Fra' Antoine de Paule (c. 1551 – 9 June 1636) was elected the 56th
Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (the
Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
) on 10 March 1623. He died on Malta thirteen years later, on 9 June 1636, after a long illness and at the age of 85. His epitaph eulogizes him as a leader who both loved his subjects and was loved by them in return. He is said to have made more resources available to the Order, thus strengthening it. He also sought to fortify ramparts which the Order had erected for defense.
However, de Paule was not without his enemies, some of whom presented a memorial to Pope
Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII ( la, Urbanus VIII; it, Urbano VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death in July 1644. As p ...
describing him as "a man of loose life and conversation", "guilty of
simony
Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to imp ...
", who had "bought his dignity with money". In response, de Paule sent a delegate to the Vatican to deal with the accusations.
As Grandmaster, de Paule acted as a judge when a once-captured ship was re-captured and the original owner claimed the ship, decided whether to release a galley rower of a captured privateering vessel who was himself earlier captured by the privateers and forced to row, and appointed abbots and priors to various positions, amongst other responsibilities.
The town of
Paola, Malta
Paola ( mt, Raħal Ġdid, it, Casal Nuovo, both meaning "New Town") is a town in the South Eastern Region of Malta, with 8,706 inhabitants as of 2019. The town is a commercial centre in the Southern Harbour area of Malta, about 5 km from th ...
, was named after the Grandmaster, who laid its foundation stone in 1626.
References
External links
Coins of Grandmaster Antoine de Paule
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paule, Antoine de
1636 deaths
Burials at Saint John's Co-Cathedral
French people of Italian descent
Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller
Knights of Malta
Year of birth unknown