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by Gordon Ellyson Abercrombie (Author)
This third of four volumes of Hospitaller history is believed to be the first in depth treatment of Hospitaller history during the years 1565 to 1623 since Bartolomeo dal Pozzo's Historia della Sacra Religione Militare di S. Giovanni completed in 1703. Following a post mortem on the 1565 Ottoman Siege of Malta, this third volume moves quickly into accounts of 1570's Hospitaller raid on the Ionian island of Santa Maura (modern Levkas), of the 1570 naval Battle of Cape Passero (Sicily), of the 1570-71 Ottoman Siege of Famagusta, Cyprus, and of the 1571 Naval Battle of Lepanto in Greece's Gulf of Patras, the most deadly naval battle in history. While mention is made in the latter instance of Christian Commander Don Juan, half-brother of Spain's King Philip II, there is lengthier treatment of Juan's Ottoman counterpart Muezzinzade Ali, and even lengthier treatment of numerous Hospitallers and lower-ranking Ottomans participating. It is by intention that these histories bring to light contributions of lieutenants, allies, and enemies as well as descriptions of events, heroism, agony, and even tedium leading to the headlines. Hence these four histories also deal with the Hospital's long war against bubonic plague, its prolonged suffering from the greed of Papal nepotism, its constant struggle to remain financially viable, its consequential participation in state-sponsored piracy, and its survival only on the backs of slaves. It is important to realize that Hospitallers were agents of a vast Catholic organization blanketing Europe, and while the largest group of Hospitallers were knights, perhaps half were Chaplains or Serving Brothers. In Europe there were an unknown number of commanderies or local concentrations of knights, chaplains, or serving brothers, perhaps a thousand, many with their own medical facilitity, each with one to thirty Hospitallers operating for-profit enterprises expected to support headquarters with a portion of the profit. And while history focuses on the headquarters, in these volumes at Rhodes, Malta, and in between, by far the majority of Hospitallers rarely or never visited headquarters. Furthermore, the Hospitaller Bailiwick of Brandenburg was a virtually independent organization said by some to be of a size approaching the remaining Hospital, electing its own Herrenmeisters, and with the coming of Martin Luther even abandoning Catholicism. But never quite severing all ties to the parent organization. Similarly the Hospital itself was a semi-independent arm of the Church at Rome. One might conclude, a long-suffering arm of the Church at Rome. The author hopes the reader finds this history as interesting and stimulating as did he.
