122 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
Both Orders desired to take greater defensive measures
before challenging the Moslems, but the eager recruits from
the West had come to regain Jerusalem, and they refused to
be restrained. The military Orders could not withhold their
aid, and at the end of the year they took part in an advance
into Moslem territory. Saphadin replied with an attack on
Jaffa and won the city, but soon afterwards the Christians
defeated his troops near Tyre. This battle was followed
by several successes and the recovery of a number of towns
and fortresses by the Christians. The death of Henry VI,
however, brought the Crusade to a sudden close, for the
Germans, who formed the main part of the army, hastened
back to Europe, Amalric of Lusignan, the successor to
Henry of Champagne on the throne of Jerusalem, despaired
of carrying on the war with his own forces, and he negotiated
a truce of five years with the Moslems to run from 1198,
Most of the Franks did not regret the suspension of the
campaign which had started so promisingly, and the peace
arranged by Amalric was popular in the East if not in the
West. Further territory might have been won while Islam
was disturbed, but the Franks realised the danger that aggres-
siveness would lead to a combination of their enemies, and
that a united Moslem army might rage through Palestine,
as Saladin had done after Hittm, and once again recapture
the possessions recovered by Richard Cocur de Lion. It
seemed to the majority of the Franks that such a risk was
not worth taking, and that the policy of the kingdom should
be to preserve what remained in Christian custody rather
than try to acquire new territories.
The feeling of hatred against the Moslems had under-
gone a change, at least so far as the Syrian Franks were
concerned. The Koran had been translated in 1143 and
the fantastic legends about the religion of the Moslems had
faded. Many Christians went to Mahometan universities,
where they studied astronomy and mathematics under