erunt, degeneres filii.... in deliciis enutriti, molles et
effoe minati, &c.]

[Footnote 125: This authentic detail is extracted from the Assises de
Jerusalem (c. 324, 326-331.) Sanut (l. iii. p. viii. c. 1, p. 174)
reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers.]

[Footnote 126: The sum total, and the division, ascertain the service
of the three great baronies at 100 knights each; and the text of the
Assises, which extends the number to 500, can only be justified by this
supposition.]

[Footnote 127: Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons brought
a voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxta statum suum.]

[Footnote 128: William of Tyre (l. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5) relates the
ignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers, who soon
deserted their humble patron, St. John the Eleemosynary, for the more
august character of St. John the Baptist, (see the ineffectual struggles
of Pagi, Critica, A. D 1099, No. 14-18.) They assumed the profession of
arms about the year 1120; the Hospital was mater; the Temple filia; the
Teutonic order was founded A.D. 1190, at the siege of Acre, (Mosheim
Institut p. 389, 390.)]

[Footnote 129: See St. Bernard de Laude Novae Militiae Templi, composed
A.D. 1132-1136, in Opp. tom. i. p. ii. p. 547-563, edit. Mabillon,
Venet. 1750. Such an encomium, which is thrown away on the dead
Templars, would be highly valued by the historians of Malta.]

[Footnote 130: Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to the
Hospitallers 19,000, to the Templars 9,000 maneria, word of much higher
import (as Ducange has rightly observed) in the English than in the
French idiom. Manor is a lordship, manoir a dwelling.]

[Footnote 131: In the three first books of the Histoire de Chevaliers de
Malthe par l'Abbe de Vertot, the reader may amuse himself with a fair,
and sometimes flattering, picture of the order, while it was employed
for the defence of Palestine. The subsequent books pursue their
emigration to Rhodes and Malta.]

The spirit of freedom, which pervades the feudal institutions, was felt
in its strongest energy by the volunteers of the cross, who elected for
their chief the most deserving of his peers. Amidst the slaves of Asia,
unconscious of the lesson or example, a model of political liberty was
introduced; and the laws of the French kingdom are derived from the
purest source of equality and justice. Of such laws, the first and
indispensable condition is the assent of those who