THE TEMPLARS. 247 taken up by Boniface VIII. , to be interrupted and laid aside, prob- ably by his engrossing quarrel with Philippe le Bel. What was the drift of public opinion at the time is probably reflected in a tract on the recovery of the Holy Land addressed to Edward I. It is there proposed that the two Orders, whose scandalous quar- rels have rendered them the object of scorn, shall be fused together and confined to their eastern possessions, which should be sufficient for their support, while their combined revenues from their west- ern property, estimated at eight hundred thousand livres Tourr.ois per annum, be employed to further the crusade. Evidently the idea was spreading that their wealth could be seized and used to better purpose than it was likely to be in their hands.* Thus the Order was somewhat discredited in popular estima- tion when, in 1297, Jacques de Molay, whose terrible fate has cast a sombre shadow over his name through the centuries, was elected Grand Master, after a vigorous and bitter opposition by the par- tisans of Hugues de Peraud. A few years of earnest struggle to regain a foothold in Palestine seemed to exhaust the energy and resources of the Order, and it became quiescent in Cyprus. Its next exploit, though not official, was not of a nature to conciliate public opinion. Charles de Valois, the evil genius of his brother Philippe le Bel, and of his nephews, in 1300 married Catherine, granddaughter of Baldwin II. of Constantinople, and titular em- press. In 1306 he proposed to make good his wife's claims on the imperial throne, and he found a ready instrument in Clement V., who persuaded himself that the attempt would not be a weak- ening of Christianity in the East, but a means of recovering Pales- tine, or at least of reducing the Greek Church to subjection. He therefore endeavored to unite the Italian republics and princes in this crusade against Christians. Charles II. of Naples undertook an expedition in conjunction with the Templars. A fleet was fitted out under the command of Koger, a Templar of high reputa- tion for skill and audacity. It captured Thessalonica, but in place of actively pursuing Andronicus II., the Templars turned their
- Mansuet, op. cit. II. 101, 133.— De Excidio Urbis Acconis (Martene Ampl.
Coll. V. 757).— Raynald. arm. 1291, No. 30, 31.— Archives Nat. de France, J. 431, No. 40.— Chron. Salisburg. arm. 1291 (Canisii et Basnage III, n. 489).— Annal. Eberhard. Altahens. (lb. IV. 229).— De Recuperatione Tense Sanctae (Bongars, II. 320-1).
