CHAP. III.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

333

from a civil war, of which Venetians,Genoese, and French, were blowing thecoals. 1

1403

The despot of the Morea—a Porphyrogenitus—wishing to sell his dominions, got the stipulatedsum from the order, partly in money, and partlyin jewels; but the Spartans refused to be sold, orlet the magisterial commissaries into the town atall. So the bargain had to be broken, and thevalue refunded; but the imperial swindler havingspent or hidden the bulk of it, the order had muchtrouble to obtain back their own, and only byquotas and after years. 2

Much praised then at Rhodes, chiefly in a peacebetween the emperor and other Christian powers,as the foremost of the pacific diplomatists, was aSir Peter Holt, Turcopolier ; 3 and eventually hebecame Prior of Ireland. 4

Naillac returned to Europe for the Council ofPisa, in 1409, and the conclave there which heguarded. 5 The Papacy subsequently revoking

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

2 Id., ii., Hum. lxxxyii. — Bosio : par. ii.,

lib. iii.

3 Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Hum. lxxxviii_Appendix, cxi.

—Bosio : par. ii., lib. iv.

4 Bosio : par. ii., lib. iii. p. 82.

5 Appendix, cxliv.—Platina : iii., 293, etc.—Bosio : par. ii.,lib. iv, anno 1409.—Seb. Paoli: Seine, ii., 468. Y. Z.