BOOK V.

MILITARY ORDERS, OR CHIVALRY.

CHAPTER I.

KNIGHTS OF MALTA.

THERE is not one pleasing recollection, not one useful institution, in modern times, that Christianity may not claim as its own. The only poetical period of our history-the age of chivalry— likewise belongs to it. The true religion possesses the singular merit of having created among us the age of fiction and enchantment.

Sainte-Palaye seems inclined to separate military from religious chivalry, whereas every thing would, on the contrary, induce us to blend them together. In his opinion the institution of the former cannot be dated earlier than the eleventh century; but this is precisely the era of the Crusades, which gave rise to the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic order. The formal law by which the military knights bound themselves to defend the faith, the resemblance between their ceremonies and those of the sacraments of the Church, their fasts, ablutions, prayers, confessions, monastic engagements, are sufficient evidence that all the knights had the same religious origin. Lastly, the vow of celibacy, which seems to make a wide distinction between chaste heroes and warriors who talk of nothing but love, can form no valid objection to our opinion; for this vow was not general among the Christian military orders. The knights of St. Jago-of-the-Sword, in Spain, were

1 Mem. sur l'anc. Chev., tome i. part ii. p. 66.

2 Hén., Hist. de Fr., tome i. p. 167; Fleury, Hist. Eccles., tome xiv. p. 387 tome xv. p. 604; Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Rélig., tome iii. pp. 74, 143.

3 Sainte-Palaye, loc. cit.

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at liberty to marry; and, in the order of Malta, only such members were obliged to celibacy as attained to the dignities of the order or were presented to its benefices.

According to Giustiniani, or the more authentic but less. pleasing testimony of Helyot, there were thirty religious military orders-nine subject to the rule of St. Basil, fourteen to that of St. Augustin, and seven belonging to the institution of St. Benedict. We shall confine our observations to the principal of these-the Hospitallers or knights of Malta in the east, the Teutonic order in the west, and the knights of Calatrava, including those of Alcantara and St. Jago-of-the-Sword, in the south, of Europe.

If authors are correct, we may reckon upward of twentyeight other military orders, which, not being subject to any particular rules, are considered only as illustrious religious fraternities. Such are all those knights of the Lion, the Crescent, the Dragon, the White Eagle, the Lily, the Golden Sword, and those female chevaliers of the Battle-axe, whose names remind you of the Rolands, the Rogers, the Renauds, the Clorindas, the Bradamantes, and the prodigies of the Round Table. A few traders of Amalfi in the kingdom of Naples obtain permission of Almansor, caliph of Egypt, to build a Latin church at Jerusalem; they annex to it lodgings for the reception of strangers and pilgrims, under the superintendence of Gerard de Provence. The Crusades begin. Godfrey de Bouillon arrives, and grants certain lands to the new Hospitallers. Gerard is succeeded by Boyant Roger, and Roger by Raymond Dupuy. The latter assumes the title of grand-master, and divides the Hospitallers into three classes:-knights, whose duty it was to protect the pilgrims on the road and to fight the infidels; chaplains, devoted to the ministry of the altar; and servitors, who were also required to bear arms.

Italy, Spain, France, England, Germany, and Greece, which successively or all together discharge their hosts on the shores of Syria, are supported by the brave Hospitallers. But fortune changes without abating their valor. Saladin retakes Jerusalem. Acre or Ptolemais is soon the only port left to the Crusaders in

1 Fleury, Hist. Eccles., tome xv. p. 406.

Palestine. Here you behold assembled the King of Jerusalem and Cyprus, the King of Naples and Sicily, the King of Armenia, the Prince of Antioch, the Count of Jaffa, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the knights of the Holy Sepulchre, the papal legate, the Count of Tripoli, the Prince of Galilee, the Templars, the Hospitallers, the Teutonic knights, those of St. Lazarus, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Pisans, the Florentines, the Prince of Tarento, and the Duke of Athens. All these princes, all these nations, all these orders, had separate quarters, where they lived wholly independent of one another; "so that there were fifty-eight tribunals," as Fleury remarks, "which exercised the power of life and of death."1

It was not long before discord appeared among all these people of such various manners and interests. They came to war in the town. Charles of Anjou and Hugh III., King of Cyprus, who both aspired at the same time to the throne of Jerusalem, increased the confusion. The sultan, Melec-Messor, taking advantage of these intestine broils, advanced with a powerful army with a view to wrest from the Crusaders this their last retreat. He was poisoned on leaving Egypt by one of his emirs; but before he expired he exacted an oath from his son that he would not give the rites of burial to his remains till he had taken Ptolemais. Melec-Seraph punctually fulfilled the last injunction of his father. Acre was besieged and carried by assault on the 18th of May, 1291. On this occasion a community of nuns afforded a memorable example of Christian chastity. They mangled their faces, and were found in that state by the infidels, who, filled with disgust and resentment, put them all to the sword.

After the reduction of Ptolemais, the Hospitallers retired to the island of Cyprus, where they remained eighteen years. Rhodes, having revolted against Andronicus, Emperor of the East, invited the Saracens within its walls. Villaret, GrandMaster of the Hospitallers, obtained of Andronicus a grant of the island, in case he could rescue it from the yoke of the Mahommedans. His knights covered themselves with sheepskins, and, crawling on their hands and knees in the midst of a

1 Hist. Eccles.

flock, they stole into the town in a thick fog, gained possession of one of the gates, dispatched the guards, and introduced the rest of the Christian army into the place.

Four times did the Turks attempt to recover the island of Rhodes from the knights, and four times were they repulsed. At the third effort the siege of the city lasted five years, and at the fourth, Mohammed battered the walls with sixteen pieces of cannon of larger calibre than had ever before been seen in Europe.

These same knights had no sooner escaped the overwhelming weight of the Ottoman power than they all at once became its protectors. Zizim, a son of that Mohammed II. who had so lately cannonaded the ramparts of Rhodes, implored the assistance of the knights against his brother Bajazet, who had robbed him of his inheritance. Bajazet, apprehensive of a civil war, hastened to make peace with the order, and agreed to pay it a certain annual sum for the support of Zizim. Thus, by one of those vicissitudes of fortune that are so common, a powerful emperor of the Turks became tributary to a few Christian Hospitallers.

At length, under the Grand-Master Villiers-de-l'Ile-Adam, Solyman made himself master of Rhodes, after losing one hundred thousand men before its walls. The knights retired to Malta, which was given to them by the Emperor Charles V. Here they were again attacked by the Turks, but, delivered by their courage, they remained in peaceful possession of the island, by whose name they still continue to be known.1

1 Vertot, Hist. des Chev. de Malte; Fleury, Hist. Eccles.; Giustiniani, Hist. degli Ordin. Milit.; Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Rélig., tome iii.

CHAPTER II.

THE TEUTONIC ORDER.

AT the other extremity of Europe, religious chivalry laid the foundation of states which have grown into mighty kingdoms.

The Teutonic order was instituted during the first siege of Acre by the Christians, about the year 1190. In the sequel it was summoned by the Duke of Massovia and Poland to defend his dominions against the incursions of the Prussians. These were then a barbarous people, who, from time to time, sallied from their forests to ravage the neighboring countries. They had reduced the province of Culm to a frightful desert, and had left nothing standing on the banks of the Vistula but the single castle of Plotzko. The Teutonic knights, penetrating by degrees into the woods of Prussia, erected fortresses there. The Warmians, the Barthes, and the Natangues, were successively subdued, and the navigation of the northern seas was rendered secure.

The Knights of the Sword, whose efforts had likewise been directed to the conquest of the northern countries, by uniting with the Teutonic order gave it a truly royal power. The progress of this order was, however, retarded by the long-continued quarrels of the knights with the bishops of Livonia; but at length, the whole North of Europe being subdued, Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg, embraced the doctrine of Luther, drove the knights from their governments, and made himself sole master of Prussia, which then assumed the name of Ducal Prussia. This new duchy was in 1701 erected into a kingdom under the grandfather of Frederick the Great.

The remains of the Teutonic order still subsist in Germany, and the Archduke Charles of Austria is the present grand-master.1

1 Schoonbeck, Ord. Milit.; Giustiniani, Hist. degli. Ord. Milit.; Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Rélig., tome iii.; Fleury, Hist. Eccles.