SMOM, The Sovereign Military Order Of Malta, is sometimes claimed to be the smallest state in the world. They don't own any territory except an estate at Via Condotti 68 in Rome. It is no national territory, but an extraterritorial one, with its own jurisdiction.
Interestingly, it can be questioned whether this order is the real Order of Malta, with a tradition stretching almost a thousand years back. The present day form of the order was created by the Pope in 1879.
We will take a look at its history.
Origin & History
Pilgrimages to Jerusalem increased during the 11th century. A group of merchants from Amalfi, in Italy, bought a piece of land from the Caliph - near the Church of the Resurrection - where they built two hospitals for the reception of pilgrims. There was one for males and one for females. The one for males was dedicated to St.John, and the men who worked with it came to be called "Hospitallers of St. John." This "Order" was then headed by Gerard de Martigues, titled "Guardian of the Poor." In 1113 the pope, Paschal II, recognised the Order. This did not in any way put it "under" the pope, or within his jurisdiction. The recognition was that of another sovereign body, just as when two states recognise each other today. This is an important fact in the discussion of legitimacy below.
We don't need to concern ourselves with details of the Order's early history, suffice it to say that it quite soon changed to a military society, in an imitation of (and in opposition to) the Knights Templar. The transformation came when Amalric, then king of the short-lived crusader-created kingdom of Jerusalem, wanted to invade Egypt; an invasion that would be in violation of existing treaties. The Master of the Temple (the head of the Knights Templar) declined participation, with reference to the treaties which he refused to violate. Then Amalric turned to his friend, Gilbert d'Assalit - the Guardian of the Poor, head of the Hospitallers of St.John. Together they decided to try to transform the Order of St.John into a military organisation, for the purpose of pursuing the invasion.
So they did, and the invasion took place in 1168. After initial success, the expedition turned to total defeat. The Knights Hospitallers fled from Egypt. At this stage the Order was deeply in debt, and Gilbert d'Assalit fled from his office, but was later caught and drowned in the English Channel. Everything was a failure, but the Hospitallers remained a mainly military organisation, and their head was subsequently called "Master" - another imitation of the Knights Templar.
The Order's headquarters changed throughout the years. After Jerusalem it was Margot, and Acre, later Cyprus, then Rhodes - which latter they lost to the Turkish Sultan in 1522. In 1530 the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, gave them Malta, from which their popular and never official name, Knights of Malta, derives.
In 1798, Napoleon took Malta, and the Knights had to leave. After Napoleon's defeat, the British stole it - in violation of existing agreements, and they kept it till 1964. After Napoleon, the knights never returned.
In 1797, the then Grand Master asked the Tsar of Russia to become the "Protector of the Order", which he accepted. The Tsar became Grand Master, a position which was held by subsequent Tsars till the end of the Russian Empire in 1917. Technically (but not in practice), it could be said that this position rests with subsequent heads of the Romanov family still today.
Legitimacy
A body corporate (like an order) can be divided into branches, and such branches can break free and become independent. Under certain circumstances (not always), such independent organisations can keep legitimacy, so that there are more than one (even many) legitimate heirs to one single historical organisation.
On the other hand, an organisation set up to "revive" an old one, or to rival an existing one, is not necessarily legitimate. Indeed, even if it can happen, it is rarely so.
This sort of legitimacy is a difficult historical (and sometimes legal) problem, and real consensus is rare. Thus many rivalling claims to be the legitimate continuation of an historical institution or organisation are more rule than exception.
The Order of St.John is not without its share of claimants and confusion. There are many organisations and branches claiming to be the genuine thing. I will not try to evaluate their various claims of legitimacy here. No doubt, the organisation described above is the main line. The Russian period has caused some dispute, but it was based on a treaty of 15th January 1797, between the Order and "The Tsar of all Russia", two sovereign powers. There is no basis for doubt in the legitimacy of this.
The Papal Order, however, is possibly illegitimate. Pope Pius VII tried to order the Hospitallers to Rome (when they were firmly settled in St.Petersburg), and he wanted himself to become Grand Master. The Hospitallers refused, and then the Pope set up a rival organisation (claiming it to be the legitimate Order of St.John) in September 1801. Since then this order has existed, and in 1879 it was changed to its present form. It is now known as Sovrano Ordine di Malta, or S.M.O.M. (Sovereign Military Order of Malta).
The Pope could set up an order with this name, and it would be legal and legitimate. But when he claims that it is the legitimate continuation of the historical Order of St.John - then it is possibly a fraud. The Pope has no jurisdiction over the historical order and has no legitimate right to take control of it, or to replace it by his own creation. Indeed, there is a document confirming this, a document whose validity the Pope (especially) cannot reasonably dispute; namely a Papal Bull, Pastoralium Nobis, of 10th June 1799, where Pius VI formally agrees and accepts that the Order of St.John is outside of Papal jurisdiction.
So is today's Order of Malta the original order or is it not? I will not try to determine if it is the real thing, facts speak for themselves. Leave that historical dispute to the experts, hardly anyone else is interested in it. Justified or not, today the papal order has got an almost universal recognition due to the authority of the Papal office.
Appendix: Who was St. John?
Almost all sources state that the Hospitallers' patron is John the Baptist, who would be St.John of Jerusalem. There are older sources, however, which claim that initially it was a different St. John. According to William of Tyre (ca.1130–1185), the original patron was St. John the Eleemosynary, a canonised patriarch of Alexandria. Obviously he was later deserted for John the Baptist.
(This article is based on material previously published in TMA/Meriondho Leo.)
Copyright © 2007, 2012, 2021 Meleonymica/Mictorrani. All Rights Reserved.
Read also my series on the Knights Templar:
The Order of the Temple - The Knights Templar
The Mysteries of the Knights Templar
Symbols of the Knights Templar & Templars in Fiction: Literature and Film
The Knights Templar & The Circular Number Nine
The Knights Templar & Papal Infallibility
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