According to legend the Constantinian Order is the oldest chivalric institution, founded by Emperor Constantine the Great and governed by successive Byzantine Emperors and their descendants. While this chronology was supported by multiple writers even into the twentieth century, it has little historical basis. Nonetheless, the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which held the Grand Mastership could legitimately claim Byzantine imperial descent, albeit in the female line, and the Order’s cross replicates that seen by Constantine in the vision recorded by both Lactantius and Eusebius, writing very soon after Maximian’s defeat at the battle of the Milvian Bridge. The Order’s emergence in the middle of the sixteenth century, when Christian Europe was under assault from a militant Ottoman empire, gained Papal support almost immediately and by the end of the seventeenth century the Order had mem-bers across the Italian peninsular, in Spain, Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia, Croatia and Poland. Today the majority of the Order’s members are found in Italy and Spain but there are also members in Portugal, France, Belgium, Great Britain and Luxembourg, with smaller groups in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden as well as an expanding membership in the United States. This work examines the conversion of Constantine and the histories of the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon Grand Masterships, with extensive reference to hitherto unpub-lished documents in the Vatican archives and in the Farnese and Bourbon archives in Naples. These serve to confirm the close relationship the Order had with the Church and the high regard in which it was held by successive Popes, as well as its autonomy as a subject of canon law independent from any crown or temporal sovereignty. This unique status has enabled its hereditary Grand Masters to maintain this dignity after the absorption of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies into a united Italy. The Order’s autonomy, coupled with the Grand Master’s close links to the Spanish Crown, has meant that Spanish and Italian citizens (as well as the citizens of several other states which have accorded the Order recognition) may obtain official permission to wear the Order’s decorations. 2018 is the three hundredth anniversary of the Papal Bull Militantis Ecclesiae which confirmed and approved the previous Papal acts concerning the Order and laid out the rights and privileges of the Order, its Grand Masters and members. In the early 20th century Pope Saint Pius X and Benedict XV conferred further privileges on the Order, ap-proving the statutes, while the then future Pope Pius XII had been admitted to the Order in 1913. Today the Order is engaged in works of charity, in conformity with the Church’s teachings, and includes among its members some thirteen Cardinals as well as some thirty members of reign-ing or former reigning families.

Modern study of the Hospitallers, of other military-religious orders, and of their activities both in the Mediterranean and in Europe has been deeply influenced by the work of Anthony Luttrell. To mark his 75th birthday in October 2007 twenty-three colleagues from ten different countries have contributed to this volume. The first section focuses on the crusading period in the Holy Land, considering the Hospital in Jerusalem, relations with the Assassins, finances, indulgences, transportation and the careers of the brothers and knights. The second and third sections move to the later Middle Ages, when the Hospitallers had their centre on Rhodes, and military and charitable activities in the East had to be supported with men and money from the West. The papers in the second section consider the Hospitallers on Rhodes, relations between Rhodes and the West and plans for crusades, while the third section includes papers on the Hospitallers in the Iberian Peninsula and in Hungary, the territorial administration of the Order of Montesa in Valencia, a plan to transfer the headquarters of the Teutonic Order from Prussia to Frisia, and a Hospitaller reconsideration of warfare and learning on the eve of the council of Trent. The final paper proposes new definitions and guidelines for future work on the military-religious orders. The authors include both well-known experts and younger scholars who promise to follow in the footsteps of Anthony Luttrell and to continue research into the Hospitallers and their fellow orders, these peculiar European communities avant la lettre.

At the heart of the myths and legends surrounding St. George lies the story of an early Christian martyr persecuted by the Roman Empire around the third century AD. But England is only one country to have adopted this soldier saint as their patron. Others, including Germany, Hungary, and Portugal, claim him as their own. The cult of St. George is astonishingly widespread, with churches dedicated to him in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Greece. His heroic struggle and victory against the dragon can be interpreted as representing the bravery of an individual Christian or the eternal battle been good and evil. There are, however, clear parallels between his battle and those of pre-Christian heroes such as Perseus and Beowulf. St. George is also identified with the Islamic hero Al Khidr, who is said to have discovered the fountain of youth. Associated with the coming of spring and functioning as a fertility symbol, has been closely linked to the Green Man of Pre-Christian Myth. St. George has also acted as a symbol of chastity and served as a healing saint. His flag has been appropriated by the far right, but in recent times come to identify a multicultural England.

Recent research in early modern print media and the early enlightenment have dramatically changed the way we look at the Dutch Republic in the later seventeenth century. For a long time, this was an underresearched area. Interdisciplinary approaches now demonstrate how a dense, varied, and for its time, technically advanced media landscape managed to involve intellectuals, politicians and craftsmen in debates on current issues. Based on a small corpus of enigmatic satirical prints, so far overlooked by art historians and historians of religion alike, this book explores how polarization between theological schools during the reign of stadholder William III triggered, necessarily covert, debates on the shortcomings of early modern Churches that prepared the way for a more enlightened religious culture.