Makers of History - Richard I by Abbot Jacob

Author:Abbot, Jacob [Abbot, Jacob]
Format: epub
Tags: History
Published: 2009-06-17T10:42:34+00:00

CHAPTER XI. VOYAGE TO ACRE .

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The origin of the order was as follows: About a hundred years before the time of Richard’s crusade, a company of pious merchants from Naples, who went to Jerusalem, took pity, while they were there, on the pilgrims who came there to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and who, being poor, and very insufficiently provided for the journey, suffered a great many privations and hardships. These merchants accordingly built and endowed a monastery, and made it the duty of the monks to receive and take care of a certain number of these pilgrims.

They named the establishment the Monastery of St. John, and the monks themselves were called Hospitalers, their business being to receive and show hospitality to the pilgrims. So the monks were sometimes designated as the Hospitalers and sometimes the Brothers of St. John.

Other travelers, who came to Jerusalem from time to time, seeing this monastery, and observing the good which it was the means of effecting for the poor pilgrims, became interested in its welfare, and made grants and donations to it, by which, in the course of fifty years, it became much enlarged. At length, in process of time, a military order was connected with it. The pilgrims needed protection in going to and fro, as well as food, shelter, and rest at the end of their journey, and the military order was formed to furnish this protection. The knights of this order were called Knights Hospitalers, and sometimes Knights of St. John. The institution continued to grow, and finally the seat of it was transferred to Acre, which was a much more convenient place for giving succor to the pilgrims, and also for fighting the Saracens, who were the great enemies that the pilgrims had to fear. From this time the institution was called St. John of Acre, as it was before St. John of Jerusalem, and finally its power and influence became so predominant in the town that the town itself was generally designated by the name of the institution, and it has been called St. Jean d’Acre to this day.

The order became at last very numerous. Great numbers of persons joined it from all the nations of Europe. They organized a regular government. They held fortresses and towns, and other territorial possessions of considerable value. They had a fleet, and an army, and a rich treasury. In a word, they became, as it were, a government and a nation.

The persons belonging to the order were divided into three classes:

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