The M.A. Course in Hospitaller Studies purpose is to study the history of the Hospitaller Order of St
John. Through the Institution’s charitable and military activities and the way such functions developed down the ages, the Knight Hospitaller fulfilled a ‘great civilizing and defensive function … in the development of Europe’. There was another significant role: the Order’s great social and economic role. For almost nine hundred years the Hospitaller resided on one of his Order’s several
European commanderies. In the long-term historical perspective, the intelligent administration of these massive estates constituted an unwittingly formative influence, a powerful force of continuity, and a constructive force in European civilization. The present course intends to study all these major phases of the Order of the Hospital as the latter gradually evolved within the wider framework of the historical development of Europe and the Mediterranean. The co-ordinator is Professor Victor
Mallia-Milanes.'