History of the Knights Hospitaller in the Levant
The second account was one recorded by the twelfth-century archbishop and historian William of Tyre and, while recognizing earlier hospices in Jerusalem, set the date of the founding of the Hospital in the eleventh century by a group of merchants from Amalfi.
[14] The medieval Italian chronicler Amatus of Montecassino recorded the establishment of hospitals in Jerusalem and Antioch by the initiative of a rich and pious Amalfitan named Mauro of Pantaleone with close family ties to the Abbey of Monte Cassino.
[23] Around 1080, the Abbot of the Church of Saint Mary of the Latins appointed a Benedictine lay brother Pierre-Gérard de Martigues, later known as Blessed Gerard, to lead the Hospital as its rector.
This is the date of the birth of the new institution representing the hospital, and the papal privilege granted by the pope on 15 February 1113 with his well-known bull Pie postulatio voluntatis was the ratification of the status quo.
This privilege recognized the Hospital as an independent order, and it was subsequently confirmed by Callixtus II in his papal bull Ad hoc nos disponente dated 16 June 1119, addressed to Gerard (instituor ac prepositus Hierosolymitani xenodochii).
Among other documents preserved is a papal letter of Celestine II giving the Hospitallers jurisdiction over the Santa Maria Alemanna (Church of Saint Mary of the Germans) in Jerusalem.
It retained, however, during his lifetime its purely eleemosynary character.It is unclear what the village of Hessalia (casal Hessilia, or Es Silsileh) might refer to, but the bakehouses were apparently ovens that were an important source of income to their operator.
However, Blessed Gerard was likely the one who raised the True Cross to the Crusaders in the First Battle of Ramla in 1101, with Fulcher of Chartres writing of a venerabilis abbas Gerhardus, qui tunc Crucem Dominicam semper lateri regis contiguus praeferebat.
In addition to all these moneys expended upon the sick and upon other poor people, this same house also maintains in its various castles many persons trained to all kinds of military exercises for the defence of the land of the Christians against the invasions of the Saracens.
Raymond divided the membership of the Order into clerical, military, and serving brothers, and established the first significant Hospitaller infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The Order's ospital, installed opposite the Holy Sepulchre, competed with it by the beauty and height of its buildings and when the patriarch preached, his voice was covered by the Hospitallers' bells.
[61] The basic organizational unit of the Order was the commandery or preceptory, consisting of a small group of knights and sergeants living under the rule of the Commander (Preceptor), supervising several properties.
The first mention of their assuming a more militant role is related to the Crusader castle built at Bethgiblein, erected by Fulk of Jerusalem in 1135 as part of a string of fortifications to protect the kingdom.
[87] In 1171, Amalric left the Holy Land to visit Constantinople and he entrusted a Hospitaller named Jobert of Syria with the guardianship of his son Baldwin IV of Jerusalem as well as the regency of the kingdom.
Among Roger's first actions was to urge Baldwin IV of Jerusalem to continue to vigorously prosecute the war against Saladin and, in November 1177, he participated in the Battle of Montgisard, winning a victory against the Ayyubids.
[91] Pope Alexander III called them back to the observance of the rule of Raymond du Puy between 1178 and 1180, issuing a bull that forbade them to take up arms unless they were attacked and urged them not to abandon the care of those sick and in poverty.
Roger, Gerard de Ridefort, archbishop Joscius, Balian of Ibelin, and Renaud Grenier were appointed to negotiate with Raymond III in Tiberias when they had to face Muslim troops.
The Hospitallers had been defending Belvoir Castle since August 1187 and, on 2 January 1188, they left the fortress and decimated the Muslim troops, killing Saladin's general-in-charge Sayf al-Din Mahmūd and captured a large cache of arms.
[114] In 1222, emperor Frederick II sent four ships to Acre to transport John of Brienne, Raoul of Merencourt, the legate Pelagius Galvano and the Grand Masters to Sicily to confer with him concerning his promise to go on Crusade.They embarked for Brindisi in September 1222 and met with the pope in Rome in January 1223.
[115] Bertrand de Thessy, the Templars, and patriarch Gérold of Lausanne representing the clergy of the Holy Land refused to accept the treaty as Antioch and Tripoli were excluded from the considerations.
In addition, Gregory IX issued a papal bull in August 1229 to the Latin patriarch directing that the Hospitallers maintain jurisdiction over the Teutonic Knights in punishment for their following Frederick.
The Hospitallers and Templars took advantage of the fact that they were excluded from the treaty and, in the fall of 1229, led a successful incursion into the north of the country against the Muslims of the fortress of Montferrand and a disastrous expedition to Hama in July and August 1230.
Representing the Hospitallers, Templars and Teutonic Knights, de Vieille-Brioude advised Theobald against marching to Gaza to fight the sultan of Damascus, al-Salih Ismail.
[132] A combined force was assembled, consisting of Templars, the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights, joining a Muslim army of Syrians and Transjordanians under al-Mansur Ibrahim and an-Nasir Dā’ūd.
In 1254, a ten-year truce was concluded between Aybak, effectively ruler of Egypt, an-Nasir Yusuf, sultan of Damascus, and West, including the Hospitallers, Templars, barons of the Holy Land, Geoffrey of Sergines, a representative of Louis IX, and John of Ibelin.
In March 1265, 270 Hospitallers repelled the Siege of Arsuf by the Mamluk army lasted for forty days, resulting in the town being razed and its surviving inhabitants sold into slavery.
[155] The Hospitallers accumulated supplies and forces in the fortress of Margat and improved the defenses, but this did not prevent them from deploying a contingent of 100 horsemen composed of 50 lances taken from among the knights and 50 turcopoliers to the king of Armenia.
They then took the port city of Tortosa, pillaged the region, captured many Muslims and sold them as slaves in Armenia while waiting for the arrival of the Mongols, but this only led to the Fall of Ruad, the last battle for the Holy Land.
[181] This document, La Devise des Chemins de Babiloine, detailed the strengths of Mamluk armies in Egypt and Syria and gave mileages of the various routes between Cairo and the Delta ports, dated between 1289 and 1291.
[182] Guillaume Caoursin was the fifteenth century historian of the Knights Hospitaller after 1460, writing Primordium et origo sacri Xenodochii atque Ordinis militiae Sancti Joannis Baptistae Hospitalariorum Hierosolimitani (Foundation and management of the hospital of Saint John in Jerusalem), a rewriting of the statutes of the Order.
