CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

297

tion of the approaching contest with Solyman, andas complete supremacy over the treasury, with thesole obligation, that of every sum he received, anote he taken in three several books, one kept byhimself, the second in the box of three keys, andthe third he used by the treasury’s writer; powersto last, until the next chapter general, to be con-vened in 1540. Likewise the particular income ofthe grand master was fixed at twelve thousandcrowns a-year, which he reduced immediately bytwo thousand, and that he Avould not accept morethan his predecessors, ten thousand. 1 As long asCharles Y. acted against the Mahometans only,in Germany, Hungary, Africa, everywhere theKnights of Malta aided him by land and sea mostheroically. The famous seaman, Andrea Doria,on that most urgent of occasions considered thekarack of itself a match for the whole Turkishfleet, knowing, as he knew well, that it would sailthrough the middle of them without much risk,for that one thousand cannon balls might passthrough it without sinking it. 2 Again did theorder apply to the emperor regarding Tripoli, andthat it was best either to dismantle and abandon it,or to aid the knights to fortify it in a proper modern

1 Bosio : par. ii. 185, anno 1539.

2 Icl. : id. 186, anno 1539.