ABEY.IV.J

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

223

most unhappy circumstances. Tlie Protector 1 orLocumtenens having been already legalized by agrand master, liad no need of the election ofa council, as would have been instantly the case,otherwise ; but assumed his vicarious power at once,as naturally as the Camerlengo at Eome enters intooffice as soon as the Pope dies ; and, in the order atleast, to die and to abdicate are the same thing.Then completely was it in rule, that on the 29thof June, Paul took the protectorship, and on the 27thof October, the knights then present at St.Petersburghelected him to the grand mastery, as they had a per-fect right to do ; and offered him the magisterial cap,&c. hi a public audience, which after mature reflec-tion he accepted, on the 13th of November ; the Kus-sian vice-chancellor pronouncing the act of accept-ance, and all the knights taking the oath usual onsuch an occasion. So that up to Paul’s death, for thatshort time it appears he was really grand master;for any little variation in form may be excused fromthe urgency, and in substance there was none.Therefore it is to be supposed future historians ofour order will give him a place in the magisterial

1 To tliat day the order’s only Protector had been the Kingsof England. Neither France nor Germany, however friendly,had that distinguished title. It was like Turcopolier belongingto England alone. Unice nosier protector was said even to HenryVIII. Appendix, Hum. ccxii., ooxiv., coxv.