chap. iv.] ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 223

above any rival in his own fraternity; not merelya brave, holy, and high-minded nobleman, but fullyentitled to rank as a princely founder and sublimelegislator. And after a multitude of proofs, forwhich there is not room here, has not Paoli a rightto say ? “ Mine is not merely an historical truth,but an historical demonstration.” 1 And if Gerardin his corps was unique in title, he was so also, Iwill not say in birth (many were of as high birthin that glorious order), but worth; nor is it toaffirm little, since numbers illustrious for eminentworth were there among the heroic Hospitallers.Of course there was much subsequent legislation ; 2but indeed they were only comments on a rulealready formed, and most certainly reduced towriting ; nor are we for a moment to suppose thatthe Popes would have approved of what they hadnot deliberately read and submitted to theircouncil. Some soreness had existed from the firstelevation of a Latin Patriarch, 3 who, having aspiritual power co-existing with that temporal oneof the king’s, had superiority over Antioch, thatlike Edessa, Tripoli, Acre, &c., was but a fief ofthe kingdom.

But the Antiochese archbishopric aspired to be

1 P. A. Paoli : 457. 2 Id. 215.

3 Appendix, Num. vi.