authority scarcely larger than that of this dignitary.
The legislative and judicial functions were vested in councils, in which
the grand-master enjoyed no higher privilege than that of a double vote.
But his patronage was extensive, for he had the nomination to the most
important offices, both at home and abroad. The variety and
high-sounding titles of these offices may provoke a smile in the reader,
who might fancy himself occupied with the concerns of a great empire,
rather than those of a little brotherhood of monks. The grand-master,
indeed, in his manner of living, affected the state of a sovereign
prince. He sent his ambassadors to the principal European courts; and a
rank was conceded to him next to that of crowned heads,--above that of
any ducal potentate.[1291]

He was enabled to maintain this position by the wealth which, from the
sources already enumerated, flowed into the exchequer. Great sums were
spent in placing the island in the best state of defence, in
constructing public works, palaces for the grand-master, aad ample
accommodations for the various _languages_,--a technical term, denoting
the classification of the members according to their respective nations;
finally, in the embellishment of the capital, which vied in the splendor
of its architecture with the finest cities of Christendom.

Yet, with this show of pomp and magnificence, the Knights of Rhodes did
not sink into the enervating luxury which was charged on the Templars,
nor did they engage in those worldly, ambitious schemes which provoked
the jealousy of princes, and brought ruin on that proud order. In
prosperity as in poverty, they were still true to the principles of
their institution. Their galleys still spread over the Levant, and came
back victorious from their _caravans_, as their cruises against the
Moslems were termed. In every enterprise set on foot by the Christian
powers against the enemies of the Faith, the red banner of St. John,
with his eight-pointed cross of white, was still to be seen glittering
in the front of battle. There is no example of a military institution
having religion for its object which, under every change of condition,
and for so many centuries, maintained so inflexibly the purity of its
principles, and so conscientiously devoted itself to the great object
for which it was created.

[Sidenote: MASTERS OF RHODES.]

It was not to be expected that a mighty power, like that of the Turks,
would patiently en