ABSTRACT
The loss of Rhodes in 1522 sent the Convent of the Order of St John on its travels to the western Mediterranean. Removal from its strategic base close to the Ottoman empire, against which its crusading activities had been concentrated, was followed by eight years of uncertainty as to their next permanent home. In Italy in the 1520s the Knights were on the fringes of the conflict between Habsburg and Valois, and at Viterbo they were uncomfortably close to the wavering papacy and the sack of Rome in 1527. Even after the gift of Malta and Gozo had been accepted and the move made in 1530, the Order still hoped it might be given a more attractive site in Sicily, or even return to Rhodes. The Order might have been overwhelmed by these crises and turned into a tame military guard for the pope, a role which Clement VII, at least, seems to have contemplated. 1 Yet interestingly, the Order did not fall apart; rather, the years 1522–68 saw a run of important Chapters General dealing with all aspects of its activities, from its pressing financial difficulties to its religious life, its own government and the administration of the state it ruled. The hospital, of course, featured prominently in this legislation.
