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THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book i.

Euphrates, and the declivities of Mount Taurus.Antioch, Tripoli, and the whole line of sea coast to

Egypt, were Christian. After Jerusalem,1130 OJ1 ’

Antioch was by far the greatest city in thoseparts. Yet it is somewhat unfair to praise theHospitallers in 1130, without adding that, from thefirst crusade, without the interval of one singlemoment, the Latin kingdom owes its existence tothem. Normans liberated the Holy Sepulchre,and founded its permanent defence up to the woful,when all was lost. 1 The Hospitallers took properpride in the Templars and Teutonics as their chil-dren—fruit of their own loins ; and a historian ofthe Hospitallers has a right to comprise them all inthat one word. Consolidated, why should a rashhand try to separate them? At most, from theirlegal foundation 1128, 2 the Templars may betreated as a separate body; and the Teutonics fromtheirs, when we come to it. Who were the Kings ofJerusalem’s great and valiant lords? The Moslemstell you Hospitallers ! 3 The rapidity of the Christiansnotwithstanding the weight of their armour, 4 is veryremarkable; no comprehending it—at one timehere, and at the next there, a great distance off.

1 Michaud: Hist., ii. 81. 2 Id.: Id., ii. 490.

3 Arab. Chron., 128, Note, Ibn Abontai.

4 Michaud : Hist., ii. 83.