The Monks of War
Page 29
Although Hompesch never abdicated, in 1799 a group of Knights illegally elected the Emperor Paul of Russia as Grand Master. When this bizarre episode was ended by his death in 1801, the restoration of Malta to the Knights seemed assured, but the English, who had captured the island from the French, refused to give it up. The Spanish Grand Priories were confiscated in 1802, those of Germany, Venice and Lombardy in 1806, those of Rome, Capua and Barletta in 1808 and those of Russia in 1810. The handful of Knights who formed the ruling body of the Order took refuge in Sicily but the Sicilian Grand Priory was lost in 1826. The Grand Priory of Crato in Portugal went in 1834. Only the Grand Priory of Bohemia remained in the Order's possession, together with the Austrian commanderies of the former Grand Priory of Germany. It looked as though there was very little future indeed for the Knights of Malta.
In 1786 there were still a hundred Teutonic Knights with nearly fifty conventual chaplains. But in 1802 they lost most of their Rhineland commanderies, and in 1809 the rest of their German lands were confiscated by Napoleon, Mergentheim going to the King of Württemberg. The Teutonic Order was reduced to two bailiwicks in Austria. Perhaps Napoleon's dislike was fuelled by the knowledge that Archduke Charles, who defeated him briefly at Aspern in 1810, had been Hoch und Deutschmeister from 1801 to 1804.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the four Spanish Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa possessed some 200 commanderies among them. Often these were ruinous, but they were surrounded by rich estates whose revenues provided excellent incomes. There were also numerous houses of clerigos and commanders. Most were sacked more than once during the Peninsular War. It was the same with the three Portuguese Orders of Aviz, São Tiago and Christ.
Everywhere the political climate was implacably hostile towards the heirs of the monks of war.
Nevertheless, when the Napoleonic Wars ended, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta refused to despair. If Venice, the Serenissima, had vanished beyond recall, Valetta the Humilissima could be restored in exile, since new citizens could be found for it from among the nobles of Catholic Christendom. The age of Sir Walter Scott sympathized with the Knights, despite the politicians. (It was Scott who said that Valetta was a city for gentlemen built by gentlemen.) At least one politician was well disposed, the Austrian chancellor Prince Metternich, a member of the Order and for decades the most powerful man in Europe. The Grand Priory of Rome was re-established in 1816. As early as 1806 Gustavus IV of Sweden – who had been made a Knight of Malta by Tsar Paul – wished to give the Knights the Baltic island of Gotland, while in 1815 Metternich suggested Elba but with the unacceptable proviso that the Habsburgs should have the right to nominate Grand Masters. In the 1840s Ferdinand II of Naples (Grand Master of the Constantinian Order) offered them Ponza off the Neapolitan coast, but their fighting days were over.
When Lieutenant Master Busca left Sicily in 1825, Pope Leo XII, a former member of the Order, gave him a convent at Ferrara. Nine years later, Gregory XVI told the Lieutenant Master Candida to install himself in the Order's former embassy at Rome, a palazzo at the foot of the Spanish Steps. Candida reestablished the novitiate, taking over a hospice at the Ponte Sisto where once again novices served 'My Lords the Sick' as in the days before 1798. The Grand Priories of Barletta, Capua and Messina were restored in 1839 as the Grand Priory of Naples and Sicily, as were those of Lombardy and Venice in the same year, also as a single Grand Priory. New commanderies were endowed in Italy and Austria, while national associations were founded all over Europe. Everywhere there was a return to hospitaller ideals. Neapolitan Knights financed an operating theatre at Naples from 1859. German and Austrian Knights organized nursing in the Danish War of 1864, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, while the Order was represented at the Second International Red Cross Conference in 1869.
In 1878 Pope Leo XIII appointed the first Grand Master since 1805, Fra' Giovanni-Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce. The Order's sovereignty was recognized by several Catholic states; Austria had never ceased to do so. Its nursing services increased steadih During the First World War it ran field-hospitals and hospital trains for the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies. By 1921 it was supporting homes and clinics at Rome, Naples, London and Paris, and near Jerusalem. It numbered 1,800 members of all grades, including forty Knights of Justice in vows and 250 Knights of Honour and Devotion – not in vows but with the necessary proofs of nobility.
The Teutonic Knights also recovered during the nineteenth century. In 1834 Emperor Francis I gave them sovereign status within Austrian territory. Yet while the Order retained impressive commanderies, such as the castle of Bozen (Bolzano) in the Tyrol or the Deutscheshof at Vienna with its beautiful Gothic church, his gesture seemed a little hollow, since there were only eleven Knights. It looked as if the Order might die out. However Archduke Maximilian Joseph, who became Hoch und Deutschmeister in 1835, initiated a restoration of hospitaller and pastoral activities. Hospitals and schools were founded, sisters being recruited to staff them; the order's priests took on parish work, living together in community. Archduke Wilhelm, who succeeded Maximilian in 1863, introduced the Ehrenritter or Knights of Honour, modelled on those of Malta and recruited from the greatest German families of the Habsburg monarchy. There were also the 'Marianer' or distinguished friends of the Order, who wore a neck cross very like that of the Knights.
15. Book plate of the last Hoch und Deutschmeister, c. 1894
Professed Knights continued to form the heart of the Teutonic Order. In 1914 there were twenty of them, together with thirty Knights of Honour. They had to show sixteen quarterings, that each great-great-grandparent had been of German noble birth, and they took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They grew beards as the rule stipulated. The habit was a white tunic with a large black cross and a white cloak with a similar cross, black thigh boots and a plumed black hat being worn on ceremonial occasions. All were serving or former serving officers of the Imperial and Royal army like their superior, who remained colonel of the Hoch und Deutschmeister Regiment. A crack infantry corps, this had many battle honours and a famous band. On the eve of the First World War, the Order supported nine hospitals, seventeen schools and fifty parishes, run by two congregations of priests and four of sisters.
Archduke Eugen, who became Hoch und Deutschmeister in 1887, was both a devout religious and an Austrian general who played an important role in defeating the Italians at Caporetto in 1917. Throughout the Great War, like the Order of Malta the Teutonic Order financed and staffed field-hospitals, the Marianer serving as ambulance-drivers or stretcher-bearers.
After the fall of the monarchy, the Austrian republic resented the Teutonic Order as a 'Habsburg fiefdom'. In 1923, in order to ensure its survival, Archduke Eugen handed over his powers to the priest brethren, who accepted his abdication with the utmost reluctance. Six years later they reorganized the Order as a mendicant brotherhood of priests, one of whom was elected Hochmeister – no longer Hoch und Deutschmeister. No more Knights were professed, though Knights of Honour (who no longer needed proofs of nobility) were sometimes created. The priest brethren retained the white cloak with its great black cross.
In 1874 Pope Pius IX united the four Spanish orders under a conventual prior at Ciudad Real in La Mancha, who was nominated by the king. Each order preserved some degree of autonomy and kept its distinctive cross. Open only to great noblemen, the membership of all four, including freyles caballeros and clerigos, amounted to fewer than 200.
In 1916 Alfonso XIII took the title 'Master of the Four Orders', a title of which he was extremely proud. Not only did he wear the white habito with the four crosses during their ceremonies at Ciudad Real, but he had the crosses embroidered on the inside breast-pocket of all his suits.
By contrast, the Portuguese military orders, dispossessed in the 1830s, never recovered. They survived vestigially in the form of national orders of merit. As their Master, on state occasions the King of Portugal wore
an enamelled badge which bore the three crosses of Aviz, Christ and São Thiago. A similar badge is still worn by the Portuguese president.
Persecution came again in the 1930s. After the Anschluss Hitler dispersed the Teutonic Order, confiscating its property and harrying its members because of its Habsburg associations. The Spanish orders had fallen into abeyance when King Alfonso abdicated. During the Civil War two of Calatrava's convents of commendadoras were sacked, but luckily their other house was safe at Burgos. The Order of Malta's most famous convent of nuns in Spain, Sigena, was destroyed by Republicans in 1936.
The Knights of Malta weathered the mid-twentieth century, though they lost their ancient commanderies in Bohemia. There was talk of giving them Rhodes during the 1930s and again in the late 1940s, of Ibiza in the 1950s, talk which sadly came to nothing. However, they enjoy excellent relations with the government of Malta and once more occupy Fort St Angelo.
The Palazzo Malta (the Order's headquarters) in Via Condotti at Rome and its villa on the Aventine are extra-territorial – the world's smallest sovereign state. The Order exchanges ambassadors with more than forty countries, issuing passports. (King Umberto of Italy travelled on an Order of Malta passport.) The Grand Master and the bailiffs who govern the some 10,000 Knights, Dames and Chaplains are mainly Knights of Justice – noblemen who take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.*
In Europe recruitment is balanced between the old ruling class and the new élite, but the emphasis remains aristocratic. At the time of writing the President of the French Association is Prince Guy de Polignac, and almost every French bailiff descends from men who held government office under the ancien régime or the Restoration. King Juan Carlos's present successor as President of the Spanish Association is the Marqués de Pelerinat, Grandee of Spain. The President of the Portuguese Knights is the Marquez de Monfalim. Don Francesco Colonna, Duke of Garigliano, has been succeeded as President of the Italian Association by Don Giovan-Pietro dei Duchi Caffarelli. The President of the German Knights is Prince Johannes Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg. The Prince Grand Prior of Austria is Fra' Wilhelm Prince Liechtenstein (whose Knights include ten Habsburg Archdukes). The Lieutenant of the Grand Priory of Bohemia, where the Order has recovered its commanderies, is Franz Prince Lobkowicz. The President of the Polish Association is Count Tarnowski, of the Belgian the Prince de Ligne.
The 'Recusants', those old Catholic landed families who have always stayed faithful to Rome, form the backbone of the British Association. In the New World, however, the Associations of the United States and Australia consist almost entirely (though not exclusively) of Knights of Magistral Grace, who are not asked for proofs of nobility. Mainly of Irish-American descent, they are frequently men of great wealth and influence.
The heart of the Order continues to be the professed Knights of Justice, of whom there are about forty. The rite of profession – the taking of solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience – is the living link with the men who died at Hattin or at Acre, and who triumphed at Malta in 1565. The sword is blessed before Mass, sprinkled with holy water and presented to the kneeling, red-coated candidate, who is told: 'Wound no man unjustly.' The candidate is then girded with a sword-belt, exhorted to be chaste and to practise the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. Golden spurs are fastened to his heels, a 'spur for the heart', reminding him to hold gold in contempt.
The new Knight is then made a monk. Clothed with the black habit, he is told that it commemorates the Baptist's camel-hair and must be worn as a penance for sins, that the points of its cross stand for the eight beatitudes. He is given a stole embroidered with emblems of the Crucifixion to keep him always in mind of the 'Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ'. On ceremonial occasions he wears a red military uniform with white facings under a black choir-mantle with a white eight-pointed cross on the left shoulder. (Those not in vows have similar uniforms, with black facings, but generally wear black habits or 'choir-mantles' with a white cross in outline on the breast.)
Professed Knights live a monastic life in the world, while in some ways Knights not in vows resemble Franciscan tertiaries. The Order's hospitaller activities range from Peru to Pakistan, from California to Eastern Europe – funding and administering hospitals, providing ambulance brigades and sending medical supplies to areas stricken by natural disaster. German Knights sponsor the Malteser Hilfendienst, one of the largest relief and rescue operations in the world.
16. Hospitallers practising their vocation
However, the first precept of all Knights of Malta is 'tuitio fidei'. Membership of the Order imposes the solemn duty, at all times and in all circumstances, of defending the Faith as enshrined in the teachings, doctrines and traditions of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, and of owing a particular personal loyalty to His Holiness the Pope as Christ's Vicar on earth and the supreme authority of his 'Religion' – the Order. This duty takes precedence of every other obligation. The Knights have never forgotten that, nearly nine hundred years ago, they were founded by a papal bull.
In recent years British members of the Order of Malta have been delighted by the election of the first English Grand Master for seven centuries and by the restoration of the ancient Grand Priory of England. In 1988 Fra' Andrew Bertie became the 78th Grand Master. He is a collateral descendant of Sir Edward Bellingham, Knight of Malta and last Commander of Dinmore in Herefordshire from 1530 to 1540. The Italian press's fascinated interest in the election of the 'papa crociato' – the Crusader Pope – underlined the Order's enormous prestige in modern Italy. In 1993 the pope gave permission for the restoration of the Grand Priory of England, founded during the twelfth century but dissolved by Henry VIII and again by Elizabeth I. A minimum of five Knights of Justice is required by the Code de Rohan (the Order's legal code) for the establishment or re-establishment of a Grand Priory. Fortunately there were now seven English Knights in vows or preparing to take vows. The 55th Grand Prior of England is Fra' Matthew Festing, the Field Marshal's son.
After the Second World War the Teutonic Order proved highly successful at re-establishing itself in Austria and in northern Italy in its new clerical form. Currently (1995) it numbers about forty priests, ten brethren preparing to be priests and ten lay-brothers, with nearly 300 sisters, and has a fine hospital in Carinthia. The Hochmeister is Pater Dr Arnold Wieland OT.
The last professed Teutonic Knight died in 1970 – he had become a priest of the Order – and there is very little prospect of his ancient vocation being revived. However, there are twelve Teutonic Knights of Honour (among them Prince Franz-Josef of Liechtenstein) who wear the white cloak. There is also an Association of Friends (Familiaren) of the Teutonic Order, whose 600 members have taken the place of the Marianer. On ceremonial occasions they wear a black cloak with a white Teutonic shield and the old Marianer neck-cross.
The Order's headquarters are at the Deutscheshof in Vienna, with its beautiful Gothic church and treasury. In 1957 the Order recovered another historic commandery, the Sachsenhaus at Frankfurt. (The Marienburg, destroyed by Russian bombardment in 1944, has been magnificently rebuilt and restored by the Polish authorities.) Until a few years ago, a handful of the Order's priests in the Tyrol used horses to visit their mountain parishes, and it was oddly moving to see horsemen ride by who were clad in the Teutonic Knights' white cloak with its great black cross.
In Spain new freyles caballeros of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa were at last admitted in 1986, the first for fifty-six years. The Grand Master and Perpetual Administrator of the Four Orders is, of course, King Juan Carlos, who appoints a Dean-President of the Council. The first was the king's father, the late Count of Barcelona, who has been succeeded by HRH Prince Carlos de Borbon y Borbon. The Prior is the Bishop of Ciudad Real, whose cathedral is the church of the Priorate of the Military Orders. The heir to the throne, Don Felipe, Prince of the Asturias, is a Knight of Santiago and has been clothed with the white habito, which still bears t
he red sword-cross of St James. Once again there are a Clavero of Calatrava and Clavero of Alcántara, each with the gold key of his office. Four quarterings of nobility are required for admission, and membership is restricted to Spain's proudest families, those of the Grandees – there are fewer than 150 freyles caballeros and novicios. The Knights promise to place their personal fortunes at the Grand Master's disposal, to observe marital chastity, and to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
The Constantinian Order of St George is one of the last links with the old Kingdom of Naples, its 28th Grand Master being HRH Prince Ferdinand Maria, Duke of Castro, Head of the Royal House of Bourbon Two Sicilies. It is deeply respected throughout Italy and not just in the Mezzogiorno, with over 1,000 members. A former President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, was a Grand Cross while the Italian government allows its diplomats and army officers to wear the insignia. To some extent it is an international order; among its Knights are the Pretenders to six thrones, nine Nobel prizewinners, a former Secretary-General of NATO and several members of the House of Lords. There is a British Association whose President is Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton. Relations with the Church are excellent, over twenty Cardinals having accepted its Grand Cross. There are also close links with the Order of Malta. The Constantinian Knights support specific charitable works, those in Britain contributing to the relief of drug addicts and alcoholics.