Such was the establishment from which the Order of St. John. eventually sprang.' (Porter, p. 8.)

This fraternity called themselves the Brothers of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. The first head of the brotherhood, known as the Rector, was Brother Gerard, who is described in Vertot's Knights of Malta' as 'Fondateur de l'Ordre de 'St. Jean de Jérusalem, 1090.' And so important had the Brotherhood become, that they now constituted themselves an Order of Military Knights for the protection of the pilgrims, founding hospitals and building castles along the various Pilgrims' ways to the Holy City. The chief hospital of the Order in Jerusalem covered a large space of ground, close, as we have said, to the Holy Sepulchre. A plan of the building, made under the Palestine Exploration Fund, shows that it contained three churches, and that the halls were so large as to need three and four rows of columns to support the roofs. But after the Mahommedan caliphs had ruled for four cen turies, they were in their turn overpowered by a fierce horde of barbarians, the Turcomans from the wild regions beyond the Caspian Sea; and the Holy Land soon fell into these savage hands. If the Christian pilgrims had endured much under Mahommedan tyranny their fate was far worse now. The tribute they had always been bound to pay for the privilege of visiting Jerusalem was enormously increased, while they suffered every kind of atrocity. A journey to Jerusalem was one of the greatest possible peril; and those who escaped brought back such tales of terror, that a strong sense of horror and indignation was gradually aroused throughout Europe.

The climax was reached in 1093, when Peter the Hermit, returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, determined to devote himself to the suppression of the cruelties he had witnessed. Armed with letters from the Greek Patriarch Simeon, and Gerard, Rector of the Hospital of St. John, he went to Rome and pleaded his cause in person with Urban II. 'The religious enthusiasm of Europe was aroused to a pitch. of frenzy, and vast armaments assembled from all quarters 'and poured eastwards.' Thus began that wonderful movement of the Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

When Godefroi de Bouillon captured Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, the Hospital of St. John was already in full working order. Many of the Crusaders and rich pilgrims bestowed

upon it their possessions in the various countries from which they came. And when, in 1118, Raymond de Puy succeeded Brother Gerard, he took the title of Grand-Master, and with the sanction of Pope Pascal II. compiled rules for the Order. It must be remembered that the Knight of those days was the representative of the highest attainable civilisation, sanctioned at the same time by the Church. When he came to man's estate and received the dignity of Knighthood, he fasted and prayed, confessed his sins, received Holy Communion, and in the church itself was girded with his sword, his spurs buckled on, while some noble Knight giving him the accolade admitted him to the rank of Knight, after he had solemnly sworn to be the champion of his God and of women, to speak the truth, to succour the distressed, to maintain the right, to be courteous and brave.

The Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem very early became one of extreme importance and popularity in its threefold character, tending the sick, succouring pious pilgrims, and defending the Holy City against the infidel. By the rules of the Order, the Knights were divided into seven langues or divisions, representing the various countries to which they belonged and in which their lands and revenues lay. These were Italy, Aragon, Provence, Auvergne, France, England and Germany. To these an eighth langue, Castile, was added when the kingdom of Aragon was divided.

The banner of the Order was a plain white cross on a red ground. A black robe, with a white eight-pointed cross on the left breast, was the conventual habit of the Knight. But when fighting, as they usually were-for the Knights were a warlike body, they wore a red tunic over their armour with a large plain white cross on the front, like that on the banner. Both these costumes are seen in the two portraits by Pinturicchio, in Siena Cathedral, of the Italian knight Alberto Arringhieri, which Mr. Fincham, sub-librarian of the Order, has included in the excellent illustrations of his book.

The nursing sisters of the Order wore a red dress, with a black robe over it bearing the eight-pointed white cross: but as a sign of mourning after the loss of Rhodes in 1522, they gave up the red dress for black. In the Chapter Hall of St. John's Gate, an old and charming picture may be seen of St. Ubaldesca, a sister of the Order of St. John, in her black habit over white,

her black veil edged with a neatly pinched white border, and the eight-pointed white cross on her breast; she holds a red book and a little chafing dish in her hand. She died at Pisa in 1206, and was canonised for her works of charity and famed for her miracles.

The eight-pointed white cross on the black ground, which is now seen all over London beside the red cross of Geneva, bears deep meanings under its simple form. And the meanings of these outward forms are commemorated in a prayer, now in use in the Order for those who wear it.

'May we ever remember in our lives that its four arms symbolize the Christian virtues,-Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude; that its points represent the eight Beatitudes which spring from the practice of those Virtues; and that its whiteness is the emblem of that purity of life required in those who fight for the defence of the Christian Faith and live for the service of the poor and suffering.'

It was in 1187 that Saladin eventually defeated the second Crusade, and drove the Crusaders out of Jerusalem. But although the Knights Hospitallers had proved themselves the most determined of his foes, he so respected their work that he allowed them twelve months to settle the affairs of their hospital before they left. Though driven from Jerusalem, the Knights of St. John played so important a part in the famous siege of Acre, which Richard Cœur de Lion captured after twenty-three months, that the town became known as St. Jean d'Acre, as it is to this day. And the great hospital of the Order, in the centre of the city, was even larger than the one they had abandoned in Jerusalem.

For over a hundred years St. Jean d'Acre was the headquarters of the Order. But when the Saracens took Acre and finally swept the Christians out of Syria in 1291, the Knights Hospitallers moved to Cyprus. Their chief house there was the castle of Kolossi. This castle is still in good condition and closely resembles a solid Norman keep of the usual type. The castle has recently (1915) been acquired by the English Order, not as an outpost of aggression but as a memento of the time ' when the whole work of the Knights lay at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.' (Fincham, p. 4.)

In 1310 the Knights moved to the island of Rhodes, where they remained for nearly 200 years. Here they built a great

and noble city, one of the most strongly fortified in Europe at that time. Its splendid walls and many towers still testify to what its strength must have been in those days. For though at last the Turks broke through them in one place, they have on the whole respected the work of the Knights. The great harbour was guarded by two lofty lighthouse towers which commanded the entrance, Nailhac's and the Windmill tower.

Each langue had its own division of the walls with its tower and gate built according to the tastes of each country. England was sixth among the nations; St. John's tower dividing it from the division of Provence. And among the finest of the remains is the magnificent St. Catherine's double gate. The Street of the Knights still exists, where each langue had its auberge. The best of these,' says Mr. Fincham, 'is the 'Auberge de France, which has been recently (1915) acquired by France, and restored as a monument to the French Knights of the Order.' Much also of the hospital still remains-a fine building, with a beautifully vaulted and pillared cloister round the central court; while the main gates of carved cypress wood, carried off by the French in 1836, are now in the Galerie des Croisades at Versailles.

Firmly settled in Rhodes, the work of the Order became more definitely warlike, and of the utmost importance to the whole of Christian Europe. For the Knights of St. John were, in deed as well as in word, 'Defenders of the Faith' against the growing power of Islam. With their great war fleet and their complete military organisation, the Knights of Rhodesas they were now called-constituted a formidable barrier against the Turks after the capture of Constantinople (1453), in their intention to conquer the whole of Western Europe. The Turks therefore, fully alive to the constant danger the Knights Hospitallers offered to their schemes of domination, determined to rid themselves of these powerful neighbours. In 1480 they attacked the island of Rhodes with an enormous fleet and army. But the Knights, under the Grand-Master Pierre d'Aubusson, withstood them victoriously in a long siege of many months; and at length drove off their final attack. Had they been defeated-had they lost Rhodes at that moment-the whole Mediterranean would have been at the mercy of the Turks, and the history of Europe might have been strangely altered. Instead of this, the Turks and the

Knights remained at peace for forty years. It was during this period that the Order received from their quondam foe their most precious treasure, the hand of St. John Baptist, sent by Sultan Bajazet to Pierre d'Aubusson to curry favour with him in some dispute.

The peace, however, was at last broken in 1522 while De l'Isle Adam was Grand-Master, when Suleiman the Magnificent, who two years later captured Bagdad, attacked Rhodes once more. In spite of an heroic defence, the Knights were forced to surrender after a siege of six months. The terms of capitulation showed in what honour Suleiman held his adversaries; for they were allowed twelve days in which to leave the island in their own galleys, with arms and properties, and if needful they were to be supplied with Turkish transport. Furthermore, the Turks refrained from defacing their armorial 'bearings and inscriptions on the buildings,' so that to this day their escutcheons remain in the city on many of the old buildings.

For seven long years the Knights wandered homeless, from Candia to Cività Vecchia, Viterbo and Messina, while their Grand-Master, De l'Isle Adam, visited all the rulers of Western Europe in the endeavour to win their help in recovering his lost island. Among other courts he came to England, and stayed in the Priory of the Order at Clerkenwell for some days, until Henry VIII. invited him to St. James's Palace. But apparently the King's assistance to the homeless knights -save for a personal gift to the Grand-Master of a golden ewer and basin set with precious stones-was limited to a present of nineteen great cannon and 1023 balls.' One of these guns stands to-day on the terrace of Government House, Nicosia, as a memento of England's assistance to the Order.

At length, however, help came to the Knights from Spain, when De l'Isle Adam persuaded the Emperor Charles V. to grant them the island of Malta. And on October 26, 1530, their fleet arrived in the harbour, headed by the great ship 'Santa Anna,' commanded by the English Knight, Sir Thomas Weston. This ship is worthy of special notice, as she was the first armour-plated ship known.

'Built at Nice, of about 1700 tons, she had six decks, and was entirely sheathed with lead bolted with brass, and although she received much cannonading, was never pierced below the bulwarks;