 |
Sovereign Military Order of Malta The expulsion of the Order by Napoleon from Malta saw the end of its role as a major power. Its compulsory move to St Petersburg where it was made welcome by its Protector, Emperor Paul I of Russia led to his election as Grandmaster of the Order. A married non-Catholic, he was not accepted by Pope Pius VII but he was nevertheless acknowledged by all the surviving priories with the sole exception of Spain. On Paul's death in 1801, his successor, Alexander I assumed the protectorship but not the grandmagistry and took immediate steps to ensure the orderly continuation of the Order by appointing Count Nicholas Soltikoff Lieutenant Grandmaster to oversee the election of a Grandmaster to "preside over the Order and reinstate it, to its previous state".1 Soltikoff organised a Sacred Council of the Order which sought to ask all the Priories that could be contacted to submit names for a list of candidates for the office of Grandmaster. The Napoleonic campaigns in Europe during that period made communication difficult with all the Langues and Priories and a practical solution was adopted whereby the Pope agreed to ask the Catholic Priories to submit a list of candidates from which he would designate one person as Grandmaster. The words from the English translation of the Decree are "that this is only the case on this one occasion, and without derogating in any degree from the rights and privileges of the sovereign order." 2 All but Spain took part in the submission of names to St Petersburg where a list was compiled and transmitted to Rome in May 1802. It was not until 16th September that the Pope declared for Marquis-Prince Bailiff Bartolomeo Francesco Maria Ruspoli 3 who declined on the grounds of age and infirmity As a result, the Pope consulted the few remaining members in Messina and appointed Giovanni Battista Tommasi di Cortona as Grandmaster on the 9th February 1803. He was approved by the French Minister in Rome, Emperor Alexander, and Lieutenant Grandmaster Count Soltikoff, who announced that the provisional Sacred Council at St Petersburg would cease its function on the resumption of power by the new Grandmaster.4 By February 1804 the Seat of the Order had moved from Messina to Catania, and around this time the Council at St. Petersburg was dissolved.5 Tommasi, who died on the 13th June 1805, had appointed Innico-Maria Guevara-Suardo as his Lieutenant. A General Assembly was convened in Catania by Guevara-Suardo on 17th June during which Bailiff Giuseppe Caracciolo di Sant Eramo was elected by a majority of votes. The fact that Russia fully agreed with the new choice inevitably produced an opposite reaction from Napoleon who put pressure on the Pope to reject Caracciolo. The Pope acquiesced Caracciolo was based in Messina and had styled himself Grandmaster elect receiving support from the French Knights and Russia. On the 15th November 1806, Emperor Alexander I and the Russian Priories who accepted Caracciolo as the legitimately elected Grandmaster awarded him 12,000 roubles out of the Common Treasury of the Russian Grand Priories.6 On the 21st October 1807 the Pope finally rejected Caracciolo, the legitimately elected Grandmaster by confirming Guevara-Suardo's continuation as Lieutenant Grandmaster and this decision was ultimately endorsed by the Russian Grand Priories.7 This marked the beginning of a 74 year interregnum when the Order declined to its lowest ebb kept going by a small number of knights under a succession of Lieutenant Grandmasters. The Russian Grand Priory with its hereditary commanders was all but forgotten, attempts to re-establish the French Langues ended in failure and relations with the Spanish knights were broken off. The Lieutenancy moved the seat from Catania to Ferrara in 1827 and in 1831 the Pope finally offered the remnants of the Order the Palazzo di Malta in Via Condotti, which was the old Maltese embassy in Rome and was to become their permanent home.8
Palazzo di Malta, Via Condotti A thorough reorganisation replaced the Langues of the old Order with a number of national associations and in 1879 the Pope restored the Grandmagistry after 74 years by appointing the existing Lieutenant Grandmaster Ceschi a Santa Croce as Grandmaster confirmed by a Brief Inclytum antiquitate originis of Pope Leo XIII of 12 June 1888.9 Although the Order's Headquarters in Rome cannot be considered a sovereign state in the way that the Vatican is considered a sovereign state, the Italian government granted the Palazzo di Malta extra-territorial status similar to foreign embassies in Italy and sovereign rights under the treaty of March 13 1935. The Holy See's position was defined in the Caedinal's Commission of 14 January 1953 which stated that the Order's sovereignty consists in the enjoyment of certain prerogatives inherent "...as a subject of international law. The said prerogatives are proper to sovereignty, in conformity with international law, and have been recognized by a number of states, following the example of the Holy See. However, they do not constitute in the Order the full powers and prerogatives which belong to sovereign bodies in the full sense of the word."10 Today the Sovereign Order of Malta has its own Government, an independent magistracy, enjoys bilateral diplomatic relations with some 93 countries with Permanent Observer status in the United Nations. It also issues its own passports which are recognised diplomatically. The Grandmaster governs the Order both as sovereign and religious head. His cabinet is the Sovereign Council, which at present administers world-wide through six Grand Priories, four Sub-priories and 46 National Associations of Knights. For details of the Grandmasters who ruled the Order in Rome, go to Grandmasters Notes
1. Smith/Storace p.202 Sources: Boisgelin, Louis de: Ancient and Modern Malta, and the History of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 3 Volumes bound together. G & J Robinson, London 1804. Foster, Michael John: A Short History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Part Two. The Order of St John of Jerusalem since 1798 Pierredon, Count Marie Henri Thierry Michel de: Histoire Politique de l'Ordre Souverain de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem, Ordre de Malte, Paris 1963 Volume 2. Sainty, G.S: The Orders of Saint John, New York 1991. Seward, Desmond: The Monks of War, Eyre Methuen, 1972. Sire, H.J.A: The Knights of Malta, Yale University Press, New Haven, USA, 1994. Smith, Harrison, and Storace, Joseph E: Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Second Edition, Akker Print, Delft, The Netherlands 1977.
|
|
