Bolstered with papal approval, a promising financial basis on which to solicit donations and income, and no shortage of work to do patrolling the Holy Land, the Templars thrived. Their membership ballooned. They received handsome awards of landed estates, revenue, and other patronage from wealthy supporters across Europe and the near east. And they built up a network of monastic-style houses in almost every Christian territory of the west, where non-fighting brothers worked to finance the military wing in the east.
