https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147496 2026-07-21T21:56:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148102 Title: The academic branches of the Order of Saint Lazarus Abstract: The Order of Saint Lazarus has always been proud of its historical traditions and has actively investigated facets of its historical past by commissioning academics to investigate and write up the history of the Order through the centuries setting up in the 18th century the post of historiographe. In the 20th century, the Order has tried to promote the academic study of its history by establishing support organizations to serve as academic arms of the Order. 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148081 Title: Some comments on the text of the Bull Ioannes Episcopus Servus Servorum of 5 May 1319 in the context of the loss of the Holy Land Abstract: The Bull Ioannes Episcopus Servus Servorum of 5 May 1319 has often been interpreted as having separated the links between the Order of Saint Lazarus and the Latin Patriarchy. A careful analysis of the text of the Bull taken within the context of the political situation in the Outremer confirms that while the Order was being placed under the protection of the Holy See and exempt from all local and ecclesiastical authorities, the Patriarch of Jerusalem was allowed to retain his protectorship. 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148079 Title: The Leper’s plot of 1321 – evidence of a nation-wide leprosaria network in 14th century France Abstract: The turn of the fourteenth century was to find the rural population in France ready for a general uprising with a strong desire to set out on a crusade to fight the Moorish threat in the Iberian Peninsula. This uprising was to see a transference of attention towards the Jewish and leper communities in France and Aragon giving rise to the Shepherds’ Crusade and allegations of a nationwide Lepers’ Plot where allegedly leper and Jewish communities together with the Sultan of Granada had plotted to poison the wells of France and thus kill the healthy communities or infect them with leprosy. The following Inquisitional Trials suggest that the care of lepers in France was based on a nationwide coherent group of interrelated leprosaria falling under one central organization that adhered to a specific chain of command structure rather than to a system of isolated establishment run by local municipal or ecclesiastical authorities. It is therefore suggested from the evidence that the Lepers’ Plot was particularly attributed to the fratres Sancti Lazari who in 1265 had been made responsible for all leper-houses in Christian Europe by Pope Clement IV. 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148078 Title: The 1418 statutes of the Order of the Knights of St Lazarus of Jerusalem for the houses in Gevenn and Sedorf Abstract: This paper gives a summary of the Statutes of the Houses of Gevenn and Sedorf within the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem published in Latin at Gfenn in 1418. Following a translation made by himself into English and summary of the same document, Chev. Prof. Horatio Vella will go through the contents, which vary from the conduct of the elections held by the Commendator, through legal procedures adopted in times of disagreements with the same Commendator, to all the obligations expected from the Commendator and the two Mistresses of the two mentioned Houses. The paper will highlight important and interesting points evident in this document and will also discuss the Latin used in it. 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z