Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of The Order Of St. John Of Jerusalem*
THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF ST . JOHN OF JERUSALEM *
FKOM an author sitting doxvn to xA'rite afresh the history of a country or nation in remote ages ( schoolbooks , whether for children of an infant or a riper age , and mere compilations of course excepted ) we have a right to look for either the statement of nexv facts xx'hich his OAVU researches have brought to light , and the production of fresh evidence , or he may propose to himself the
task of explaining vx'hat has been already discoA'ered in a more conclusive and satisfactory manner -with that terseness and force of language the most suitable garb for the grave and severe Clio ; in it she most easily captivates her listeners . The annals and fates of the military orders which sprang immediatelfrom the Crusadeshave been repeatedly written ;
y , and the controversies regarding their origin , and almost ex'ery period of then * progress , or of those extinct , their dissolution , have occasioned the deepest research and exercised very masterly pens : we have disinterred concerning them , from musty chronicles and mouldering parchments , probably nearly every fact
which the insouciance ( I may use a French term , as our carelessness does not adequately express the idea ) of our ancestors had left to be gleaned . The constitution of the Templars ancl Hospitallers is naturally embraced in every history of the Crusades and the ephemeral kingdom they founded in Jerusalem , both militias being , as
Gibbon justly remarks , " its firmest buhvarks , " and so intermixed are then * operations , then * victories , and defeats that the history of one cannot be given without materially involving that of its rival , till the cruel extinction of the knights of the temple of Solomon left those of the hospital the undivided field in which their subsequent heroism was well AA'itnessed and
acknoAVledged by Europe , in the successive change of tlieir titles to Knights of Rhodes and Chevaliers of Malta , the scenes of their valour and bravery . The author of the work before us falls , perhaps unconsciously , into this practice , for though the Hospitallers are avoAvedly Ms
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of The Order Of St. John Of Jerusalem*
THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF ST . JOHN OF JERUSALEM *
FKOM an author sitting doxvn to xA'rite afresh the history of a country or nation in remote ages ( schoolbooks , whether for children of an infant or a riper age , and mere compilations of course excepted ) we have a right to look for either the statement of nexv facts xx'hich his OAVU researches have brought to light , and the production of fresh evidence , or he may propose to himself the
task of explaining vx'hat has been already discoA'ered in a more conclusive and satisfactory manner -with that terseness and force of language the most suitable garb for the grave and severe Clio ; in it she most easily captivates her listeners . The annals and fates of the military orders which sprang immediatelfrom the Crusadeshave been repeatedly written ;
y , and the controversies regarding their origin , and almost ex'ery period of then * progress , or of those extinct , their dissolution , have occasioned the deepest research and exercised very masterly pens : we have disinterred concerning them , from musty chronicles and mouldering parchments , probably nearly every fact
which the insouciance ( I may use a French term , as our carelessness does not adequately express the idea ) of our ancestors had left to be gleaned . The constitution of the Templars ancl Hospitallers is naturally embraced in every history of the Crusades and the ephemeral kingdom they founded in Jerusalem , both militias being , as
Gibbon justly remarks , " its firmest buhvarks , " and so intermixed are then * operations , then * victories , and defeats that the history of one cannot be given without materially involving that of its rival , till the cruel extinction of the knights of the temple of Solomon left those of the hospital the undivided field in which their subsequent heroism was well AA'itnessed and
acknoAVledged by Europe , in the successive change of tlieir titles to Knights of Rhodes and Chevaliers of Malta , the scenes of their valour and bravery . The author of the work before us falls , perhaps unconsciously , into this practice , for though the Hospitallers are avoAvedly Ms