Rhodes - Island of the Knights

After the fall of Acre in 1291, the Order of the Hospital moved its base to Limassol in Cyprus. Their situation was precarious. They had limited income, having lost not only the commandery on the coast but also their estates throughout the Levant. Dependant on donations from Western Europe, involved in quarrels with their 'host', an understandably nervous King Henry II of Cyprus, the Knights Hospitaller also faced existential questions. 

With the loss of the Holy Land there were widespread doubts about the ongoing purpose of monastic military Orders. This was a debate that the Templars would go on to lose (1312), with executions of their leaders for 'heresy' and confiscation of their possessions. As soon as he was elected Grand Master of the Knights of St John the Baptist (1305), Foulkes de Villaret made plans for the conquest of an 'independent' base on the island of Rhodes.

The island is shaped like a spearhead, 80 kms long, and its most important attribute, the ancient port-city of Rhodes, is situated at its northern tip. The Knights landed in the summer of 1306, and quickly overran the mountainous and sparsely inhabited interior. The city and its valuable harbour was not so easily subdued and remained under Byzantine control. Emperor Andronikus II Palailogos sent reinforcements, which allowed the Greek inhabitants to hold out. It was not captured until August 15th, 1310.

"From 1309 to 1523, Rhodes was occupied by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem ... Under the rule of the newly named 'Knights of Rhodes', the city was rebuilt into a model of the European medieval ideal ... The city is located within a 4 kilometres long wall ... Partially erected on Byzantine foundations from the city's previous historical period, the ramparts of the city were constantly maintained and remodelled between the 14th and 16th centuries ... It is divided into the Upper Town, which lies to the north, and the Lower Town, in the south-southwest. Originally separated from the Lower Town by a fortified wall, the Upper Town, or Collachium, was entirely built by the Knights ... The famous and well-preserved Odos Ippoton (Street of the Knights) is the principal east-west axis of the Upper Town ... The street was lined with the seats, or inns, of the seven 'tongues' (langues) into which the Order was organised, in other words, the countries/regions from which the Knights originally came ... At the highest point of Odos Ippoton is located the Palace of the Grand Master, or the Kastello, which served as the administrative centre of the Order ... The gate of the palace, with its heavy wooden door and two enormous towers, is one of the most characteristic images of Rhodes. It was one of the first buildings to be built by the Knights and was completed in 1346 ... At the opposite end of Odos Ippoton to the palace lies the Great Hospital, which was built in the 15th century to replace an earlier hospice ... The Upper Town of the medieval city of Rhodes, with the Palace of the Grand Master, the Great Hospital, and the Street of the Knights, is one of the most beautiful urban assemblies of the Middle Ages."

[UNESCO World Heritage <artsandculture.google.com/story/medieval-city-of-rhodes-greece-unesco/pgXhA8PLJ0Xh9A?hl=en>]

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BECOMING A SERIOUS NAVAL POWER

"By 1310, the Knights Hospitallers had established themselves on the island of Rhodes, situated in the Aegean and within eyesight of the Anatolian coast. This brought them in direct conflict with the Turks of Asia Minor who had come to dominate Anatolia, forming a number of emirates along the western seaboard ... Over the course of the next 30 years, the Order's new island existence and ability to combat the Turks at sea placed them at the forefront of crusading activity, which by the 1340s had evolved into one directed solely against the Anatolian Turks."

1312   The fleet of an alliance between the emir of Masud and the Genoese was intercepted at Amorgos. The Order inflicted a heavy defeat over the emir, destroying 23 vessels and killing 800 Turks, for a loss of 57 'brethren' and 300 foot soldiers.

1319  This time there was an alliance between the Order and the Genoese brothers Zaccaria, who ruled the Greek island of Chios off the emirate of Aydin. Following good intelligence of Turkish fleet preparations at Ephesus, the Hospitallers combined their limited maritime forces of 3 galleys and 21 other ships with the Genoese who supplied 12 galleys and 8 'vessels' of their own. In the ensuing battle the Ottoman/Aydin fleet of 10 galleys and 19 other ships lost two thirds of their vessels  and between 2,000 and 3,000 men.

1332  A Christian naval league against the Muslim Turks was negotiated for five years. 20 armed galleys were committed as a permanent force, with 10 from the Byzantine empire, 6 Venetian, and 4 from the Hospitallers.

1334  A fleet of 34 galleys were gathered, including 10 Hospitaller, 10 Venetian, and the remainder from Cyprus, France, and the Papacy. The Turks lost 5,000 men and 150 of their ships were destroyed.

1343  Pope Clement VI proposed a new naval league of 20 Christian galleys, with the Knights supplying 5 of them. The presence of Hospitaller galleys contributed to victory at Pallena on the Chalkidike peninsular, where 24 Latin galleys attacked and captured 60 Turkish vessels.

1348  At the island of Imbros a Latin fleet including Hospitaller galleys overcame a larger Turkish force of 118 vessels and supplied reinforcements to a land battle ― 'subsequently able to capture and enslave the majority of the Turkish sailors who had fled to the island to escape'.

"In the first quarter of the fourteenth century, after the Hospitallers' establishment as an island order on Rhodes, the Knights were at the forefront of Latin resistance to the Turks. As the rulers of Rhodes, they were able to form an alliance with the nearby Zaccaria of Chios, using their combined naval power to achieve a significant naval victory over the forces of Aydin. After this the Hospitallers were considered as the principal Latin maritime in the region, featuring heavily in plans for a series of naval leagues during which they were regarded as a primary contributor of men and galleys, a major source of intelligence for Turkish affairs, and as a negotiator between crusaders and Turks. Up until 1333, the Knights were also operating a step ahead of papal crusade strategy ... they were present in nearly all of the major victories over the Turks in this period (1312, 1319, 1334, 1343, 1344, 1348) and undoubtedly expended a great amount of revenue in these operations ... the Hospitallers can be seen as the prime movers in the creation of a new anti-Turkish military strategy, one which emphasised the formation of local alliances in the Aegean ... Their transformation to an island order-state on Rhodes provided them with an ideal base from which to do this." 

[M Carr, 2013, 'The Hospitallers of Rhodes and their Alliances Against the Turks, 1306-1348', in Buttigieg & Phillips (eds), Islands and Military Orders, c. 1291-1798, Ch 15, pp 167-177.]

THE KNIGHT"S FIRST HOSPITAL ON RHODES

As soon as the Hospitallers occupied the city of Rhodes, they began using an existing building as an 'interim hospital'. Their construction of a built-for-purpose facility began around 1314 and was completed by about 1356. The priority as the Knights established themselves in the earlier years was fortification of the city and harbour, but the building was to serve as the Order's hospital until its replacement in 1483. It bears the arms of Master Pins who led the Knights from 1355 to 1365, and whose statue refers to the hospital serving the pilgrims, the poor, and the sick.

"The equipment of the hospital impressed the pilgrims. The English Anonymous of 1345, the first to mention the 14th century hospital inside the castle, describes that it was equipped:

      '[...] with nurses, medical assistants, lady-guardians and servants for all the infirm. There men are intent rather in honest games than in frauds and rape. Every offence there receives its complement of justice. There the pauper does not whimper, or does anybody leave it empty-handed. There the supply of fruit and delicious things abounds.'

Nevertheless, the hospital always constituted 'a religious place in which the inmates were associated with the liturgy'. Until the statutes of 1440, the focus was on spiritual healing and not on its medical aspects."

[The photograph above is 'The earlier hospital, main ward of the upper floor, view to the east, first half of the 14th century, Rhodes', before renovations by the Italians in the 1920s.]

"The main entrance was on the east facade at ground level to the central part of the edifice. Between 1355 and 1365 a building with two halls was added to the north ... On the upper floor of the central, oldest part, directly above the main entrance, there was an apsidal construction flanked by two pointed, arched windows ... the hospital's chapel ... The rest of this storey served as a large ward ... The hospital's chapel lay at the core of the institution; in Jerusalem, Acre, and Cyprus ... the chapels opened onto the wards. Similarly at Rhodes, the wards were directly linked to the chapel ... it was integrated into the main open ward where the sick were accommodated ... There were resident clergy assigned to the hospital ... Special prayers were said to [the patients], and particular care was shown ... [as well as] the celebration of mass and funerary rites."

"The main aspect connected with the exceptional religious care of the institution, which also contributed to its attractiveness is the [papal] indulgences that had first been granted to the Jerusalem hospital. Everyone who died in it or visited the sick on certain days could benefit from absolution, making the hospital a much desired destination for many Christians who became ill. According to Nompar de Caumont (1418):

      'All those who end their lives there are absolved from pain and guilt [in Purgatory] after confession and penance. This pardon was granted and confirmed by the Holy Fathers of Rome: and for this reason many great lords and others are transported there when they are sick, and they have mass services, are well cared for by doctors, they have good beds and good meat, at the expense of the hospital at Rhodes. And this hostel is called the infirmary, and all those who enter to visit the sick also receive certain days of indulgence.'

This information is repeated by Pero (1436-1437) and the Anonymous from Donaueschlingen (1441-1442)."

[S Zoitou, 2020, Staging Holiness: The Case of Hospitaller Rhodes (ca. 1309-1522), Ch 1, pp 13-139. <brill.com/display/book/9789004444225/BP00000009.xml>].

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THE BUSINESS OF DUBIOUS BODY PARTS

"At the original headquarters of the Order in Palestine, before they were expelled from Jerusalem in 1187 ... they had in their possession a considerable number of relics, among which those associated with the saints held a leading position ... After the fall of Acre in 1291 and the passage of the knights to Cyprus, many relics were lost, but a considerable number were saved and eventually transferred to Rhodes ... The central place of the relics of John the Baptist in the Knights' devotion is directly related to the high regard in which the Knights held their patron saint. Recruits into the fraternity professed faith in God, the Virgin and the Baptist."

Great emphasis was therefore placed on "the remains of the patron saint of the brotherhood, John the Baptist", and in particular "the possession of the Baptist's arm by the Knights". 

     The [FIRST] right arm of the Baptist was venerated in Rhodes. Its presence is attested to by the traveller Anselmo Adorno in 1471, the traveller Felix Faber in 1483, and a listing in the Catalogue of the Treasury of the Knights' Cathedral Church at Collachium in Rhodes compiled in the same year.

     The [SECOND] right arm of the Baptist arrived in 1484. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II donated it to the Grand Master (possibly in exchange for his continuing to keep a rival candidate for imperial rule away from Constantinople). After the sultan's ambassador delivered the second arm to Rhodes, all testimony and reference to the arm already in the Knights' possession ceased. Instead, the second arm was welcomed with ceremony and reverence.

The problem with provenance for relics is " a tendency to multiply. The Baptist's arm, always or almost always the right one, was no exception. At least seven arms of the saint are reported ... Monastery of St Mary Magdalene in Chateaudun ... Treasury of the Citeaux Abbey ... Church of the Baptist in Barcelona ... St Martin's church in Groningen ...Dionysiou Monastery at Mount Athos ... Topkaki Palace Museum in Constantinople ... Treasury of the Knights of St John in Malta ... Cetinje Monastery in Montenegro ..." Their "miraculous replication" is linked with "religious tourism". 

[A Katsioti, 2021, 'The arm of St John the Baptist in Rhodes and the diplomacy of relics among the Knights Hospitaller', Zograf, 45, 149-158.]

An alternative analysis of the phenomenon, equally earnest and just as thoroughly researched, may be worth considering here, in what is a confusing field of claim and counter-claim. Having enough evidence is not the problem. There is rather too much evidence and, in the end, nothing is believed. The argument below is from S Zoitou, 2020, in Staging Holiness, already cited in the previous section.

According to "frequent pilgrim's reports ... the [first] hand of John the Baptist was kept by the Hospitallers in the church of St John of the Collachium at Rhodes. The first reference comes from Luchino da Campo in 1413, mentioning the arm of St John the Baptist in the sacristy ... An anonymous pilgrim of ca. 1420 speaks only about the digit of the right hand with which the Forerunner pointed at Christ, saying Ecce Agnus Dei; in 1440 Hans Rot and Girnand von Schwalbach report seeing the same. Moreover, according to William III, Landgrave of Thuringia, travelling in 1461, and Jacob Kreynck in 1479, the Order was in the possession of the right hand of the saint ..."

"Nevertheless, it was in 1484 that the [second] right hand of the Baptist historically reached Rhodes, sent as a gift by Sultan Bayezid II from Constantinople , with the aim of pleasing the Knights and to ensure friendly relations between the two parties ... The right hand reached Rhodes with Cariati Bey, the Ottoman ambassador, on April 20th, 1484 ..." In the 1496 woodcuts depicting its translation and veneration, the ambassador in turban type head-ware (all the Knights have their customary cylindrical hats), first presents the Baptist's arm to the Grand Master. Then two angels 'present' the relic for 'adoration' while another angel points out to the Ottoman ambassador that it is indeed a holy gift to the Grand Master. The relic was then deposited in the Grand Master Aubusson's chapel to await the findings of a high-ranking committee of brethren sent to Constantinople to verify its history. Unsurprisingly, this was affirmed ― the arm had most certainly come to Constantinople from Antioch in 956 AD, when it had been placed in the Monastery at Petra until the fall of the city to the Turks in 1453. 

One faintly plausible hypothesis is that "the first relic was not an authentic one", that the knights "suspected the dubious identity of the already possessed relic", and simply used this opportunity to dump the less credible one. That shreds of bone and withered skin do not necessarily a genuine relic make holds true for a vast number of objects from medieval times, "a fact stated even by pilgrims in a casual manner".   The German Wilhelm Tzewers was travelling in the years 1477-1478.  "Reaching Rhodes in 1477, he visited the Conventual church and reports that the digit of the Baptist was kept there, although also exhibited in Rome at San Giovanni in Laterano with Christ's blood and the cloth he wore on the cross, and the said digit is again found in a church in Basel."

Still, it takes a fairly subtle theology to continue on as if this sort of subterfuge is acceptable. The article by A Katsioti, 2021, in the journal Zograf, seems similarly unfazed by the Knights' duplicity. It admits "there is important evidence that, after 1204 [when out-of-control crusaders and their Venetian creditors sacked Constantinople and auctioned the contents], with the proliferation and dispersal of the relics of the saint, the Knights of Rhodes had a direct or indirect connection with at least half of them [vis. Barcelona, Groningen, Genoa, Siena, Serbia]."  Apparently this was sort of all right because "if the journey to Rhodes was itself difficult or dangerous, the Order had a solution: specific places throughout Europe that were in their control or in some way associated with the fraternity had other alternate relics for the needs of local communities or pilgrims."  

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KNEELING KNIGHTS AND OUR LADY OF PHILEREMOS

      "The Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem ... exhibiting both warlike functions and daily prayers ... produced a distinctive Hospitaller iconography ... This hybridism is best exemplified by the surviving, yet heavily damaged, frescoes in the subterranean Chapel of St George of Phileremos in Rhodes, among which are found on the southern wall four knights kneeling in prayer, resplendent in red and white military garb and surrounded by shields ..."

[RM Cavaceppi, 2021, Hospitaller Aesthetics: The Self-Fashioning of a Supranational Military Religious Order', Etudes Episteme, 39, 1-17. <https://doi.org/10.4000/episteme.11670>].

"The chapel of St George Chostos ... is subterranean with a rectangular plan. It does not have an apse and it is surmounted by a barrel vault ... Its iconographical programme is extant on the side walls, the east wall, and the vault.

     On the south wall it consists of scenes with Knights [above image] and supplicants with their patron saints. On the northern wall, a Deesis ['supplication' or 'entreaty', a set-piece with Christ flanked by Virgin Mary and John the Baptist] is depicted at the eastern end, followed by the Archangel Michael stabbing the devil and two supplicants kneeling. Behind them, groups of laymen are shown under the protective mantel of patron figures, some of them female ... Seven scenes of the life of the Virgin are seen on the south part of the vault and seven episodes of the Passion on the north part. Christ Enthroned with Sts. Peter and Paul, two other saints, and at least one donor are depicted in the lunette of the eastern wall; one is bearded, wears a black robe with the hospital's cross, and kneels in front of the first saint on Christ's left ... In the lower zone there are: St George on horseback killing the dragon at the right; a red cross on a white background in the middle, and an unidentifiable scene to the left.

    The paintings, which bear many signs of overpainting, were restored in 1939 ... Their characteristic mixed, eclectic style, combining Western and Byzantine elements, could be attributed to either a Greek or a Latin master, but the poor state of presentation, due to humidity as well as their retouching, has impeded further analysis."

"The dating of the frescoes ... Iconographical elements on the side walls, in particular the type of Our Lady of Mercy protecting the faithful under her outspread cloak, and the type of armour of one of the figures, agree with the identification of the coats of arms as those of the Nantouillet family and a dating ca. 1367, when Regnault Nantouillet passed by Rhodes and possibly commissioned the works ... on behalf of himself and members of his family ['the patron of the murals was Regnault Nantouillet, who stayed for a while on Rhodes while travelling to Cypres in order to participate in the military campaigns of Peter of Cyprus against Alexandria in 1367']."

      The attention of the Hospitallers and other Crusaders was drawn to the site of the crypt  because of its pre-existing cultic significance. During excavations it was discovered that the original floor was lower than the paintings. A cistern had been placed there to collect spring water from underlying rock to the east, a source of 'holy water', fascinating to ancient worshippers as well as Christians. But it was the icon, or stylised representation, of the Phileremos Virgin that was the medieval drawcard.

     In 1396, pilgrim Olgier d'Anglure wrote of a small church with two pilgrims attending this icon, that was revered by all the island's inhabitants ― "Hospitallers, Greeks, and other merchants". About 1472, a German called Ulrich Leman recorded "a church, named Our Lady of Phileremos, on a mountain, where our dear Lady of Mercy, who works great miracles and is a big help in times of need for the traveling ships at sea, and they pay great reverence to her during their navigation."

"The Hospitallers had worshiped the Virgin as their perpetual supporter and protectress ever since their founding at St Mary of the Latins in Jerusalem. It is no surprise that soon after they established their rule on Rhodes they became actively involved with the sanctuary housing the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Phileremos." In moments of crisis, like the Ottoman siege of 1480 (and again in 1513 and 1522), the Order physically relocated her into the fortified city for safekeeping. "For the Hospitallers, the icon of the Madonna of Phileremos became ― along with the Baptist's hand ― their most prized possession."

     After the loss of Rhodes to the Ottoman Turks, "the Greek Nicolaus Metaxi saved it and took on board the carrack Sant'Anna, the main ship on which the brethren left Rhodes on January 1st 1523, where it was placed in a chest along with other major Hospitaller relics."

    After Napoleon's invasion in 1798, "the Master Fra. Ferdinand von Hompesch escaped from  Malta, taking with him the hand of the Baptist, the relic of the True Cross, and the Phileremos icon, all stripped down from their precious furnishings by the French."

"Only the panel of the Phileremos  seems to have been appropriated by the Knights as a miraculous icon ... In its present state, it is of small dimension (44 X 36 cm) but it consists only of a fragment of the original. Its condition does not permit a safe conclusion concerning the iconographical type or dating. It is clear that the painted surface consists of two parts : the face and the neck of the Virgin, which is painted on canvas, and part of her garments, which are painted on wood and develop around the face. This latter part bears many holes, especially in  its lower section, which surpass 130 in number and must have been created by the attachment of numerous votive offerings over the years ... the face could perhaps be dated to the 10th - 11th century, as part of a larger work of Hodegetria ['she who leads'] ... and the surrounding painting to the late 15th - early 16th century."

No part of the icon was created by the Apostle Luke in 46 AD, despite claims to this effect. She is old, but not that old.

[S. Zoitou, 2021, 'Our Lady of Phileremos', Staging Holiness, Ch 2, pp 193-233]. 

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MAINTAINING THE ILLUSION OF NAVAL POWER

"The Hospital never was a strong naval power and it could not conduct any major naval campaign of its own, but acted as a partner in leagues involving major allies as Venice, Rome or Naples. In peace-time it operated only 2 armed galleys, one of them patrolling around the islands with forty brother knights on board. The number of galleys could be doubled in time of war and augmented by armed vessels privately owned by Hospitaller knights or hired at great expense from merchants or corsairs."

For Example : 

"The Mamluks (Egypt) retaliated in August 1444 by sending an 85 galley armada with 18,000 soldiers and artillery to Rhodes ... and besieged the town for forty days. At sea the Hospitallers had available 8 galleys, five of which had been hired from Catalans (Spain) merchants and corsairs operating in Rhodes ... The attackers were unable to enter the town ... The Malmuks finally departed after failing to conquer the Hospitallers' island ..."

"The small Hospitaller fleet which had not exceeded at most ten to fifteen vessels, half of which had had to be hired, could patrol, spy and harass the enemy, but could not win a sea battle against an eighty-ship fleet nor impede its landing on the island. The Hospitallers were obliged to concentrate on defence rather than on attack ...

In 1453 the Order was faced with the likely consequences of the fall of Constantinople and with (Ottoman) Mehmet II's aim to dominate all of Greece and the Aegean islands ...

In the situation of warfare in which the Order was involved on sea ... it was usual that truces and temporary peace arrangements would separate periods of combat ...

It wanted to avoid galleys sailing during the winter months; the summer was most appropriate for raids against the enemy ... The vessels were generally armed for four-month periods and when a campaign was over, time and money were needed to prepare for the next one."

For Example : 

"... when in 1470 the Hospital joined the League organised by Pope Sixtus IV in support of Venice, the fleet comprised 85 galleys, including the Venetian ones (46), plus 20 which were supplied by the Pope, 17 by the King of Naples, and only 2 by the Order. 

... when in 1478 (Grand Master) D'Aubusson was informed by his spies that a Turkish fleet was being prepared ... he warned the knights to be ready for an imminent attack ...The Chapter general ... authorised the number of Hospitallers living at the Convent or in the Archipelago to be increased from 350 to 450 and decided on arming three more galleys.

... in 1180, about 70,000 Ottomans arrived on 160 vessels and disembarked on Rhodes with their artillery bombards. The siege lasted three months but ...the Ottoman attackers failed to enter the town and had to abandon the island after having suffered heavy losses.

... this allowed [the Knights] to claim that the Hospital was still a successful bulwark against the enemies of the faith."

[P Bonnead, 2012, 'Negotiation and Warfare: The Hospitallers of Rhodes Around and After the Fall of Constantinople (1426-1480)', Ordines Militares, XVII, 81-103]

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SERVING AT SEA ― THE SERVITUDO MARINA

"The operation of the Order's galleys required a substantial number of oarsmen, approximately 120 per galley ... The Knights Hospitaller on Rhodes obtained oarsmen through the Servitudo Marina, 'Service to the Sea', a system of hereditary naval service that was used until it was abolished in 1462. Following the abolition of the Servitudo Marina, the Order made widespread use of slaves, convicts known as Forzati and debtors known as Buonavoglia ... a similar shift occurred across the Mediterranean as traditional naval recruitment failed to provide enough oarsmen.

"Mediterranean galleys were long and sleek with little space for supplies ... every scrap of available space aboard a galley was occupied by the oarsmen and their benches ... The galleys were very cramped, the rowers slept on their benches and were exposed to the elements. There was little space for personal hygiene and the galleys stank. Naval engagements could last some time, the rowers would remain at their benches throughout, their effluence would soak into the timbers of the ship. The Knights would stuff their noses with tobacco and spices to cover the smell ... it was said that the odour of a gallery could be perceived a mile or more leeward ... It is not surprising that, given the conditions, many of those who owed the Servitudo Marina attempted to flee, slaves on Malta would injure themselves to avoid having to row, and the Order punished those who did with death."

[N McDermott, 2022, 'Hospitaller interactions with servile and enslaved peoples at sea and on land, from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century', Doctoral dissertation, Cardiff University.]

"The  emancipation of Rhodian serfs into the class of marinarii is especially interesting, for this social group formed an intermediate station between serfdom and full emancipation. Its members were registered with reference to their obligation to perform naval service, both rowing and fighting, on board Hospitaller galleys, the so-called servitudo marina, and were paid [sic] by the treasury only during the time they were actually serving on board ship, not throughout the year. This type of service was instituted in the first half of the fourteenth century, and the registry of those obliged to serve was kept by the Hospitaller admiral.

"The need to populate their ranks can be seen in a deed issued by Grand Master Jean de Lastie on 9 May 1449. In this case he ruled that ... the male offspring of the emancipated Alexios ... and the serf Irene, would enjoy the status of free marinarii ... In a second deed ... dated 26 September 1449, Jean de Lastie, with the approval of Fantino Quirini, admiral of the Order ... promoted the serf Nicephoros ... to the social class of the marinarii, notwithstanding the fact that both his parents were serfs ... The deed of manumission stipulated that not only he but his descendants of both sexes would remain in the legal category of marinarii ... In these instances the Grand Master acted thus in order to increase the population of marinarii through marriage and promotion of deserving serfs.

"['In Venetian Crete, serfs were likewise summoned by decree from time to time to declare whether they wished to serve in the galleys in return for manumission. Those accepting had to relocate to Candia or its Burgos so as to be available whenever required; otherwise, they remained serfs'.] ... On fifteenth-century Cyprus, Hospitaller serfs owed labour several days a week and additional labour services on the Order's estates. Furthermore, they had to pay one third of their harvest and one tenth of their livestock on the land the Order granted them for their own use, and could not leave the land without permission. Their marriages were regulated, and on their death a portion of their livestock reverted to the Order. The Hospitaller serfs on Rhodes lived under similar conditions."

[N Coureas, 2019, 'The Hospitallers and their manumissions of Rhodian and Cypriot serfs (1409-1459)', The Military Orders, Volume VII, Routledge, Ch 13, 150-159.]

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THE PLAGUE OF RHODES IN 1498

"The case of the great epidemic of 1498 is recorded in only one primary source ... a poem entitled 'The Thanaticon (Plague) of Rhodes' (c. 1500) ... written by the Greek scholar Emmanuel Georgillas (1445-1500) ... The poet supported the Order of St John ... coexistence between the Greek and the Latin population ... the Ottoman Empire as their common enemy ... He was an eye witness to the disaster ... The poem is written in Greek ... it consists of 644 verses that recount the events surrounding the epidemic."

Upon the completion of a thousand four hundred and ninety eight years

The island of Rhodes was struck by God-sent death and suffering

And it began in the month October and the lust of Death lasted for 20 months

At the time of the rule of Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson ...

Lament and say a word to Rhodes

Which lies in bereavement and mourning ...

your sturdy bodies are now being loaded 

and taken out into the plains, in order to be placed in the soil and darkness

without any prayer, with no hallelujah

you are taken and loaded onto mules ...

The relatives and the neighbours shut themselves into the houses

They closed the windows and the doors were barricaded

And the young men and women disappeared and the roads were emptied

And filled with grass and dirt and everything became ugly ...

And all the houses were now overseen by the Sanita ...

And the priest named Tsitzoulas was the first one

and he was the first to have been spurred by Death

but no one believed it and thus the bad beginning started ...

And you must listen to how it all began

when a ship brought it when it moored in the harbour

and on it Death was hiding in a sack

and there the priest had gone to sell them eggs

and Death sprang up and went to kiss him

Why did he, the unfortunate, do so and also took their clothes

And so death entered into his home and took him first

and the whole family, and after Death was free

he took away the entire neighbourhood ...

And the evil was as infectious as scabies ...

... and the nostrums of medicine did not help

and thus the Master ordered to close down those narrow streets of the town

as fast as possible

and to take out of town those who had been torn by the illness

and to put them in the cells of the monasteries

and there to isolate the sick families and married couples ...

... and he [the Grand Master] ordered that everyone be kept away from the women

and that no one touches them [the prostitutes]

and the backgammon, the cards and the dice all be thrown into the fire

and to stop all games that are bad for the soul ...

And all of us remember ...

what he gave to the poor, the widows and the orphans

and to everyone who was in need on those days ...

And how hard he, the glorious, tried to

drive the disease out of the Ospitale ...

 "According to the poem, Pierre d'Aubusson was an outstanding administrator at both the organisational and social level, with the Order giving money to widows and orphans while safeguarding the Hospital by transferring suspected cases outside town ... the deserted town with its citizens restricted to their houses by the decision of the Domini Sanitati ... the bodies of the deceased that were buried outside the town ... [the decision] to block the roads in the districts where the epidemic had appeared ... to build in and isolate the town and the expected death of its inhabitants ... to turn the monasteries of the island into quarantine stations ... to board all combatants [ranks of the Knights] on galleys that patrolled around the island ... the doctors being unable to help in any manner ..."

The new hospital was a prized asset, begun in 1439 but only completed quite recently in 1483. The building was 55 metres long by 65 metres wide and 14 metres high, with an upper floor main ward of 51 metres X 21 metres plus 11 'private' rooms. Besides doctors (medicus fisicus) and monk-nurses (volunteers for maximum of two years), there were surgeons (medicus cyrurgicus), a pharmacist (Aromatarius), and a hospital's keeper (Hospitalarius). This institution was protected by public policies of strict isolation that prevented it from being overwhelmed by the extent of the disaster.

[C Tsiamis, G Vrioni, E Poulaku-Rebelakou, V Gennimata, A Tsiakris, 2018, 'The Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes band the Black Death of 1498: a poetic description of the plague', Le Infezioni in Medicina, 3, 283-293].