3215

August 20. Viterbo. Pope Alexander IV writes to the master and brothers of the house of the knighthood of the Temple in Acre, relating that the count of Jaffa (Joppensis) is led by such passion for the business of the Holy Land that, as the pope has understood, for the upkeep of the castle of Jaffa (Joppense) he has not only spent all his movable goods and a good portion of his inheritance, but he is heavily burdened by debts. Thus he cannot maintain it alone without help from elsewhere. Since, therefore, as the pope has understood, while alive the late Patriarch G[erold of Lausanne] of Jerusalem deposited in the house of the addressees a certain sum of money for the aid to the Holy Land that is believed to amount to 16,000 Saracen besants and more, and since the loss of the castle would be very detrimental to the Holy Land and the faithful of those parts, the pope orders the addressees to provide the count, without trouble or delay, up to 1,000 silver marks of that money to be spent in support of the castle as the count sees fit. Otherwise the pope is sending a letter to Patriarch [Jacques Pantaléon] of Jerusalem to compel them to do so with ecclesiastical censure, after a warning, appeal removed.