time the isle of Rhodes. They were a bulwark J.C. 1455. Heg. 859. for the Chriftians, which the Mahometan monarch longed to deftroy. This order had its rife at Jerufalem in the middle of the eleventh century. Some charitable men, touched with the misfortunes experienced by those who went to vifit the Holy places, conceived the defign of establishing a hofpital there, in which all the pilgrims should be received. Several noblemen and gentlemen joined in this charitable undertaking. As the unfortunate pilgrims were very often robbed or affaffinated in croffing Palestine, the managers of the hofpital at Jerufalem, become numerous, armed themselves to escort them. They laid their inftitution before pópe Pascal II. and requested his permiffion to form themselves into a religious order. After the taking of Jerufalem by Godfrey of Bouillon, the knights of St. John formed a military corps, under the command of the new king, whose first object was, always to protect the pilgrimage to the Holy places, and the fecond, to make conquefts from the Infidels. All the Chriftian princes, even fome private lords, were emulous to give lands in their countries to these knights, who were fubjects of different nations, in acknowledgment of the hospitality which they exercised, and of the important fervices they did in Palestine. The produce of these lands ferved to feed a great number of poor, and to keep troops

U 2

J.C. 1455 troops on foot, which were of great affiftance in Heg. 859. all the crufades. The knights of Saint John, and the knights Templars, who had formed themfelves into an Order like the former, were at the head of every military expedition. These religious foldiers gave to all the Crusaders an example but little followed, of a life auftere and laborious; they exposed themselves to the greatest dangers, whilft the other Crufaders, victims to debauchery and change of climate, and overcome with contagious diseases, seemed to have paffed the feas, only to fall under the weight of misfortune or the fword of the Saracens. At length, when the remains of these numerous emigrations had been driven out of Palestine, the knights were the last to leave it. They retired to the ifle of Cyprus, where the family of Lufignan, who had loft the throne of Jerufalem, then reigned. The discontent experienced by the knights in this precarious refidence, the spirit. of the institution, which obliged them to be continually in arms against the Mahometans, and more than all, the love of glory, so natural to warriors, raised in their breasts a defire to get poffeffion of the ifle of Rhodes, fo celebrated in antiquity for the fertility of its foil and the politeness of its inhabitants. They flattered themselves with being able to penetrate from thence into Afia, to disturb the Muffulmen, and, perhaps, one day, to return to Palestine,

The

a

The ifle of Rhodes was at that time inhabited J.C.1455Heg. 859. by Greeks, whom fome Saracens had perfuaded to fhake off the yoke of their emperor. Fulk Villaret, at that time grand mafter of Saint John of Jerufalem, interested the pope, and most of the Chriftian princes, in this enterprise. In the fourteenth century, Clement V. published a crufade, to which a multitude of Latin Chriftians earneftly contributed. All the money, which the Faithful brought in abundance, was received, and only the best foldiers admitted on board the veffels of the Order, the grand mafter preferring an army lefs numerous, but on which he could depend, to a crowd of men without choice, without ftrength, and without difcipline, fuch as had composed the former crufades, when they had served only to fcandalize, to confuse, and to fpread contagious difeafes. Villaret wifhed to obtain the inveftiture of the isle of Rhodes from the Greek emperor, to whom it had belonged. He offered him a tribute, and the annual service of three hundred knights; but Andronicus, who was at that time on the throne of Conftantinople, hated the Latins too much to grant them any thing that might lead to an union of the two Churches. After a formal refufal, the grand master undertook the conqueft which he had meditated. The confent of the Greek emperor would not have diminished the fatigues of this war, which was very bloody, and lafted four years.

At

Heg. 859.

J.C.4455. At length the order of St. John got poffeffion of a fine fovereignty, which it owed to the valour of its votaries, and to the pecuniary fuccours of all the princes of Europe. A fhort time after, the knights of Rhodes, for fo they were called after their conqueft, were enriched with the spoils of thefe unfortunate Templars, whofe crimes are a problem in hiftory, and whofe punishment was a scandal throughout Christendom.

The Order of St. John

The poffeffion of the isle of Rhodes changed gives um- the nature of the war, which the knights of St. Mahomet. John had to make continually against the Infi

brage to

dels: inftead of forming fquadrons of horfe, they armed veffels; and, as Paleftine was always their main object, they attacked the foudan of Egypt, who became their principal enemy. Their fuccefs and riches having augmented their glory, Mahomet II. the new emperor of Conftantinople, looked on them as very dangerous neighbours. He fent a chiau to fummon them to pay him tribute, and to acknowledge the emperor of Conftantinople for high sovereign of their island, Rhodes having been always held of the owner of that city. John Laftic, at that time grand mafter, replied, that the knights were indebted to God and their fwords alone, for the poffeffion of the island; that as they had taken it, so they would

* A fort of tip-ftaff, or bailiff; a meffenger, Most of the Turkish words made use of in this work, will be explained in the Index.

Tranflator

would defend it; and that their duty and faith J.C. 1455 Heg. 859. had made them enemies of the Mahometans, not their tributaries. After this fpirited an fwer, the knights exerted every effort to repulse the attack which they had reason to expect. All the fubjects of the Order, fcattered over Christendom, were summoned to come and defend their chief place. On these occafions a numerous nobility and gentry, who were neither engaged, nor even admitted into the Order, were eager to come to its defence. The spirit of the crusades still subsisted, and it was confidered as more meritorious to defend the Christian religion, in arms, than to publish and extend it by the voice of persuasion or good example. In fact, Mahomet sent soon thirty galleys, whilst he prepared to come himself and befiege Rhodes with a more confiderable force. The first attempts of his fleet were unfortunate. The knights that were affembled rowed out against the Turks, and obliged them to retreat.

Other affairs of more importance conftrained J.C. 1456. Heg. 860. the fultan to poftpone the revenging of this firft Siege of lofs. He learned that pope Calixtus III. was Belgrade. forming a league against him, in which he had included the king of Hungary, the king of Arragon, the duke of Burgundy, the republics of Venice and Genoa, the knights of Rhodes, and feveral other Italian powers. The pope had likewife fent a legate to Charles VII. king of

France;