_The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem_ (Pl. 58, Fig. 1) were originally not a military Order. This Order took its name and was founded at an hospital in Jerusalem by the merchants of Amalfi, in Italy, for the purpose of affording hospitality to the Pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and the first business of its members was to provide for such pilgrims at that hospital, and to protect them from insults and injuries on the road. The open country was perpetually exposed to the incursions of irregular bands of Saracen and Turkish horsemen, and any of the hapless pilgrims who were captured were put to death or sold into slavery. [Illustration: PLATE 58. (Fig. 1): A Knight Hospitaller. (Fig. 2): A Knight Templar. (Fig. 3): A Dominican Friar.] The Order was instituted about 1092 A.D., and was very much favoured by Godfrey of Bouillon and his successor, Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. The kindness of the Hospitallers to the sick and wounded soldiers of the First Crusade made them popular, and several of the Crusading princes endowed them with estates; while many of the Crusaders, instead of returning home, laid down their arms and joined the brotherhood. After a time, when their endowments became very great, they reconstituted the Order on the model of the Templars. From this time the two military Orders formed a powerful standing army for the defence of the kingdom of Jerusalem. As monks, they followed a rule of life founded upon that of St. Augustine, and wore a black mantle with a white cross on the left shoulder. They soon came to England, and had a house built for them in London about 1140 A.D., and from poor and mean beginnings obtained so great wealth, honours, and exemptions, that their Superior here in England was the first lay baron and had a seat among the Lords in Parliament; some of their privileges being extended even to their tenants. When on military duty, the knights wore the ordinary armour of the period, a red surcoat with a white cross on the breast, and a red mantle with a white cross on the shoulder. The smaller establishments upon their manors and estates were called _commanderies_, and the head of the house was known as the Commander. Sometimes their houses were called _preceptories_, but this term was more generally applied to the establishments of the Knights Templars. They had their headquarters at the Hospital of St. John, near Clerkenwell, where the gate (rebuilt in 1540) may still be seen. There were about 53 cells or commanderies attached to this hospital in different parts of the country, where the novices might be trained in piety and in military exercises.