CHAP. IV.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

267

come down to our own day. On all occasions malig-nity—the worst construction put upon all theiractions—an iniquitous motive always supposed.That eulogy and distinction—much more, that theymerited them—were the primitive cause of the in-justice suffered by the various military orders often,from that age to the present—all of them woundedin their original head. Belied were the Hospitallers;but still more relentlessly were the unfortunateTemplars to be soon assailed, and at last broughtliving to the stake. Yet it was not the income ofthe Hospitallers or Templars that merited investi-gation, but how that income was employed ! 1 onwhich true question the Hospitallers (and probablyTemplars too) might have defied research. Mostof those favours had been also granted by formerPopes; and whatever the far by-gone generationsmight have been, or the future were to be, thePopes of that age had unrivalled power over almostall Christians; and for that very reason, considerableinfluence over the Paynim too. But it appears,the proverbial hatred of ecclesiastics had beengrowing with a silent growth; perhaps some un-known particulars might have kept it hidden. Butnot ungrateful were the Pontiffs, who would not

I

Yertot: i. 156.—Bosio: par. 1, lib. ii.