JOHN, SAINT, OF BEVERLEY: Bishop of Hexham and of York; d. at Beverley (27 m. e.s.e. of York) May 7, 721. He was born in Northumbria of noble parentage, studied at Canterbury under Archbishop Theodore, and was an inmate of Hilda's monastery at Streanæshalch (Whitby). In 687 he became bishop of Hexham, and on the death of Bosa in 705 was transferred to York. He established a convent at Beverley, and in 718 gave up his bishopric and retired thither. He was eloquent, learned, and holy, a founder of schools, and a famous teacher. Bede was ordained by him and may have been his scholar. After St. Cuthbert, he was the greatest of the North English saints and the miracles related of him rival those of Cuthbert and Aidan. Henry V. attributed the victory at Agincourt to his intercession, the battle being fought on his day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The fundamental source is Bede, Hist. eccl., iv. 23, v. 2-6, 24. Consult also: Fasti Eboracenses, ed. W. H. Dixon and J. Raine, i. 84-92, London, 1883; J. Raine, The Historians of the Church of York, i., pp, Iii.-Ix., 239-348, 511-541 (no. 71 of Rolls Series, ib. 1879); W. Bright, Early English Church Hist., pp. 398-399, Oxford, 1897; DNB, xxix. 435-436; DCB, iii. 377-378.

JOHN, SAINT, ORDER OF HOSPITALERS OF: One of the most famous of the so-called military orders of the Middle Ages (see MILITARY RELIGIOUS ORDERS). They are known by various names: the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, Milites hospitalis S. Joannis Hierosolymitani, Johannitae, etc.; later, from their chief seats, Knights of Rhodes and Knights of Malta.

Origin and Development into a Military Order.

The origin of the order is obscure, but it was evidently based on an older foundation, a "hospital of Jerusalem," which seems to have been an independent establishment of the citizens of Amalfi. Previous to the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders (1099) the rector of the hospital was a Brother Gerhard (or Gerald; in later time the name Tunc or Tonque was added), who enlarged the institution after the city was taken and reorganized it. With the cooperation of the Crusaders the hospital increased in importance, and Gerhard may thus be regarded as the founder of the Hospitalers of St. John. He was succeeded by Raymond du Puy, who gave the brothers a rule which was approved by Innocent II., Eugene III.,

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and Lucius III., and in 1287-90 William of Stefano made the first collection of statutes; a second was made in 1303 and there two collections formed the basis of all subsequent ones. At first all members wore a black robe with a cross of eight points of white linen affixed to it, worn on the left breast. In 1259 Alexander IV. granted to members of the first class a red mantle with a white cross.

In hospital service the order was most active; its institutions were models for the age, and its rules and regulations formed the patterns for the other orders of Hospitalers (q.v.). The chief hospital at Jerusalem was built opposite the Holy Sepulcher and was a large structure with wide colonnades, in which hundreds of pilgrims and invalids found welcome and assistance. This institution continued its activity even after the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, while the order supported hospitals in numerous other places, particularly in Acre, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Malta. Skilled physicians were soon found in the hospitals, and all clothing, food, wine, and other necessities for the sick were furnished by the various houses. Gradually, however, as the struggle against the infidels claimed every energy, the knights were released from the care of the sick, and complaints were soon heard, especially in the East, that invalids were neglected by many houses. The order became more and more knightly, and steadily lost its monastic character, whereas originally the monks had almost outnumbered the knights in the membership of the order. With surprising rapidity valuable possessions and privileges were acquired both in the Orient and in the Occident. In Palestine the castles of the knights stretched from north to south, especially along the threatened frontier from Hebron to Ascalon, on the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias, and in the vicinity of Tripolis and Antioch. The rest of the grand master, after the fall of Jerusalem, was the citadel of Margat, which was supposed to be impregnable, until it was taken by Sultan Kalaun in 1285, Acre, the last possession of the knights in Palestine, being captured six years later.

The Knights in Rhodes and Malta.

A scanty remnant of the order fled to Cyprus, where the king provided them a refuge in the city of Limisso. In 1309, so speedy was its revival, the Grand Master Foulques de Villaret captured the island of Rhodes and founded a kingdom which lasted for two centuries, was a bulwark of Europe against the Turks, and only fell through treachery in 1522. This was the period of the order's great prosperity. Its wealth was increased by the greater portion of the estates of the Knights Templars (q.v.) after their suppression in 1311, and the income of the Knights of St: John was at least 36,000,000 francs annually, eighteen or twenty times that of the king of France. The order was divided into eight "languages," Provence (always considered the first), Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England, Germany, and Castile. Each "language" was subdivided into grand priories and these into commanderies, the latter visited periodically by the grand prior. At the head of the entire order stood the grand master, aided by the chapter-general which convened at stated intervals and had legislative power.

After the loss of Rhodes the knights had no home until 1530, when Charles V. gave them the island of Malta (whence the name "Knights of Malta"), which they defended courageously against the Turks. With the grand-mastership of Jean de la Valette (1557-68) the order reached its climax, but the Reformation brought them one disaster after another, while internal dissension added to the calamities, and the knights became mere protectors of merchantmen against pirates. Under the Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch, the island was betrayed to Bonaparte and on Sept. 4, 1800, it was seized by the English. The order was suppressed in Bavaria and Spain, while Paul I. of Russia, who had been elected grand master in place of Von Hompesch, was not recognized by the pope. The Roman Catholic remnants were collected under the administration of a grand master who is appointed by the pope and who has resided in Rome since 1834.

Modern Affiliations.

In Prussia the commandery of Brandenburg preserved its existence as the Protestant part of the order, although its property was confiscated in 1810 and it became a meaningless decoration. In 1852, however, it was reorganized by Frederick William IV., and has since been extremely active as a hospital order. It has founded some fifty hospitals, including one established at Beirut during the persecutions of the Christians by the Druses of Lebanon in 1860. In the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870 the Hospitalers gave invaluable aid to the sick and wounded. In like manner the Roman-Catholic Hospitalers, called distinctively Knights of Malta, have revived the original functions of the order, at least in Germany.

(G. UHLHORN†.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A very complete review of the literature of the subject is given by F. de Hellwald, Bibliographie methodique de l'ordre . . . de St. Jean de Jerusalem, Rome, 1885. The sources are collected in Codice diplomdel sacro militare ordine Gerosolimitano, Lucca, 1733, and in the great work begun by J. Delaville de Roulx, Cartulaire générale de l'ordre des hospitaliers S. Jean de Jerusalern, of which 2 vols. have so far appeared, Paris, 1894 sqq., with which cf. the same author's De prima origine hospitaliorum Hierosolymitarum, Paris, 1885, and his Les Statuts de l'ordre . . . , in Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, xviii., pp. 341-356. Consult: R. Aubert de Verto; d'Aubeuf. Hist. des chevaliers hospitaliers, Paris, 1726; A. von Winterfeld, (Geschichte des ritterlichen Ordens St. Johannis vom Spital zu Jerusalem, Berlin, 1859; M. J. J. G. Saige, De l'anciénnité de l'hôpital St. Jean de Jerusalem, in Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 1863. p. 552; H. von Ortenburg, Der Ritterorden des heiligen Johannes von Jerusalem, Regensburg, 1866; J. Wilson, Concise Account of St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, and of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, London, 1869; F. C. Woodhouse, The Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages, New York, 1879 A. T. Drane, The Knights of St. John, London, 1881; W. K. R. Bedford, The Regulations of the Old Hospital of the Knights of St. John at Valetta, ib. 1882; G, Uhlhorn, in ZKG, vi (1882), 46; H. Prutz, Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzüge, pp. 235 sqq., Berlin, 1883; F. von Finck, Uebersicht über die Geschichte des, ritlerlichen Ordens St. Johannis, Berlin, 1890; C. Herrlich, Die Balley Brandenburgh des Johanniterordens, ib.1891; J. von Pflug-Hartung, Die Anfänge des Johanniterordens in Deutschland, ib. 1899: Helyot, Ordres rnonastiques, iii. 72 sqq.; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen; KL, vi. 1791-1803; S. F. A. Caulfield, Dawn of Christianity in Modern Europe . . . Knights of the Hospital . . . , London, 1909.

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