[48] Taaffe. It was, however, the custom at that time to give every city an epithet as well as a name. That chosen by the grand master was intended to express the modesty of an order whose only pride was to be in the Cross of Christ: it was “Humilissima.”
[49] At the dispersion of the Knights, upon the occupation of Malta by the French, some took refuge in Russia; where, in the year 1801, a council met to deliberate on the election of a grand master. It was resolved that, as the elements of a general chapter could not be assembled at St. Petersburg, the different grand priors should be invited to convene their chapters for the purpose of forming lists of such knights as were worthy of succeeding to the sovereign dignity. These lists the council proposed afterwards to submit to the Pope, for him to choose a grand master out of them. Accordingly (Feb. 9, 1805) his Holiness Pius VII. nominated Tommasi, an Italian knight, grand master. In 1814 the French knights taking heart at the humiliation of their arch-enemy Napoleon, assembled at Paris in a general chapter, under the presidency of the prince Camille de Rohan, grand prior of Aquitaine, for the election of a permanent capitulary commission. Under the direction of this commission a formal but fruitless application was made to the congress of Vienna for a grant of some sovereign independency, in lieu of that of which the order had been so wrongfully despoiled. In 1823, when the Greek cause began to wear a prosperous aspect, the same chapter entered into a treaty with the Greeks for the cession of Sapienza and Cabressa, two islets on the western shore of the Morea, as a preliminary step to the re-conquest of Rhodes; to facilitate which arrangement an endeavour was made to raise a loan of 640,000l. in England, but the attempt failed. The council of the order is now established at Rome, and presided over by the Venerable Balio di Colloredo, lieutenant of the grand-mastership. A novitiate and hospital of the order are about to be erected at Jerusalem, under the sanction of the Holy See. His Holiness Pius IX. has approved a plan for the extension of the order, and for a more strict observance of its rule. The English langue, or language of the order, no longer exists, though there are several English knights. The crowns of Spain, Russia, and Prussia give the cross of St. John as a decoration; but those knights are not members of the order, which is sovereign, and not subject to any temporal prince, and is accordingly styled the Sovereign, Military, and Religious Order of St. John of Jerusalem. The eight-cornered cross represents the eight beatitudes; and it is not a mere decoration, but the badge of a Catholic religious order.
[50] Known in history as “Selim the Sot.” It is said he was instigated to the conquest of the island by a Jew, his boon companion, who represented to him how easily he could make himself master of the soil on which grew the grapes which produced his favourite wine.
[51] For a short but spirited account of this heroic defence and its fatal catastrophe the reader is referred to The Four Martyrs, by M. Rio.
[52] On one of the last days of the siege he was struck by a ball and killed, while praying in the garden of his palace.
[53] “Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
[54] “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
[55] It was afterwards stolen by a Christian slave and taken to Venice, where it was deposited in an urn in the church of St. John and St. Paul; the martyr’s bones were also carefully collected, and buried in the church of St. Gregory.
[56] Dr. Newman thus describes the effects of Turkish domination: “As to Cyprus, from holding a million of inhabitants, it now has only 30,000. Its climate was that of a perpetual spring, now it is unwholesome and unpleasant; its cities and towns nearly touched each other, now they are simply ruins. Corn, wine, oil, sugar, and the metals are among its productions; the soil is still exceedingly rich; but now, according to Dr. Clarke, ‘in that paradise of the Levant, agriculture is neglected, the inhabitants are oppressed, population is destroyed.’” The Turks, p. 149.
[57] Nephew of the great admiral of the emperor Charles V.