CHRISTENDOM AND ISLAM 2O3
captured town only by reducing the number of defenders in
several other places. After much stern fighting and the loss
of three-quarters of the garrison, the Temple would perhaps
be ejected in a year or two and lose much more than a single
town. In later years, therefore, the Orders tried to restrain
the Crusaders. New conquests were a liability. The first
need of the Latin states was a permanent army to defend
what the Christians already held,
But it was impossible for the Temple and the other Orders
to refuse to support an expedition from the West, no matter
how much they disagreed with the tactics of its leaders. The
Orders existed to fight the infidel—Christendom believed
that the Temple should have no other duty—and it would
have been a grave scandal if the Templars had withheld their
co-operation. Europe did not understand, and few attempts
were made to explain, the futility of bringing a huge army
into a country for a short time, an army which might
temporarily increase the Latin possessions, but which would
certainly leave behind it enmity and bitterness towards the
Christians. Most Crusaders from the West were men who
still clung to the idea of a holy war and believed that all
who would not accept Christianity should be slaughtered.
The Moslem was the traditional enemy, and the Christians
demanded to be led into the lands of the accursed infidel.
Of what use to try to convince such men that the best interests
of the Latin states were to be served otherwise than by killing
the Moslems and taking their territory? Even Crusading
kings and other leaders from the West did not appreciate
that war in the East was different from war in Europe.
All three military Orders were inconsistent. When they
were pressed their natural inclination was to demand men
from the West. But when the later Crusades came in answer
to such appeals, the military Orders were often antagonistic.
It was not merely that they were jealous that the Crusaders
would win too much glory, though that was an ever-present