CHAP. II.J

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

317

leaving Rome, he may have been given the bullLXXXI. to regulate his conduct at Rhodes ; whichhe did not reach , 1 since on his way he aided theVenetians to take Patras, and afterwards in anincursion into the Morea 3 with the Christian army,he, near Corinth, fell into an ambush, and wasmade prisoner by the Turks; who, on his refusal toallow his knights to pay a considerable sum asthey offered, with three priors as hostages for thepayment, he, thanking them, opposed it as con-trary to the statutes and injurious to the treasury,so that, if ransomed at all, it should be by his ownfamily, not by the order; for that though it wasby a stratagem, in no fair battle, yet in whateverway, a knight imprisoned is a knight dead. Onwhich the infidels carried him into the Albanianmountains, where he underwent the harshestslavery , 3 not however for several years, as pre-tended; and his family must have sent his ransomthe instant they heard it, since he had got to

1 Seb. Paoli : Serie, ii. 467.

2 Bosio: par. ii., lib. iii., anno 1378.

3 Yet not improbable is Bosio’s version, quoting Foxanus,tbat the grand master was at last persuaded to abide by the firstagreement, and left three hostages while the money was comingfrom Ehodes, which it did immediately, and in every likelihoodwas repaid as soon as it could come from Spain. The hostages(who all three volunteered), were, the Prior of England, of St.Gilles, and of Rome. Bosio: par. ii., lib. iii., anno 1378.