vatican-assassins-by-eric-jon-phelps

Vatican AssassinsThe Order was ruled by the Grand Master and the Council, minted itsown money and maintained diplomatic relations with other States. The GrandMaster was Prince of Rhodes, as later he was Prince of Malta. The high officesof the Order were attributed to representatives of different Langues; and the seatof the Order, the Convent, was in effect composed of a number of nationalreligious houses.The Knights gallantly repulsed numerous Turkish assaults, until theSultan Suleyman the Magnificent attacked Rhodes with a large fleet and apowerful army. On Christmas Eve of 1522 the Knights were forced tocapitulate and, on 1 January 1523, left the island with military honors. For thenext seven years the Order, while vested with international sovereignty, wasdeprived of territory, until the cession by the Emperor Charles V (in hiscapacity as King of Sicily) of the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, as wellas Tripoli in North Africa, in sovereign fief.On 26 October 1530 the Grand Master Fra Philippe de Villiers del’Isle-Adam took possession of Malta, with the approbation of Pope ClementVII. It was stipulated that the Order was to remain neutral in wars betweenChristian nations.Yet the war of defense of Christendom went on. The Turks attackedMalta, but in the Great Siege, from 18 May to 8 September 1565, were finallyrouted by the Knights led by the heroic Grand Master Fra Jean de laVallette-Parisot (after whom the island’s capital Valletta is named). The declineof Ottoman sea power dates from the defeat of 1565. The navy of the Order ofSt. John (or of Malta as it now came to be called) became one of the mostpowerful in the Mediterranean and took part in the final destruction of theOttoman naval might in the great battle of Lepanto in 1571.In 1607 and, again, in 1620, the dignity of Grand Master was conjoinedwith the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and in 1630 with the rankequal to the dignity of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church with the style ofEminence.In 1798 Bonaparte, engaged in a campaign against Egypt, occupied theisland of Malta and drove out the Order. The Knights again found themselveswithout a home. This was followed by what has been called the Russian coupd’etat (1798-1803). The Emperor Paul I of Russia, who had shown himself aThe Jesuits – 1801 - 1814