The Hospitallers had realised, as early as 1300, that their former
rôle of mounted Knights fighting on land was gone for ever. From their
seizure of Rhodes, in 1310, they became predominantly seamen, whose
flag, with its eight-pointed cross, struck terror into every infidel
heart. Nothing but a combination of Christian monarchs could cope with
the superiority of the Turk on land: by sea he was still vulnerable.
The Knights took up their new part with all their old energy and
determination: it is but typical that henceforward we never hear of
the "Knights" of Malta fighting as cavalry.

After various adventures the fleet found itself united at Messina,
whence it proceeded to Baiae. The election to the papacy of the
Cardinal de' Medici--one of their own Order--as Clement VII., gave the
Knights a powerful protector. He assigned Viterbo as a residence for
the Order till a permanent home had been discovered.

Villiers de L'Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Order, was faced with
many difficulties. Remembering the fate of the Templars, he was afraid
that the Order would disperse, and its present helpless condition was
surely tending to disintegration. At this time the war between Charles
V. and Francis I. was at its height, and the quarrel between France
and Spain was reflected within the ranks of the Hospitallers. As the
French and Spanish Knights formed the greater part of the members, the
unity of the Order was threatened by the quarrels between them
that arose out of national sentiment. The Reformation was rapidly
spreading, and was likely to prove dangerous to the lands of the Order
in Northern Europe, and various monarchs were meditating the seizure
of the Hospitallers' estates now that the Order was temporarily
without a justification for its existence.