ANTHONY, or Knights of St Anthony, a military order, instituted by Albert Duke of Bavaria, Holland, and Zealand, when he designed to make war against the Turks in 1382. The knights wore a collar of gold made in form of a hermit's girdle, from which hung a stick cut like a crutch, with a little bell, as they are represented in St Anthony's pictures.
St Anthony also gives the denomination to an order of religious founded in France about the year 1095 to take care of those afflicted with St Anthony's fire: (see the next article.)—It is said, that, in some places, these monks assume to themselves a power of giving, as well as removing, the ignis sacer, or erysipelas; a power which stands them in great stead for keeping the poor people in subjection, and extorting alms. To avoid the menaces of these monks, the country people present them every year with a fat hog a-piece. Some prelates endeavoured to persuade Pope Paul III. to abolish the order; quasvarios istos sancti Antonii, qui decipiunt rusticos et simpliciter, eosque enumeris superstitionibus implicent, de medio tollendos esse. But they subsist, notwithstanding, to this day in several places.
St Anthony's Fire, a name popularly given to the erysipelas. Apparently it took this denomination, as those afflicted with it made their peculiar application to St Anthony of Padua for a cure. It is known, that anciently particular diseases had their peculiar saints: thus, in the ophthalmia, persons had recourse to St Lucia; in the tooth-ache, to St Apollonia; in the hydrophobia, to St Hubert, &c.