The Patriarch Heraclius quarrels with the king of England--He returns
to Palestine without succour--The disappointments and gloomy
forebodings of the Templars--They prepare to resist Saladin--Their
defeat and slaughter--The valiant deeds of the Marshal of the
Temple--The fatal battle of Tiberias--The captivity of the Grand
Master and the true Cross--The captive Templars are offered the Koran
or death--They choose the latter, and are beheaded--The fall of
Jerusalem--The Moslems take possession of the Temple--They purify it
with rose-water, say prayers, and hear a sermon--The Templars retire
to Antioch--Their letters to the king of England and the Master of the
Temple at London--Their exploits at the siege of Acre.
"Gloriosa civitas Dei Jerusalem, ubi dominus passus, ubi sepultus, ubi
gloriam resurrectionis ostendit, hosti spurio subjicitur polluenda,
nec est dolor sicut dolor iste, cum sepulchrum possideant qui
sepulchrum persequuntur, crucem teneant qui crucifixum
contemnunt."--_The Lamentation of Geoffrey de Vinisauf over the Fall
of Jerusalem._
"The earth quakes and trembles because the king of heaven hath lost
his land, the land on which his feet once stood. The foes of the Lord
break into his holy city, even into that glorious tomb where the
virgin blossom of Mary was wrapt up in linen and spices, and where the
first and greatest flower on earth rose up again."--_St. Bernard_,
epist. cccxxii.
[Sidenote: GERARD DE RIDERFORT. A. D. 1185.]
The Grand Master, Arnold de Torroge, who died on his journey to England,
as before mentioned, was succeeded by Brother Gerard de Riderfort.[179]
On the tenth of the calends of April, a month after the consecration by
the patriarch Heraclius of the Temple church, the grand council or
parliament of the kingdom, composed of the bishops, earls, and barons,
assembled in the house of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell in London. It
was attended by William king of Scotland and David his brother, and many
of the counts and barons of that distant land.[180] The august assembly
was acquainted, in the king's name, with the object of the solemn embassy
just sent to him from Jerusalem, and with the desire of the royal penitent
to fulfil his vow and perform his penance; but the barons were at the same
time reminded of the old age of their sovereign, of the bad state of his
health, and of the necessity of his presence in England. They accordingly
represented to King Henry that the solemn oath taken by him on his
coronation was an obligation antecedent to the penance imposed on him by
the pope; that by that oath he was bound to stay at home and govern his
dominions, and that, in their opinion, it was more wholesome for the
king's soul to defend his own country against the barbarous French, than
to desert it for the purpose of protecting the distant kingdom of
Jerusalem. They, however, offered to raise the sum of fifty thousand marks
for the levying of troops to be sent into Asia, and recommended that all
such prelates and nobles as desired to take the cross should be permitted
freely to leave the kingdom on so pious an enterprise.[181]
Fabian gives the following quaint account of the king's answer to the
patriarch, from the Chron. Joan Bromton: "Lasteley, the kynge gaue
answere, and sayde that he myghte not leue hys lande wythoute kepynge, nor
yet leue yt to the praye and robbery of Frenchemen. But he wolde gyue
largely of hys owne to such as wolde take upon theym that vyage. Wyth
thys answere the patryarke was dyscontente, and sayde, 'We seke a man, and
not money; welnere euery crysten regyon sendyth unto us money, but no
lande sendyth to us a prince. Therefore we aske a prynce that nedeth
money, and not money that nedeth a prynce.' But the kynge layde for hym
suche excuses, that the patryarke departed from hym dyscontentyd and
comforteless, whereof the kynge beynge aduertysed, entendynge somwhat to
recomforte hym wyth pleasaunte wordes, folowed hym unto the see syde. But
the more the kynge thought to satysfye hym wyth hys fayre speche, the more
the patryarke was discontented, in so myche that at the laste he sayde
unto hym, 'Hytherto thou haste reygned gloryously, but here after thou
shalt be forsaken of him whom thou at thys tyme forsakeste. Thynke on hym
what he hath gyuen to thee, and what thou haste yelden to him agayne: howe
fyrste thou were false unto the kynge of Fraunce, and after slewe that
holy man Thomas of Caunterburye, and lastely thou forsakeste the
proteccyon of Crystes faith.' The kynge was amoued wyth these wordes, and
sayde unto the patryarke, 'Though all the men of my lande were one bodye,
and spake with one mouth, they durste not speke to me such wordys.' 'No
wonder,' sayde the patriarke, 'for they loue thyne and not the; that ys to
meane, they loue thy goodes temporall, and fere the for losse of
promocyon, but they loue not thy soule.' And when he hadde so sayde, he
offeryd hys hedde to the kynge, sayenge, 'Do by me ryghte as thou dyddest
by that blessed man Thomas of Caunterburye, for I had leur to be slayne of
the, then of the Sarasyns, for thou art worse than any Sarasyn.' But the
kynge kepte hys pacyence, and sayde, 'I may not wende oute of my lande,
for myne own sonnes wyll aryse agayne me whan I were absente.' 'No
wonder,' sayde the patryarke, 'for of the deuyll they come, and to the
deuyll they shall go,' and so departyd from the kynge in great ire."[182]
According to Roger de Hoveden, however, the patriarch, on the 17th of the
calends of May, accompanied King Henry into Normandy, where a conference
was held between the sovereigns of France and England concerning the
proposed succour to the Holy Land. Both monarchs were liberal in promises
and fair speeches; but as nothing short of the presence of the king of
England, or of one of his sons, in Palestine, would satisfy the patriarch,
that haughty ecclesiastic failed in his negotiations, and returned in
disgust and disappointment to the Holy Land.[183] On his arrival at
Jerusalem with intelligence of his ill success, the greatest consternation
prevailed amongst the Latin christians; and it was generally observed that
the true cross, which had been recovered from the Persians by the Emperor
Heraclius, was about to be lost under the pontificate, and by the fault of
a patriarch of the same name.
A resident in Palestine has given us some curious biographical notices of
this worthy consecrator of our Temple church at London. He says that he
was a very handsome parson, and, in consequence of his beauty, the mother
of the king of Jerusalem fell in love with him, and made him archbishop of
Caesarea, (biau clerc estoit, et par sa beaute l'ama la mere de roi, et le
fist arcevesque de Cesaire.) He then describes how he came to be made
patriarch, and how he was suspected to have poisoned the archbishop of
Tyre. After his return from Rome he fell in love with the wife of a
haberdasher who lived at Naplous, twelve miles from Jerusalem. He went to
see her very often, and, not long after the acquaintanceship commenced,
the husband died. Then the patriarch brought the lady to Jerusalem, and
bought for her a very fine stone house. "Le patriarche la fist venir en
Jerusalem, et li acheta bonne maison de pierre. Si la tenoit voiant le
siecle ausi com li hons fait sa fame, fors tant que ele n'estoit mie avec
lui. Quant ele aloit au mostier, ele estoit ausi atornee de riches dras,
com ce fust un emperris, et si serjant devant lui. Quant aucunes gens la
veoient qui ne la connoissoient pas, il demandoient qui cele dame estoit.
Cil qui la connoissoient, disoient que cestoit la fame du patriarche. Ele
avoit nom Pasque de Riveri. Enfans avoit du patriarche, et les barons
estoient, que la ou il se conseilloient, vint un fol ou patriarche, si li
dist; 'Sire Patriarche, dones moi bon don, car je vous aport bones
novelles _Pasque de Riveri, vostre fame, a une bele fille_!'"[184] "When
Jesus Christ," says the learned author, "saw the iniquity and wickedness
which they committed in the very place where he was crucified, he could no
longer suffer it."
[Sidenote: A. D. 1186.]
The order of the Temple was at this period all-powerful in Palestine, and
the Grand Master, Gerard de Riderfort, coerced with the heavy hand of
authority the nobles of the kingdom, and even the king himself. Shortly
after the return of Heraclius to Palestine, King Baldwin IV. died, and was
succeeded by his infant nephew, Baldwin V., who was crowned in the church
of the Resurrection, and was afterwards royally entertained by the
Templars in the Temple of Solomon, according to ancient custom.[185] The
young king died at Acre after a short reign of only seven months, and the
Templars brought the body to Jerusalem, and buried it in the tombs of the
christian kings. The Grand Master of the Temple then raised Sibylla, the
mother of the deceased monarch, and her second husband, Guy of Lusignan,
to the throne. Gerard de Riderfort surrounded the palace with troops; he
closed the gates of Jerusalem, and delivered the regalia to the Patriarch.
He then conducted Sibylla and her husband to the church of the
Resurrection, where they were both crowned by Heraclius, and were
afterwards entertained at dinner in the Temple. Guy de Lusignan was a
prince of handsome person, but of such base renown, that his own brother
Geoffrey was heard to exclaim, "Since they have made _him_ a king, surely
they would have made _me_ a God!" These proceedings led to endless discord
and dissension; Raymond, Count of Tripoli, withdrew from court; many of
the barons refused to do homage, and the state was torn by faction and
dissension at a time when all the energies of the population were required
to defend the country from the Moslems.[186]
Saladin, on the other hand, had been carefully consolidating and
strengthening his power, and was vigorously preparing for the reconquest
of the Holy City, the long-cherished enterprise of the Mussulmen. The
Arabian writers enthusiastically recount his pious exhortations to the
true believers, and describe with vast enthusiasm his glorious
preparations for the holy war. Bohadin F. Sjeddadi, his friend and
secretary, and great biographer, before venturing upon the sublime task of
describing his famous and sacred actions, makes a solemn confession of
faith, and offers up praises to the one true God.
"Praise be to GOD," says he, "who hath blessed us with _Islam_, and hath
led us to the understanding of the true faith beautifully put together,
and hath befriended us; and, through the intercession of our prophet, hath
loaded us with every blessing.... I bear witness that there is no God but
that one great God who hath no partner, (a testimony that will deliver our
souls from the smoky fire of hell,) that Mohammed is his servant and
apostle, who hath opened unto us the gates of the right road to
salvation...."
"These solemn duties being performed, I will begin to write concerning the
victorious defender of the faith, the tamer of the followers of the cross,
the lifter up of the standard of justice and equity, the saviour of the
world and of religion, Saladin Aboolmodaffer Joseph, the son of Job, the
son of Schadi, Sultan of the Moslems, ay, and of Islam itself; the
deliverer of the holy house of God (the Temple) from the hands of the
idolaters, the servant of two holy cities, whose tomb may the Lord moisten
with the dew of his favour, affording to him the sweetness of the fruits
of the faith."[187]
[Sidenote: A. D. 1187.]
On the 10th of May, A. D. 1187, Malek-el-Afdal, "Most excellent prince,"
one of Saladin's sons, crossed the Jordan at the head of seven thousand
Mussulmen. The Grand Master of the Temple immediately despatched
messengers to the nearest convents and castles of the order, commanding
all such knights as could be spared to mount and come to him with speed.
At midnight, ninety knights of the garrison of La Feue or Faba, forty
knights from the garrison of Nazareth, with many others from the convent
of Caco, were assembled around their chief, and began their march at the
head of the serving brothers and the light cavalry of the order. They
joined themselves to the Hospitallers, rashly engaged the seven thousand
Moslems, and were cut to pieces in a bloody battle fought near the brook
Kishon. The Grand Master of the Temple and two knights broke through the
dense ranks of the Moslems, and made their escape. Roger de Molines, the
Grand Master of the Hospital, was left dead upon the field, together with
all the other brothers of the Hospital and of the Temple.
Jacqueline de Mailly, the Marshal of the Temple, performed prodigies of
valour. He was mounted on a white horse, and clothed in the white habit of
his order, with the blood-red cross, the symbol of martyrdom, on his
breast; he became, through his gallant bearing and demeanour, an object of
respect and of admiration even to the Moslems. He fought, say the writers
of the crusades, like a wild boar, sending on that day an amazing number
of infidels to _hell_! The Mussulmen severed the heads of the slaughtered
Templars from their bodies, and attaching them with cords to the points of
their lances, they placed them in front of their array, and marched off in
the direction of Tiberias.[188]
The following interesting account is given of the march of another band
of holy warriors, who, in obedience to the summons of the Grand Master of
the Temple, were hastening to rally around the sacred ensigns of their
faith.
"When they had travelled two miles, they came to the city of Saphet. It
was a lovely morning, and they determined to march no further until they
had heard mass. They accordingly turned towards the house of the bishop
and awoke him up, and informed him that the day was breaking. The bishop
accordingly ordered an old chaplain to put on his clothes and say mass,
after which they hastened forwards. Then they came to the castle of La
Feue, (a fortress of the Templars,) and there they found, outside the
castle, the tents of the convent of Caco pitched, and there was no one to
explain what it meant. A varlet was sent into the castle to inquire, but
he found no one within but two sick people who were unable to speak. Then
they marched towards Nazareth, and after they had proceeded a short
distance from the castle of La Feue, they met a brother of the Temple on
horseback, who galloped up to them at a furious rate, calling out, Bad
news, bad news; and he informed them how that the Master of the Hospital
had had his head cut off, and how of all the brothers of the Temple there
had escaped but three, the Master of the Temple and two others, and that
the knights whom the king had placed in garrison at Nazareth, were all
taken and killed."[189]
In the great battle of Tiberias or of Hittin, fought on the 4th of July,
which decided the fate of the holy city of Jerusalem, the Templars were in
the van of the Christian army, and led the attack against the infidels.
The march of Saladin's host, which amounted to eighty thousand horse and
foot, over the hilly country, is compared by an Arabian writer, an
eye-witness, to mountains in movement, or to the vast waves of an agitated
sea. The same author speaks of the advance of the Templars against them
at early dawn in battle array, "horrible in arms, having their whole
bodies cased with triple mail." He compares the noise made by their
advancing squadrons to the _loud humming of bees_! and describes them as
animated with "a flaming desire of vengeance."[190] Saladin had behind him
the lake of Tiberias, his infantry was in the centre, and the swift
cavalry of the desert was stationed on either wing, under the command of
_Faki-ed-deen_ (teacher of religion.) The Templars rushed, we are told,
like lions upon the Moslem infidels, and nothing could withstand their
heavy and impetuous charge. "Never," says an Arabian doctor of the law,
"have I seen a bolder or more powerful army, nor one more to be feared by
the believers in the true faith."
Saladin set fire to the dry grass and dwarf shrubs which lay between both
armies, and the wind blew the smoke and the flames directly into the faces
of the military friars and their horses. The fire, the noise, the gleaming
weapons, and all the accompaniments of the horrid scene, have given full
scope to the descriptive powers of the oriental writers. They compare it
to the last judgment; the dust and the smoke obscured the face of the sun,
and the day was turned into night. Sometimes gleams of light darted like
the rapid lightning amid the throng of combatants; then you might see the
dense columns of armed warriors, now immovable as mountains, and now
sweeping swiftly across the landscape like the rainy clouds over the face
of heaven. "The sons of paradise and the children of fire," say they,
"then decided their terrible quarrel; the arrows rustled through the air
like the wings of innumerable sparrows, the sparks flew from the coats of
mail and the glancing sabres, and the blood spurting forth from the bosom
of the throng deluged the earth like the rains of heaven."... "The
avenging sword of the true believers was drawn forth against the infidels;
the faith of the UNITY was opposed to the faith of the TRINITY, and
speedy ruin, desolation, and destruction, overtook the miserable sons of
baptism!"
The cowardly patriarch Heraclius, whose duty it was to bear the holy cross
in front of the christian array, confided his sacred charge to the bishops
of Ptolemais and Lydda,[191]--a circumstance which gave rise to many
gloomy forebodings amongst the superstitious soldiers of Christ. In
consequence of the treachery, as it is alleged, of the count of Tripoli,
who fled from the field with his retainers, both the Templars and
Hospitallers were surrounded, and were to a man killed or taken prisoners.
The bishop of Ptolemais was slain, the bishop of Lydda was made captive,
and the holy cross, together with the king of Jerusalem, and the Grand
Master of the Temple, fell into the hands of the Saracens. "Quid plura?"
says Radulph, abbot of the monastery of Coggleshale in Essex, who was then
on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was wounded in the nose by an arrow.
"Capta est crux, et rex, et Magister militiae Templi, et episcopus
Liddensis, et frater Regis, et Templarii, et Hospitalarii, et marchio de
Montferrat, atque omnes vel mortui vel capti sunt. Plangite super hoc
omnes adoratores crucis, et plorate; sublatum est lignum nostrae salutis,
dignum ab indignis indigne heu! heu! asportatum. Vae mihi misero, quod in
diebus miserae vitae meae talia cogor videre.... O dulce lignum, et suave,
sanguine filii Dei roratum atque lavatum! O crux alma, in qua salus nostra
pependit! &c.[192]
"I saw," says the secretary and companion of Saladin, who was present at
this terrible fight, and is unable to restrain himself from pitying the
disasters of the vanquished--"I saw the mountains and the plains, the
hills and the valleys, covered with their dead. I saw their fallen and
deserted banners sullied with dust and with blood. I saw their heads
broken and battered, their limbs scattered abroad, and the blackened
corses piled one upon another like the stones of the builders. I called to
mind the words of the Koran, 'The infidel shall say, What am I but
_dust_?'... I saw thirty or forty tied together by one cord. I saw in one
place, guarded by one Mussulman, two hundred of these famous warriors
gifted with amazing strength, who had but just now walked forth amongst
the mighty; their proud bearing was gone; they stood naked with downcast
eyes, wretched and miserable.... The lying infidels were now in the power
of the true believers. Their king and their cross were captured, that
cross before which they bow the head and bend the knee; which they bear
aloft and worship with their eyes; they say that it is the identical wood
to which the God whom they adore was fastened. They had adorned it with
fine gold and brilliant stones; they carried it before their armies; they
all bowed towards it with respect. It was their first duty to defend it;
and he who should desert it would never enjoy peace of mind. The capture
of this cross was more grievous to them than the captivity of their king.
Nothing can compensate them for the loss of it. It was their God; they
prostrated themselves in the dust before it, and sang hymns when it was
raised aloft!"[193]
Among the few christian warriors who escaped from this terrible encounter,
was the Grand Master of the Hospital; he clove his way from the field of
battle, and reached Ascalon in safety, but died of his wounds the day
after his arrival. The multitude of captives was enormous, cords could not
be found to bind them, the tent-ropes were all used for the purpose, but
were insufficient, and the Arabian writers tell us that, on seeing the
dead, one would have thought that there could be no prisoners, and on
seeing the prisoners, that there could be no dead. As soon as the battle
was over, Saladin proceeded to a tent, whither, in obedience to his
commands, the king of Jerusalem, the Grand Master of the Temple, and
Reginald de Chatillon, had been conducted. This last nobleman had greatly
distinguished himself in various daring expeditions against the caravans
of pilgrims travelling to Mecca, and had become on that account
particularly obnoxious to the pious Saladin. The sultan, on entering the
tent, ordered a bowl of sherbet, the sacred pledge amongst the Arabs of
hospitality and security, to be presented to the fallen monarch of
Jerusalem, and to the Grand Master of the Temple; but when Reginald de
Chatillon would have drunk thereof, Saladin prevented him, and reproaching
the christian nobleman with perfidy and impiety, he commanded him
instantly to acknowledge the prophet whom he had blasphemed, or be
prepared to meet the death he had so often deserved. On Reginald's
refusal, Saladin struck him with his scimitar, and he was immediately
despatched by the guards.[194]
Bohadin, Saladin's friend and secretary, an eye-witness of the scene,
gives the following account of it: "Then Saladin told the interpreter to
say thus to the king, 'It is thou, not I, who givest drink to this man!'
Then the sultan sat down at the entrance of the tent, and they brought
Prince Reginald before him, and after refreshing the man's memory, Saladin
said to him, 'Now then, I myself will act the part of the defender of
Mohammed!' He then offered the man the Mohammedan faith, but he refused
it; then the king struck him on the shoulder with a drawn scimitar, which
was a hint to those that were present to do for him; so they sent his
soul to _hell_, and cast out his body before the tent-door!"[195]
Two days afterwards Saladin proceeded in cold blood to enact the grand
concluding tragedy. The warlike monks of the Temple and of the Hospital,
the bravest and most zealous defenders of the christian faith, were, of
all the warriors of the cross, the most obnoxious to zealous Mussulmen,
and it was determined that death or conversion to Mahometanism should be
the portion of every captive of either order, excepting the Grand Master
of the Temple, for whom it was expected a heavy ransom would be given.
Accordingly, on the christian Sabbath, at the hour of sunset, the
appointed time of prayer, the Moslems were drawn up in battle array under
their respective leaders. The Mamlook emirs stood in two ranks clothed in
yellow, and, at the sound of the holy trumpet, all the captive knights of
the Temple and of the Hospital were led on to the eminence above Tiberias,
in full view of the beautiful lake of Gennesareth, whose bold and
mountainous shores had been the scene of so many of their Saviour's
miracles. There, as the last rays of the sun were fading away from the
mountain tops, they were called upon to deny him who had been crucified,
to choose God for their Lord, Islam for their faith, Mecca for their
temple, the Moslems for their brethren, and Mahomet for their prophet. To
a man they refused, and were all decapitated in the presence of Saladin by
the devout zealots of his army, and the doctors and expounders of the law.
An oriental historian, who was present, says that Saladin sat with a
smiling countenance viewing the execution, and that some of the
executioners cut off the heads with a degree of dexterity that excited
great applause.[196] "Oh," says Omad'eddin Muhammed, "how beautiful an
ornament is the blood of the infidels sprinkled over the followers of the
faith and the true religion!"
If the Mussulmen displayed a becoming zeal in the decapitation and
annihilation of the infidel Templars, these last manifested a no less
praiseworthy eagerness for martyrdom by the swords of the unbelieving
Moslems. The Knight Templar, Brother Nicolas, strove vigorously, we are
told, with his companions to be the first to suffer, and with great
difficulty accomplished his purpose.[197] It was believed by the
Christians, in accordance with the superstitious ideas of those times,
that heaven testified its approbation by a visible sign, and that for
three nights, during which the bodies of the Templars remained unburied on
the field, celestial rays of light played around the corpses of those holy
martyrs.[198]
The government of the order of the Temple, in consequence of the captivity
of the Grand Master, devolved upon the Grand Preceptor of the kingdom of
Jerusalem, who addressed letters to all the brethren in the West,
imploring instant aid and assistance. One of these letters was duly
received by Brother Geoffrey, Master of the Temple at London, as
follows:--
"Brother Terric, Grand Preceptor of the poor house of the Temple, and
every poor brother, and the whole convent, now, alas! almost annihilated,
to all the preceptors and brothers of the Temple to whom these letters may
come, salvation through him to whom our fervent aspirations are addressed,
through him who causeth the sun and the moon to reign marvellous."
"The many and great calamities wherewith the anger of God, excited by our
manifold sins, hath just now permitted us to be afflicted, we cannot for
grief unfold to you, neither by letters nor by our sobbing speech. The
infidel chiefs having collected together a vast number of their people,
fiercely invaded our christian territories, and we, assembling our
battalions, hastened to Tiberias to arrest their march. The enemy having
hemmed us in among barren rocks, fiercely attacked us; the holy cross and
the king himself fell into the hands of the infidels, the whole army was
cut to pieces, two hundred and thirty of our knights were beheaded,
without reckoning the sixty who were killed on the 1st of May. The Lord
Reginald of Sidon, the Lord Ballovius, and we ourselves, escaped with vast
difficulty from that miserable field. The Pagans, drunk with the blood of
our Christians, then marched with their whole army against the city of
Acre, and took it by storm. The city of Tyre is at present fiercely
besieged, and neither by night nor by day do the infidels discontinue
their furious assaults. So great is the multitude of them, that they cover
like ants the whole face of the country from Tyre to Jerusalem, and even
unto Gaza. The holy city of Jerusalem, Ascalon, and Tyre, and Beyrout, are
alone left to us and to the christian cause, and the garrisons and the
chief inhabitants of these places, having perished in the battle of
Tiberias, we have no hope of retaining them without succour from heaven
and instant assistance from yourselves."[199]
Saladin, on the other hand, sent triumphant letters to the caliph. "God
and his angels," says he, "have mercifully succoured Islam. The infidels
have been sent to feed the fires of hell! The cross is fallen into our
hands, around which they fluttered like the moth round a light; under
whose shadow they assembled, in which they boldly trusted as in a wall;
the cross, the centre and leader of their pride, their superstition, and
their tyranny."...[200]
After the conquest of between thirty and forty cities and castles, many of
which belonged to the order of the Temple, Saladin laid siege to the holy
city. On the 20th of September the Mussulman army encamped on the west of
the town, and extended itself from the tower of David to the gate of St.
Stephen. The Temple could no longer furnish its brave warriors for the
defence of the holy sanctuary of the Christians; two miserable knights,
with a few serving brethren, alone remained in its now silent halls and
deserted courts.
After a siege of fourteen days, a breach was effected in the walls, and
ten banners of the prophet waved in triumph on the ramparts. In the
morning a barefoot procession of the queen, the women, and the monks and
priests, was made to the holy sepulchre, to implore the Son of God to save
his tomb and his inheritance from impious violation. The females, as a
mark of humility and distress, cut off their hair and cast it to the
winds; and the ladies of Jerusalem made their daughters do penance by
standing up to their necks in tubs of cold water placed upon Mount
Calvary. But it availed nought; "for our Lord Jesus Christ," says a Syrian
Frank, "would not listen to any prayer that they made; for the filth, the
luxury, and the adultery which prevailed in the city, did not suffer
prayer or supplication to ascend before God."[201]
On the surrender of the city (October 2, A. D. 1187) the Moslems rushed to
the Temple in thousands. "The Imauns and the doctors and expounders of the
wicked errors of Mahomet," says Abbot Coggleshale, who was then in
Jerusalem suffering from a wound which he had received during the siege,
"first ascended to the Temple of the Lord, called by the infidels _Beit
Allah_, (the house of God,) in which, as a place of prayer and religion,
they place their great hope of salvation. With horrible bellowings they
proclaimed the law of Mahomet, and vociferated, with polluted lips, ALLAH
_Acbar_--ALLAH _Acbar_, (GOD is victorious.) They defiled all the places
that are contained within the Temple; i. e. the place of the presentation,
where the mother and glorious virgin Mary delivered the Son of God into
the hands of the just Simeon; and the place of the confession, looking
towards the porch of Solomon, where the Lord judged the woman taken in
adultery. They placed guards that no Christian might enter within the
seven atria of the Temple; and as a disgrace to the Christians, with vast
clamour, with laughter and mockery, they hurled down the golden cross from
the pinnacle of the building, and dragged it with ropes throughout the
city, amid the exulting shouts of the infidels and the tears and
lamentations of the followers of Christ."[202]
When every Christian had been removed from the precincts of the Temple,
Saladin proceeded with vast pomp to say his prayers in the _Beit Allah_,
the holy house of God, or "Temple of the Lord," erected by the Caliph
Omar.[203] He was preceded by five camels laden with rose-water, which he
had procured from Damascus,[204] and he entered the sacred courts to the
sound of martial music, and with his banners streaming in the wind. The
_Beit Allah_, "the Temple of the Lord," was then again consecrated to the
service of one God and his prophet Mahomet; the walls and pavements were
washed and purified with rose-water; and a pulpit, the labour of
Noureddin, was erected in the sanctuary.[205] The following account of
these transactions was forwarded to Henry the Second, king of England.
"To the beloved Lord Henry, by the grace of God, the illustrious king of
the English, duke of Normandy and Guienne, and count of Anjou, Brother
Terric, _formerly_ Grand Preceptor of the house of the Temple AT
JERUSALEM, sendeth greeting,--salvation through him who saveth kings.
"Know that Jerusalem, with the citadel of David, hath been surrendered to
Saladin. The Syrian Christians, however, have the custody of the holy
sepulchre up to the fourth day after Michaelmas, and Saladin himself hath
permitted ten of the brethren of the Hospital to remain in the house of
the hospital for the space of one year, to take care of the sick....
Jerusalem, alas, hath fallen; Saladin hath caused the cross to be thrown
down from the summit of the Temple of the Lord, and for two days to be
publicly kicked and dragged in the dirt through the city. He then caused
the Temple of the Lord to be washed within and without, upwards and
downwards, with rose-water, and the law of Mahomet to be proclaimed
throughout the four quarters of the Temple with wonderful
clamour...."[206]
Bohadin, Saladin's secretary, mentions as a remarkable and happy
circumstance, that the holy city was surrendered to the sultan of most
pious memory, and that God restored to the faithful their sanctuary on the
twenty-seventh of the month Regeb, on the night of which very day their
most glorious prophet Mahomet performed his wonderful nocturnal journey
from the Temple, through the seven heavens, to the throne of God. He also
describes the sacred congregation of the Mussulmen gathered together in
the Temple and the solemn prayer offered up to God; the shouting and the
sounds of applause, and the voices lifted up to heaven, causing the holy
buildings to resound with thanks and praises to the most bountiful Lord
God. He glories in the casting down of the golden cross, and exults in the
very splendid triumph of Islam.[207]
Saladin restored the sacred area of the Temple to its original condition
under the first Mussulman conquerors of Jerusalem. The ancient christian
church of the Virgin (otherwise the mosque _Al Acsa_, otherwise the Temple
of Solomon) was washed with rose-water, and was once again dedicated to
the religious services of the Moslems. On the western side of this
venerable edifice the Templars had erected, according to the Arabian
writers, an immense building in which they lodged, together with granaries
of corn and various offices, which enclosed and concealed a great portion
of the edifice. Most of these were pulled down by the sultan to make a
clear and open area for the resort of the Mussulmen to prayer. Some new
erections placed between the columns in the interior of the structure were
taken away, and the floor was covered with the richest carpets. "Lamps
innumerable," says Ibn Alatsyr, "were suspended from the ceiling; verses
of the Koran were again inscribed on the walls; the call to prayer was
again heard; the bells were silenced; the exiled faith returned to its
ancient sanctuary; the devout Mussulmen again bent the knee in adoration
of the one only God, and the voice of the imaun was again heard from the
pulpit, reminding the true believers of the resurrection and the last
judgment."[208]
The Friday after the surrender of the city, the army of Saladin and crowds
of true believers, who had flocked to Jerusalem from all parts of the
East, assembled in the Temple of the Lord to assist in the religious
services of the Mussulman sabbath. Omad, Saladin's secretary, who was
present, gives the following interesting account of the ceremony, and of
the sermon that was preached. "On Friday morning at daybreak," says he,
"every body was asking whom the sultan had appointed _to preach_. The
Temple was full; the congregation was impatient; all eyes were fixed on
the pulpit; the ears were on the stretch; our hearts beat fast, and tears
trickled down our faces. On all sides were to be heard rapturous
exclamations of 'What a glorious sight! What a congregation! Happy are
those who have lived to see _the resurrection of Islam_.' At length the
sultan ordered the judge (doctor of the law) _Mohieddin
Aboulmehali-Mohammed_ to fulfil the sacred function of imaun. I
immediately lent him the black vestment which I had received as a present
from the caliph. He then mounted into the pulpit and spoke. All were
hushed. His expressions were graceful and easy; and his discourse eloquent
and much admired. He spake of the virtue and the sanctity of Jerusalem, of
the purification of the Temple; he alluded to the silence of the bells,
and to the flight of the infidel priests. In his prayer he named the
caliph and the sultan, and terminated his discourse with that chapter of
the Koran in which God orders justice and good works. He then descended
from the pulpit, and prayed in the Mihrah. Immediately afterwards a
sermon was preached before the congregation."[209]
This sermon was delivered by _Mohammed Ben Zeky_. "Praise be to God,"
saith the preacher, "who by the power of his might hath raised up Islamism
on the ruins of Polytheism; who governs all things according to his will;
who overthroweth the devices of the infidels, and causeth the truth to
triumph.... I praise God, who hath succoured his elect; who hath rendered
them victorious and crowned them with glory, who hath purified his holy
house from the filthiness of idolatry.... I bear witness that there is no
God but that one great God who standeth alone and hath no partner; sole,
supreme, eternal; who begetteth not and is not begotten, and hath no
equal. I bear witness that Mahomet is his servant, his envoy, and his
prophet, who hath dissipated doubts, confounded polytheism, and put down
LIES, &c. ...
"O men, declare ye the blessings of God, who hath restored to you this
holy city, after it has been left in the power of the infidels for a
hundred years.... This holy house of the Lord hath been built, and its
foundations have been established, for the glory of God.... This sacred
spot is the dwelling place of the prophets, the _kebla_, (place of
prayer,) towards which you turn at the commencement of your religious
duties, the birth-place of the saints, the scene of the revelation. It is
thrice holy, for the angels of God spread their wings over it. This is
that blessed land of which God hath spoken in his sacred book. In this
house of prayer, Mahomet prayed with the angels who approach God. It is to
this spot that all fingers are turned after the two holy places.... This
conquest, O men, hath opened unto you the gates of heaven; the angels
rejoice, and the eyes of the prophets glisten with joy...."[210]
Omad informs us that the marble altar and chapel which had been erected
over the sacred rock in the Temple of the Lord, or mosque of Omar, was
removed by Saladin, together with the stalls for the priests, the marble
statues, and all the abominations which had been placed in the venerated
building by the Christians. The Mussulmen discovered with horror that some
pieces of the holy stone or rock had been cut off by the Franks, and sent
to Europe. Saladin caused it to be immediately surrounded by a grate of
iron. He washed it with rose-water and Malek-Afdal covered it with
magnificent carpets.[211]
After the conquest of the holy city, and the loss of the Temple at
Jerusalem, the Knights Templars established the chief house of their order
at Antioch, to which place they retired with Queen Sibylla, the barons of
the kingdom, and the patriarch Heraclius.[212]
The following account of the condition of the few remaining christian
possessions immediately after the conquest of Jerusalem, was conveyed by
the before-mentioned Brother Terric, Grand Preceptor of the Temple, and
Treasurer General of the order, to Henry the Second, king of England.
"The brothers of the hospital of Belvoir as yet bravely resist the
Saracens; they have captured two convoys, and have valiantly possessed
themselves of the munitions of war and provisions which were being
conveyed by the Saracens from the fortress of La Feue. As yet, also,
Carach, in the neighbourhood of Mount Royal, Mount Royal itself, the
Temple of Saphet, the hospital of Carach, Margat, and Castellum Blancum,
and the territory of Tripoli, and the territory of Antioch, resist
Saladin.... From the feast of Saint Martin up to that of the circumcision
of the Lord, Saladin hath besieged Tyre incessantly, by night and by day,
throwing into it immense stones from thirteen military engines. On the
vigils of St. Silvester, the Lord Conrad, the Marquis of Montferrat,
distributed knights and foot soldiers along the wall of the city, and
having armed seventeen galleys and ten small vessels, with the assistance
of the house of the Hospital and the brethren of the Temple, he engaged
the galleys of Saladin, and vanquishing them he captured eleven, and took
prisoners the great admiral of Alexandria and eight other admirals, a
multitude of the infidels being slain. The rest of the Mussulman galleys,
escaping the hands of the Christians, fled to the army of Saladin, and
being run aground by his command, were set on fire and burnt to ashes.
Saladin himself, overwhelmed with grief, having _cut off the ears and the
tail of his horse_, rode that same horse through his whole army in the
sight of all. Farewell!"[213]
[Sidenote: A. D. 1188.]
Tyre was valiantly defended against all the efforts of Saladin until the
winter had set in, and then the disappointed sultan, despairing of taking
the place, burnt his military engines and retired to Damascus. In the mean
time, negotiations had been set on foot for the release from captivity of
Guy king of Jerusalem, and Gerard de Riderfort, the Grand Master of the
Temple. No less than eleven of the most important of the cities and
castles remaining to the Christians in Palestine, including Ascalon, Gaza,
Jaffa, and Naplous, were yielded up to Saladin by way of ransom for these
illustrious personages; and at the commencement of the year 1188, the
Grand Master of the Temple again appeared in arms at the head of the
remaining forces of the order.[214]
The torpid sensibility of Christendom had at this time been aroused by the
intelligence of the fall of Jerusalem, and of the profanation of the holy
places by the conquering infidels. Three hundred knights and a
considerable naval force were immediately despatched from Sicily, and all
the Templars of the West capable of bearing arms hurried from their
preceptories to the sea-ports of the Mediterranean, and embarked for
Palestine in the ships of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. The king of England
forwarded a large sum of money to the order for the defence of the city of
Tyre; but as the siege had been raised before its arrival, and as Conrad,
the valiant defender of the place, claimed a title to the throne of
Jerusalem in opposition to Guy de Lusignan, the Grand Master of the Temple
refused to deliver the money into Conrad's hands, in consequence whereof
the latter wrote letters filled with bitter complaints to King Henry and
the archbishop of Canterbury.[215]
[Sidenote: A. D. 1189.]
In the spring of the year 1189, the Grand Master of the Temple marched out
of Tyre at the head of the newly-arrived brethren of the order, and, in
conjunction with a large army of crusaders, laid siege to Acre. The
"victorious defender of the faith, tamer of the followers of the cross,"
hastened to its relief, and pitched his tents on the mountains of Carouba.
On the 4th of October, the newly-arrived warriors from Europe, eager to
signalize their prowess against the infidels, marched out to attack
Saladin's camp. The Grand Master of the Temple, at the head of his knights
and the forces of the order, and a large body of European chivalry who had
ranged themselves under the banner of the Templars, formed a reserve. The
Moslem array was broken by the impetuous charge of the soldiers of the
cross, who penetrated to the imperial tent, and then abandoned themselves
to pillage. The infidels rallied, they were led on by Saladin in person;
and the christian army would have been annihilated but for the Templars.
Firm and immovable, they presented, for the space of an hour, an unbroken
front to the advancing Moslems, and gave time for the discomfited and
panic-stricken crusaders to recover from their terror and confusion; but
ere they had been rallied, and had returned to the charge, the Grand
Master of the Temple was slain; he fell pierced with arrows at the head of
his knights; the seneschal of the order shared the same fate, and more
than half the Templars were numbered with the dead.[216]
[Sidenote: WALTER. A. D. 1190.]
To Gerard de Riderfort succeeded the Knight Templar, Brother WALTER.[217]
Never did the flame of enthusiasm burn with fiercer or more destructive
power than at this famous siege of Acre. Nine pitched battles were fought,
with various fortune, in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel, and during the
first year of the siege a hundred thousand Christians are computed to have
perished. The tents of the dead, however, were replenished by new comers
from Europe; the fleets of Saladin succoured the town, the christian ships
brought continual aid to the besiegers, and the contest seemed
interminable.[218] Saladin's exertions in the cause of the prophet were
incessant. The Arab authors compare him to a mother wandering with
desperation in search of her lost child, to a lioness who has lost its
young. "I saw him," says his secretary Bohadin, "in the fields of Acre
afflicted with a most cruel disease, with boils from the middle of his
body to his knees, so that he could not sit down, but only recline on his
side when he entered into his tent, yet he went about to the stations
nearest to the enemy, arranged his troops for battle, and rode about from
dawn till eve, now to the right wing, then to the left, and then to the
centre, patiently enduring the severity of his pain."... "O God," says his
enthusiastic biographer, "thou knowest that he put forth and lavishly
expended all his energies and strength towards the protection and the
triumph of thy religion; do thou therefore, O Lord, have mercy upon
him."[219]
At this famous siege died the Patriarch Heraclius.[220]