In this little volume it has not been attempted to give a complete history of the Order of Knights Hospitallers, even from the comparatively late date from which the narrative begins; nor, indeed, has it been thought necessary, in a publication of such slight pretensions, to enter into a full and detailed description of the several great sieges around which the chief interest of the story gathers. All that the writer has endeavoured to do is, to present the reader with as vivid a picture of events so memorable in the annals of the world as could be conveyed in a rapid and inelaborate sketch. Other incidents and circumstances having an important bearing on the general contest between the Moslem and the Christian have been interwoven with the staple of the narrative, either for the purpose of linking together the principal facts, or of giving them that position and prominence which belongs to them.
The determined courage and heroic devotion of the Knights of St. John have commanded the admiration of every noble and generous mind, whatever may have been its religious convictions or prejudices. At Acre, at Smyrna, at Rhodes, and lastly at Malta, these brave champions of the faith occupied what for the time being was the outpost of Christendom. At times almost annihilated, they rose again before the eyes of their enemieswith more than recovered strength; abandoned, or but tardily and grudgingly succoured by the powers of Europe,—who were too much engaged with their own political quarrels, and too deeply absorbed by their own selfish and immediate interests, to look to the future or unite against the common foe,—they confronted single-handed the enormous hosts of the infidels in their descents upon Europe, arrested their triumphant march towards the West, retreated from one position only to rally in another, and renew a contest which in appearance was hopeless; and at length, when all seemed lost, by sheer fortitude and perseverance they baffled and beat back the barbarian invader in the very pride of his strength, so that he never dared to approach their stronghold again.
So much is patent on the very face of history, and is acknowledged by all. But few, save they who share the faith of these brave men, seem to discern wherein the secret of their strength lay, and what it was that lent such force to their arms, endued them with that dauntless courage, that irresistible energy, and that tenacity of purpose, which enabled them to dare and to do and to suffer as they did. Some, knowing not how else to characterise it, give it the name of “attachment to their order,”—an indefinable something corresponding to what the world calls honour, oresprit de corps. Doubtless the Knights of St. John, as sworn companions in arms, vowed to fight and to die in the same great cause, felt themselves bound to each other by no ordinary tie, and were ever ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their brethren; but it was not in this that their strength lay. It lay in the simple power of divine faith, in a religious devotion as humble as it was ardent, and a burning enthusiasm for the cause of God in the world. This it was that elevated their valour to a supernatural virtue, and gave them the calm intrepid bearing and the indomitable spirit of martyrs. They were dutiful sons of holy Church, and as such they fought in her defence; always and everywhere they demeaned themselves as veritable soldiers of the Cross, faithful followers of Jesus, devout clients of Mary.
And in this was included what can never be separated from it—a true-hearted and loyal obedience to the successor of St. Peter. The Knights of St. John were ever the devoted subjects of the Holy See. It was as the Pope’s militia that they performed those wondrous deeds of arms which have gained them the respect and sympathy of writers who can scarcely allude to the occupant of Peter’s chair without an expression of contempt; and if to them, and to those other noble warriors whose exploits are related in the following pages, belong the credit and the renown of having stemmed the advancing tide of Ottoman invasion, it is to the Popes in the first place that the glory is due.
Europe owes to the Sovereign Pontiffs a heavy debt of gratitude for the indefatigable zeal with which they never ceased to sound the note of alarm, and to urge the Christian powers, not only to oppose the farther progress of the Turkish arms, but to drive back the barbarian hordes into the regions from which they had emerged; a debt all the heavier that each respite and each success was obtained almost against the will of those for whom it was won, and with an apparent unconsciousness, on their part, of the imminence of the danger or the nature of the calamity with which they were threatened. If the Turk retreated from Malta in shame and confusion,—if at Lepanto he lost the prestige of his naval superiority,—if Vienna defied his beleaguering hosts and sent him flying from her walls, never again to return,—it was the Vicar of Christ who thus foiled him and smote him, and who, from the height of his throne on the Vatican hill, pronounced that irreversible word, “Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther.” Every check, every failure, every defeat the infidels encountered, originated with Rome. D’Aubusson, L’Isle Adam, La Valette, Don John of Austria, Sobieski,—all were but the lieutenants of the Pope; andthat Europe was not delivered over to a blasphemous apostasy, and desolated and trodden down by the foulest tyranny which the world has ever known, may justly be attributed, in the good providence of God, to the untiring vigilance and the energetic and persevering hostility of the old man who reigns at Rome, and who never dies.[1]
The writer had relied chiefly on the works of the Abbé Vertot and Mr. Taafe for the sketch of the Order of Knights Hospitallers. It may be proper, however, to state, that since the manuscript came into the editor’s hands it has been carefully compared with the text of various approved authors who have either previously or subsequently written on the subject, and to the results of whose labours reference is made in the notes. The account of the Battle of Lepanto is mainly founded on the history recently published by Don Cajetan Rosell, and theLife of St. Pius V., by Maffei; and the story of the Siege and Relief of Vienna is taken for the most part from Salvandy’sLife of John Sobieski, and that by the Abbé Coyer.
E. H. T.