Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/106

CHAPTER IV.

1230—1291.

Re-occupation of Jerusalem by the Christians—Their expulsion by the Korasmins—Battle of Gaza—Death of Villebride, and election of Ohateauneuf—Reforms in the Order—Crusades of St. Louis—Sanguinary combat between the Hospitallers and Templars—Siege of Margat—Siege and fall of Acre.

Bertrand de Texis, whose election in 1230 was recorded in the preceding chapter, died in the following year. Of the career of his successor, Guérin or Guarin, nothing is known worthy of record. The traces of this Grand-Master’s rule are very scanty. In a document dated October 26th, 1231, his name appears as the head of the Order. A leaden bulla or seal of his is also affixed to a document now in the Record Office of Malta, bearing date 1233. He further appears to have been alive in May, 1236, but must have died in that year. In the seal, Guérin is seen kneeling before a cross; the cross of the order is visible on his mantle. The inscription runs:— “Frater Gerinus Custos Ospitalis Jherusalem.” At his death in 1236, Bertrand de Comps was elected as sixteenth Master, in which office he remained till the year 1241.

In addition to the attack made by the Pope on the discipline and morals of the Order, with which the reader is already acquainted, and which took place under his rule, Bertrand also witnessed the third re-occupation of Jerusalem by the Latins. Their brief tenure of the city, which had been the result of the treaty of Frederic with the sultan of Egypt, was brought to a close on the termination of that treaty. The sultan rejected all proposals for a renewal of its provisions, and drove the defenceless Christians out of the place. In the year 1240, however, Richard of Cornwall, brother of