THE TEMPLE IN EUROPE 145
such statements when the Visitors saw the preceptories to be
overflowing. A Visitor would go from house to house, en-
quiring into the numbers and duties of those residing there,
arranging new divisions of work, transferring some of the
tasks from the younger to the older men. He specified the
number to be sent to the Holy Land and, as it were, chose
the draft. The Preceptors were unable to retain all the men
whom they would have liked to keep beside them, but doubt-
less they contrived to make out a good case for the exemption
of those whom they particularly wished to remain at home,
whether or not these brethren were the most valuable to the
work of the Order,
The abuses which showed themselves in the Order—the
love of luxury and display, the pride and arrogance, the
ambition to achieve high office and personal wealth—were at
first confined to the great centres of the Temple, such as Paris
and London; but, though the Order always had many recruits
devoted to the tenets of the primitive Rule, such abuses spread
quickly in every part of the provinces. It was difficult for the
Templars to withstand the temptation to regard themselves
as superior beings. They were a highly favoured class,
having both the homage due to warriors and the respect due to
men associated with the Church. A Templar was protected
from the ban of any ecclesiastic, other than the Pope himself.
He was almost above the law and to him were accorded
privileges denied to everyone else almost without exception.
His Order had the right of sanctuary in many places, could
open churches which were closed even to the bishops, had its
own burial grounds, its own places of worship, its thousands
of rich houses, and was represented in every country in
Christendom.
In England, King John, in the hope of obtaining the
aid of the Order against his barons, had heaped many
benefits upon it. A Templar need not plead except before
the king or his chief justice; and anyone who sheltered under
J