Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of The Order Of St. John Of Jerusalem*
sion , and reproved the unbelief of Thomas . Gerard is even introduced by name , though sometimes joined Avith Conrad , as having experienced tlie common Catholic miracle of these loaves , Avhich he daily tlireAV from the Avails amongst the famishing Christian besiegers , being turned into stones Avhen it Avas necessary to deceive the Caliph by a fraudulent miracle . The
second Cottonian account is less tainted Avith puerility , and in a better style , confirming in most respects the accounts of the A'enerable contemporaries before mentioned . The fact , therefore , of the existence of a hospital from which the Order , under the subsequent invocation of St . John the Baptist , took its rise ( as indeed its earliest and usual name of
Hospitallers implies ) seems certain . The Order aftenvards received , in addition to its charitable duties , a belligerent vocation , ancl the question is , Avhen did this change take place ? The general reply is , on the accession of the first GRAND MASTER , Raymond du Puy , in 1018 . Gibbon says ( Edit . Milman , vol . xi ., p . 88 , note ) , "William of Tyre ( lxviii ., 34 , 35 ) relates
the ignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers , Avho soon deserted the humble patron St . John the Eleemosynary for the more august character of St . John the Baptist ( see the ineffectual struggle of Pagi Critica , A . D . 1099 , No . 14 , p . 18 ) . They assumed the profession of arms about the year " 1120 . " Mills ( Hist . Crusadesvol . i . p . 351 ) says"The exact year
, , , , Avhen the Order took a military character is not settled . Vertot argues that it must have occurred before 1130 , for the sendees of the Hospitallers are mentioned in a bidl of that date . True , but the distinction of Knights and serving Brothers was not known till the year 1153 , in the short pontificate of Anastasius IV . "
Such is a very summary and consolidated account of the principal arguments and authorities for the humble and tolerated origin of the subsequently famous priestly militia of St . John , agreed in by the best foreign ancl native , by the most industrious and acute historians , and founded upon contemporary testimony of personal xvitnesses .
Yet all this our author denies . According to his account and in Ms first txvo chapters , xvhich hoxvever are unfortunately entirely without the cited authorities in xvhich Ms subsequent ones abound , ( p . 129 ) "from deserters met at Ramla , not one Latin male or female had remained in Jerusalem ; " ( p . 180 ) " Fact is , no Latin inhabitant hacl been tolerated in Jerusalem for the last half century ; " and p . 172 xve have the following rather strong language , after asserting that neither the Templars nor any other Military Order then existed , " nor in those first twelve
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of The Order Of St. John Of Jerusalem*
sion , and reproved the unbelief of Thomas . Gerard is even introduced by name , though sometimes joined Avith Conrad , as having experienced tlie common Catholic miracle of these loaves , Avhich he daily tlireAV from the Avails amongst the famishing Christian besiegers , being turned into stones Avhen it Avas necessary to deceive the Caliph by a fraudulent miracle . The
second Cottonian account is less tainted Avith puerility , and in a better style , confirming in most respects the accounts of the A'enerable contemporaries before mentioned . The fact , therefore , of the existence of a hospital from which the Order , under the subsequent invocation of St . John the Baptist , took its rise ( as indeed its earliest and usual name of
Hospitallers implies ) seems certain . The Order aftenvards received , in addition to its charitable duties , a belligerent vocation , ancl the question is , Avhen did this change take place ? The general reply is , on the accession of the first GRAND MASTER , Raymond du Puy , in 1018 . Gibbon says ( Edit . Milman , vol . xi ., p . 88 , note ) , "William of Tyre ( lxviii ., 34 , 35 ) relates
the ignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers , Avho soon deserted the humble patron St . John the Eleemosynary for the more august character of St . John the Baptist ( see the ineffectual struggle of Pagi Critica , A . D . 1099 , No . 14 , p . 18 ) . They assumed the profession of arms about the year " 1120 . " Mills ( Hist . Crusadesvol . i . p . 351 ) says"The exact year
, , , , Avhen the Order took a military character is not settled . Vertot argues that it must have occurred before 1130 , for the sendees of the Hospitallers are mentioned in a bidl of that date . True , but the distinction of Knights and serving Brothers was not known till the year 1153 , in the short pontificate of Anastasius IV . "
Such is a very summary and consolidated account of the principal arguments and authorities for the humble and tolerated origin of the subsequently famous priestly militia of St . John , agreed in by the best foreign ancl native , by the most industrious and acute historians , and founded upon contemporary testimony of personal xvitnesses .
Yet all this our author denies . According to his account and in Ms first txvo chapters , xvhich hoxvever are unfortunately entirely without the cited authorities in xvhich Ms subsequent ones abound , ( p . 129 ) "from deserters met at Ramla , not one Latin male or female had remained in Jerusalem ; " ( p . 180 ) " Fact is , no Latin inhabitant hacl been tolerated in Jerusalem for the last half century ; " and p . 172 xve have the following rather strong language , after asserting that neither the Templars nor any other Military Order then existed , " nor in those first twelve