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KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE TEMPLE. 397
own expense, a hospital and oratory for the sick of
his nation, under the protection of, and dedicated to,
the Virgin Mary.
* * * • •
To distinguish this Order from the other two, they
adopted the black cross. It is ordinarily said that
they also adopted the white mantle ; but about the
year 1210, the Templars of Palestine complained to
Pope Innocent, that after they had received from the
Holy See the white mantle as the distinctive dress
of their Order, the Teutonic Knights, and especially
those of St. Jean d'Acre, had assumed to wear it.
Innocent wrote to the latter, and to their Grand
Master, Herman Bart, a gentleman of Holstein, and
directed that, in order to avoid all occasion for
jealousy or quarrel, they should content themselves
with their ordinary dress, and leave the white color
to the Templars ; and at the same time he ordered
the Patriarch of Jerusalem to see to it that the Teu-
tonic Knights should follow their first custom, and
to censure, and so compel them to do it, if necessary.
It is true that they paid little regard to the man-
date of the Pope, and soon adopted the white man-
tle again ; but it was not their primitive dress ; and
therefore we, in this degree, wear a different color.
The leading objects of the three great military
orders were the same.
The Teutonic Knights soon rivalled the othei
orders in numbers and influence.