Masonic Red Cross Order And The Imperial Constantinian Order Of Saint George.

dignity devolved on him , to whose lot fell the Imperial Capital—thus indicating a local , and to some extent a dynastic requirement in its possessor . But the tenure alone , of the capital was not

sufficient , for when the French Crusaders became Masters of Constantinople , and usuped the purple , in 1204 ' , the fugitive Byzantine nobility , proceeded to Nicsea , where they formed a court , and and acknowledged as their Emperor , Theodore

Lascaris , who thereupon , became Grand Master of the National Order , while the Latin rival sovereign , on the other hand , never assumed that dignity . From 1204 ' , until their restoration in 1260 , the Greeks , under their own emperors and patriarchs , remained at Nicasa .

From this period , the Grand Mastership was transmitted by Michael ( VIII . ) Palaeologus , through a regular succession , to Constantino ( XIII . ) Palaeologus , and on the death of the latter , and the subversion of the Empire , by the

fall of Constantinople in 1453 , the Grand Mastership devolved on his brother , Thomas Palseologus , who thus became the depositor of all the hereditary and titular honours of the Byzantine Empire ; and , as it were , through that tragic event , the

preferential guardian , of the Imperial inheritance , although in point of Imperial descents , the House of Ducas , ( Rhodocanakis ) , might have demanded an equal recognition , had not the catastrophe in

question , seemed to obliterate such rivalries , and to leave the honour as it were , of chief mourner , to the last dynasty in actual possession . From Thomas , the first titular and hereditary emperor after the fall of the Empire , these

dignities descended in a male succession to Theodore the Sixth , and last titular prince of his house , who died in England in the year 1636 , leaving by his first , and only lawful -wife , * according to the tenets of the Greek Church and the laws

of the Empire , + a daughter , and ultimately sole heiress , who , by her marriage , with her cousin Prince Demetrius Rhodocanakis , of the Island of Chios , conveyed to their posterity , the inheritance of her father , and at the same time , by the said

alliance , united to that of Palaeologus , the equally Imperial House of Ducas , which her husband represented . A reference to the abridged pedigree already published * will explain the alliances at great length .

As it was with the Latin Emperors , so it is with the Turkish Sultans—neither , under the Statutes of Isaac Angelus , could be regarded as eligible for the dignity of Grand Master of the Constantinian Order of St . George . Neither

inherited the throne lawfully , and neither were accepted by the native race . Noreover , in either case , the difference of religion ancl of creed , was an insuperable objection , and would even have neutralised any advantages derived from famil y

alliance , since , as regards the former rulers , the Statutes of the Order are based on the tenets of tho Greek Church .

Between the jealousy of the Latin Church , and the exterminating spirit of the Turkish Government , the survivors of the Imperial family have ever been subjected to peculiar disabilities ; and the fact that , unlike some fallen dynasties , which have

succombed to intestine convulsions , this , on the contrary , never lost the suffrages of the people , but fell before a foreign invader—an alien in race ' ancl religion—who found a passive accessory to hisspoliation , in a Church that had long resented the

independence of the Byzantine Court , raise a hope from the present more enlightened spirit of Christian'Europe , although their power has passed away , this family may cease to be disturbed in the possession of those relics of the Imperial

throne , which seem to have tempted the cupidity of the Papal Court of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , in a very remarkable degree ,, as we have already seen .

In conclusion , as the Abb Giustiniani spurious list of Grand Masters of the Imperial Constantinian Order of St . George has had an extensive circulation , it may be advisable to add to the present statement a genuine list of the Grand Masters , as

transmitted in the family of the present representative , and amply confirmed by early as well as later historians .

Accepting the epoch of the promulgation of the Statutes of the Order , as the most critically convenient starting point , we have