57 TUE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. Hospitallers to arm themselves generally as a great military PHIUP OF society, in imitation of the Templars,* and join the expeditionA_ „. jiey. to Egypt, Gilbert d'Assalit was authorised to promise them, in the name of the king, the possession of the wealthy and important city of Belbeis, the ancient Pelusium, in perpetual sovereign ty.f According to De Vertot, the senior Hospitallers were greatly averse to the military projects of their chief: " They urged," says he, " that they were a religious order, and that the church had not put arms into their hands to make conquests ;"% but the younger and more ardent of the brethren, burning to exchange the monotonous life of the cloister for the enterprize and activity of the camp, received the proposals of their superior with enthusiasm, and a majority of the chapter decided in favour of the plans and projects of their Guardian. They authorized him to borrow money of the Florentine and Genoese merchants, to take hired soldiers into the pay of the order, and to organize the Hospitallers as a great military society. Gilbert d'Assalit bestirred himself with great energy in the execution of these schemes; he wrote letters to the king of France for aid and assistance,! and borrowed money of the emperor of Constantinople. " Assaut," says De Vertot, * Predict* enim Hospitalis iralres ad imitaiionem froìrum militi» Templi, annia materuUibus utentes, milites cum sementibus in suo collegio receperunt.—Joe. de Fit, cap. Uv. t Will. Tyr. lib. χι. cap. 5. t This assumption of arms by the Hospitallers was entirely at variance with theoriginal end and object of their institution. Pope Anastasius, in a bull dated A. D. 1154, observes, ** omnia ν catm suslentoliombus perearinorum et pauperutn debcnt cedere, ne per hoc nullatenus aliis usibus ea convenit applicar!.—De Vertot-, liv. i. preuve 13. ξ Qest. Dei per Francos, p, 11Γ7.