Hemms, Damascus and Aleppo, were almost the only places of importance within that extensive territory which remained to the Mahometans. All the Christian princes professed to hold their territories of the king of Jerusalem. The principal of them were the kings of Cyprus, the princes of Antioch, the counts of Tripoli, the lords of Ibelin, Barout, Jaffa, Tiberias, Cesarea, Tyre, Napoulous, and Basan, the counts of Edessa, the lords of Heraclea, Margat, Adelon, Maugastears, Caiphas or Hapha, Memars and Morf. By degrees, the Christians lost the whole of their conquests; Jerusalem was taken from them in 1187.

St. John of Acre then became the Metropolis of the Latin Christians of the East, and was taken from them in 1291 (A. H. 690.)

Till the taking of the island of Rhodes by the Turks, the bishop of that island was primate of all the Egæan islands. On that event, the primacy was transferred to the

archbishop of Naxos. Several christian families of distinction inhabit that island: they are all the remains of the antient families of France, Spain, and Italy, who established themselves in Greece and Syria, in consequence of the victories of the Crusaders in the east.

VI. 2. To the crusades, several religious and military orders owe their rise. Some time before the first crusade, an hospital was established at Jerusalem, for the relief of the poor pilgrims who resorted there. In 1100, Gerard, the director of it, and his companions, professed themselves members of the order of St. Benedict, and formed a congregation, under the name of St. John the Baptist. It was approved by pope Paschal the 2d. In 1113, Raymond du Puy, the successor of Gerard, divided the order into three classes; to the nobles, he assigned the profession of arms, for the defence of the faith and the protection of pilgrims; the ecclesiastics were to exercise

their religious functions for the benefit of the order; the lay-brothers were to take care of the pilgrims and the sick. These regulations were approved by pope Calixtus the 2d; and the order then took the name of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. After the loss of the Holy Land, they retired to Cyprus; thence to Rhodes; in 1522, that island was taken from them, by Solyman the Great: Malta was then given them by the emperor Charles the fifth; from that time they have generally been known by the appellation of Knights of Malta.

The order of Knights Templars was established nearly about the same time, and for the same purposes, as that of the Knights of Malta. They took their name from a monastery given them by Baldwin the second king of Jerusalem, which immediately adjoined the temple in his palace. They were suppressed by the council of Vienne, in 1312. Few events in history are more

singular than that of their dissolution: the enormities of which they were accused, exceed belief, and it seems difficult to impute them generally to the order; on the other hand, they appear to have had the very fairest trial.

The Teutonick order was founded on the model of that of the Knights Templars. It was confirmed by pope Celestine in 1191. The knights conquered Prussia in 1230, and fixed the head seat of the order at Marienburgh. In 1525, the grand master embraced the protestant religion: since which time the head seat of the order has been at Margentheim, in Franconia.

The original object of the order of St. Lazarus, was to take care of persons infected with leprosy; in the course of time, it became a military order; the whole body returned with St. Lewis, into Europe in 1254. Afterwards it was united, in France, with the order of our Lady of Mount Carmel, and in Savoy, with the order of St.

Maurice. All these orders displayed heroic acts of valour in the enterprizes of the cru-. saders to recover the holy land.

VI. 3. The first victory of importance which, after the crusades, the christian princes gained over the Ottomans, was at the sea fight of Lepanto. In about a century afterwards the Turks invaded Hungary, with an army of 200,000 men, and laid siege to Vienna; John Sobieski, the king of Poland, at the head of 50,000 men, attacked their camp and obtained a complete victory over them, in 1689.

Since that time, however christendom may lament the extent of the territory of the Mahometan princes, she has had no cause of terror from the success of their

arms.

VII.

WITH respect to THE RELIGIOUS TE

NETS AND LITERARY HISTORY OF THE

MAHOMETANS: