144 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
In regard to recruits, the Visitors General were more
successful. They could not argue that the Temple in the
East lacked money, but they could with justice affirm that
the brethren in the Holy Land were fighting against fearful
odds and that only a constant flow of men could maintain the
strength of the organisation. The Grand Preceptors were
readier to provide recruits than money j but they were not
prepared to supply all the reinforcements for which Jerusalem
asked. In times of crisis, the preceptories of Europe contri-
buted large numbers of soldiers to serve in the Holy Land.
Generally, however, the western officers of the Order wished
to retain more men than the Visitor thought justifiable.
The reputation of the Temple had been won in the East,
but if the Order had not opened up its thousands of precep-
tories throughout Europe and maintained its bands of trained
knights and sergeants in every country, its influence in the
West would have been comparatively small. The people
might admire the deeds of the Templars in the Holy Land,
the kings encourage the warriors of the red cross in the
struggle against the Saracens, but both princes and people
were more affected by what they saw of the might of the
Order at home. The Temple never ceased to seek for land,
and its possessions in Europe were equalled only by those of
the Hospital and the Church proper. The strongest princes
hesitated to offend an .organisation which had so much wealth
and so many men at its command as the Temple, and the
weaker princes tried to buy its friendship with bribes.
As the importance of the Order in every country depended
to a large extent upon the number of men that it could muster,
the provincial Masters refused to weaken their position by
meeting the demands of Jerusalem in full, and the arrival of
the Visitor General was therefore nearly always the signal
for a tussle. The Grand Preceptors might report by letter
that they had reduced the number of Templars under their
control to the barest minimum, but they could not support