4

THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OE [hook HI.

laud. 1 Sir Anthony had been himself a grandcross, before chosen to be grand master; namely,that very ancient dignity, drapperius, in moremodern times called grand conservator. 2

Tirnour and Bajazet being dead — the latter’s

four sons might have divided his realm, or ascended

the throne, legitimately, by turns; but that would

have been to wait overlong for the youngest, so

his fraternal hug relieved the three elders, and

Mahomet I. reigned alone. After him his son,

Amurath II., became sultan ; who, but for Scander-

beg and Iiuniades, would have mastered all Greece

and Hungary, of which the various sovereigns

implored the protection of the grand master of

Rhodes; who began to make what exertions1484 .

he could, one of which was the calling of a

new chapter general, that began at Rhodes, in 1433,

and was continued at Bazil; in which the grand

master, from his great age, did not appear in person

but by a locum-tenens; and the property of the order

stood for a large loan towards war with the infidel.

To Rhodes the turcopolier hastened, with the king’s

*

permission to take gold and silver plate, to the value

1 Statuti Tit. xix.

2 Cod. Dipl. Geros., i., Bum. cviii. The drapperius in 1241was a French knight, Chev. Poncius Boschant. The Templarshad the same dignity, and in 1241, held by the Chev. PierrecTAramont.