The patriarch Heraclius quarrels with the king of England--He returns to Palestine without succour--The disappointment and gloomy forebodings of the Templars--They prepare to resist Saladin--Their defeat and slaughter--The valiant deeds of the Marshal of the Temple--The fatal battle of Tiberias--The captivity of the Grand Master and the true cross--The captive Templars are offered the Koran or death--They choose the latter, and are beheaded--The fall of Jerusalem--The Moslems take possession of the Temple--They purify it with rose-water, say prayers, and hear a sermon--The Templars retire to Antioch--Their letters to the king of England and the Master of the Temple at London--Their exploits at the siege of Acre. “The foes of the Lord break into his holy city, even into that glorious tomb where the virgin blossom of Mary was wrapt up in linen and spices, and where the first and greatest flower on earth rose up again.”--_S. Bernardi_, epist. cccxxii. The Grand Master, Arnold de Torroge, who died on his journey to England, as before mentioned, was succeeded by Brother Gerard de Riderfort.[60] On the 10th of the calends of April, a month after the consecration by the patriarch Heraclius of the Temple church, the grand council or parliament of England, composed of the bishops, earls, and barons, assembled in the house of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell in London. It was attended by William king of Scotland and David his brother, and many of the counts and barons of that distant land. The august assembly was acquainted, in the king’s name, with the object of the solemn embassy just sent to him from Jerusalem, and with the desire of the royal penitent to fulfil his vow and perform his penance; but the barons were at the same time reminded of the old age of their sovereign, of the bad state of his health, and of the necessity for his presence in England. They accordingly represented to King Henry that the solemn oath taken by him on his coronation was an obligation antecedent to the penance imposed on him by the pope; that by that oath he was bound to stay at home and govern his dominions, and that, in their opinion, it was more wholesome for the king’s soul to defend his own country against the barbarous French, than to desert it for the purpose of protecting the distant kingdom of Jerusalem.[61]