HISTORY OP MALTA.

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gentlemen in Dauphine. The end proposed in its institutionwas to relieve those unfortunate persons who were afflictedwith a kind of leprosy, distinguished at that time by the nameof St. Anthony s sacred fire. In 1218 this community wasformed into an order of Hospitaller friars, whose chief was agrand-master; and it subsisted in that manner till 1297, whenpope Benedict VIII. changed the magisterial priory into anabbey-chief of the order, and determined that in future all themembers should be regular canons, subject to the rules ofSt. Augustin. From that time the order underwent no altera-tion, till the reform which took place in 1634: in 1768 it wasforbidden to receive any more novices, and its members wereonly allowed the choice of being entirely abolished, of be-coming seculars, or of being united to some other order. Thelatter was preferred, and the order of Malta chosen, as the mostanalogous; the original basis of both institutions being theexercise of religious hospitality. It was not, however, till aftervarious negotiations, and after having surmounted many diffi-culties, that the two orders were united. The principal condi-tions of this agreement were, that the whole of the possessionsof St. Anthony should be equally divided between the order ofMalta and that of St. Lazarus; the former of w hich Avas toengage itself to pay a yearly pension to the Antonin friars, whoin future were all to become members of the order of St. Johnof Jerusalem, and to belong to the class of conventual chap-lains. The property of St. Anthony was not definitively di-