It was presumably Bishop Dorotheus who received Duke Henry II of Brunswick in Sinai in 1330, who came bearing a letter from the Greek emperor to his “dear relatives,” the Greek prelates. According to the German record, the “archbishop of Sinai” received the duke in person, and bestowed on him, among other relics, a thorn from the crown of Christ, which he had himself received from the king of France to whom he was sent as envoy. Duke Henry received also oil, and perhaps a bone, from the shrine of St. Katherine, which, together with the thorn, he deposited in the church of the monastery of Walkenried after his return to Germany.[262] The ruler in succession to Dorotheus was Germanus III, and he was followed by Marcus who is named in an Arabic MS., and went to Rome in 1376 to collect alms for his convent. It was probably owing to his influence that a bull had been granted to the monks by Pope Innocent VI in 1360.[263] Later bishops included Job, whose name appears in an inscription in the convent church, and the following, who were named in a Arabic MS. without record of their date: Athanasius (I); Sabbas; Abraham; Gabriel (II); Michael; Silvanus; Cyrillus. Mention is also made of one Solomon, whose name is not otherwise recorded. CHAPTER XV THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES I. A KEEN interest in the Near East was aroused in Europe by the Crusades. At their conclusion travellers of every kind, more especially pilgrims and merchants, started for Palestine and Sinai, eager to visit the holy places, and to see some of the marvels of which the Crusaders had brought back accounts to their homes. The movement was for a time hindered by the difficulties which were raised by the Sultan, who suspected a further alliance between the “Franks” and the Tartars. But the princes of Europe interfered on behalf of the pilgrims, and Sultan Melik el Nasir, who ruled with some interruptions from 1293 to 1341, was a man of wider outlook, who entered into diplomatic relations with the Pope, the king of Aragon, and the king of France. He did his utmost to protect the pilgrims. Crowds of them now started for the Holy Land, a certain number extending their voyage to the shrine of St. Katherine in Sinai, a visit to which formed part of the so-called Long Pilgrimage.