14 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
Moslems, treacherously sacrificed by the Byzantines, tens of
thousands of these Crusaders were slaughtered or fell victims
to disease or died from famine. Of the rest, many turned
back before seeing Palestine or ended their lives in Moslem
prisons, and of the quarter of a million men who started out
so joyously from Europe only about twenty thousand reached
Jerusalem, Disappointed in the hope of succour from the
West, Baldwin had to rely upon the pilgrims to provide
recruits for his army. In the spring and summer, the times
of the two passages to the East, great bands of the pious
flocked to Jerusalem from a31 over Christendom to feast their
eyes upon the sacred places so miraculously restored to
Christian custody. Some of them settled in the new kingdom,
but most of the pilgrims remained only a short time in the
country, and in periods of crisis the king closed the ports and
conscripted every fit man for the royal army.
He never attained the popularity of Godfrey, but
Baldwin I is the real architect of the Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem. He was defeated in battle several times, but his
record of victories is an impressive one, and he added Acre,
Arsuf, Cassarea, Sidon, Azotus, and other places to the
possessions of the Latins. In matters of religion he was very
liberal for the twelfth century. The Holy See had hoped
that the Crusade would heal the breach between the Roman
and Byzantine Churches. They had long disagreed on points
of doctrine—points on which the Greek Orthodox Church and
the Roman Catholic Church still disagree to-day—but the
two branches had only become bitterly estranged fifty years
before the First Crusade. Each Church had at that time
solemnly excommunicated the other! The Crusade, instead
of bringing about a reconciliation, increased the antagonism
of Byzantium towards Rome. The Eastern clergy were
disgusted with the conduct of the Latin priests, and the
Emperor in Constantinople regarded the armies from
the West as dangerous to his security and felt aggrieved that