Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

KNIGHTS
KNIGHTS 393
By the rule established by Du Puy for the
government of the Order, it was divided into
three classes, namely, 1 . Knights, who were
called Knights of Justice ; 2 . Chaplains ; and
3 . Serving Brothers ; all of whom took the
three vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty
. There was also attached to the institution
a body of men called Donats, who,
without assuming the vows of the Order, were
employed in the different offices of the hospital,
and who wore what was called the demicross,
as a badge of their connection .
The history of the Knights from this time
until the middle of the sixteenth century is but
a chronicle of continued warfare with the enemies
of the Christian faith . When Jerusalem
was captured by Saladin, in 1187, the Hospitalers
retired to Margat, a town and fortress
of Palestine which still acknowledged the
Christian sway . In 1191, they made Acre,
which in that year had been recaptured by
the Christians, their principal place of residence
. For just one hundred years the
knights were engaged, with varying success, in
sanguinary contests with the Saracens and
other infidel hordes, until Acre, the last
stronghold of the Christians in the Holy Land,
having fallen beneath the blows of the victorious
Moslems, Syria was abandoned by the
Latin race, and the Hos italers found refuge
in the island of Cyprus, were they established
their convent .
The Order had been much attenuated by its
frequent losses in the field, and its treasury
had been impoverished . But commands were
at once issued by John de Villiers, the Grand
Master, to the different Grand Priories in
Europe, and large reinforcements in men and
money were soon received, so that the Fraternity
were enabled again to open their hospital
and to recommence the practise of their
religious duties . No longer able to continue
their military exploits on land, the knights
betook themselves to their galleys, and, while
they protected the pilgrims who still flocked
in vast numbers to Palestine, gave security to
the Christian commerce of the Mediterranean .
On sea, as on land, the Hospitalers still
showed that they were the inexorable and tertrible
foes of the infidels, whose captured vessels
soon filled the harbor of Cy prus .
But in time a residence in Cyprus became
unpleasant . The king, by heavy taxes and
other rigorous exactions, had so disgusted
them, that they determined to seek some other
residence . The neighboring island of Rhodes
had long, under its independent princes, been
the refuge of Turkish corsairs ; a name equivalent
to the more modern one of pirates . Fulk
de Villaret, the Grand Master of the Hospital,
having obtained the approval of Pope Clement
and the assistance of several of the European
States, made a descent upon the island, and,
after months of hard fighting, on the 15th of
August, 1310, planted the standard of the
Order on the walls of the city of Rhodes ; and
the island thenceforth became the home of the
Hoe italers, whence they were often called
the ' to of Rhodes.
The Fraternity continued to reside at
Rhodes for two hundred years, acting as the
outpost and defense of Christendom from the
encroachments of the Ottoman power. Of this
long period, but few years were passed in
peace, and the military reputation of the
Order was still more firmly established by the
prowess of the knights . These two centuries
were marked by other events which had an
important bearing on the fortunes of the institution
. The rival brotherhood of the Templars
was abolished b y the machinations of a
pope and a king of France, and what of its
revenues and possessions was saved from the
spoliation of its enemies was transferred to the
Hospitalers .
There had always existed a bitter rivalry
between the two Orders, marked by unhappy
contentions, which on some occasions, while
both were in Palestine, amounted to actual
strife. Toward the Knights of St . John the
Templars had never felt nor expressed a very
kindly feeling ; and now this acceptance of an
unjust appropriation of their goods in the hour
of their disaster, keenly added to the sentiment
of ill-will, and the unhappy children of
De Molay, as they passed away from the theater
of knighthood, left behind them the bitterest
imprecations on the disciples of the Hospital
.
The Order, during its residence at Rhodes,
also underwent several changes in its organization,
by which the simpler system observed
during its infancy in the Holy Land was rendered
more perfect and more complicated .
The greatest of all these changes was in the
character of the European Commanderies .
During the period that the Order was occupied
in the defense of the holy places, and losing
large numbers of its warriors in its almost continual
battles, these Commanderies served as
nurseries for the preparation and education of
young knights who might be sent to Palestine
to reinforce the exhausted ranks of their
brethren . But now, secured in their island
home, Jerusalem permanently in possession
of the infidel, and the enthusiasm once inspired
b y Peter the Hermit forever dead, there
was no longer need for new Crusaders . But
the knights, engaged in strengthening and
decorating their insular possession by erecting
fortifications for defense, and palaces and convents
for residence, now required large additions
to their revenue to defray the expenses
thus incurred . Hence the Commanderies were
the sources whence this revenue was to be derived
; and the Commanders, once the Principals,
as it were, of military schools, became
lords of the manor in their respective provinces
. There, by a judicious and economical
administration of the property which had
been entrusted to them, by the cultivation of
gardens and orchards by the rent received
from arable and meadow lands, of mills and
fisheries appertaining to their estates, and
even by the voluntary contributions of their
neighbors, and by the raising of stock, they
were enabled to add greatly to their income .
Of this one-fifth was claimed, under the name