This change of power greatly disconcerted the party of the bishops, who began to intrigue for the overthrow of the young king, but he wisely continued to occupy himself with fighting the Mohammedans, knowing well that no pope would dare to attack a crusading monarch. He tried in everything, in his internal administration and his crusading ardour, to imitate his cousin, Louis IX. of France, and this wise policy secured him the protection of the Pope, who, in 1228, sent a legate, John of Abbeville, Cardinal of S. Sabina, with full powers, and with orders to rebuke the Portuguese bishops. The legate did his best to settle long-standing quarrels in the Church, and especially that between Martinho Rodrigues, Bishop of Oporto, the old adversary of Sancho I., and his chapter, and showed his approval of the king’s advisers by making the chancellor, Vicente, Bishop of Guarda. The legate also expressed his satisfaction at the king’s favourable treatment of the friars and the military religious orders, and as the bishops still intrigued against him, he persuaded Pope Gregory IX. to administer a severe rebuke to them by an encyclical letter. The people, the friars, and especially the military orders, simply adored their young monarch at this time, and it was impossible to foresee the catastrophe which was to sadly terminate his reign. The most distinguished military orders at this time were the Knights Hospitallers, whose prior, Affonso Peres Farinha, was the greatest warrior of his time, and who, in 1231, captured the important towns of Moura and Serpa; and the knights of Santiago, whose valiant prior, Paio Peres Correia, in 1234, took Aljustrel. But the king himself was the most ardent crusader of them all, and his youngest brother, Dom Ferdinand, who from Serpa ravaged the districts held by the Mohammedans every year, soon won a reputation second only to his own. In these halcyon days King Sancho II. imitated his grandfather in attempting to settle and cultivate the lands of the Alemtejo, on the same principles that Sancho I. had acted upon in the Lower Beira and Estremadura, while peace was maintained with the neighbouring kingdom of Leon, where, indeed, the greatest men at this period were of Portuguese birth, namely, Dom Pedro, the king’s uncle, who was Mordomo Mor of that kingdom, and Martim Sanches, an illegitimate son of Sancho I., who was the principal general of its armies. [Illustration: GATE AND WINDOW OF THE MONASTERY OF BELEM.]