the
Church of Constantine, that his followers might not trespass within it
on the privileges of the Christians. The contrast is at the least marked
between the Caliph of the Prophet and the children of the Holy Catholic
Church.

When, the business of the slaughter being ended, the chiefs met to
choose a king for the realm which they had won with their swords, one
man only appeared to whom the crown could fitly be offered. Baldwin was
lord of Edessa; Bohemond ruled at Antioch; Hugh of Vermandois and
Stephen of Chartres had returned to Europe; Robert of Flanders cared not
to stay; the Norman Robert had no mind to forfeit the duchy which he had
mortgaged; and Raymond was discredited by his avarice, and in part also
by his traffic in the visions of Peter Barthelemy. But in the city where
his Lord had worn the thorny crown, the veteran leader who had looked on
ruthless slaughter without blanching and had borne his share in swelling
the stream of blood would wear no earthly diadem nor take the title of
king. He would watch over his Master's grave and the interests of his
worshippers under the humble guise of Baron and Defender of the Holy
Sepulchre; and as such, a fortnight after his election, Godfrey departed
to do battle with the hosts of the Fatimite Caliph of Egypt, who now
felt that the loss of Jerusalem was too high a price for the humiliation
of his rivals. The conflict took place at Ascalon, and the Fatimite army
was miserably routed. Godfrey returned to Jerusalem, to hang the sword
and standard of the Sultan before the Holy Sepulchre and to bid farewell
to the pilgrims who were now to set out on their homeward journey. He
retained, with three hundred knights under Tancred, only two thousand
foot soldiers for the defence of his kingdom; and so ended the first act
in the great drama of the crusades.

FOUNDATION OF THE ORDER OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS

A.D. 1118

CHARLES G. ADDISON

(Among the military orders of past ages, that of the Knights Templars,
founded for the defence of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, with its
lofty motive, its superb organization and discipline, and its history
extending over nearly two centuries, is justly accounted one of the most
illustrious. At the period when this extraordinary and romantic order
came into existence, the contrasting spirits of warlike enterprise and
monastic retirement were drawing men, some from the field to the
cloister, others from the life of ascetic piety to t