156 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book i.

picture of the times, suggests probable motives,and is exact as to facts—he is the historian.

The care of the sick and wounded made femalesnecessary from the very first. Except this erroras to date, the rest of the current story may bequite true; that of the Hospitalleresses, the veryfirst was a Roman lady of the name of Agnes . 1Godfrey was right; none but Norman sovereignscould have insured success. Who were the Nor-mans then at Jerusalem, and who, exactly as God-frey wished, made donations of land to the order,as soon as ever they left that city? The Normanwas the great party of that day, and it became aparty question. Its earliest protectors were, withfew exceptions, Normans; its founder, and theKing of Jerusalem, Normans; and the BaldwinsBohemond, Tancred, Roger of Antioch, Raimondof Joppa. Its first establishments in Europe werein England and Sicily, where both the sovereignswere Normans. Tancred gave it large possessionsabout Bethlehem, and his cousin, at Bari, Taranto,and Otranto. In Flanders, Hainaut, Pannonia,what wonder, where dwelt Gerard’s own nearestrelatives ? It was like wild fire, and at the sametime quite natural . 2 That the Mahometans should

1 P. A. Paoli: 349.

2 Id.: 456.