ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses strictly on papal crusading propaganda rather than on the much wider field of papal crusading policy or indeed the relationship between the papacy and the military orders in general. The military orders were always involved in military activities whenever crusader armies were present in the East. Considering that the Templars were the military order, it might appear quite natural that they should feature in a document from the papal chancery earlier than the Hospitallers. The popes, it would appear, still kept away from highlighting too openly the military character of the Hospital. The brethren of both military orders might have perhaps appeared to him more reliable and trustworthy, and indeed less likely to employ such funds for their own ends than the curiales sent from Rome or the episcopal officials and princes. Members of a military order could not take the cross and become crusaders, because a crusader enjoyed only a temporary legal status.
