CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

285

by Bosio, that the supreme tribunal of the order isthe chapter-general, to which the grand masterand his knights and clergy alike submit . 1

So Villaret, and Pagnac, and some knights, wentto Avignon, and Villaret was sentenced to accept apriory, but totally independent of any future grandmaster, and only responsible to the Holy See, which,to the guiltless order, was a double sacrifice, losingthe rent of a priory, and paying a prior in no wayobedient to it, and having a grand master eitherdirectly named by the Pope, or indirectly chosenunder his influence. Nor did his Holiness denyhimself the satisfaction of hurrying to direct a briefto the fallen grand master, wounding him moreseverely from the novelty, and showing him thathe was no longer an independent sovereign, butmiserably dependent, both in temporals andspirituals; for, after writing to Villaret as a king,and companion of kings, even so far on his journeyas Naples , 2 he, within a few weeks, changes tonealtogether, and does not give the fallen even thetitle of knight, as if he were not such any longer,but quite a private person, to whom he doles out a

1 Bosio : par. ii., Kb. i, anno 1321.

2 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Hum. 1. and K.—Arch. Vatic. Seer.—Appendix, exxii.