THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
was appeased by God, the peace and security of Christendom
would be destroyed by this terrible feud."
If the Temple ever considered such a project as the
chronicler mentions, they soon abandoned it. The recruits
who came from the West were used to strengthen the
garrisons of the Templars' fortresses against Bibars. The
strongholds of the three military Orders were defended with
great skill and desperate courage, but almost all of them were
captured or forced to surrender. Arsuf, Cassarea, Beirut,
Loadicea, Jaffa, and the great fortresses of the Temple at
Safed and Belfort fell quickly to Bibars, and by 1268 the
Westerners retained little more than Tyre, Acre, and Tripoli.
Europe was moved to loud lamentations by the tidings of
Egypt's success. " Nearly the whole of the illustrious
chivalry of the Temple is annihilated", wrote the Pope
(Clement IV), in referring to the disasters in the East. He
invited all Christians to take the cross, but difficulties nearer
home did not permit the Holy See to organise a new Crusade
actively. St. Louis, however, felt that he had been called
by God to lead another army against the infidels. His
advisers begged him not to leave France, but the king would
not be denied. When St. Louis.dedicated himself anew to
the holy war, the Church exhibited more interest in the state
of the East, but the emissaries of the Pope received little
response when they preached the Crusade. Outside Louis's
own kingdom, the only considerable convert was Prince
Edward, later Edward I of England.
Louis left France in July, 1270, with between fifty and
sixty thousand men, but he did not lead this army to
Palestine. Mohammed, Bey of Tunis, was alleged to be on
the point of adopting Christianity, and Louis felt that his
first duty was to secure the assistance of so useful a convert 5
then, in collaboration with Mohammed, he would attack
Egypt. The Bey, however, scoffed at the idea of accepting
Christianity when Louis reached Tunis in the middle of July,