ABEY. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

263

two centuries. 1 2 A letter from one of our kings in1309 ( I suppose Edward II.), shows what -^gQghas been already observed, that the orderwas still considered rather equestrian than naval. 3Thus that glorious body of the select of all Chris-tians on the edge of its orbit, or not far from it,wheeled its second course of more than anotherhundred years under seventeen grand masters. 3

1 Werner : Chron.—Bib. Crois., i. 352. i

2 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Kum xxi.—Bymer.—Bib. Crois., ii.,

882.—Appendix, civ.

3 Appendix, cvii.