ciiap. ii.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

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1358

including that of their declared enemies; yet did itdraw down a reproach from him 1 in whose servicethey were dying with a heroism that the rest ofthe world celebrated. They had declared the postuntenable, but when ordered to hold it,they died in the attempt. What more couldmortals do? “ ITonore tamen super omnia preser-vato,” says the describer of that siege. 2

This twenty-ninth grand master had the statutes,which were written in French in 1300, translated,the cream of them, into Latin, and with the con-ventual seal to them, sent a copy to each priory. 3It was some compensation for the injustice,where least to be expected, that a tribute ofgrateful respect was paid by the north of Europe,by a donation to the order, from the Marquises ofBrandenburgh and Lusatia,' “ High Chamberlainsof the Holy Roman Empire,’’ of a kind of islandbetween the Elbe and the Weser, and comprisingseveral districts once a bishopric, afterwards aprincipality, and modernly a part of Lower Saxony.Its date is Taengermunde and Yranckenvorde indie beati Marcelli Martyris , 1360. 4

1360

1 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Hum. lxxiv.

a Seb. Paoli: Osservazioni, ii. 540.—Beltramio, quoad. Leo-nardi de Mignanellis, de Senis tunc in iilis partibus commorantis.M.S. di Siena.

3 Bosio: par. ii., lib. iii., anno 1357.

4 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Hum. lxxv.