Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/329

CHAPTER XII.

1503—1521.

Election of D’Amboise—Futile descent of Camalis—Capture of Turkish galleys and of the “Queen of the Seas”—Defeat of the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Ajaccio—Election and death of Blanchefort—Accession of Carretto—Usurpation of Selim—Conquest of Egypt by the sultan—Death of Selim and accession of Solyman—Death of Carretto— Description of Rhodes in 1521, and at present.

The death of D’Aubusson was speedily followed by that of the Pope, to the inexpressible relief of the whole Christian world, the scandalous iniquities which had disgraced his pontificate having excited the abhorrence of every one. Nowhere was the event hailed with greater joy than at Rhodes. The Pope had in his grasping rapacity seized upon all the appointments and emoluments in the possession of the fraternity as they successively became vacant, and either bestowed them on members of his own family or openly sold. them to the highest bidder. Remonstrances had proved utterly unavailing, and nothing seemed left to the Order but either tamely to submit to this wanton infraction of all their rights and privileges, or else to cast off their allegiance to the pontiff, who, vile though his personal character might be, was nevertheless recognized as the head of the church and their own immediate ecclesiastical superior. happily the death of Alexander obviated the necessity for such an alternative, and the knights were permitted to continue their maritime warfare against the Moslem under their new chief without further hindrance from the court of Rome.^[1]

1. The date quoted in the last chapter for the death of D’Aubusson as having taken place in 1503 is that given by all the older historians of the Order, but it has lately been disputed. Colonel Rottiers, who has carefully