oard were the
shattered remnants of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, accompanied
by 4,000 Rhodians, who preferred the Knights and destitution to
security under the rule of the Sultan Solyman. The little fleet was
in a sad and piteous condition. Many of those on board were wounded;
all--Knights and Rhodians alike--were in a state of extreme poverty.
For six months they had resisted the full might of the Ottoman Empire
under its greatest Sultan, Solyman the Magnificent; Europe had looked
on in amazed admiration, but had not ventured to move to its rescue.
Now they were leaving the home their Order had possessed for 212
years, and were sailing out to beg from Christendom another station
from which to attack the infidel once again.

The Knights of Rhodes--as they were called at the time--were the
only real survivors of the militant Order of Chivalry. Two centuries
earlier their great rivals, the Templars, had been dissolved, and a
large part of their endowments handed over to the Hospitallers. The
great secret of the long and enduring success of the Order of St. John
was their capacity for adapting themselves to the changing needs of
the times. The final expulsion of the Christians from Syria had left
the Templars idle and helpless, and the loss of the outlets for their
energy soon brought corruption and decay with the swift consequence of
dissolution. All through the history of the great Orders we find
the Kings of Europe on the lookout for a chance to seize their
possessions: any excuse or pretext is used, sometimes most
shamelessly. An Order of Knighthood that failed to perform the duties
for which it was founded was soon overtaken by disaster.

The Hospitallers had realised, as early as 1300, that their former
role of mounted Knights fighting on land was gone for ever. From their
seizure of Rhodes, in 1310, they became predominantly seamen, whose
flag, with its eight-pointed cross, struck terror into every infidel
heart. Nothing but a combination of Christian monarchs could cope with
the superiority of the Turk on land: by sea he was still vulnerable.
The Knights took up their new part with all their old energy and
determination: it is but typical that henceforward we never hear of
the "Knights" of Malta fighting as cavalry.

After various adventures the fleet found itself united at Messina,
whence it proceeded to Baiae. The election to the papacy of the
Cardinal de' Medici--one of their own Order--as Clement VII.