ith those of their neighbors. These
vessels, however, would be considered nothing less than marine
monstrosities in our day.

The galleys of the Knights did not remain long idle. When a restless
spirit moved their owners, they promptly set sail for the coast of
Barbary, where, surprising some unprotected settlement, they burned the
place to the ground, enslaving those whose lives they spared. If there
were any high officials among their prisoners, or persons of special
importance, such were held for ransom. If the payment demanded for their
release did not come promptly, they too became common slaves and worked
with the rest at the trying galley oars. This service, if they were not
in good health and strength, soon put an end to their lives. Such were
the deeds of professed Christians, who, in their ignorant and bigoted
zeal, actually seem to have thought themselves to be serving God by
robbing, destroying, and enslaving those whom they called infidels. In
the light which comes to us through the long ages, we can see another
and baser motive which must have actuated these monkish freebooters,
namely, the desire for plunder and to kill, "an appetite which grows by
what it feeds upon." Though they tempered their piratical career with
deeds of chivalry and the outward forms of religious devotion, they
were none the less blood-seeking corsairs. The red flag would have been
more appropriate at the masthead of their vessels than the eight-pointed
cross of St. John. The spirit which had originally given birth to the
order--then well named Hospitallers--had long since been lost sight of.
In Jerusalem, Turk and Pilgrim alike shared their hospitality, and their
model was that of the Good Samaritan. Alas, for the degeneracy that
followed!

The conflict as carried on for centuries by both the Christians and the
Mohammedans was equally characterized by diabolical cruelty, while
tinctured by a spirit of blind fanaticism and religious frenzy. On the
part of the Turks this was a genuine instinct, since they could not
expect, even in the event of victory, to realize anything by way of
remunerative plunder. In regard to the Knights, everything goes to show,
as we have already declared, that religion was used as a convenient
cloak to cover up their questionable purposes. The candid student of
history will, however, honestly admit that there were many and striking
exceptions to this rule. Some of the Grand Masters were undoubtedly
sincer