History of the Order of St. John

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Flag of the Order of St. John
Flag of the Order of St. John
Brother Gerhard from the hospital in Jerusalem
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Brother Gerhard from the hospital in Jerusalem
Convent of the Order of St. John
The convention, consisting of the Grand Master and the eight representatives of the "tongues"
Krak des Chevalliers order castle
The Krak des Chevaliers in a reconstruction drawing from the 19th century - however, it shows the maximum expansion stage around 1290 with numerous buildings by the Mamluks. (G. Rey)
Acre (old town and port)
The port of Acre in a current aerial photo

The Order of St. John arose after the conquest of Jerusalem by the army of the First Crusade in 1099 as the Order of the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem (Latin name: Ordo Hospitalis sancti Johannis Ierosolimitani ). The order was also called the Knightly Order of St. John of the Hospital in Jerusalem , the knights were called Johanniter or Hospitaliter .

After the fall of the Crusader states , the seat of the order was first moved from Acre to Cyprus in 1291 and to Rhodes in 1309 . During the time on Rhodes the knights were also called Rhodesians . After the island was conquered by the Ottomans , the order settled in Malta in 1530 after several intermediate stops . This is how the names of the Maltese and the Order of Malta , which are common today, came about . The official name is: Sovereign Knights and Hospital Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta .

In 1538 a Protestant branch of the order was established, which is still called the Order of St. John . The Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe is an aid organization of this Protestant branch of the order.

Pilgrim Hospital in Jerusalem

The order emerged from a pilgrim hospital, the Muristan , first mentioned in 1048 , which had been donated by merchants from Amalfi long before the first crusade . This was dedicated to John the Baptist , from which the name Johanniter is derived. Pilgrims represented an important economic factor, which is why protection and care of them indirectly benefited all residents of the Mediterranean region. The care of the sick was taken over by friars.

The report of the pilgrim Johannes von Würzburg has come down to us from around 1160 :

"... a hospital is connected, which collects, cares for and restores a large number of the weak and sick in its various buildings, which means high costs. During the time that I was there myself, as I learned from the serving brothers myself, the number of sick people was up to two thousand. They were so plagued by illness that sometimes more than 50 dead people had to be carried out in a full day. But more and more were added over and over again. ... Such an unmistakable benevolence unfolded from the fact that poor people who asked for bread were given even if they stayed outside the home. "

The founder of the order is the Blessed Gerhard Tonque (around 1040–1120). He was the head of the Hospital Brotherhood that ran the Pilgrim Hospital in Jerusalem when the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem. In the following years the hospital fraternity gained considerable popularity. Under Raimund von Puy (1120–1160), who succeeded the founder of the order, from 1120 to 1140 the change from hospital brotherhood to religious knightly order took place . Under him, the activity of the order expanded gradually from the care and accommodation of pilgrims to their military protection. The young Templar order served as a model for this .

Pilgrim hospital in Akkon

After taking Acre in 1104 by the Crusaders, the Hospitallers took over as her Coming of the great Friday Mosque an em southwest (at the time under construction / demolition for the new Holy Cross Cathedral ), which Ze'ev Goldmann as an Arab-Fatimid caravanserai of 10 . or 11th century identified.

In 1110, Baldwin I of Jerusalem confirmed the Johanniter ownership of other buildings donated to them north of Accos Cathedral of the Cross. In response to the donations, the Johanniter began their commissions in Akko north of the hospital's original quarter at the beginning of the 12th century . In the 1130s, when the new north portal of the cross cathedral was added, neighboring Johanniter buildings had to give way, whereupon the religious order abandoned the location north of the cathedral and in the middle of the 12th century expanded its branch further west to include a new religious house, which is now the Grand Manoir in the substructure of today's Representing citadel . The oldest record of this building comes from 1141 from the time of the Queen-Regent Melisende of Jerusalem.

Model of the Kommende with Johanniterkirche (left) and Grand Manoir (right), connected by a bridge over a shopping street, view from the east and as of before 1291

As the new north side of the hospital courtyard, south on a commercial street and now in the center of the Kommende, which extends on both sides of this street, the Johanniter built their church dedicated to John the Baptist , a little west of the Cross Cathedral. The oldest news from this Johanniskirche comes from the year 1149.

Establishment of the order of knights

At that time the order consisted of knights , church service was performed by priests, and non-aristocratic brothers were also entrusted with nursing the sick. Raimund himself still called himself a master, the title of grand master was not granted to Hugo von Revel until 1267 by Pope Clemens IV .

Initially, the Johanniter wore a simple black monk's habit. As the original hospital service was more and more supplemented by the armed protection of pilgrims and the fight in crusade areas, from the 13th century they wore a black overcoat with a white cross on it that ended in eight points. In addition to the noble knights of the order, a large number of non-nobles also served the order. The auxiliaries, who did not belong to the order, were called "sergeants". A distinction was made between the mostly non-aristocratic sergeant brothers who had taken their religious vows but did not meet the entry requirements of the knight brothers. These sergeant brothers performed the same service as the knights, but were excluded from leadership positions. They wore a different uniform and equipment, e.g. B. in the early days brown instead of black coats.

Settlements of the knightly orders in Outremer until 1291

Until then, the order's aim was to serve sick people, but the order's second mission was to combat unbelief and protect pilgrims. In 1136 a castle was entrusted to the Hospitallers for the first time, the Gibelin Castle built the year before on the road from Askalon to Jerusalem . In the 1140s, more fortresses were offered to the order. Count Raymond II of Tripoli pledged to him not to make any peace without his consent. Impressive testimonies to the history of the Order of St. John in the Holy Land are Belvoir Castle in Israel, built in the 12th century, Krak des Chevaliers Castle, which was taken over in 1142, and Margat Castle (Qalaʿat al-Marqab) in Syria, which came into the possession of St. John in 1186 . By 1187 the order had acquired or built a total of 25 castles in Outremer , 15 of them in Syria and 10 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem .

From the middle of the 13th century it became customary for members of the order to wear a red coat with a white cross in times of war. At that time the Johanniter wore a simple cross in the form of the " Jerusalem Cross " in their seals , later a simple white cross. In the time of Rhodes this cross shape changed to a cross with notched tips. The current shape, known as the Maltese Cross , did not actually become the typical emblem of the Knightly Order until the Maltese era. Since 1262 the statutes of the order stipulated that only aristocrats were allowed to serve as knights, but only from 1555 were descendants of families of Muslim or Jewish faith denied membership.

internationalization

The hospital fraternity was well known for health care. Already on February 15, 1113 Pope Paschal II issued the privilege Pia postulatio voluntatis , in which the order was released from the obligation to pay tithes and placed under papal protection. His possessions in Europe and Outremer were confirmed to him. The Brotherhood was also free to choose its chair. In 1117 the hospital itself became independent. The St. Johns chose the Augustine rule as a rule of the order . Foundations of many nobles from all parts of Europe increased the fortune and were also used to set up wards and smaller hospitals on the pilgrimage routes. Bari , Otranto , Taranto , Messina , Pisa , Asti and Saint-Gilles (southern France) were mentioned. At the same time, the brotherhood received papal recognition. With the privilege “Christianae fidei religio” of October 21, 1154, the order was lifted out of episcopal jurisdiction by Pope Anastasius IV and placed directly under the Pope as an order. Colleagues of the order as serving brothers had to take the vow of obedience, members serving as knights or priests also had to take vows of chastity and poverty, the latter merely signifying the renunciation of private property.

Order knights also took over the administration of the order's property outside the Mediterranean area. The proceeds from the possessions were partly transferred to the order itself, partly they enabled the knights to be supplied on site as benefices. This system made it possible to provide for knights who, as sons who were not entitled to inheritance, had no property of their own and were therefore no longer forced to choose between a purely military or a church career. These administrators had a great interest in ensuring that the assets generated from the benefice were not withdrawn, but remained in the benefice. The conflict of interests between the order's headquarters and local administrations continued to be a major problem for the order.

In 1156, Emperor Friedrich I "Barbarossa" confirmed all possessions in the Holy Roman Empire to the order . In 1185 he placed the order under his protection and exempted it from paying all taxes.

In 1206 so-called "tongues" were formed as national associations of knights. Within these tongues there were (grand) priories, which in turn were divided into balleien and coming . A ball brought together several comers from a (grand) priory. This organizational structure remained essentially unchanged until the end of the 18th century. The German tongue was temporarily assigned to Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden as well as Bohemia, Hungary and Poland.

Order leadership in Acre

In 1187 Jerusalem and Acre fell into the hands of the Sultan Saladin . The Ayyubids held Acre until crusaders, led by Richard the Lionheart, recaptured it in battles between 1189 and 1191 . Since the Crusaders were unable to regain Jerusalem at the time, the Order moved its headquarters to Acre in 1191. In 1224 the Johanniter were so strong there that the administration of the city was handed over to them. In addition to the Hospitallers, the Teutonic , Lazarus and Templar Knights had religious houses in Akko. Acre was reinforced by underground fortifications.

New town of Montmusard (left) separated by the old wall from the old town of Akko (right), in it the Johanniterkommende (rectangular block with entry hospitals ), easted plan by Marino Sanudo d. Ä. (1260-1338)

The Order of St. John now expanded its regained commander in stages in order to also accommodate the central administration of the order and, from 1271, the Grand Master there. The predominantly French-speaking tongues of the Johanniter also called their main administration Grand Manoir (Great Manor).

The northern Grand Manoir served two main purposes, it was a place of residence, practice and residence as a hospice (on the map: hospitale) for knight brothers and pilgrims as well as the administration of the order. From there, the activities in the defense of the Holy Land as well as in the Reconquista in Spain were directed.

With the final fall of Jerusalem on August 23, 1244 and the Battle of Gaza on October 17, 1244, the retreat from the Orient began under Grand Master Guillaume de Chateauneuf (1242–1258). In terms of personnel, the Order was greatly weakened. When the Egyptian Mamluks besieged Acre in 1291 , their - allegedly - 66,000 cavalrymen and 160,000 infantrymen faced just 800 knights and 14,000 foot soldiers. With the fall of the fortress on May 28, 1291 and the associated final loss of the Holy Land for the Crusaders, Limassol on Cyprus initially became the new headquarters of the Order of St. John.

The order went through a phase of disorientation. Several general conventions between 1292 and 1294 brought no results. In 1296 the Pope was asked to fulfill his duty of supervision over the order. In 1300 Wilhelm von Villaret could only be persuaded by the convention to take his stay as the new Grand Master at the seat of the order in Cyprus.

The ideal splendor of the Crusades gave way to increasing frustration and in Europe the conviction spread that the knightly orders were not using the donations they received appropriately. The latter was particularly true of the Templars, whose wealth and influence were disproportionate to their activities in the fight against the "enemies of Christianity". The Johanniter would have shared the fate of the Knights Templar had it not been for Fulko of Villaret, who had conquered Rhodes from 1306 to 1309, had been accused of inaction.

Ascalon

During the crusade of the barons 1239-1241, the city and fortress of Askalon was occupied for the last time by the crusaders, fortified and handed over to the Hospitaller Order. In 1244 it was besieged unsuccessfully by the Ayyubids . In the summer of 1247 a siege began by the Mamlucken, they conquered the city on October 15, 1247 and largely destroyed it. After the final end of the Crusades in 1291, the diocese of Ascalon was assigned as the titular diocese of Ascalon until Vatican II .

Banat of Severin (Hungary)

King Béla IV. Of Hungary convened in 1247 the Knights into the Banat known by Severin Mark that, they defended then dominated for a short time and populated.

organization

The branches of the Order of St. John in Europe around 1300

In 1301 the order and the hierarchy of the tongues were reorganized:

  • Provence: includes the south of France with two major priories in Toulouse and Saint-Gilles
  • Auvergne: Central France with the Grand Priory of Bourganeuf
  • French tongue: Great Priory France with Northern and Western France; In 1317 divided into the greater priories of Aquitaine (Poitiers), Champagne and France
  • Spain: the Iberian Peninsula with major priories for Aragon (Amposta), Catalonia, Castile and León, Navarre and Portugal
    • Division in 1462:
      the great priories of Amposta, Catalonia and Navarre form the tongue of Aragon;
      the great priories of Castile-León and Portugal form the tongue of Castile
  • Italian tongue: with the grand priories Messina, Barletta, Capua, Rome, Pisa, Lombardy and Venice
  • English tongue: with the great priories of England, Scotland and Ireland
  • German tongue: with the major priories Bohemia, Upper and Lower Germany, Dacia (= Denmark), Sweden, Poland and Hungary

Religious offices

  • Grandmaster
  • Grand Chancellor (Foreign Minister, tongue of Castile)
  • Grand Commander ( Treasurer , tongue of Provence)
  • Grand Marshal (Minister of War, tongue of Auvergne)
  • Großballei (supervisor of the fortifications, tongue of Germany)
  • Major Conservator (Head of Internal Administration, tongue of Aragon)
  • Hospitalier (supervisor of all charities, tongue of France)
  • Admiral (commander of sea ​​power , tongue of Italy)
  • Turko-Polier (general of the cavalry, tongue of England)

Abolition of the Knights Templar

With the abolition of the Templar Order (1312), Pope Clement V ordered the transfer of the Templars' property to the Johanniter with the papal bull “ Ad providam ” on May 2, 1312. This gave the Johannites additional possessions in Europe, but also corresponding disputes with local rivals over these goods.

Order of St. John in Germany

The possessions of the Order of St. John in Germany were considerably smaller than in other tongues. In 1154 the Johanniter founded their first settlement on German soil in front of the walls of the city of Duisburg , where they built the Duisburg Marienkirche. The Commandery in the Eifel town of Adenau is one of the oldest religious houses (founded in 1162) in Germany . In 1160 Albrecht the Bear donated the church to Werben and six Hufen land to the Order of St. John . For 250 years Werben was the seat of the Order's government for Brandenburg, Pomerania and the Wendenlande. From there, expansion went, for example, in western Mecklenburg via the Sülsdorf priory to the Kraak commandery . The Maltese Commandery has been mentioned in Herrenstrunden since 1290, and in 1328 it became the Ordens-Ballei and thus the central authority for the administration of the Order Province. After the Templar Order was banned in 1312, the Kremmen Treaty of 23 January 1318 transferred the Templars' holdings in Brandenburg to the Johannites by Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg . This included, for example, the Tempelhof Commandery , which they sold to the cities of Berlin / Cölln as early as 1435 .

From 1505 to 1806 the seat of the German Grand Priory was in Heitersheim .

Rhodes

The city of Rhodes
Rhodes in a view from 1493
The order as a sea power
A galley of the Order
Order's galley - wooden model

After disputes between the Order and the King of Cyprus, the then Grand Master Fulko de Villaret came up with the plan in 1306 to conquer Rhodes , which was poorly defended by Byzantium , which he succeeded in 1309. The Johanniter ruled the island for over 200 years. Rhodes was strongly fortified and a mighty Grand Master's Palace was built. The knights defended the island against various attacks, including the Egyptians under Jakmak . Disputes, high credit claims for the expansion of Rhodes and problems with the recruitment of new knights, however, meant that the crusade activities were temporarily neglected. The defense of the Mediterranean against Islamic troops took the place of the reconquest of Jerusalem as a new task for the order. The Johanniter built a strong galley fleet, which represented an important power factor in the eastern Mediterranean. In 1344 the Hospitallers were part of a crusade league that captured the port city of Smyrna from the Aydin Turks . The port of Smyrna remained under the control of the Order until 1402. However, one got into the conflicting commercial interests of Venice , Genoa and the Pope , which had a paralyzing effect.

During the tenure of the Grand Master Johann von Lastic (1437-1454) in 1440 and 1444 Egyptian fleets appeared off Rhodes. A siege of the capital in 1444 was successfully repulsed. The order under Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson (1476–1503) also held out the siege of the city of Rhodes in 1480 by the 70,000-strong army of the Ottoman sultans Mohammed II . The knights of the order had to capitulate on December 22nd, 1522, after a six-month defense against the troops of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent . Eyewitness reports show that the surviving knights and their grandmaster Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam were given free retreat after this siege .

The Heimbacher comparison

The financial burden caused by the expansion of Rhodes forced the order to sell properties in Eastern Europe. These sales were a severe economic loss for the friars who were appointed to administer them there. The fears of the northern German knight brothers, which had arisen from the sale of some religious goods, led in 1382 to the comparison of Heimbach with the German Grand Prior. In this contract, which was confirmed by the General Chapter of the Order of St. John, the Balley Brandenburg achieved extensive autonomy. So their knights were free to choose their head, the master master. The amount of payments to the order headquarters on Rhodes and later on Malta also changed significantly. This independence in the order was opposed to a close connection with the Electors of Brandenburg.

Malta

After the loss of Rhodes, the order was initially without its own central seat and without a basis for its main task, which was actually in the Holy Land. Some of the fled knights settled in Crete or withdrew to the other possessions of the order in Europe.

In 1530, Emperor Charles V gave the islands of Malta and Gozo as well as Tripoli, which was conquered by Spain in 1509, to the knights as a fief . In the period that followed, the name Order of Malta became established. The island of Malta was underdeveloped and poorly secured militarily. From Malta, however, the knights offered sea operations. The Knights of Malta built a fleet of war galleys with which they successfully plundered the trading ships of the Muslim states on the Mediterranean. In doing so, they contributed significantly to the financing of the expansion of the facilities in Malta, but they also attracted the attention of those who were visited. In 1551 Tripoli was lost to the Turkish corsair Turgut Reis and in 1565 Malta was attacked by the Ottomans . The Johanniter were just able to hold their own in the siege, which was extremely costly for both sides.

The “relocations” and the defense of its properties in the Mediterranean as well as the protection of the Christian merchant ships by the Maltese fleet again depleted the wealth of the order.

reformation

At this time the order was weakened both materially and personally by the events of the Reformation . The English tongue almost ceased to exist with the secession of the Anglican Church in 1534 and the German tongue was also significantly weakened. The Ballei Brandenburg, largely independent by the Heimbacher comparison, adopted the Protestant denomination in the course of the Reformation. A formal separation of the Ballei from the order did not take place. The ball continued to pay subsidies and reported the election of masters to the order.

The further history of the Order of Malta is detailed in the article Sovereign Order of Malta .

See also

Portal: Order of Malta  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the Order of Malta

literature

  • Ernle Bradford : Johanniter and Maltese. The history of the order of knights . Universitas, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-8004-1047-8 .
  • Robert L. Dauber: The navy of the Johanniter-Malteser-Ritter-Order. 500 years of naval warfare in defense of Europe . Weishaupt, Graz 1989, ISBN 3-900310-48-3 .
  • Henning Floto: The legal status of the Order of St. John, a legal historical and legal dogmatic investigation into the legal status of the Balley Brandenburg of the knightly order of St. John from the Hospital in Jerusalem . Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-8305-0529-9 .
  • Yehuda Karmon : The Johanniter and Maltese. Knights and Samaritans. The Changes of the Order of Saint John . Callwey, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7667-0862-7 .
  • Stanislaus Klimek: In the sign of the cross. The recognized religious orders of knights . Diethelm Lütze, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 1-276-90382-0 .
  • Gerhard Lagleder : The order rule of the Johanniter / Maltese. The spiritual foundations of the Order of St. John / Maltese with an edition and translation of the three oldest rule manuscripts . EOS Verlag, St. Ottilien 1983, ISBN 3-88096-151-4 .
  • Michael Losse: The Crusaders of Rhodes. Before the Johanniter became Maltese. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-0095-1 .
  • Wilhelm v. Obernitz: The Brandenburg Balley of the Knightly Order of St. Johannis from the Hospital in Jerusalem. Essence and work, then and now . Rhenania Verlag, Düsseldorf 1929.
  • Walter G. Rödel: The knightly order of St. Johannis from the hospital in Jerusalem. An outline of its history . Nieder-Weisel 1989.
  • Jürgen Sarnowsky : The Johanniter. A religious order of knights in the Middle Ages and modern times. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62239-7 .
  • Ernst Staehle: Johanniter and Templar . Weishaupt, Gnas 1998, ISBN 3-7059-0060-9 .
  • Ernst Staehle: History of the Johanniter and Maltese. (4 volumes) Weishaupt, Gnas 2002.
    • Volume 1: The Hospitallers in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Your Cultural Revolution and Heritage Defense in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. ISBN 3-7059-0154-0 .
    • Volume 2: The Johanniter of Rhodes. Fighters against Islamic terrorism. ISBN 3-7059-0155-9 .
    • Volume 3: The Knights of Malta. Shield of Christianity in the Mediterranean. ISBN 3-7059-0156-7 .
    • Volume 4: The Johanniter and Maltese of the German and Bavarian tongue. International and national. ISBN 3-7059-0157-5 .
  • Adam Wienand (ed.): The Order of St. John, the Order of Malta. The knightly order of St. John from the hospital in Jerusalem. Its history, its tasks. 3rd edition Cologne 1988.
  • Adolf Wilhelm Ernst v. Winterfeld: History of the Brandenburg Balli or the Lordship of the Sonnenburg of the Knightly Order of St. Johannis from the Jerusalem Hospital . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1993 (partial reprint of the Berlin 1859 edition), ISBN 3-7648-2416-6 .
  • RL Wolff, HW Hazard: The later Crusades, 1189-1311 (A History of the Crusades, volume, II) . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1969 ( online ).
  • Johann Christoph Bekmann and Justus Christoph Dithmer: Description of the Knightly Order of St. John and its peculiar nature in the master class in the Marck, Saxony, Pomerania and Wendland . Frankfurt / Oder 1726 ( online )
  • NJBreidenbach, New "Old Views" of Castle Castle or the Johanniter Hof Eselsfahrt at the Oberburg. In: Romerike Berge, magazine of the Berg.Geschichts-Verein, 58th year, issue 1, Essen 2008, ISSN  0485-4306
  • Rodney Stark : God's Warriors, The Crusades in a New Light . Haffmans Tolkemitt GmbH, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942989-85-5 .
  • Thomas Pratsch (Ed.): Conflict and Coping. The destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in 1009 . Millennium Studies, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.KG (Verlag), Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-025351-1 and e- ISBN 978-3-11-025352-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thus the pilgrim report of Johannes von Würzburg 1160–1170 and the following self-presentation of the order. Meyers Konversationslexikon (Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna, Fourth Edition, 1885–1892, Volume 9, pp. 245 f.) Identifies the namesake with Johannes the Almsgiver .
  2. ↑ Denys Pringle, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Corpus : 4 vol. S, Cambridge, Engl .: Cambridge University Press, 2009, vol. 4 'The Cities of Acre and Tire with Addenda and Corrigenda to Volumes I-III', p. 83. ISBN 978-0-521-10983-3 .
  3. ^ Ze'ev Goldmann, "The Hospice of the Knights of St. John in Akko", in: Archeological Discoveries in the Holy Land , Archeological Institute of America (compiled), New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1967, Pp. 199–206, here p. 202.
  4. ↑ a b Ze'ev Goldmann, "The Buildings of the Order of St. John in Akkon", in: The Order of St. John - The Order of Malta: The Knightly Order of St. John of the Hospital in Jerusalem - His tasks, his history , Adam Wienand (ed .) with Carl Wolfgang Graf von Ballestrem and Christoph Freiherr von Imhoff, Cologne: Wienand, 1977, pp. 108–115, here p. 109.
  5. ↑ a b Eliezer Stern, “La commanderie de l'Ordre des Hospitaliers à Acre”, in: Bulletin Monumental , Vol. 164 (No. 1, 2006 with the title 'L'architecture en Terre Sainte au temps de Saint Louis') , Pp. 53–60, here p. 54.
  6. ↑ a b Eliezer Stern, “La commanderie de l'Ordre des Hospitaliers à Acre”, in: Bulletin Monumental , Vol. 164 (No. 1, 2006 with the title 'L'architecture en Terre Sainte au temps de Saint Louis') , Pp. 53–60, here p. 53.
  7. ↑ a b "Hospitaller Fortress" , on: The Secrets of the Aboveground and the Underground City of Akko , accessed on February 26, 2019.
  8. ↑ Eliezer Stern, "La commanderie de l'Ordre des Hospitaliers à Acre", in: Bulletin Monumental , Vol. 164 (No. 1, 2006 entitled 'L'architecture en Terre Sainte au temps de Saint Louis'), p . 53–60, here p. 59.
  9. ↑ Yehuda Karmon: The Johanniter and Maltese . Callwey, Munich 1987, p. 41.
  10. ↑ Yehuda Karmon: The Johanniter and Maltese . Callwey, Munich 1987, p. 42.
  11. ↑ History of the Maltese Cross
  12. ↑ Yehuda Karmon: The Johanniter and Maltese . Callwey, Munich 1987, p. 32.
  13. ^ Hans Kühner, Israel: a travel guide through three thousand years , David Harris (photos), Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau: Walter, 1975, p. 251. ISBN 3-530-49171-3 .
  14. ↑ Thomas Veser, "Heiligkreuzkirche under the Harem" , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 24, 2003, accessed on February 22, 2019.
  15. ^ Ze'ev Goldmann, "The Hospice of the Knights of St. John in Akko", in: Archeological Discoveries in the Holy Land , Archeological Institute of America (compiled), New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1967, Pp. 199–206, here p. 202.
  16. ↑ Erhard Gorys, Das Heilige Land: Historical and religious sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the 10,000 year old cultural land between the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Jordan , Cologne: DuMont, 2 1984, (= DuMont art travel guide), p. 368. ISBN 3-7701-1474-4 .
  17. ↑ Eliezer Stern, "La commanderie de l'Ordre des Hospitaliers à Acre", in: Bulletin Monumental , Vol. 164 (No. 1, 2006 entitled 'L'architecture en Terre Sainte au temps de Saint Louis'), p 53-60, here p. 55seq.
  18. ↑ Südwestfunk: Treasures of the World . Archived from the original on August 30, 2010.
  19. ↑ Gabriel Adriányi, "On the history of the German Knight Order in Transylvania", pp. 9–22, in the Hungarian yearbook. Magazine for the customers of Hungary and related areas , published by Georg Stadtmüller, editor Horst Glassl, volume 3, born in 1971, Hase & Koehler Verlag Mainz. Quote: "When the Order of St. John settled in 1247, its rights and duties were deliberately limited from the beginning. In the documents the feudal relationship is precisely circumscribed by the fiefdom. This included the duty of the knights to serve in the army, the royal coin shelf and that Procedure for breach of contract. " (Pp. 21-22). Accessed on May 25, 2019 (as PDF. URL cannot be copied at the moment).
  20. ^ Martyn Rady: Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary . Palgrave, 2000, ISBN 9780333985342 , p. 92.
  21. ↑ The Johanniter Commandery in Adenau on the website of the city of Adenau, accessed on January 10, 2015.
  22. ^ Anton Jux: The Johanniter-Kommende Herrenstrunden, together with the parish history. Bergisch Gladbach 1956
  23. ↑ On the section Rhodes and as an introduction to the history of the order: Wolff; Hazard p. 287 ff.
  24. ↑ The date of the surrender is given differently in the literature. The 20th, 25th and 26th December 1522 are also mentioned.
  25. ↑ The report of an eyewitness recorded by the Zurich bell founder Peter Füssli (1482–1548) on his journey to Jerusalem immediately after the events is published as: Leza M. Uffer [ed.]: Peter Füesslis Jerusalemfahrt 1523 and letter about the fall of Rhodes 1522, in: Mitteilungen der Antiquarian Gesellschaft in Zürich, 50/3 (1982).