16 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
the territory which contained it had therefore an advantage
over all competitors. Even so, however, Antioch might
easily have been the leading state had either of the first two
rulers of Jerusalem been feeble or had the early princes of
Antioch been more fortunate men.
Baldwin had to contend with the opposition of the Church
as well as with the rivalry of the princes. He had mounted
the throne of Jerusalem despite the threats of the Patriarch
Dagobert, and throughout his reign he was involved in a
succession of struggles with the ecclesiastics. As the
custodian of the Holy Sepulchre, the Patriarch of Jerusalem
was a great personage, but Dagobert knew no restraint what-
ever in his claims and a clash with the secular power was
inevitable. Godfrey de Bouillon had given the Church vast
lands and relieved it of almost all obligations to the State $
but such an arrangement did not satisfy Baldwin, who had
been brought up in the Church and had little respect for
the priesthood. He envied the wealth of the prelates in
Jerusalem $ in addition to its possessions in Syria, the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre had many properties throughout
Europe—bestowed on it by pious persons after the recovery
of Jerusalem—and it also received a stream of contributions
from the pilgrims who visited the Holy City.
Baldwin was always in straits for money to support the
wars of the kingdom, and he demanded that the Patriarch
should contribute some of the riches of the Church to the
national exchequer. Dagobert protested that the Church
was free from all taxation, and that its wealth was required
for other purposes. Thereupon, according to Albert of Aix,
Baldwin forced his way to the apartment of the Patriarch,
whom he found at a banquet. " Your days and nights are
spent in feasting ", said the king. « The offerings of the
faithful are squandered in your pleasures, without thought '
of our perplexities and difficulties. By the living God, you
will not have another farthing to waste on your feasting until