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Hazard, H. W. (ed.) / Volume III: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
(1975)
VIII: The Hospitallers at Rhodes, 1306-1421, pp. 278-313
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Page 278
VIII THE HOSPITALLERS AT RHODES, 1306—1421 The Order of Saint John probably originated in a hospice for pilgrims founded at Jerusalem by merchants of Amalfi in about 1070. After the First Crusade this confraternity received papal pro tection in a bull of 1113, and subsequently it acquired a standardized rule and developed a military character as an increasingly knightly and predominantly French-speaking order. The Hospitallers con tinued their charitable works and maintained hospices in Syria, where they received endowments. They were granted properties and privileges all over Latin Christendom; these were mainly intended to provide resources for their activities in Syria, but the Hospitallers did fight Moslems elsewhere, notably in Spain and Cilicia. The master, or—as he gradually came to be known—the grand master, was elected by the brethren for life and, together with the important officers of the Hospital, normally resided at the Convent, the head quarters in Syria. The duties of these officers reflected the Hospital lers' activities: the grand preceptor of the Convent acted as the master's deputy; the marshal was responsible for military affairs; the turcopolier commanded the light mercenary cavalry; the treasurer, hospitaller, and draper had charge of the finances, hospital, and clothing; and the prior of the Convent ruled the conventual church and the frères d'office or chaplains. Important fragments of the Hospitallers' archives for the period to 1421 are preserved in the Archives of the Order of St. John, Royal Malta Library (cited as Malta). A number of these documents are printed in S. Pauli, Codice diplomatico del sacro militare ordine Gerosobimitano, oggi di Malta, II (Lucca, 1737), and a few in M. Barbaro di San Giorgio, Storia della costituzione del sovrano militare ordine di Malta (Rome, 1927). The Malta archive was also used in the unreliable but still much cited work of G. Bosio, Dell' Istoria della sacra rebigione et illma militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano, II(2nd ed., Rome, 1629); the inferior first edition should not be used as, unfortunately, it often is. On the historiography, see A. Luttrell, "The Hospitallers' Historical Activities: (1) 1291—1400; (2) 1400—1530; (3) 1530—1630," Annales de l'Ordre souverain militaire de Malte, XXIV 278
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