186 THE HISTORY OP THE ORDER OP [book I.

same title lie gave to his own father. How full ofcharity those first Hospitallers were! for there is adescription come down to our day of what wasan old custom in 1185, and would not he an oldcustom without sixty or seventy years’ standing;which brings us back to Gerard’s time—what careof crusaders’ children, male or female, and aban-doned infants, and of alms to the imprisoned, andthat they should be clad as soon as liberated, andof marriage portions to poor girls, and of food andclothing to all who asked it three times a-week,without limit as to number; that thirty-five ne-cessitous people shall participate in the table of theknights every day, and be given clothes first; thatthere shall be workmen, and a tailor’s room for theindigent to have their raiment mended every day,and a thousand coats to be distributed to them oncertain occasions; and many similar most generousbenefactions. 1 These are taken from a fragment ofwhat is manifestly a comment on the rule, and an ex-planation of it. 2

Short-sighted politicians indeed are those who seenothing in the crusade but folly. The Christiancause was that of freedom, and led not alone to theHoly Sepulchre, but likewise to the doctrines of

1 P. A. Faoli : 202.

2 Id. 205.