CHAP. V.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

135

Bailiff of the Eagle, Sir Thomas Newport, and SirThomas Sheffield, and Sir John Pont; and as forthe whole English Language, they then in Rhodesamounted only to thirty-eight knights, the smallnessof which number is the reverse of astonishing, theGerman being but five, the French one hundred, theProvenceaux ninety, the Auvergnois eighty-four,Arragon sixty-six, those of Italy sixty, and 'ofCastille and Portugal together, eighty-eight; thewhole body of knighthood of all nations makingfive hundred and fifty: yet be it ever recollectedthat every one of those was every way competentto be a superior officer, and often, almost alwayswas, and ready to take any command assigned him,great or small, without demur . 1

Nor is it left without memorial that in this yearthe celebrated learned Bembo of Venice, losing hiswife, became a knight professed of the order, andeventually had risen to be Grand Prior of Hungary,when made cardinal . 2 But Leo X., now enteringhis pontificate, his cousin german, Julius de Medici,still an Hospitaller, and Prior of Capua, at hisuncle’s taking possession of the Lateran, rode,armed at all points, in splendid white armour, witha rich scarlet sopra vest, or short mantle, like that

1 Bosio: par. ii., lib. xviii., anno 1513, 507.

2 Id.: id., id.