1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Thank you for joining Wars of the Roses, and this is Knights of Malta from the Encyclopedia 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:23,140 Freemasonry by Albert G. Mackey. Knights of Malta. This order, which at various times in 3 00:00:23,140 --> 00:00:27,740 the progress of its history received the names of Knights Hospitallers, Knights of St. John of 4 00:00:27,740 --> 00:00:33,480 Jerusalem, Knights of Rhodes, and lastly Knights of Malta, was one of the most important of 5 00:00:33,480 --> 00:00:38,400 the religious and military orders of knighthood which sprang into existence during the Crusades, 6 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:44,040 which were instituted for the recovery of the Holy Land. It owes its origin to the 7 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:49,620 Hospitallers of Jerusalem. That holy, religious, and charitable order, which was established 8 00:00:49,620 --> 00:00:55,420 at Jerusalem in 1048 by pious merchants of Amalfi for the succor of poor and distressed 9 00:00:55,420 --> 00:01:02,520 Latin pilgrims, c. Hospitallers of Jerusalem. This society, established when Jerusalem was 10 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:07,180 in possession of the Mohammedans, passed through many vicissitudes, but lived to see the Holy 11 00:01:07,180 --> 00:01:12,800 City conquered by the Christian Knights. It then received many accessions from the Crusaders 12 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:18,220 who, laying aside their arms, devoted themselves to the pious avocation of attending the sick. 13 00:01:18,220 --> 00:01:24,120 It was then that Gerard, the rector of the hospital, induced the brethren to take upon 14 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:29,640 themselves the vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, which they did at the hands of 15 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:34,760 the patriarch of Jerusalem, who clothed them in the habit selected for the order, which was 16 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:40,840 a plain black robe bearing a white cross of eight points on the left breast. This was in 17 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:46,840 the year 1099, and some writers here date the beginning of the order of Knights of Malta. 18 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:52,680 But this is an error. It was not until after the death of Gerard that the order assumed that 19 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:58,460 military character which it ever afterward maintained, or in other words, that the peaceful Hospitallers 20 00:01:58,460 --> 00:02:05,240 of Jerusalem became the warlike Knights of St. John. In 1118, Gerard, the rector of the hospital, 21 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:10,820 died, and was succeeded by Raymond Dupuis, whom Marulli, the old chronicler of the order 22 00:02:10,820 --> 00:02:18,760 in his Vite de Grande Maestrie, Napoli, 1636, called secondo retore e primo maestro. The peaceful 23 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:24,960 habits and monastic seclusion of the brethren of the hospital, which had been fostered by Gerard, 24 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:31,460 no longer suited the warlike emus of his successor. He therefore proposed a change in the character 25 00:02:31,460 --> 00:02:37,700 of the society by which it should become a military order devoted to active labors in the field and the 26 00:02:37,700 --> 00:02:44,420 protection of Palestine from the encroachments of the infidels. This proposition was warmly approved 27 00:02:44,420 --> 00:02:51,540 by Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, who, harassed by a continual warfare, gladly accepted this addition 28 00:02:51,540 --> 00:02:58,100 to his forces. The order having thus been organized on a military basis, the members took a new oath at the 29 00:02:58,100 --> 00:03:04,180 hands of the patriarch of Jerusalem, by which they bound themselves to defend the cause of Christianity 30 00:03:04,180 --> 00:03:10,260 against the infidels in the Holy Land to the last drop of their blood, but on no account to bear arms 31 00:03:10,260 --> 00:03:16,980 for any other purpose. This act, done in 1118, is considered as the beginning of the establishment 32 00:03:16,980 --> 00:03:23,300 of the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John, of which Raymond Dupuis is by all historians deemed 33 00:03:23,300 --> 00:03:28,580 the first Grand Master. By the rule established by Dupuis for the government of the Order, it was 34 00:03:28,580 --> 00:03:36,180 divided into three classes, namely, one, knights, who were called knights of justice, two, chaplains, 35 00:03:36,180 --> 00:03:42,020 and three, serving brothers, all of whom took the three vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty. 36 00:03:42,980 --> 00:03:49,540 There was also attached to the institution a body of men called Donats, who, without assuming the vows of 37 00:03:49,540 --> 00:03:55,460 the order, were employed in the different offices of the hospital, and who wore what was called the 38 00:03:55,460 --> 00:04:01,540 demi-cross as a badge of their connection. The history of the knights from this time until the 39 00:04:01,540 --> 00:04:07,220 middle of the 16th century is but a chronicle of continued warfare with the enemies of the Christian 40 00:04:07,220 --> 00:04:15,300 faith. When Jerusalem was captured by Saladin in 1187, the hospital is retired to Margat, a town and 41 00:04:15,300 --> 00:04:22,180 fortress of Palestine, which still acknowledged the Christian sway. In 1191 they made Acre, which in 42 00:04:22,180 --> 00:04:28,660 that year had been recaptured by the Christians, their principal place of residence. For just 100 years 43 00:04:28,660 --> 00:04:34,900 the knights were engaged, with varying success, in sanguinary contests with the Saracens and other 44 00:04:34,900 --> 00:04:42,260 infidel hordes, until Acre, the last stronghold of the Christians in the Holy Land, having fallen beneath 45 00:04:42,260 --> 00:04:48,820 the blows of the victorious Muslims, Syria was abandoned by the Latin race, and the hospitalers 46 00:04:48,820 --> 00:04:52,820 found refuge in the island of Cyprus, where they established their convent. 47 00:04:56,740 --> 00:05:01,860 The order had been much attenuated by its frequent losses in the field, and its treasury had been 48 00:05:01,860 --> 00:05:07,540 impoverished. But commands were at once issued by John de Villiers, the Grand Master, to the different 49 00:05:07,540 --> 00:05:13,220 Grand Priories in Europe, and large reinforcements in men and money were soon received, so that the 50 00:05:13,220 --> 00:05:18,100 fraternity were enabled again to open their hospital and to recommence the practice of their 51 00:05:18,100 --> 00:05:23,940 religious duties. No longer able to continue their military exploits on land, the knights betook 52 00:05:23,940 --> 00:05:29,300 themselves to their galleys, and while they protected the pilgrims who still flocked in vast numbers to 53 00:05:29,300 --> 00:05:36,660 Palestine, gave security to the Christian commerce of the Mediterranean. On sea, as on land, the hospital has 54 00:05:36,660 --> 00:05:42,180 still showed that they were the inexorable and terrible foes of the infidels, whose captured vessels 55 00:05:42,180 --> 00:05:49,940 soon filled the harbour of Cyprus. But in time, a residence in Cyprus became unpleasant. The king, by heavy 56 00:05:49,940 --> 00:05:55,140 taxes and other rigorous exactions, had so disgusted them that they determined to seek some other 57 00:05:55,140 --> 00:06:01,460 residence. The neighbouring island of Rhodes had long, under its independent princes, been the refuge of 58 00:06:01,460 --> 00:06:08,980 Turkish corsairs, a name equivalent to the more modern one of pirates. Fulc de Villere, the Grand 59 00:06:08,980 --> 00:06:14,500 Master of the hospital, having obtained the approval of Pope Clement and the assistance of several of the 60 00:06:14,500 --> 00:06:21,940 European states, made a descent upon the island, and after months of hard fighting, on the 15th of August, 61 00:06:21,940 --> 00:06:29,460 1310, planted the standard of the order on the walls of the city of Rhodes, and the island thenceforth became 62 00:06:29,460 --> 00:06:34,900 the home of the Hospitallers, whence they were often called the Knights of Rhodes. The fraternity 63 00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:41,460 continued to reside at Rhodes for 200 years, acting as the outpost and defence of Christendom from the 64 00:06:41,460 --> 00:06:47,540 encroachments of the Ottoman power. Of this long period, but few years were passed in peace, and the 65 00:06:47,540 --> 00:06:52,580 military reputation of the order was still more firmly established by the prowess of the knights. 66 00:06:53,780 --> 00:06:58,740 These two centuries were marked by other events which had an important bearing on the fortunes of the 67 00:06:58,740 --> 00:07:04,980 institution. The rival brotherhood of the Templars was abolished by the machinations of a Pope and a 68 00:07:04,980 --> 00:07:10,260 King of France, and what of its revenues and possessions was saved from the spoliation of its 69 00:07:10,260 --> 00:07:16,340 enemies was transferred to the Hospitallers. There had always existed a bitter rivalry between the two 70 00:07:16,340 --> 00:07:22,180 orders, marked by unhappy contentions, which on some occasions, while both were in Palestine, 71 00:07:22,180 --> 00:07:29,060 amounted to actual strife. Toward the Knights of St. John, the Templars had never felt nor expressed a 72 00:07:29,060 --> 00:07:34,420 very kindly feeling, and now this acceptance of an unjust appropriation of their goods in 73 00:07:34,420 --> 00:07:40,500 the hour of their disaster keenly added to the sentiment of ill-will, and the unhappy children of 74 00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:46,180 de Molay, as they passed away from the theatre of knighthood, left behind them the bitterest imprecations 75 00:07:46,180 --> 00:07:51,460 on the disciples of the hospital. The order, during its residence at Rhodes, also underwent several 76 00:07:51,460 --> 00:07:57,780 changes in its organization, by which the simpler system observed during its infancy in the Holy Land 77 00:07:57,780 --> 00:08:04,340 was rendered more perfect and more complicated. The greatest of all these changes was in the character 78 00:08:04,340 --> 00:08:10,500 of the European commanderies. During the period that the order was occupied in the defense of the holy 79 00:08:10,500 --> 00:08:17,220 places and losing large numbers of its warriors in its almost continual battles, these commanderies 80 00:08:17,220 --> 00:08:23,140 served as nurseries for the preparation and education of young knights who might be sent to Palestine to 81 00:08:23,140 --> 00:08:30,660 reinforce the exhausted ranks of their brethren. But now, secured in their island home, Jerusalem 82 00:08:30,660 --> 00:08:36,340 permanently in possession of the infidel and the enthusiasm once inspired by Peter the Hermit forever 83 00:08:36,340 --> 00:08:43,300 dead, there was no longer need for new crusaders. But the knights, engaged in strengthening and 84 00:08:43,300 --> 00:08:49,460 decorating their insular possession by erecting fortifications for defense and palaces and convents 85 00:08:49,460 --> 00:08:55,300 for residence, now required large additions to their revenue to defray the expenses thus incurred. 86 00:08:56,180 --> 00:09:02,020 Hence the commanderies were the sources whence this revenue was to be derived, and the commanders, 87 00:09:02,020 --> 00:09:07,620 once the principals as it were of military schools, became lords of the manor in their respective 88 00:09:07,620 --> 00:09:14,180 provinces. There, by a judicious and economical administration of the property which had been 89 00:09:14,180 --> 00:09:20,420 entrusted to them, by the cultivation of gardens and orchards, by the rent received from arable and 90 00:09:20,420 --> 00:09:26,900 meadowlands, of mills and fisheries appertaining to their estates, and even by the voluntary contributions 91 00:09:26,900 --> 00:09:32,660 of their neighbors, and by the raising of stock, they were enabled to add greatly to their income. 92 00:09:32,660 --> 00:09:38,260 Of this, one-fifth was claimed, under the name of responsions, as a tribute to be sent annually to 93 00:09:38,260 --> 00:09:44,420 Rhodes for the recuperation of the always diminishing revenue of the order. Another important change in 94 00:09:44,420 --> 00:09:50,020 the organization of the order was made at a general chapter held about 1320 at Montpellier, 95 00:09:50,020 --> 00:09:56,500 under the Grand Masterchei of Villanova. The order was there divided into languages, a division unknown 96 00:09:56,500 --> 00:10:02,500 during its existence in Palestine. These languages were at first seven in number, but afterward increased 97 00:10:02,500 --> 00:10:09,220 to eight, by the subdivision of that of Aragon. The principal dignities of the order were at the same 98 00:10:09,220 --> 00:10:14,500 time divided among these languages, so that a particular dignity should be always enjoyed by the 99 00:10:14,500 --> 00:10:19,860 same language. These languages and the dignities respectively attached to them were as follows. 100 00:10:21,140 --> 00:10:29,380 1. Provence, Grand Commander. 2. Auvergne, Grand Marshal. 3. France, Grand Hospitaleur. 4. 101 00:10:29,380 --> 00:10:38,340 Italy, Grand Admiral. 5. Aragon, Grand Conservator. 6. Germany, Grand Bailiff. 7. Castile, Grand Chancellor. 8. 102 00:10:38,340 --> 00:10:44,020 England, Grand Touriopolier. But perhaps the greatest of all changes was that which took place in the personal 103 00:10:44,020 --> 00:10:51,540 character of the knights. The order, says Taffer, had been above 200 years old before it managed a boat, 104 00:10:51,540 --> 00:10:58,660 but was altogether equestrian during its two first, and perhaps most glorious, centuries. But on settling 105 00:10:58,660 --> 00:11:03,300 at Rhodes, the knights began to attack their old enemies by sea with the same prowess with which they 106 00:11:03,300 --> 00:11:09,460 had formerly met them on land. And the victorious contests of the galleys of St. John with the Turkish 107 00:11:09,460 --> 00:11:16,660 corsairs who were infesting the Mediterranean proved them well entitled to the epithet of naval warriors. 108 00:11:16,660 --> 00:11:22,580 In the year 1480, Rhodes was unsuccessfully besieged by the Ottoman army of Muhammad II, 109 00:11:22,580 --> 00:11:29,700 under the command of Paleologus Pasha. After many contests, the Turks were repulsed with great slaughter. 110 00:11:29,700 --> 00:11:35,620 But the attack of the Sultan Solomon, 44 years afterward, was attended with a different result, 111 00:11:35,620 --> 00:11:42,500 and Rhodes was surrendered to the Turkish forces on the 20th of December, 1522. The terms of the 112 00:11:42,500 --> 00:11:47,460 capitulation were liberal to the knights, who were permitted to retire with all their personal 113 00:11:47,460 --> 00:11:54,820 property. And thus, in the grand mastership of Lail Adam, Rhodes ceased forever to be the home of the 114 00:11:54,820 --> 00:12:02,100 order. And six days afterward, on New Year's Day, 1523, the fleet, containing the knights and 4,000 of 115 00:12:02,100 --> 00:12:08,500 the inhabitants, sailed for the island of Candia. From Candia, where the Grand Master remained but a 116 00:12:08,500 --> 00:12:14,900 short time, he proceeded with his knights to Italy. Seven long years were passed in negotiations with 117 00:12:14,900 --> 00:12:22,260 the monarchs of Europe, and in the search for a home. At length, the Emperor Charles V of Germany 118 00:12:22,260 --> 00:12:27,940 vested in the order the complete and perpetual sovereignty of the islands of Malta and Gozo, 119 00:12:27,940 --> 00:12:34,820 and the city of Tripoli. And in 1530, the knights took formal possession of Malta, where, to borrow 120 00:12:34,820 --> 00:12:41,060 the language of Porter, for upwards of two centuries and a half, waved the banner of St. John, an honor 121 00:12:41,060 --> 00:12:46,020 to Christianity and a terror to the infidel of the East. From this time, the order received the 122 00:12:46,020 --> 00:12:52,500 designation of Knights of Malta, a title often bestowed upon it, even in official documents in the place of 123 00:12:52,500 --> 00:13:00,500 the original one of Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. For 268 years, the order retained 124 00:13:00,500 --> 00:13:07,220 possession of the island of Malta. But in 1798, it was surrendered without a struggle by Louis de Ompêche, 125 00:13:07,860 --> 00:13:14,340 the imbecile and pusillanimous Grand Master, to the French army and fleet under Bonaparte. And this 126 00:13:14,340 --> 00:13:18,820 event may be considered as the commencement of the suppression of the order as an active power. 127 00:13:18,820 --> 00:13:25,780 Ompêche, accompanied by a few knights, embarked in a few days for Trieste, and subsequently retired to 128 00:13:25,780 --> 00:13:33,700 Montpellier, where he resided in the strictest seclusion and poverty until May 12, 1805, when he died, 129 00:13:33,700 --> 00:13:38,980 leaving behind him not enough to remunerate the physicians who had attended him. The great body of 130 00:13:38,980 --> 00:13:44,900 the knights proceeded to Russia, where the Emperor Paul had a few years before been proclaimed the protector of 131 00:13:44,900 --> 00:13:51,860 the order. On the 27th of October 1798, a chapter of such of the knights as were in St. Petersburg was held, 132 00:13:52,500 --> 00:13:59,140 and the Emperor Paul first was elected Grand Master. This election was made valid, so far as its 133 00:13:59,140 --> 00:14:04,660 irregularities would permit, by the abdication of Hompêche in July 1799. 134 00:14:04,660 --> 00:14:15,780 At the death of Paul in 1801, his successor on the throne, Alexander, appointed Count Saltikoff as 135 00:14:15,780 --> 00:14:21,060 Lieutenant of the Mastery, and directed him to convene a council at St. Petersburg to deliberate on 136 00:14:21,060 --> 00:14:27,300 future action. This assembly adopted a new statute for the election of the Grand Master, which provided 137 00:14:27,300 --> 00:14:32,420 that each Grand Priory should, in a provincial chapter, nominate a candidate, and that out of 138 00:14:32,420 --> 00:14:39,140 the person so nominated the Pope should make a selection. Accordingly, in 1802, the Pope appointed 139 00:14:39,140 --> 00:14:45,940 John de Tomasi, who was the last knight that bore the title of Grand Master. On the death of Tomasi, 140 00:14:45,940 --> 00:14:50,180 the Pope declined to assume any longer the responsibility of nominating a Grand Master, 141 00:14:50,900 --> 00:14:57,300 and appointed the bailiff, Guevar Luardo, simply as Lieutenant of the Mastery, a title afterward held 142 00:14:57,300 --> 00:15:06,740 by his successors, Santel, Busca, de Candida, and Colovedo. In 1826 and 1827, the first steps were 143 00:15:06,740 --> 00:15:12,980 taken for the revival of the English language, and Sir Joshua Meredith Barth, who had been made a knight 144 00:15:12,980 --> 00:15:19,300 in 1798 by Hompêche, being appointed Lieutenant Prior of England, admitted many English gentlemen into the 145 00:15:19,300 --> 00:15:24,500 Order. But the real history of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem ends with the disgraceful 146 00:15:24,500 --> 00:15:32,340 Capitulation at Malta in 1798. All that has since remained of it, all that now remains, however 147 00:15:32,340 --> 00:15:39,540 imposing may be the titles assumed, is but the diluted shadow of its former existence. The organization 148 00:15:39,540 --> 00:15:44,980 of the Order in its days of prosperity was very complicated, partaking both of a monarchist and a 149 00:15:44,980 --> 00:15:51,140 Republican character. Overall presided a Grand Master who, although invested with extensive powers, 150 00:15:51,140 --> 00:15:56,980 was still controlled by the legislative action of the General Chapter. The Order was divided into 151 00:15:56,980 --> 00:16:02,340 eight languages, over each of which presided one of the Grand Dignitaries with the title of 152 00:16:02,340 --> 00:16:09,140 Conventual Bailiff. These dignitaries were the Grand Commander, the Grand Marshal, the Grand Hospitaller, 153 00:16:09,140 --> 00:16:13,700 the Grand Conservator, the Grand Turcopolier, the Grand Bailiff, and the Grand Chancellor. 154 00:16:13,700 --> 00:16:19,620 Each of these dignitaries resided in the palace or inn at Malta which was appropriated to his language. 155 00:16:20,340 --> 00:16:25,860 In every province there were one or more Grand Priories presided over by Grand Priors, 156 00:16:25,860 --> 00:16:31,140 and beneath these were the Commanderies, over each of which was a Commander. There were scattered 157 00:16:31,140 --> 00:16:38,260 through the different countries of Europe 22 Grand Priories and 596 Commanderies. Those who desired 158 00:16:38,260 --> 00:16:43,540 admission into the Order as members of the First Class or Knights of Justice were required to produce 159 00:16:43,540 --> 00:16:48,980 proofs of noble descent. The ceremonies of initiation were public and exceedingly simple, 160 00:16:49,860 --> 00:16:55,620 consisting of little more than the taking of the necessary vow. In this the Hospitallers differed from 161 00:16:55,620 --> 00:17:02,980 the Templars, whose formula of admission was veiled in secrecy. Indeed, Porter attributes the escape of the 162 00:17:02,980 --> 00:17:07,460 former Order from the accusations that were heaped upon the latter and which led to its dissolution, 163 00:17:08,180 --> 00:17:14,500 to the fact that the Knights abjured all secrecy in their forms and ceremonies. The Order was dissolved 164 00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:20,340 in England by Henry VIII and, although temporarily restored by Mary, was finally abolished in England. 165 00:17:20,340 --> 00:17:28,020 A decree of the Constituent Assembly abolished it in France in 1792. By a decree of Charles IV of 166 00:17:28,020 --> 00:17:34,980 Spain in 1802, the two languages of Aragon and Castile became the Royal Spanish Order of St. John, 167 00:17:34,980 --> 00:17:41,060 of which he declared himself the Grand Master. Now only the languages of Germany and Italy remain. 168 00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:46,980 The Order is therefore at this day in a state of abeyance, if not of disintegration, although it still 169 00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:52,900 maintains its vitality and the functions of Grand Master are exercised by a Lieutenant of the Magistery 170 00:17:52,900 --> 00:17:58,820 who resides at Rome. Attempts have also been made, from time to time, to revive the Order in different 171 00:17:58,820 --> 00:18:04,580 places, sometimes with and sometimes without the legal sanction of the recognized Head of the Order. 172 00:18:05,460 --> 00:18:11,460 For instance, there are now in England two bodies, one Catholic under Sir George Bowyer and the other 173 00:18:11,460 --> 00:18:16,580 Protestant, at the head of which is the Duke of Manchester, but each repudiates the other. 174 00:18:17,460 --> 00:18:22,820 But the relic of the old and valiant Order of Knights Hospitallers claims no connection with the 175 00:18:22,820 --> 00:18:28,900 Branch of Masonry which bears the title of Knights of Malta, and hence the investigation of its present 176 00:18:28,900 --> 00:18:31,460 condition is no part of the province of this work.