HOW TWO FRIARS FROM THE HOLY LAND ARRIVED AT THE CAMP.
While the holy Christian army (says Fray Antonio Agapida) was thus
beleaguering this infidel city of Baza there rode into the camp one
day two reverend friars of the order of St. Francis. One was of
portly person and authoritative air: he bestrode a goodly steed, well
conditioned and well caparisoned, while his companion rode beside him
upon a humble hack, poorly accoutred, and, as he rode, he scarcely
raised his eyes from the ground, but maintained a meek and lowly air.
The arrival of two friars in the camp was not a matter of much note,
for in these holy wars the Church militant continually mingled in the
affray, and helmet and cowl were always seen together; but it was soon
discovered that these worthy saints-errant were from a far country and
on a mission of great import.
They were, in truth, just arrived from the Holy Land, being two of the
saintly men who kept vigil over the sepulchre of our Blessed Lord at
Jerusalem. He of the tall and portly form and commanding presence was
Fray Antonio Millan, prior of the Franciscan convent in the Holy City.
He had a full and florid countenance, a sonorous voice, and was round
and swelling and copious in his periods, like one accustomed to harangue
and to be listened to with deference. His companion was small and spare
in form, pale of visage, and soft and silken and almost whispering in
speech. “He had a humble and lowly way,” says Agapida, “evermore bowing
the head, as became one of his calling.” Yet he was one of the most
active, zealous, and effective brothers of the convent, and when he
raised his small black eye from the earth there was a keen glance out
of the corner which showed that, though harmless as a dove, he was
nevertheless as wise as a serpent.
These holy men had come on a momentous embassy from the grand soldan of
Egypt, or, as Agapida terms him in the language of the day, the soldan
of Babylon. The league which had been made between that potentate and
his arch-foe the Grand Turk, Bajazet II., to unite in arms for the
salvation of Granada, as has been mentioned in a previous chapter of
this chronicle, had come to naught. The infidel princes had again
taken up arms against each other, and had relapsed into their ancient
hostility. Still, the grand soldan, as head of the whole Moslem
religion, considered himself bound to preserve the kingdom of Granada
from the grasp of unbelievers. He despatched, therefore, these two holy
friars with letters to the Castilian sovereigns, as well as to the pope
and to the king of Naples, remonstrating against the evils done to
the Moors of the kingdom of Granada, who were of his faith and kindred
whereas it was well known that great numbers of Christians were indulged
and protected in the full enjoyment of their property, their liberty,
and their faith in his dominions. He insisted, therefore, that this war
should cease--that the Moors of Granada should be reinstated in the
territory of which they had been dispossessed: otherwise he threatened
to put to death all the Christians beneath his sway, to demolish their
convents and temples, and to destroy the Holy Sepulchre.
This fearful menace had spread consternation among the Christians of
Palestine, and when the intrepid Fray Antonio Millan and his lowly
companion departed on their mission they were accompanied far from the
gates of Jerusalem by an anxious throng of brethren and disciples, who
remained watching them with tearful eyes as long as they were in sight.
These holy ambassadors were received with great distinction by King
Ferdinand, for men of their cloth had ever high honor and consideration
in his court. He had long and frequent conversations with them about
the Holy Land, the state of the Christian Church in the dominions of the
grand soldan, and of the policy and conduct of that arch-infidel toward
it. The portly prior of the Franciscan convent was full and round and
oratorical in his replies, and the king expressed himself much pleased
with the eloquence of his periods; but the politic monarch was observed
to lend a close and attentive ear to the whispering voice of the lowly
companion, “whose discourse,” adds Agapida, “though modest and low,
was clear and fluent and full of subtle wisdom.” These holy friars had
visited Rome in their journeying, where they had delivered the letter of
the soldan to the sovereign pontiff. His Holiness had written by them
to the Castilian sovereigns, requesting to know what reply they had to
offer to this demand of the Oriental potentate.
The king of Naples also wrote to them on the subject, but in wary terms.
He inquired into the cause of this war with the Moors of Granada, and
expressed great marvel at its events, as if (says Agapida) both were
not notorious throughout all the Christian world. “Nay,” adds the worthy
friar with becoming indignation, “he uttered opinions savoring of little
better than damnable heresy; for he observed that, although the Moors
were of a different sect, they ought not to be maltreated without just
cause; and hinted that if the Castilian sovereigns did not suffer any
crying injury from the Moors, it would be improper to do anything which
might draw great damage upon the Christians--as if, when once the sword
of the faith was drawn, it ought ever to be sheathed until this scum
of heathendom were utterly destroyed or driven from the land. But this
monarch,” he continues, “was more kindly disposed toward the infidels
than was honest and lawful in a Christian prince, and was at that very
time in league with the soldan against their common enemy the Grand
Turk.”
These pious sentiments of the truly Catholic Agapida are echoed by
Padre Mariana in his history;* but the worthy chronicler Pedro Abarca
attributes the interference of the king of Naples not to lack of
orthodoxy in religion, but to an excess of worldly policy, he being
apprehensive that should Ferdinand conquer the Moors of Granada he might
have time and means to assert a claim of the house of Aragon to the
crown of Naples.
* Mariana, lib. 25, cap. 15.
“King Ferdinand,” continues the worthy father Pedro Abarca, “was no less
master of dissimulation than his cousin of Naples; so he replied to
him with the utmost suavity of manner, going into a minute and patient
vindication of the war, and taking great apparent pains to inform him of
those things which all the world knew, but of which the other pretended
to be ignorant.” * At the same time he soothed his solicitude about the
fate of the Christians in the empire of the grand soldan, assuring him
that the great revenue extorted from them in rents and tributes would be
a certain protection against the threatened violence.
* Abarca, Anales de Aragon, Rey xxx. cap. 3.
To the pope he made the usual vindication of the war--that it was
for the recovery of ancient territory usurped by the Moors, for the
punishment of wars and violences inflicted upon the Christians, and,
finally, that it was a holy crusade for the glory and advancement of the
Church.
“It was a truly edifying sight,” says Agapida, “to behold these friars,
after they had had their audience of the king, moving about the camp
always surrounded by nobles and cavaliers of high and martial renown.
These were insatiable in their questions about the Holy Land, the state
of the sepulchre of our Lord, and the sufferings of the devoted brethren
who guarded it and the pious pilgrims who resorted there to pay their
vows. The portly prior of the convent would stand with lofty and
shining countenance in the midst of these iron warriors and declaim with
resounding eloquence on the history of the sepulchre, but the humbler
brother would ever and anon sigh deeply, and in low tones utter some
tale of suffering and outrage, at which his steel-clad hearers would
grasp the hilts of their swords and mutter between their clenched teeth
prayers for another crusade.”
The pious friars, having finished their mission to the king and been
treated with all due distinction, took their leave, and wended their way
to Jaen, to visit the most Catholic of queens. Isabella, whose heart was
the seat of piety, received them as sacred men invested with more than
human dignity. During their residence at Jaen they were continually
in the royal presence: the respectable prior of the convent moved and
melted the ladies of the court by his florid rhetoric, but his lowly
companion was observed to have continual access to the royal ear. That
saintly and soft-spoken messenger (says Agapida) received the reward of
his humility; for the queen, moved by his frequent representations,
made in all modesty and lowliness of spirit, granted a yearly sum in
perpetuity of one thousand ducats in gold for the support of the monks
of the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre.*
* “La Reyna dio a los Frayles mil ducados de renta cado ano para
el sustento de los religiosos del santo sepulcro, que es la mejor
limosna y sustento que hasta nuestros dias ha quedado a estos religiosos
de Gerusalem: para donde les dio la Reyna un velo labrado por sus manos,
para poner encima de la santa sepultura del Senor.”--Garibay, “Compend
Hist.,” lib. 18, cap. 36.
Moreover, on the departure of these holy ambassadors, the excellent and
most Catholic queen delivered to them a veil devoutly embroidered with
her own royal hands, to be placed over the Holy Sepulchre;--a precious
and inestimable present, which called forth a most eloquent tribute of
thanks from the portly prior, but which brought tears into the eyes of
his lowly companion.*
* It is proper to mention the result of this mission of the two friars,
and which the worthy Agapida has neglected to record. At a subsequent
period the Catholic sovereigns sent the distinguished historian, Pietro
Martyr of Angleria, as ambassador to the grand soldan. That able man
made such representations as were perfectly satisfactory to the Oriental
potentate. He also obtained from him the remission of many exactions
and extortions heretofore practised upon Christian pilgrims visiting
the Holy Sepulchre; which, it is presumed, had been gently but cogently
detailed to the monarch by the lowly friar. Pietro Martyr wrote an
account of his embassy to the grand soldan--a work greatly esteemed by
the learned and containing much curious information. It is entitled “De
Legatione Babylonica.”