise to learned discussions,
to fictitious legends and hazardous conjectures. The
unquestionable founder was one Gerald or Gerard, whose birthplace
and family name it has been vainly sought to ascertain. On the
other hand, his title as founder is attested by a contemporary
official document, the Bull of Paschal II, dated 1113, addressed
to "Geraudo institutori ac praeposito Hirosolimitani Xenodochii".
This was certainly not the first establishment of the kind at
Jerusalem. even before the crusades, hostelries were indispensable
to shelter the pilgrims who flocked to the Holy Places, and in the
beginning the hospitia or xenodochia were nothing more. They
belonged to different nations; a Frankish hospice is spoken of in
the time of Charlemagne; the Hungarian hospice is said to date
from King St. Stephen (year 1000). But the most famous was an
Italian hospice about the year 1050 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 the 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 revenues 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
mention of the sick, but only of the poor and strangers. In this
respect the hospice of Gerard did not differ from other, and his
epitaph defines his work:
Pauperibus servus, pius hospitibus . . . . Undique collegit
pasceret unde sous.
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 Jerusalem 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 expense five
physicians and three surgeons. The brothers were to fulfil the
duties of infirmarians. a pilgrim, about the year 1150, places the
number of sick persons cared for at 2000, a figure evidently
exaggerated, unless we make it include all the persons harboured
in a whole year. Raymond continued to receive donations, and this
permitted him to complete his foundation by a second innovation.
To accompany 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 recruited from among the natives of
mixed blood, and serving as light cavalry armed in the Turkish
fashion. With this innovation originated the most ancient military
dignities in the order: the marshal, to command the knights, the
turcopolier, for the Turcopoles. Later the grand masters
themselves went into battle. Gosbert (c. 1177), the fifth
successor of Raymond, distinguished himself, and Roger de Moulins
perished gloriously on the field of battle (1187). Thus the Order
of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its
eleemosynary character. The statutes of Roger de Moulins (1187)
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
distinction id made between secular knights, externs to the order,
who served only for a time, and the professed knights, attached to
the order by a perpetual vow, and who alone enjoyed the same
spiritual privileges as the other religious. Henceforth the order
numbered two distinct classes of members: the military 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 form the beginning, 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 the 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 independence of all spiritual and temporal authority save
that of Rome, exemptions from tithes, with the right to have their
own chapels, clergy and cemeteries. Both were charged with the
military defense of the Holy Land, and the most redoubtable
strongholds of the country, the splendid ruins of which still
exist, were occupied by on or the other (Rey, "Monument de
l'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 history of the
Hospitallers of Jerusalem is involved in that of the Latin Kingdom
of the same name, with which the order was associated in
prosperity 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 Margat and Krals, in the territory of Tripoli, are the
most famous. They enjoyed the revenues of more than one hundred
and forty estates (casalia) in the Holy Land. As to their European
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 revenues of these widely scattered possessions. This
was the task of Hugh of Ravel, seventeen Grand Master of the Holy
Land (c. 1270). The lands attached to a single house were placed
under the command of a knight of the order, who formerly was
called a preceptor, but afterwards took the title of commander.
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 able
to survive the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which involved
the loss of all its possessions 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 has 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 Moslems on the sea and to protect the pilgrims, who had
not ceased to visit the Holy Places. But it was chiefly the
conquest of the island of Rhodes, under the Grand Master Foulques
de Villaret, that brought about a complete transformation of the
order.
The Knights of Rhodes (1309-1522)
The Knights of Rhodes, the successors of the Hospitallers of St.
John, were distinguished from the latter in many ways. In the
first place, the grand master of the order was thenceforward a
temporal sovereign in that island, which constituted a true
ecclesiastical principality, under the nominal suzerainty of the
Emperors of the East. Secondly, although Villaret's first care was
to build a new infirmary, the care of the sick took a secondary
place, as the members of the order had scarcely occasion to devote
themselves to any save the members of the community. The name
knights then prevailed over that of hospitallers. This character
was accentuated by the fusion of the Hospitallers with the
remaining Knights Templars subsequent to the suppression of the
latter (1312). This fusion at the same time increased the wealth
of the order, to which the pope assigned the property of the
Templars in every country except Aragon and Portugal. In France,
where Philip the Fair had sequestrated this property, the order
obtained restitution only by paying large indemnities to the king.
From this time its organization took its definitive form, the
whole body being divided into tongues, priories, and commanderies.
The tongues, or nations, were eight in number, each having its own
bailiff; and one of the eight supreme dignities was reserved to
each tongue -- to Provence, that of the grand commander; to
Auvergne, that of marshal; to France, grand hospitaller; to Italy,
admiral; to Aragon, standard-bearer; to Castile, grand chancellor;
to Germany, grand bailiff; to England, turcoplier. (On these
dignities see MILITARY ORDERS.) The grand master might be elected
from any of the various tongues; he exercised supreme authority,
but under control of the grand chapter and with the aid of several
councils. Each tongue was subdivided into priories, and the head
of each priory had the right to receive new knights and to visit
the commanderies. The priories number twenty-four, and the
commanderies, which were subdivisions of the priories, 656. All
these posts were held according to seniority, the commanderies
after three campaigns, which were known as "caravans".
A most important change in the character of the order was the
transformation of the knights into corsairs. The piracy practiced
by the Moslems was the scourge of the Mediterranean and especially
of Christian commerce. The Knights of Rhodes, on their side, armed
cruisers not only to give chase to the pirates, but to make
reprisals on the Turkish merchantmen. With increasing audacity
they made descents on the coast and pillaged the richest ports of
the Orient, such as Smyrna (1341) and Alexandria (1365). However,
a new Moslem power arose at this period -- the Ottoman Turks of
Iconium -- and took the offensive against Christianity. After the
fall of Constantinople, Mahomet II directed his attention to the
task of destroying this den of pirates which made Rhodes the
terror of the Moslem world. Henceforth the order, thrown on the
defensive, lived perpetually on the alert. Once, under its grand
master, Pierre d'Aubusson, it repulsed all the forces of Mahomet
II in the siege of 1480. In 1522 Solyman II returned to the attack
with a fleet of 400 ships and an army of 140,000 men. The knights
sustained this great onslaught with their habitual bravery for a
period of six months under their grand master, Villiers de l'Isle
Adam, and only capitulated when their supplies were completely
exhausted. Their lives were spared, and they were permitted to
withdraw. Solyman II, in homage to their heroism, lent them his
ships to return to Europe. They dispersed to their commanderies
and begged Charles V to grant them the island of Malta, which was
a dependency of his kingdom of Sicily, and this sovereignty was
granted them in 1530, under the suzerainty of the kings of Spain.
The Knights of Malta (1530-1798)
The Knights of Malta at once resumed the manner of life they had
already practiced for two centuries at Rhodes. With a fleet which
did not number more than seven galleys they resisted the Barbary
pirates who infested the western basin of the Mediterranean. They
formed a valuable contingent during the great expeditions of
Charles V against Tunis and Algiers and at the memorable victory
of Lepanto. The Knights of Malta were also permitted to equip
galley at their own expense to give chase to the Turkish galleys.
These enterprises did not fail to draw upon them fresh attacks
from the Ottomans. Solyman II, regretting his generosity, gathered
a second time all forces of his empire to dislodge the Christian
corsairs from their retreat. The siege of Malta, quite as famous
as that of Rhodes, lasted for four months (1565). The Turks has
already taken possession of a part of the island, destroying
nearly the whole of the old city, slaying half the knights and
almost 8000 soldiers, when Malta was delivered by an army of
relief from Spain. In retreating the Turks is said left 30,000
slain. A new city had to be built -- the present city of Valette,
so named in memory of its valiant grand master who had sustained
this siege. Malta, however, was not rid of its most dangerous
adversary until the battle of Lepanto (1571) which dealt the
Ottoman fleet a fatal and final blow.
From this time the history of Malta is reduced to a series of
encounters by sea with the Barbary corsairs which have only local
interest. The struggle was carried on chiefly by younger knights
who were in haste to accomplish their three "caravans" in order to
merit some vacant commandery. It was an existence filled with
perils of every kind, sudden attacks, adventures, successes and
defeats. There was constant risk of life, or of liberty, which
could be regained only at the cost of enormous ransoms. But when
success came, the undertaking proved lucrative, not only defraying
all costs but also enriching the captain. The best result was the
deliverance of hundreds of Christian slaves, chained as rowers on
the Turkish galleys. In requital the vanquished Turks were in turn
reduced to slavery and sold to Christian galleys which had need of
rowers. In this respect Malta remained a veritable slave-market
until well into the eighteenth century. It required a thousand
slaves to equip merely the galleys of the order, which were a hell
for those unfortunates. It will be readily understood that the
habit of living in the midst of these scenes of violence and
brutality exercised a bad influence on the morals of the knights
of the order. Discipline became relaxed and the grand mastership
became a more and more perilous honour. Revolts were frequent. In
1581 the grand master, Jean de la Cassi�re, was made prisoner by
his own knights, whose principle grievance was the expulsion of
lewd women. The vow of obedience was little better observed than
that of celibacy. Once in possession of some commandery situated
on the Continent, a knight would become indeed independent of the
grand master's authority and maintain only the most remote
relations with the order. As to the vow of poverty, the knights
were recruited solely from among the nobility, proofs of noble
descent being more severely scrutinized than religious
dispositions, and naturally, the wealth of the order formed the
only motive of these vocations. Its decay began, too, with the
confiscation of its possessions. One effect of Protestantism was
the alienation of a large group of commanderies, to be
thenceforward appropriated to the Protestant nobility, as, for
instance, the Bailiwick of Sonnenburg in Prussia. In other
Protestant countries the order was simply suppressed. In Catholic
countries the sovereigns themselves assumed more and more the
right to dispose of the commanderies within their jurisdiction. At
last Malta, the very centre of the order, was treacherously
surrendered under the grand master, the Count von Hompesch, to
General Bonaparte when he made his expedition to Egypt (12 June,
1798).
Present State of the Order
The secularization of the property of the order in Protestant
countries was extended by the French Revolution to the greater
number of Catholic countries. On the other hand, Czar Paul of
Russia assigned them considerable property in his domains (1797),
and in return was elected grand master, but his election was not
recognized by the pope. From that time forward the pope has named
the grand master of the bailiff who takes his place. From 1805 to
1879 there was no grand master, but Leo XIII re-established the
dignity, bestowing it on an Austrian, Geschi di Sancta Croce. It
is now (1910) held by Galeazzo von Thun Hohenstein. The actual
conditions for admission to the order are: nobility of sixteen
quarterings, the Catholic Faith, attainment of full legal age,
integrity of character, and corresponding social position. There
are now in existence only four great priories, one in Bohemia, and
three in Italy. There are still commanders and several classes of
knights, with different insignia, but all wear the same eight-
pointed Maltese cross (see DECORATIONS, PONTIFICAL).
To the Order of the Knights of Malta belong the Convent of S.
Maria del Priorato on the Aventine in Rome, overlooking the Tiber,
and commanding from its gardens one of the most delightful views
of the city. The walls of the convent are adorned with portraits
of the knights, and the archives are rich in records of the order.
The tombs of the knights in the convent church are interesting.
The order was summoned to attend the Convention of Geneva (1864),
on the same footing as the great powers.
The Protestant Baliwick of Sonnenburg in Prussia disappeared after
the secularization of its property in 1810. Nevertheless Frederick
William IV created a new confraternity of "Evangelical
Johannittes" (1852), under the master (Herrenmeister) always
chosen from the royal family, and with a great number of other
dignitaries. Admission to the order is subject to numerous
conditions, ancient nobility, corresponding social position, and
entrance fee of 900 marks, a probation of at least four years as a
knight of honor before admission of the accolade which confers the
title of Knight of Justice. Their first obligation is to collect
contributions for the support of hospitals. Thus this Protestant
branch of the order has returned to the ideal of its first founder
in the time of the First Crusade. Moreover, in times of war, since
1870, the order has been devoted to ambulance service on the field
of battle.
HELDWALD, Bibliographie methodique de l'Order de St-Jean de
Jerusalem (Rome, 1885); PAOLI, Codice diplomatico del S. Ordine di
S. Giovanni (Lucca, 1733); BOSIO, Istoria della S. Religione di S.
Giovanni Jerosolym, (Rome, 1594-1602), continued by TOZZO (Verona,
1705), also Fr. tr. by BAUDOIN (Paris, 1643); VERTOT, Histoire des
chevaliers hospitaliers de St-Jean (Paris 1727); DE SALLES,
Annales de l'Ordre de Malte (Vienna, 1889); PAOLI, Dell' origine
ed institio dell' Ordine Jerosolym (Rome, 1781); DELAVILLE-LEROUX,
Cartulaire general des hospitaliers de Jerusalem (1100-1310)
(Paris, 1894-97); IDEM, Les hospitaliers de en terre-sainte et a
Chypre (1100-1310) (Paris 1904); PRUTZ, Die Anfnge der
Hopsitaliter auf Rhodos (1310-1355) (Munich, 1908); CAOURSIN,
Descriptio obsidionis Rhodi�; 1480 (Ulm, 1496); DELABRE, Rhodes of
the Knights (Oxford, 1909) PRUTZ, Malteser Urkunden und Regesten
(Munich, 1884); DE LA GRAVI�rE, Les chevaliers de Malte (1537-
1566) (Paris, 1887); LANE-POOLE, The Barbary Corsairs (London,
1890).
CH. MOELLER
Transcribed by the Priory of St. Thomas Becket of the Sovereign
Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
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