SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA
It is the most ancient, illustrious, and meritorious of the knightly orders (v.) and traces its origins to that hospice which the merchants of Amalfi had established in Jerusalem, resisting the most fanatical resurgences of Muslim aggression. It consisted of a commercial fondaco with a hospital for the reception of pilgrims and the sick, and a church dedicated to St John the Baptist. When the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, the hospital was run by a certain Gerard, perhaps an Amalfitan, assisted by some servants, forming a kind of confraternity. They wore a black habit and cloak with a white cross on the shoulder and established their own rule, which Paschal II approved in 1113.
Thus originated an institute canonically erected, recognised by the princes of the West, supported by alms and contributions from all Christendom. After Gerard’s death—around which pious legend grew—Raimondo du Puy (de Podio), a Provençal who succeeded him in leadership, gave the institute new military-knightly functions: armed protection of the poor and pilgrims, and from 1137 it also assumed the broader task of defending the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and waging war against the infidels. For this, the new Order received donations not only in Palestine but throughout the West, ever greater privileges from popes and sovereigns, and soon built formidable castles to defend the most vulnerable points of the Kingdom. It also raised a light cavalry among the indigenous population, modelled on that of the infidels (the Turcopoles), and undertook armed expeditions on its own initiative, not infrequently coming into conflict with the kings of Jerusalem themselves.
Subject, as true religious, to the direct jurisdiction of the pope and divided into three ranks—knights proper, clergy, and serving brothers—the Order established in various Western countries a network of ‘domus hospitales’ or ‘mansiones’, each with a hospital for the reception and defence of pilgrims, the safeguarding of roads at obligatory crossing points, its own endowment, and a group of brethren, all of noble birth, under a preceptor (later commander) responsible for custody and services. A cluster of such hospices or commanderies formed a bailiwick governed by a bailiff (balli). In this way, recruitment of personnel was ensured.
The fall of Acre in 1291, after a valiant defence, and the consequent end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem did not interrupt the knights’ activity. From 1292 to 1305 they found refuge in Limassol (Cyprus) under King Henry of Lusignan, where the Order’s naval power began. It attempted a reconquest on the nearby mainland and set its Rhodes (v.). In 1308 it succeeded in wresting the island definitively from the Byzantine Empire and transferred its seat there. On Rhodes, the Order truly became sovereign: it possessed its own fleet, which flew its flag—a white cross on a red field—struck its own coinage, built defences and sumptuous residences. Between 1344 and 1402 it extended its dominion to Smyrna while organising expeditions against coastal cities of Syria and even Alexandria in Egypt.
The Western Schism brought discord to the Order, which did not escape the general relaxation of discipline then prevalent in the Church. Moreover, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 created new conditions in the eastern Mediterranean, and the Order felt the consequences of the Turks’ relentless advance. In 1480 Rhodes endured a fierce siege, which it survived thanks to the valour of the knights led by Grand Master Pierre d’Aubusson (v.). Yet on 21 December 1522, lacking sufficient aid from the West, it had to yield after a heroic defence. The survivors sought another seat and, at the invitation of the Pope—their sole superior—landed at Civitavecchia and settled in Viterbo. It was then proposed that they move to Malta, which at that time belonged to Sicily and thus to Charles V, who with his mother was its sovereign. Clement VII, who had been a dignitary of the Order, favoured them, especially after the Sack of Rome, when good relations with Charles V were restored. On 23 March 1530, Charles issued a diploma at Castelfranco dell’Emilia granting the Order in ‘perpetual noble and free fief’ Malta (v.) and Gozo and the city and castle of Tripoli, subjecting the inhabitants to its authority, with the sole obligation of presenting each All Saints’ Day a falcon or sparrowhawk in token of dominion and of rendering the usual oath of fealty. Thus the Order obtained its central seat as a fief of the Kingdom of Sicily, without ceasing thereby to depend, as a ‘religion’, on papal authority.
Malta quickly became a key position in the Mediterranean because of its strategic importance, situated as it was between territories held by the Turks and Christian nations. Under Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l’Isle-Adam (1521–34), grandiose fortifications were begun that made it an impregnable stronghold, while churches and palaces even more sumptuous than those abandoned in Rhodes were erected, adorning the new residence with the finest expressions of Italian art. Meanwhile, the Order provided the inhabitants with necessary civil ordinances, ensuring that government remained entirely in the hands of the Grand Master and the heads of the eight ‘langues’ into which the Order was divided: Italy, Castile and Portugal, Aragon with Catalonia and Navarre, France, Auvergne, Provence, Germany, and England. Although the loss of England and much of Germany deprived the Order of many estates and it was soon forced to abandon Tripoli, it lost none of its power, enabling it to monitor Turkish movements at sea and to keep up the struggle against corsairs. Twice a year it dispatched its maritime forces in ‘caravans’, always commanded by an admiral of the Italian langue, on expeditions around the Mediterranean, while remaining ever ready to defend the island. Notable was the siege from 25 May to 7 September 1565, when Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette (1557–68) heroically and victoriously resisted the Turkish army and fleet, determined to remove the Order as the chief obstacle to their entrenched domination of the sea. The galleys of Malta thus took part in the victory of Lepanto (1571) and rendered valuable assistance to Venice in the Candian War of the following century.
A Jesuit college provided secondary education, while Rome deemed it necessary to establish a branch of the Roman Inquisition in Malta. In the 17th century a certain ostentation appeared in internal customs, and the Grand Master assumed the title of ‘Serene Highness’. In the 18th century signs of decline became apparent, caused by the spread of new ideas, conspiracies, and the Maltese people’s growing intolerance of the Order’s increasingly absolutist rule. Yet in this period the Grand Priory of Poland originated, and in 1797 the Grand Priory of Russia, through the ambition of Emperor Paul, who wished to create a Russian langue within the Order.
Instead, the days of betrayal approached. On 7 June 1798 Napoleon’s French fleet approached the island, and on the 12th it was occupied without a blow. The fortress deemed impregnable fell into enemy hands. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch (1797–99) renounced sovereignty, and on 27 July the Order transferred its provisional seat to Trieste under the protection of Emperor Francis.
Protestations were raised by the Russian knights, who on 7 Nov. 1798 elected Emperor Paul as Grand Master; he died in 1801 and was unable to do anything to defend the Order. Meanwhile, the English fleet, after defeating the French at Aboukir, took possession of Malta in Sept. 1800; and although by the Treaty of Amiens (1802) Malta was to be returned to the knights, the English remained there and in the Treaty of Paris (1814) secured recognition of their sovereignty, which they retained to this day. The election of a new Grand Master was deferred to Pope Pius VII, who on 9 Feb. 1803 appointed Giovan Battista Tommasi of Cortona; he resided in Sicily, and after his death in 1805 the government of the Order, now deprived of its sovereign seat, was entrusted to a lieutenant elected by the council and ratified by the pope. In 1834 the seat of the Order was transferred from Sicily to Rome, where it had a palace, the residence of its representative to the Holy See, the priory on the Aventine, and the house near the Forum of Augustus. Finally, on 29 March 1879, with a bull of Leo XIII, the office of Grand Master was restored with its seat in Rome. The Grand Priories of Rome, Lombardy and Venice, Naples and Sicily, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, and twelve associations of knights divided by nation still exist. The knights are: of Justice, who take vows; of Honour and Devotion, who do not take vows but are admitted on proof of nobility. There are also Dames of Honour and Devotion, for whom proof of nobility is likewise required. Also affiliated to the Order are the Grand Cross Magistral Knights, Magistral Knights, and Donati of Justice, as well as those of Grace divided into three classes. The clergy consists of Conventual Chaplains and Obedience Chaplains.
Having lost its territorial sovereignty and ceased its military activity, the Order resumed its original task of charity in accordance with modern needs, providing for the care of war-wounded, victims of earthquakes or other grave social disasters, and assistance to the sick during serious epidemics where special need arose. With the income from its property and contributions from its members, it has been able to assemble modern hospital equipment and recruit its own staff, which in particular rendered outstanding service during the First World War on hospital trains and in hospitals set up under special conventions with the Italian government; during the Second World War the Order also contributed to the transport of the wounded by air. It has always been present at times of earthquake that have devastated entire regions, working alongside the Red Cross. The recent cardinal’s sentence of 24 Jan. 1953 recognized the Order’s religious and sovereign character under the Holy See, through the Sacred Congregation of Religious and the Secretariat of State respectively. — See pl. LXV.