~_r tflA/faL^ THE ORDER OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM ST. JOHN'S GATE, FROM THE SOUTH, 1902 THE ORDE OF THE HOSPITAL OF St. John of Jerusalem BEING A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN, THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS BY K, W. K. R. BEDFORD, M.A. Oxon. GENEALOGIST OF THE ORDER AND RICHARD HOLBECHE, Lt.-Col. LIBRARIAN OF THE ORDER LONDON: F. E. ROBINSON AND CO. 20, GREAT RUSSELL STREET, BLOOMSBURY 1902 S1.4 1 1. 3. 5*5 CHISWICK PRKSS : CHARLES Wlll'l TINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. PREFACE Editor desires to say a few, a very few, THEwords of preface by way of explanation of the origin and object of the present volume. Its inception commenced with a successful illus- trated lecture delivered by Major Yate at the United Service Institution, which he wished the Order to reprint for general publication. The Council thought it expedient that the narrative should be somewhat enlarged, and circumstances preventing Major Yate from superintending the work, it was intrusted by the Council to the Genealogist, who again found it somewhat beyond his powers, and had to apply to the Librarian for assistance, especially in the later and more immediately interesting portions of the narrative, though retaining the general supervision of the whole. The Editor would adopt as his own the apology of " the author of the books of Maccabees : If I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I desired but if ; slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto." Mr. H. W. Fincham has greatly assisted the work by his artistic photographs, as Mr. W. D. Scull has done by several drawings, and to Mr. Howe the book is indebted for the interesting figures from Siena. CONTENTS CHAPTER I page Foundation of the Order .... i CHAPTER II Cyprus and Rhodes 16 CHAPTER III The Order in England 30 CHAPTER IV The Order in England {continued) . 55 CHAPTER V Malta and the Great Siege .... 68 CHAPTER VI The Grand Masters of Malta ... 82 CHAPTER VII The English Revival 98 CHAPTER VIII The Ambulance Movement . 112 CHAPTER IX The Charter of the English Order . 139 CHAPTER X Ophthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem . 149 b Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER XI TAGE The St. John Ambulance Brigade and its Services I6 5 APPENDIX A Reception of a Knight I8l APPENDIX B Commanderies of the Order of St. John in England 183 APPENDIX C Grand Priors of England I8 5 turcopoliers of the english language ICK) Baillis of or of Aquila, the Eagle . 194 Priors of Ireland 198 Priors of Scotland . 202 APPENDIX D Qualification of Sir Robert Peat 205 APPENDIX E Digest of the Charter .... 207 APPENDIX F Recipients of the Medals of the Order 209 INDEX . 219 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE St. John's Gate, from the South, 1902 Frontispiece Gateway to Muristan . Facing Costume of the Order. From frescoes at Siena Facing 8 Sta. Ubaldesca .... * 14 [Early Seals of the Order . 15 Castle of Budrum . Facing 20 Knights ministering to the Sick 22 [Earthquake at Rhodes, 1480 . 22 The Hanging of Master George The 24 Miraculous Vision . 24 Zyzymy entertained by the Grand Master 2 Facing' 5 Bajazet presents the Hand of St. John Facing' 26 KlLMAINHAM PRIORY : EAST FRONT. „ 36 Monument to Sir William Weston "„' 4$ Hand of St. in its John Original Case 54 Souse of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell . Facing 56 rHE Crypt, North Transept, and The Nave of the Crypt, St. John's Church, Clerk- ENWELL Facing 58 orphichen Preceptory . 66 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Siege OF Malta. From old pictures . Facing 74 The Great Hospital at Malta . „ 88 auberge de baviere, malta. 98 Insignia of Knight of Justice and Knight of Grace Facing no Hat and Sword of La Vallette . in Ambulance Workers . Facing 120 The Challenge Shield ... „ 132 1 auberge dangleterre, malta . 38 Duke of Clarence Memorial Tablet . 148 Hospice at Jerusalem . Facing 150 Medal awarded by the Order for saving Life on Land .... Facing 210 Tablet in St. John's Church, Clerkenwell, to deceased ambulance volunteers Facing 216 HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN CHAPTER I FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER observations are generally un- PRELIMINARYinteresting and undesirable : yet there are two points which suggest themselves as to the present work requiring a few words of comment. The first of these is, that it may be deemed almost unnecessary to produce another book upon a subject so thoroughly dealt with as the history of the Order of St. John has been by writers of high ability and reputation, especially in the comprehensive work of General Porter 1 and the able summary of the Rev. F. C. 2 Woodhouse. As the first mentioned of these valu- able books, however, last saw the light in 1884, and the other appeared in 1879, the vast increase in the work and importance of the English Order since the spread of the Ambulance movement has excited a desire to know more about its rise and progress than 1 "The Knights of Malta," by Major-General Whitworth Porter, 1884. 3 " Rev. F. Military Religious Orders." S. P. C. K., 1879. C. Woodhouse. B 2 HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN either volume can for the of the last satisfy ; doings ten years are the legitimate sequel of a chain of events dating back to the era of the first crusade, and the home of the Ambulance work in England is still that edifice which was originally founded for similar pur- poses in the twelfth century. This leads to the second observation, that little field for original au- thorship is left to be occupied. The statements of former writers have been repeatedly examined and tested all that can be done at the ; present day is to repeat facts and to summarize narrative —to lead the reader to conclusions, by directing him to unimpeachable authorities. With regard even to the dedication of the Order it would be possible to occupy space by referring to the controversies of the seventeenth century as to the legend of a hospital, called after the Asmonean prince John Hyrcanus, already existing in Jerusalem when the pious merchants of Amalfi began to estab- lish their charitable design of a refuge for pilgrims, and hence the choice of St. as John patron ; it, how- ever, is now generally admitted that the St. John at first adopted as sponsor was the Greek patriarch John, distinguished by the epithet Eleemon, of whose career Mr. Duckworth has recently given a short sketch, and that it was to his charitable fame that the 1 hospital owed its ascription. This much, however, is certain, that by the time that the Crusading Army 1 "St. John the Almsgiver," Rev. H. T. F. Duckworth, 1901. FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER 3 under Godfrey of Bulloin captured the holy city from the Moslem, St. John the Baptist had been adopted as the saint of the * and his patron Hospital ; image, already worn by patients suffering from epilepsy, became the authorized badge of those engaged in general hospital work. The term hospital, however, did not for many years after this convey the idea of a building devoted to medical science alone, but more generally of a house of refuge. Thus the historian of Yorkshire says that at Hexton in that county was a "hospital" built in the time of King Athelstan for defending travellers from wolves, as is expressly stated in the public records. 2 This hospice for the entertainment of wayfarers and the reception of the sick, which was in existence 3 in 1099, was naturally enough placed in as close vicinity as possible to those sacred spots to which tradition from the earliest ages of Christianity had caused the pious steps of pilgrims from every country 1 " Paciaudus, De cultu S. Ioannis Baptistae." Rome, 1755. 2 Southey's "Commonplace Book." 3 The historian Ekkehard in iioi asserts that Jerusalem was never since the days of John Hyrcanus without a hospital, and there is evidence that the French Benedictines worked in a hospice founded by St. Gregory in 603; while Charlemagne nearly two centuries later claimed the title of protector of the pilgrims to Jerusalem, but it is acknowledged that the building of the citizens of Amalfi was erected on the ruins of this foundation. — " De prima origine Hospitaliorum," J. Delaville La Roulx. Paris, 1885. 4 HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN of the West to be directed. For thirty-four years before this, from the period of the capture of Jeru- salem by the Turcomans, pilgrimage had assumed a new phase in Palestine. In addition to the incom- modities inseparable from distant travel in semi- barbarous regions, pilgrims were ill-treated by the new masters of the soil. The very permission to enter the city and view the Holy Sepulchre depended on the caprice or the covetousness of a Turkish chief, so that many unfortunate persons who had sold everything to enable them to make the pilgrimage to Zion, after enduring the hardship of the long voyage, the sickness, robbery, and other dangers of the way, found themselves at the gates of Jerusalem without sufficient money to gain an entrance, and were obliged to return without a sight of the object their arduous or died of of undertaking ; possibly want, uncared for and friendless, without reward for their labour and suffering. Save for the assistance afforded by Gerard, the first administrator of the Hospital, and his associates, pilgrimage would have been an impossibility, owing to the hardships and indignities to which the devout Christians were exposed.