deliverance from the attack. This attack confirmed the need of the coastal towers of St Thomas and St Luciano, in Marsascala and Marsaxlokk respectively. Increased population, and the extensive size of the parish led to an eventual reorganisation. On 23 December 1615, Bishop Baldassere Cagliares separated Żabbar from the parish of Żejtun, while Ħal Għaxaq was recognised as a parish on 1 January 1626. Cagliares also built a country house on the edge of the valley between Żejtun and Żabbar. In 1637, Grandmaster Giovanni Paolo Lascaris set out to levy a tax of 50,000 scudi on the Maltese for the construction of the Floriana Lines. The Grandmaster ignored a protest against the tax by the Maltese clergy, lodged with Pope Urban VIII. The Pope sided with the Order against the laity and the clergy, and the Grandmaster ordered taxmen to start their collections. The tax collectors met immediately with opposition and an uprising began in September in Żejtun, the first village where collection was attempted. The leaders hoped to assemble the people at Marsa, then to march on Valletta as a procession with a cross or some statue of a saint. The parish priest of Żejtun was alarmed at these preparations, particularly the suggestions to bear arms in the protest, and informed Bishop Miguel Juan Balaguer Camarasa. The Bishop sent the priest to the inquisitor, Fabio Chigi, later Pope Alexander VII, who ordered him to report everything to the grandmaster. The latter imprisoned the lay leaders of the revolt. Acting on Chigi's advice, the grandmaster did not arrest local priests, even if there were suspicions they were involved in the revolt. Around half a century after the reorganisation of the south-eastern parishes, Gregorio Bonnici, a local nobleman, bought a tract of land for the construction of a new parish church. The foundation stone was laid by Bishop Davide Cocco Palmieri on 25 November 1692, with Don Ugolino Bonnici as archpriest. The church was designed by Lorenzo Gafà, with the lateral wings being later additions. The church was consecrated on 11 May 1742, with the anniversary of the consecration celebrated on the fifth Sunday of Easter. The church became a focal point for the south east of the island, providing new and ample wall space for the artists of the late Maltese Baroque. Artists such as Enrico Regnaud, Gio Nicola Buhagiar and Francesco Zahra all executed works in this church. The