THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN. 



101 



In the middle of the eleventh century, some merchants of the then flourishing 

 commercial city of Amain obtained permission to erect three hostelries or hospitals m 

 the Holy City, for the relief of poor and invalided pilgrims. On the taking of Jerusalem 

 by the Crusaders, the position and prospects of the hospitals of St. John became greatly 

 improved. The organisation became a recognised religious order, vowing poverty, obedience, 

 and chastity. It members were distinguished by a white cross of four double points worn 

 on a black robe, of the form commonly to be met in the Maltese filigree jewellery of to-day, 



CATACOMBS AT CITTA VECCHIA. MALTA. 



often to be noted in our West End and other shops. Branch hospitals spread all over Europe 

 with the same admirable objects, and the order received constant acquisitions of property. 

 Under the guidance of Raymond du Puy, military service was added to the other vows, 

 and the monks became the White Cross Knights.* Henceforth each seat of the order 

 became a military garrison in addition to a hospice, and each knight held himself in 

 readiness to aid with his arms his distressed brethren against the infidel. 



Slowly but surely the Crescent overshadowed the Cross: the Holy City had to be 

 evacuated. The pious knights, after wandering first to Cyprus, settled quietly in Rhodes, 

 where for two centuries they maintained a sturdy resistance against the Turks. At the 

 first siege, in 1 180, a handful of the former resisted 70,000 of the latter. The bombardment 



* In contradistinction to the Ked Cross Knights, or Templars, who, though Crusaders, formed a puicly 

 military order. 



