CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

295

Secondly, that he had been honourably known atthe siege of Rhodes. Thirdly, that he had lostan eye there, and endured all the mishaps of theabeyance. Henry VIII.’s severe versatility madethe order be deprived, perhaps for ever, of thatrich, noble, most principal of its members (as al-ways has been held), the venerable English lan-guage. 1 Religion ought to stand quite apart frompolitics. These are too human, that too celestial.Of all petty things, petty politics are the mostodious. Such vile matters it is detestable to mixthem up with what is far too sublimely fine forany such desecration. Something of the kindwas creeping among the Christian heroes on thecoast of Barbary. What the commissioners hadforetold was too true. Tripoli was to be abutchery for the Order; yet many a valiant struggledid it maintain.

In 1539, a chapter general was holden at Malta,where the Lieutenant of the Turcopolier was ^Sir Egidius Russell, with several otherEnglish knights. Yet some complain that theTurcopolier, Sir Clement West, was ill-lookedon by the grand master, through whose means the

1 Bosio : par. ii., lit), viii., anno 1536 .—“ Cosi ricoo, nobile, eprincipal membro come sempre era stata, la vencrabile Linguad’Inghilterra,” are his precise words.