=Source.=--William of Malmesbury, _De gestis regum Anglorum_, ed.
Stubbs, vol. ii., pp. 390, 393, 398. (Rolls Series.)
In the year 1095 after the Incarnation of Our Lord, Pope Urban II.,
who then filled the apostolic see, passed over the Alps and came to
France. The ostensible cause of his coming was that after being driven
from Rome by Guibert’s violence he might win over the churches north
of the Alps to acknowledge him. His more secret purpose was less well
known, to wit, by Bohemond’s counsel, to stir up wellnigh the whole of
Europe for an expedition to Asia, so that amid so great a commotion
in all countries mercenaries might easily be secured for Urban to
attack Rome, and Bohemond Illyria and Macedonia.... However, whatever
might have been the occasion of his journey, his coming was of great
and glorious benefit to Christians. A council, then, was summoned at
Clermont, the most famous city of Auvergne.... A clear and forcible
sermon, as a priest’s sermon ought to be, was addressed to the people,
touching an expedition of Christians against the Turks.... The audience
was filled with enthusiasm, and shouted approval, delighted with the
eloquence, and attracted to the pilgrimage; and forthwith, in the
council, many of the nobility knelt before the Pope and consecrated
themselves and theirs to God’s warfare; among them was Aymer, the
mighty bishop of Puy, who afterwards commanded the host with wisdom
and increased its numbers with his eloquence. So in the month of
November, in which the council was held, all departed to their own
homes; and forthwith the report of the good news spread throughout all
the world and stirred the hearts of Christians with a pure emotion,
which was so universally diffused, that there was no people so remote,
so obscure, as not to contribute its proportion; for not only were the
Mediterranean countries fired by the enthusiasm, but all who dwelt in
the utmost islands or among savage nations and had heard the name of
Christ. The Welshman left his forest-hunting, the Scotsman forsook
his friendly lice, the Dane abandoned his endless drinking bouts,
the Norwegian deserted his raw fish. The husbandmen left the fields,
houses were emptied of their inmates, whole cities went abroad. There
was no regard for ties, love of country was of small esteem, God alone
held men’s vision. Stored up barns, hoarded treasures, all that might
satisfy the tiller’s eager hopes or the miser’s greed, were abandoned;
they hungered only after the journey to Jerusalem. Joy went with
the travellers, grief oppressed those who stayed at home. Those who
stayed at home? You might have seen husband and wife and all their
children on the march; you would have laughed to see them, furniture
and all, setting off in carts. The roads were too narrow, the ways
too strait, for those who took the journey, so thick the multitudes
jostled and thronged. The number surpassed men’s imagination, though
the travellers were estimated at six millions. Never, beyond a doubt,
did so many nations combine for one same purpose, never did a host
so unorganized submit its undiscipline to one, nay, to no command.
For most wonderful of all it was to see so vast a throng move slowly
through all Christendom, yet never led to plunder, and none to restrain
them. All were afire with mutual love, so that if any man found in his
possession what he knew not to be his, he exposed it everywhere for
many days to be claimed, and the finder’s desire meanwhile was checked,
until the loser’s need might be satisfied.