CONSTANTINOPLE AND CAIRO 129
Egypt and Damascus to his own territory of Kerak. He had,
however, still further conquests to make at the expense of
his fellow-Moslems, and he agreed to a truce of six years to
last till 1209. The Christians used this period of truce to
good effect. When the nobles held most of the territory, little
attempt had been made to prepare the kingdom for the attacks
which might be expected at the end-of a truce and oppor-
tunities had been frittered away. The great landowners were
now the Templars and Hospitallers, and they did not repeat
the mistakes of the nobles. Before the expiry of the peace,
the defence of the kingdom had been greatly strengthened,
and the Temple and the Hospital, satisfied that their
possessions could be protected by small garrisons in
formidable castles, were ready to support a campaign against
Saphadin.
But the power of Saphadin could not be broken without
assistance from the West. The Holy See gave its support to
the project of a Crusade, but at the same time it offered similar
indulgences to those who went to fight the Moors in Spain,
and in 1208 it extended the privileges to men who went no
further than Provence for their fighting. The Christians of
Provence had murdered a papal legate sent to combat the
heretical doctrines being taught there, and Innocent launched
the Albigensian Crusade, which turned the land of the
troubadours into a bloody battlefield. Earlier in the year,
the Pope had rebuked the Templars for their pride, and
sternly reminded them that they were permitted to conduct
services in places under interdict only at stated intervals.
The brethren, he said, had the cross of Christ on their breast,
but they had forgotten His teaching. Any scoundrel could
be taken under the protection of the Order by paying for the
privilege, and the priests of the Temple gave to excommuni-
cated men all the consolations of the . Church, including
Christian burial, thus " seeking to make alive those whom
they knew to be dead ". The Holy See and the Temple were