This militant
religious organisation had its origin in Jerusalem in peculiar and
interesting circumstances. After the death of Mahomet, his followers,
burning with zeal, put forward the tenets of their religion by means of
fire and sword; during the years which followed the Hegira, 622 A.D., the
arms of the Moslems were everywhere successful, and amongst other places
conquered by them was Palestine. So great was the renown acquired by the
Emperor Charlemagne that his fame passed even into Asia, and Eginard states
that the Caliph Haroun Raschid permitted the French nation to maintain a
house in Jerusalem for the reception of pilgrims visiting the holy places,
and that, further, the Prince permitted the Patriarch of Jerusalem to send
to the Christian Emperor, on his behalf, the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and
those of the Church of Calvary, together with a standard which was the sign
of the power and authority delegated by the Moslem ruler to his mighty
contemporary. In the middle of the eleventh century Italian merchants
coming from Amalfi, who had experienced the hard lot of the Christian
pilgrims in reaching the Holy City, secured from the Caliph Moustafa-Billah
a concession of land, on which they built a chapel known as St. Mary of the
Latins, to distinguish it from the Greek church already established at
Jerusalem, and also constructed a hospice in which to receive the pilgrims,
whether in sickness or in health, known as the Hospice of St.
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