a host of other details) to renounce all his claims to Milan and Naples and surrender Burgandy. These excessive demands created the Holy [anti-imperialist] League of Cognac (22 May 1526), comprising Clement VII, Francis I, Venice, Francesco Sforza of Milan, and the Republic of Florence. It immediately led to war again in Italy. In August that year, and in view of these developments, it was resolved in the Order's Venerable Council to disarm the Hospitaller galleys. This in turn rendered the institution for all intents and purposes militarily inactive. To all appearances, it distanced the Order from its raison d'être and from the service it was widely expected to offer Christendom.

  L'Isle Adam returned to the Convent at Viterbo from his travels to Spain and France on 21 January 1527. The next year he was at the English court of Henry VIII. Meanwhile, a Chapter-General would be summoned to decide on the cession issue. To overcome the friction generated by the growing political factions within the Order, Clement VII nominated Cardinal Egidio Cavisio to preside over the Chapter, meant to be celebrated in Rome on 23 March 1527, but then postponed to 28 April. This date was again inevitably cancelled as a result of the Sack of Rome. An imperial army, largely composed of Protestant soldiers, wreaked havoc and destruction in what was until then the grandiose capital of Renaissance genius. On that sad occasion, Gian Antonio Milesio, one of the Grandmaster's secretaries, was taken captive and some of the priceless Rhodian tapestries and other rare valuable objects looted. The city, `a Babylon of confusion', was no longer the ideal place for the Chapter to meet in. It was therefore held in Viterbo on 19 May 1527, when it was resolved, subject to papal approval, to accept Charles's offer. It was necessary that no further conditions were attached that would make it difficult for the Order's princely protectors (especially those who were politically averse to Spanish

hegemony) to recognize the cession. The Order could not be allowed to be seen assuming the semblance of an imperial vassal.

  Early in June 1527, with the wild spread of plague and an accompanying manifestation of famine (`urgente epidemie morbo et omnium rerum penuria': l'Isle Adam's words to Clement VII), the Order had to leave Viterbo on board its galleys and sail to Corneto. From here they were again driven out for the same reason _ the plague was following on their footsteps. On 7 October they anchored at the neutral port of Nice, which belonged to Charles III of Savoy. The Order's brief sojourn here (1527-29) was uneasy, vis-à-vis its somewhat tense relations with the Duke, who had confiscated the two Hospitaller commanderies there (those of San Lorenzo and de Chier) and employed their resources for his own political and personal convenience.

  It was the Grandmaster's idea to set sail on the Rhodian expedition in the spring of 1529. To mislead the enemy, rumours were purposely spread that Malta was the destination of the Hospitaller fleet. And to make things appear more convincingly plausible, the Order was indeed prepared to sail towards Gozo where they would wait for the return of Antonio Bosio and another person unidentified in the documents. These would be sent ahead towards Rhodes for reconnoitering purposes. In fact, on 18 July 1529, the Order's fleet set sail from Villafranca, heading towards the Maltese islands and reaching them on 29 August, but without landing. The news carried by Antonio Bosio `squashed,' we are told, `all hopes of retaking Rhodes.' But what exactly was the news that Antonio Bosio conveyed to l'Isle Adam in the Maltese waters?

  In 1524 as soon as Ahmed Pasha, the victor of Rhodes and the Sultan's representative in Egypt, had suppressed the mutiny which had broken out, he succumbed to the temptation of re-establishing the independence of the Mamluk State and conspired against Suleyman.