The Grand Priory was situated in the Parish of Clerkenwell, London, and contained a church, an hospital, and an inn. A magnificent edifice, founded by Lord Briset and consecrated to the services of the Order in 1185, by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was set on fire by the rebels under Wat Tyler, in 1830, and burned for seven days. In its widely varied decorations, both internally and externally, it is said to have contained specimens of the arts of both Europe and Asia, together with collections of books and rarities, the loss of which is a less turbulent age would have been a subject of national regret. The building was finally repaired by the Lord Grand Prior Docwra in 1504, and is still rich in the monumental grandeur of the Knights of Malta.
When the Knight Templars were suppressed in 1312, the whole of their extensive possessions in the British Isles were bestowed to the Knights of St. John, thus enriching the Order very considerably. They thereafter held estates in almost every county of the three kingdoms.
The English and Irish branches were suppressed in 1540, by act of Parliament (statute 32, Henry VIII, chap. 24) intituled--
So far as England and Ireland were concerned this act gave an abrupt ending to the Order, but, fortunately the Order existed where King Henry had no jurisdiction. We must not, however, overlook the magnanimity of "old King Hal." The act from which we have just quoted was sufficiently magnanimous to leave the two Priors the dignity of knighthood, and to grant a pension to each of the then officers of the Order to continue during their lifetime. This kind of magnanimity may not be considered wholesome, but the late Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M. P., acted on the same principle when, in 1869, he despoiled the Protestant Church of Ireland, and--doubtful as the honesty of the principle may be--he found a majority of the British House of Commons could sufficiently stultify their consciences to permit of their voting for the Church-Plunder Bill, and believe that they were really magnanimous in doing so. Truly, in point of honesty we are not much better than "old King Hal" and we should therefore be sparing in our denunciations of his policy.
Although this statute never was repealed, an attempt was made by Queen Mary of England to revive the Order, in the hope that the Priests of the Order would aid her in her bloody work of undoing the Reformation by the extermination of Protestants. Cardinal Pole was her adviser, and she (rather they, for the Cardinal had a greater hand in it than the Queen) appointed Sir P. Tresham, Prior; Sir R. Shelly, Turcopoliler; Sir peter Felix de la Nuca; Baili de Aguila, and others of the knights into a corporation or Priory of the confraternity of St. John of Jerusalem in England. In the reign of James II we again find the Order existing in England under the Duke of Berwick as Grand Prior. It is scarcely necessary to point out that on both occasions the order was popish.
Early in the nineteenth century the Order was again resuscitated in England, this time on a legal footing, and by virtue of powers granted in 1827 by the Commander de Dieune, and others, forming a capitulary commission delegated to act by a chapter general of the Languages of Provence, Auvergue, France, Arragon, and Castile, being a majority of the eight Languages, held at Paris under the presidentship of Prince Camille de Rohan (Grand Prior of Aquitane in 1814), whose proceedings were sanctioned and afterwards confirmed by the Lieutenant of the magistery and the sacred council at Catania. Under these powers Sir Robert Peat, D. D., chaplain to King George IV., was installed as Grand Prior in 1831, and as such took the oath de fideli, but it was found necessary to revive the corporation before the court of King's Bench, which was accordingly done on the 24th February, 1834. These formalities were gone through at the instance of Sir Lancelot Shadwell, Vice Chancellor of England, who was soon after elected a Knight of the Order. Sir Henry Dymoke, of Scrivelsby, succeeded Sir Robert peat, D. D., as Grand Prior in 1837.
The Order thus resuscitated was strictly Protestant, and was understood to be so by the
conference of five out of the eight Languages, at which the order of resuscitation was granted,
and by whose authority a Protestant clergyman who was chaplain to a protestant king, was
ordained as Grand Prior. Even in those latter days of the Order's infirmity, when it was slowly
be surely dying out on the Continent, the Pope had no authority and Protestantism was no crime.
That the Order still lives in England, although confined to a select few, is shown by the following
extract from the Daily Record, Glasgow, 12th July, 1900.
Lady Doctor's Gallantry.--The Prince of Wales (now King Edward),
Grand Prior of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
Last page missing (page 48).