ABSTRACT
Before the third crusade reached Syria the prospects of the Latin church of Jerusalem looked very bleak. Tyre was the only part of the old kingdom which had survived the conquests of Saladin, and the remaining Christian forces were vainly attempting to lay siege to Muslim-held Acre, while themselves being besieged by the armies of Saladin. With the exception of the bishop of Sebastia, whose fate is unknown,1 and of the archbishop of Tyre, who was touring the west raising support for the new crusade,2 all the Latin bishops of the kingdom, led by the patriarch Heraclius, gathered in the camp at Acre. Bishop Rufinus of Acre had been killed at the battle of Hattin,3 but a successor was chosen in the camp as an expression of confidence in the Christian certainty of victory, so that when the city did fall a Latin bishop could once more be enthroned there.
