64 THE KNIGHTS ΤΕΜΡΙ.ΛΗ9. • Puaip OF The Master, Brother Bertrand de Blanquefort, was succecdelF A. » , 1167. (A . D . 1167,) by Philip of Naplous, the first Master of the Temple who had been born in Palestine. He had been Lord of the fortresses of Krak and Montreal in Arabia Petrœa, and took the vows and the habit of the order of the Temple after the death of his wife.* W e must now pause to take a glance at the rise of another great religio-military institution which, from henceforth, takes a leading part in the defence of the Latin kingdom. In the eleventh century, "when pilgrimages to Jerusalem had greatly increased, some Italian merchants of Amalfi, who carried on a lucrative trade with Palestine, purchased of the Caliph Monstasser-billah, a piece of ground in the christian quarter of the Holy City, near the Church of the Resurrection, whereon two hospitals were constructed, the one being appropriated for the reception of male pilgrims, and the other for females. Several pious and charitable Christians, chiefly from Europe, devoted themselves in these hospitals to constant attendance upon the sick and destitute. Two ehapels were ereeted, the one annexed to the female establishment being dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and the other to St. John the Eleemosynary, a canonized patriarch of Alexandria, remarkable for hie exceeding charity. The pious and kind-hearted people who here attended upon the sick pilgrims, clothed the naked and fed the hungry, were called " The Hospitallers of Saint John." On the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, these charitable persons were naturally regarded with the greatest esteem and reverence by their fellow-christians from the west ; many of Î11ÎB enim tota aurama post Deum conaistit orrmiaai coram, qui sano fiunt Consilio ir* partitas orienti " Gâta Dei, toro. i. epiit. xxi. p. 1181. * Itomimis fuit Arabile aocunòW, qute cat rctraccnsis, qui locus hoilio Crach djcitur, et Syria Sobri . . . faetua nt Magfctet Militile Templi.— Will. Tyr. lib. χχϋ. cap. 5.