Military Influences 63 Moslems in 1522, the order was given the island of Malta for a headquarters by Charles V. in 1530. But by this time wealth and power had corrupted it. Nursing had been gradually neglected, the Sisters of St. John were scattered and weakened, and political activities brought the once famed order into disrepute. It was finally suppressed, but its name and best traditions live on today in the St. John's Guilds and Ambulance Corps, First Aid to the Injured societies, and St. John's Nursing Associations. At the height of its nursing excellence the hospi- tal regulations worked out by the order of St. John were adopted by practically all the city hospitals or Maisons-Dieu as they arose, in Europe. Its influence over mediaeval hospital management and nursing was therefore very great. Undoubtedly the hospital service of the military nursing orders imprinted a certain miHtary form of organization and discipline upon institutions, of which distinct traces are still to be seen. The knightly ideals of courtesy and honour, the love of pageantry and ceremonial, the formal and refined manner of knight and lady, must have made a deep impression on hospital life. It is quite probable that certain orthodox hospital ceremonials and forms of etiquette today, notably those of formal
