Here the emperor remained for about five weeks, doing everything which his position allowed to make peace with the adherents of the Pope, at the head of whom stood the Patriarch of Jerusalem. The patriarch, however, found him, to use his own expression, “unhealthy from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,” and seemed rather exasperated than otherwise at all the good that Frederick had achieved in so short a time. The proud Templars and Knights of St. John, were furious because the chief control lay no longer with them, but with the Germans. Even the ecclesiastics were principally from France, very few of them from Italy. Probably at no period of the world’s history has a body of men existed so steeped in pride, so full of haughtiness, luxury, and immorality, as the Templars. Well might they think that in his heart the emperor had the intention of expelling them from the Holy Land. The governors of the towns had instructions to watch them strictly, and from his first arrival in Syria, the emperor had endeavoured to give the ascendancy to his German followers, while he scarcely concealed his design of making the huge possessions of the Templars and Knights of Jerusalem subservient to the worship of Christ, instead of ministering to their insatiable debaucheries. No wonder, therefore, that the burning hatred of the Templars was aroused. Were it now possible to trace out all their conspiracies against the life of Frederick, we should indeed have to deal with a tangled web, while the enmity of the Pope still further increased the dangers that surrounded him. The whole land was filled with the Papal troops, whose business was to plunder and to destroy, so that all the energies of the emperor were put in requisition to govern and defend the unhappy country. Balian of Sidon, a man universally respected, a nephew of Idelin and Walter d’Allemand, who deeply reverenced the Church, were appointed chief governors, and all fortified places received efficient garrisons and abundant supplies of provisions.