CHAPTER VIII
CONSTANTINOPLE AND CAIRO
THE war with Saladin had caused a drain upon the treasury
of the Temple, but the Order recuperated quickly in finance.
The revenue from its possessions was enormous, and in the
West alone the Temple is estimated, though the estimate
is doubtless too high, to have had an annual income of six
million pounds in the thirteenth century. With the increase
in trade, the properties of the Temple grew in value, and
year by year came new bequests in land or money. As every
regular knight must surrender all his possessions on entering
the Order, the income from this source also was considerable,
and, in addition, there flowed into the treasury the contribu-
tions of the temporary serving knights and the sergeants as
well as gifts from seculars. The number and value of such
gifts fluctuated to a very great extent, but were usually most
numerous and valuable when the Holy Land was in danger.
Such wealth aroused the envy of the Church, and disputes
between the Order and the ecclesiastics continued to be
frequent both in regard to money and to the privileges
claimed by the Templars. In 1197, the Patriarch of
Jerusalem laid the Order under interdict, an action which
was irregular as the Temple had been taken out of his juris-
diction; and the quarrel was only settled by the intervention
of the Pope. In the preceding year the Holy See had also
been compelled to interfere between the Order and the.
Patriarch, and the Master of the Temple had been sternly
reminded that it was his duty to keep the peace with the
head of the Church in the East.
Protests by the Pope or the Patriarch did not, however,
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