HAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

303

accepted at length after mature reflection; whichdiffidence agrees with his two subsequent attemptsat abdication,until dissuaded by the highest authorityin those days. Yet during his short reign he didmuch, both as to the Turkish war, and domesticpolicy; and sent a circular to the Priors of Den-mark, Sweden, and Norway, lamenting that theyhad never paid any responsions since the loss ofAcre; yet could not but have learned the order wasseated at Rhodes, so he cited them formally to sendthem yearly to the Receiver in Flanders . 1 Re-sponsions were only a very easy head or quitrenton cominanderies, leaving abundant sufficiency tothe holders—a priory being the aggregate ofseveral commanderies.

Sir Deodate won a sea-fight against the Turksnear Lemnos, taking a hundred and twenty of theirsmall vessels, and put to flight the thirty-twolargest , 2 and while he kept the order neutral be-tween Genoese and Venetians, when these latterover the former won a victory, celebratedthrough all that century , 3 he protesting hecould not prevent individual knights from sidingwith either; and that individuals could not do much

1 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Hum. Ixxii.—Appendix, cxxxv.

2 Bosio : par. ii., lib. ii., anno 1347.—Vertot: v. 224.

3 Platina : iii. 226, Note H.