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3. More fully, Knights Hospitallers, an order of military monks, following chiefly the rule of St. Augustine, which took its origin from a hospital founded at Jerusalem, c1048, by merchants of Amalfi, for the succour and protection of poor pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, but subsequently grew to be a wealthy fraternity, received a military organization, and became one of the chief bulwarks of Christendom in the East, besides having dependent ‘hospitals’ and possessions throughout the Christian lands. (See commandery n.) Grand Hospitaller, the third in dignity of the order, after the Grand Commander and Grand Marshal; also an officer in some other orders.After the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, the chief seat of the order was successively at Markab in Phoenicia, Acre 1193, Cyprus 1291, Rhodes 1310, Malta 1530 to 1798. Their possessions were confiscated in England in 1540, and the order was suppressed in most European countries in or after 1799. They were known at various times, and in their various capacities, as Brothers of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of Rhodes, Knights of Malta, etc. (This is the earliest sense of the word in English.)