On Napoleon's orders, the 2,000 slaves still present in Malta were all manumitted. In his proclamations, he thanked the Greeks for their loyalty, and banned Latin-Rite priests from ever officiating in "Greek Churches". However, an explicit order was given to execute Greeks who maintained relations with the Russian Empire. While the French engaged the Ottomans in battle, an attempt to revive the Hospitallers as an Orthodox-and-Catholic order was made by Paul I of Russia ("see Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller"). Participating in this reconciliation, Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Flachslanden proposed to create a Hospitallers' "Langue" for Greek expatriates. However, his project also called for moving the Order's headquarters to Austrian Dalmatia.