SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA. — It is the oldest, most illustrious, and most deserving of the chivalric orders (v.) and traces its origins to the quarter that the merchants of Amalfi had established in Jerusalem, resisting the most fanatical attempts at Muslim domination. It consisted of a commercial warehouse with a hospital for the shelter of pilgrims and the sick, and a church erected in honor of S. Giovanni Battista. When the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, the hospital was directed by a certain Gerardo, perhaps an Amalfitan, assisted by several servants, forming a kind of confraternity. They adopted a black habit and cloak with a white cross on the shoulder and established their own constitution, which Paschal II approved in 1113.
Thus originated a canonically erected institution, recognized by the princes of the West and supported by the alms and contributions of all Christendom. After Gerardo’s death, around whom pious legend had woven its story, Raimondo du Puy (de Podio), a Provençal who succeeded him in the government in 1120, gave the institution new military and chivalric functions, providing armed protection for the poor and pilgrims; from 1137 onward it also assumed the broader task of defending the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and waging war against the infidels. For this reason the new Order received donations not only in Palestine but throughout the West, as well as increasingly extensive privileges from pontiffs and sovereigns. It was soon able to construct extremely strong castles for the defense of the Kingdom’s most dangerous points, to establish, with the indigenous population, a light cavalry modeled on that of the infidels (the Turcopoles), and to undertake armed expeditions on its own initiative, not infrequently coming into conflict with the kings of Jerusalem themselves. Subject, as true religious, to the direct authority of the pope, and divided into the three ranks of knights properly so called, clerics, and servants, they also created throughout the various countries of the West an organization of houses (« domus hospitales, mansiones »), each with a hospital for the reception and protection of pilgrims and the safeguarding of roads at points of obligatory passage, with its own endowment and a number of friars, all of noble origin, under a preceptor (later commander) responsible for custody and the necessary services. A group of hospices or commanderies formed a bailliage, governed by a bailli (bali). In this way, provision was made for the recruitment of the necessary personnel.
The fall of Acre, after a valiant defense, in 1291, and the consequent end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem did not interrupt the activity of the knights. From 1292 to 1305 they found refuge at Limisso (Cyprus), under King Henry of Lusignan. There the Order’s naval power began to develop; it also attempted a reconquest on the nearby continent and turned its Rhodes (v.). In 1308 it succeeded in definitively wresting the island from the Eastern Empire and transferred its headquarters there. Here the Order was truly sovereign, with its own fleet, on which it flew its flag bearing a white cross on a red field; it minted coinage and built fortifications and sumptuous residences. From 1344 to 1402 it also extended its dominion over Smyrna, while organizing expeditions against the coastal cities of Syria and Alexandria in Egypt itself. The Western Schism brought discord to the Order, which did not escape the relaxation of discipline that had become general in the Church at that time. Moreover, the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453 created new conditions in the eastern seas, and the Order suffered the consequences of the progressive expansion of Turkish conquests. In 1480 Rhodes too endured a severe siege, which it succeeded in overcoming thanks to the valor of the knights led by the grand master Pietro d’Aubusson (v.); but on 21 December 1522, having received insufficient assistance from the West, it was forced to yield after a desperate defense. The survivors began seeking another headquarters and, meanwhile, at the invitation of the Pontiff, their sole superior, landed at Civitavecchia and settled in Viterbo. They were offered Malta, which at that time depended on Sicily, that is, on Carlo V, who, together with his mother, was its sovereign. Clement VII, who had been a dignitary of the Order, favored them there, particularly after, following the sack of Rome, he resumed good relations with Carlo V. Thus, by a diploma issued at Castelfranco d’Emilia on 23 March 1530, the latter ceded to the Order, as a « perpetual noble and free fief », Malta (v.) and Gozo, and the city and castle of Tripoli, subjecting their inhabitants to it, with the sole obligation of offering each year, on All Saints’ Day, a falcon or sparrowhawk as acknowledgment of dominion and of taking the customary oath of allegiance. In this way the Order obtained its central headquarters as a fief of the Kingdom of Sicily, without thereby ceasing, as a « religion », to depend on pontifical authority.
Malta soon became a key position in the Mediterranean because of its strategic importance, situated as it was between the territories dominated by the Turks and the Christian nations. Under the government of the grand master Filippo Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1521–34), the great fortification works were begun that made it an impregnable stronghold, while churches and palaces even more sumptuous than those that had had to be abandoned at Rhodes were erected, adorning the new residence with the finest expressions of Italian art. Meanwhile, measures were taken to provide the inhabitants with the necessary civil institutions, while ensuring that the 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, with the separation of England and a large part of Germany, the Order lost much of its property and was soon forced to abandon Tripoli, it lost none of its power, which enabled it to monitor the movements of the Turks at sea and keep the struggle against the corsairs alive. Twice a year it dispatched its maritime forces on « caravan » expeditions, always commanded by an admiral of the Italian langue, sailing all around the region, while remaining constantly prepared against attacks on the island. Memorable was the siege endured from 25 May to 7 September 1565, heroically and victoriously, by the grand master Giov. de la Vallette (1557–68), against the Turkish army and fleet, determined to eliminate the most persistent obstacle to their unchallenged dominion over the sea. Thus the galleys of Malta took part in the victory at Lepanto (1571) and provided Venice with valuable assistance in the War of Candia in the following century. A Jesuit college provided secondary education, while Rome deemed it necessary to establish a branch of the Roman Inquisition in Malta. A certain sumptuousness became apparent in internal customs during the seventeenth century, and the grand master assumed the title of Most Eminent Highness. In the eighteenth century, signs of decline appeared, owing to the spread of new ideas, conspiracies, and the Maltese’ resentment of the Order’s progressively increasing absolutism in government. Nevertheless, the Grand Priory of Poland originated in this period, and in 1797 the Grand Priory of Russia was established through the ambition of Emperor Paul, who wished to create a Russian langue within the Order. Instead, the days of betrayal were approaching. On 7 June 1798, Napoleon approached the island with the French fleet and, without a shot being fired, seized the fortress, considered impregnable, on the 12th. The grand master Ferdinando von Hompesch (1797–99) renounced sovereignty, and on 27 July the Order transferred its provisional headquarters to Trieste under the protection of Emperor Francesco.
The Russian knights protested and, on 7 November 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 fleet at Aboukir, seized Malta in September 1800; and although under the Treaty of Amiens of 1802 Malta was to be returned to the knights, the English remained there and, in the Treaty of Paris of 1814, secured recognition of their sovereignty, which they have retained to this day. After the election of a new grand master had been referred to Pope Pius VII, Giovan Battista Tommasi di Cortona was appointed on 9 February 1803; he resided in Sicily, and after his death in 1805, the government of the Order, by then 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 at the Holy See, the priory on the Aventine, and the house near the Forum of Augustus. Finally, on 29 March 1879, by 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, and Austria still exist, along with twelve associations of knights divided according to nationality. The knights are: knights of justice, who take vows; and knights of honour and devotion, who do not take vows but are admitted upon proof of nobility. There are also ladies of honour and devotion, for whom proof of nobility is likewise required. Also affiliated with the Order are the magistral grand cross knights, magistral knights, and the donats of justice and of grace, divided into three classes. The clergy consists of conventual chaplains and chaplains of obedience.
Having lost its territorial sovereignty and also ceased its military activity, the Order has resumed its original charitable task in accordance with modern needs, by providing services for the wounded of war, the victims of earthquakes or other serious social emergencies, and assistance to the sick during severe epidemics wherever there is a particular need. For this purpose, through the proceeds of its possessions and the contributions of its members, it has been able to assemble modern hospital equipment and recruit its own personnel, who, especially during the First World War, rendered highly commendable service on hospital trains and in hospitals established expressly through special agreements with the Italian government; during the Second World War as well, the Order contributed to the transport of the wounded by aircraft. It was always present on the occasion of the earthquakes that devastated entire regions, carrying out its work alongside that of the Red Cross. The recent cardinalatial judgment of 24 January 1953 recognized the Order’s qualities as a religious and sovereign body dependent upon the Holy See, through the respective mediation of the Sacred Congregation of Religious and the Secretariat of State. - Vedi tav. LXV.