This fourth of four volumes is believed to be the first in depth treatment of Hospitaller history during the years 1623 to 1688 since Bartolomeo dal Pozzo's Historia della Sacra Religione Militare di S. Giovanni completed in 1703. Following the 1623 death of Grand Master Luís Mendes de Vasconcellos and his succession by Antoine de Paule, this fourth volume adheres to an earlier pattern by soon describing 1624's Naval Battle of Cape Zaphran and 1625's Naval Battle of Cape Murro di Porco. These descriptions include locales, tactics, and personalities, both Hospital and enemy, and do not omit critical post mortems. By intention these histories bring to light contributions of lieutenants, allies, and enemies as well as descriptions of events, heroism, agony, and even tedium leading to the headlines. Hence these four histories also deal with the Hospital's long war against bubonic plague, its prolonged suffering from the greed of Papal nepotism, its constant struggle to remain financially viable, its consequential participation in state-sponsored piracy, and its survival only on the backs of slaves. It is important to realize that Hospitallers were agents of a vast Catholic organization blanketing Europe, and while the largest group of Hospitallers were knights, perhaps half were Chaplains or Serving Brothers. These could be found in most of Europe where they populated priories, bailiwicks, and commanderies, the latter profit-centers supporting the entire Hospital. In Europe there were an unknown number of these local concentrations of knights, chaplains, or serving brothers, perhaps a thousand, many with their own medical facility, each with one to thirty Hospitallers operating agricultural and trade enterprises expected to support headquarters with a portion of the profit. And while history focuses on the headquarters, in these volumes at Rhodes, Malta, and in between, by far the majority of Hospitallers rarely or never visited headquarters. Furthermore, the Hospitaller Bailiwick of Brandenburg was a virtually independent organization said by some to be of a size approaching the remaining Hospital, electing or appointing its own priors (herrenmeisters), bailiffs, and commanders, and with the coming of Martin Luther even abandoning Catholicism. But never quite severing ties to and support of the parent organization. Similarly the Hospital itself was a semi-independent arm of the Church at Rome. One might conclude, a long-suffering arm of the Church at Rome. The author hopes the reader finds this history as interesting and stimulating as did he.
