e spirit of the age, the
institution found favor with the bold crusaders, and the accession of
members from different parts of Christendom greatly enlarged its power
and political consequence. It soon rivalled the fraternity of the
Templars, and, like that body, became one of the principal pillars of
the throne of Jerusalem. After the fall of that kingdom, and the
expulsion of the Christians from Palestine, the Knights of St. John
remained a short while in Cyprus, when they succeeded in conquering
Rhodes from the Turks, and thus secured to themselves a permanent
residence.

Placed in the undisputed sovereignty of this little island, the Knights
of Rhodes, as they were now usually called, found themselves on a new
and independent theatre of action, where they could display all the
resources of their institutions, and accomplish their glorious
destinies. Thrown into the midst of the Mussulmans, on the borders of
the Ottoman Empire, their sword was never in the scabbard. Their galleys
spread over the Levant, and, whether alone or with the Venetians,--the
rivals of the Turks in those seas,--they faithfully fulfilled their vow
of incessant war with the infidel. Every week saw their victorious
galleys returning to port with the rich prizes taken from the enemy; and
every year the fraternity received fresh accessions of princes and
nobles from every part of Christendom, eager to obtain admission into so
illustrious an order. Many of these were possessed of large estates,
which, on their admission, were absorbed in those of the community.
Their manors, scattered over Europe, far exceeded in number those of
their rivals, the Templars, in their most palmy state.[1290] And on the
suppression of that order, such of its vast possessions as were not
seized by the rapacious princes in whose territories they were lodged,
were suffered to pass into the hands of the Knights of St. John. The
commanderies of the latter--those conventual establishments which
faithfully reflected the parent institution in their discipline--were so
prudently administered, that a large surplus from their revenues was
annually remitted to enrich the treasury of the order.

The government of this chivalrous fraternity, as provided by the
statutes which formed its written constitution, was in its nature
aristocratical. At the head was the grand-master, elected by the knights
from their own body, and, like the doge of Venice, holding his office
for life, with an