THE HISTORY

OP THE ORDER OF

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

The order of St. John of Jerusalem was createdin 1099. That I undertake its history is neitherquite my choice, nor quite superfluous; for it isa subject on which I ought to be well informed; andmany discoveries have been made since its otherhistorians in any language. Those early timeswere confused. In battles, retreats, conflagrations,papers and parchments were soon lost or burned.So to make up for them, writers employed theirimaginations, with a sort of foundation in thechronicler William of Tyre, who was no contem-porary of what he relates, but was himself one ofthose fabulists, and either from not knowing, or not

VOL i.

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