CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

129

Earl of Cornwall, with a large sum of money,not with an army, but sufficient body-guard, cameto Acre, and was dear as a nephew of his famousnamesake; and went to Jerusalem, rebuilt its wallsin some degree, got Frederick’s recent truce pro-longed for a couple of years, procured the sultan’spermission to bury the corpses of the recently slainat Gaza, and by his strictly pacific conduct did allin his power that was really useful to Palestine, morethan can be averred of many who made more noise;and he bought the freedom of a vast number ofChristian captives. 1 And this reasonable conductperhaps ought to have spared him the gibe of repre-senting his election to the empire (some years later),as barely a stratagem to degrade the imperial dig-nity; though he was very proud to display thatvain title for the last fourteen years of his life. 2

The citation to the knights of his order, whichMathew Paris speaks of in 1237, calling on them tocome and replace those killed in the battles of Aleppo,was from Comps, and not Texis. 3 It was ^in the time of Comps that the Pope ashed the

1 Sir Harris Nicolas: Synopsis, i. 153.—Vertot: iii. 474.—

Hicliaud : Hist., iv. 61.—"VVike : Chron.—Rothelin MS.—

Mathew Paris, anno 1240.—Chron. 'Waverley.—Bib. Crois., i.383 ; ii. 654, 651, 814.

2 Sismondi: Rep. Ital., iii. 346.

3 Seb. Paoli : Serie, i. 342.