CIIAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

283

fortress in another part of that island ; and althoughtheir demeanour appears to have been most im-proper, yet you are accused of having partly oc-casioned it; so that we cite both them and youinto our presence, to investigate the affair, anddecide on due information.” This parchment, likeso many others, has just escaped out of its hiding-place, and appears in history for the first time . 1Rumours went of one of Yillaret’s confidentialmenials having been bribed to poison, or otherwisemurder his master, upon whose flight the rioterselected as locum-tenens the old knight Sir Mauricede Pagnac, who hardened them in their resistanceto despotism; and that, little by little, such asVillaret would end by erecting an absolute tyrannyinstead of the order’s primitive free institutions.To answer which, the Pontiff at the same time wrotea brief to Pagnac, calling him likewise to Avignon , 2and another, naming a vicar of the order . 3 As-suredly a new Pope, whatever internal dissent hemay have felt from his predecessor’s policy, fol-lowed it in the main, not sorry at this opportunityfor a reasonable intervention, under cover of whichhe could deprive the knights and their grand master

1 Cod. Dipl. Gei'os., ii., Num. xliii.—Appendix, cxviii.

2 Id., Id., Id. xliii.—Appendix, cxix.

3 Id., Id., Id. xlv. andxlvi.—Appendix, cxx.