The Illustrious Order of Hospitalers and Knights of St. John of Jerusalem #249703

In selecting the three grand masters of the Hospitalers, who. For their ability to organize and command in battle. To assault or defend a fortress or city, or rule and govern so mixed a body of men of so many languages as constituted The Illustrious Knights of St. John, of Palestine, Rhodes, and Malta, from their organiza tion 1100 a.d. To 1798 a.d., and particularly the three to whom in our judgment the honor belongs for much of the glory which at taches to the Order of the Knights of Malta. We cannot be far wrong when we name Raymond du Puy, Philip Villiers de L Isle Adam, and John de la Valette. It is not our intention to enter into any discussion of the merits of the two great orders of knighthood which had their origin in, and did such valiant fighting for the possession of the Holy Land,much as we believe the Order of the Hospitalers. The Illustrious Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, better known as the Knights of Malta to have been the older and greater, as it certainly was the longer in existence.