I JO THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
struggle and serve as the advance guard of the Christian
forces. The Order, however, had adopted commercial and
financial functions in every country. Any activity other than
war would have been condemned in the Temple, but the
condemnation became severe when Christendom began to
believe that the brethren sacrificed the struggle against Islam
for the sake of trade and wealth, and that the reverses in
the East were due to indolence and cowardice.
In the early years, the Templars had little to lose except
their lives, and they had looked upon the war against the
infidel as a means of winning spoil and territory for their
Order as well as a duty. The wild ideas of. the wickedness
of the Moslems and the determination to exterminate the
infidel for the glory of God were doomed to pass, but, long
after the Templars were fraternising with the enemy, the
lure of conquest remained strong. When, however, the
Order became rich and acquired vast properties, the rewards
of victory dwindled in the eyes of the brethren. Moreover,
conquest grew more difficult. Moslem armies had once
melted away at the approach of the Franks, but the belief in
the invincibility of the Westerners had been exploded even
before the beginning of the Second Crusade.
The Temple retained its desire for offensive measures
many years after the other settlers in the East wished to
limit military operations to defensive measures. The
aggressiveness of the brethren was a source of irritation to
the nobles, and the criticism was frequently made that the
Templars endangered the country in their eagerness for
fighting and spoil. Though the Temple had never lacked
money except in its first decade, great possessions did not
come to it until the end of the twelfth and the beginning
of the thirteenth century. The discipline had been severe
while the Order was fighting for its existence, but abuses
were difficult to resist when the Temple had riches and land
and when the need to win fresh territory by the sword had