_Election of a King--Godfrey of Bouillon--Sketch of the History of
Jerusalem--Death of the chief Crusaders--New Bodies of Crusaders set out
from Europe--Their Destruction in Asia Minor--Armed Pilgrimages--The
Northern Armaments--The Venetians--The Genoese and Pisans--Anecdotes of
the Crusaders--Battle of the Children at Antioch--The Thafurs--Baldwin's
Humanity well repaid--Superstitions--Arms of the Crusaders--Of the
Turks--Hospitallers--Templars._
The great end of the crusade was now accomplished. Jerusalem was delivered
from the hands of the infidels; but much remained to be done. To conquer
the Holy City had been a work of prodigious difficulty; to keep it was
perhaps more so; and it became evident that its defence must be intrusted
to one powerful chief. For this purpose the several leaders who had formed
the general council of the crusade met to elect a King of Jerusalem. The
nomination to that high office was so extraordinary an honour, that the
writers of each nation whose forces contributed to the crusade have
declared their own particular prince to have been chosen;[474] and, as it
was known that none of these did actually reign, they have furnished each
with a suitable excuse for declining the distinguished task. It is
probable, however, that the choice of the assembly really fixed at once
upon the only person fitted for the office; and (to combine the words of
Fulcher and Robert the Monk) that, "considering the excellence of his
nobility,[475] his valour as a knight, his gentleness and patient modesty,
as well as the purity of his morals, Godfrey of Bouillon was elected king
by the whole people composing the army of God, with the unanimous wish,
the general consent, and the judgment of all." Various clerical cabals
followed for the dignity of patriarch, of which it is not necessary to
speak here.
Scarcely was the new monarch[476] seated on his throne, when the gathering
forces of the Moslems called him again into the field. With the wise
policy of activity, Godfrey did not wait to be besieged in Jerusalem, but
marching out with all the troops he could muster, he advanced towards
Ascalon, where a large infidel army had assembled, attacked and routed it
completely, and thus secured the conquest he had gained.[477] But the
virtues of Godfrey were not long destined to bless, or his talents to
protect, the new kingdom of Jerusalem.[478] In the month of July, 1100, he
was seized with a severe illness, on his return from a distant expedition,
and in a few days the throne of the Holy Land was vacant.
Such an unexpected event of course spread dissension and consternation
among the crusaders. Tancred, who was at Jerusalem, and from his great
military name enjoyed no small power, offered the crown to Boemond, and
beyond all doubt would have succeeded in causing his election, had Boemond
been able to accept immediately the sceptre thus held out to him.[479] But
the Prince of Antioch[480] was at the moment a prisoner in the hands of
some Armenian Turks.[481] The Patriarch, on his part, endeavoured to raise
Jerusalem into a simple hierarchy,[482] and to unite the crown with the
mitre. The partisans of the Count of Toulouse also struggled in his
behalf for the supreme power; but in the end, Baldwin, Prince of Edessa,
the brother of Godfrey, was elected, and after some intriguing on the part
of the Patriarch, was anointed King of Jerusalem.
It does not enter into the plan of this book to give a history of
Jerusalem under its Latin kings: I shall, however, briefly notice each,
that the occasion and object of the after-crusades may be properly
understood.
Baldwin, on his election,[483] displayed virtues that had slumbered, and
lost vices that had been displayed on other occasions. He extended the
boundaries of his kingdom, humbled its Saracen enemies, instituted wise
and salutary laws, and showed firmness, moderation, and activity in his
new station, as well as the great military skill and enterprising spirit
he had formerly evinced. He took Assur,[484] Cesarea, and Acre; and added
Beritus, Sidon, and several other places to the kingdom of Jerusalem. At
length, in the execution of a bold expedition into Egypt, Baldwin died,
and his body, after being embalmed, by his own particular direction, was
carried back to the Holy City.
Baldwin de Bourg, who, on the elevation of Baldwin I. to the throne of
Jerusalem, had received the principality of Edessa, was now called to the
vacant throne, and proved himself one of the wisest and most valiant of
the Latin sovereigns of Judea. He also greatly extended the limits of his
dominions; but in passing between Turbessel and Edessa, accompanied by a
few soldiers only,[485] and unsuspicious of any ambuscade, he was suddenly
surrounded, and carried a prisoner to Khortopret, where he remained in
close confinement for several years. During his imprisonment Tyre was
added to the territories of Jerusalem,[486] and various successful battles
were fought against the Moslems. After his liberation he offered the hand
of his daughter to Foulk of Anjou, who had some time before visited
Jerusalem upon an armed pilgrimage. The Count of Anjou gladly accepted the
proposal, and returning to the Holy Land, espoused Melesinda, soon after
which he ascended the throne of Jerusalem, on the death of Baldwin. Foulk
combined many virtues;[487] was kind, affable, and humane, as well as
skilful and courageous in the field. After a reign of thirteen years he
left the kingdom to his son, entire, indeed, but neither more extended in
territory, nor more consolidated in power, than when he received it.
Baldwin III. succeeded; at the time of his accession being but a boy.
Dissensions and animosities raged among all the feudal dependants of the
crown of Jerusalem.[488] The Moslems scattered through the country, and
girding it on every side, took advantage of each new dispute to harass
their Latin invaders with desultory warfare. The emperors of the east
strove continually to wrest something of their old possessions from the
descendants of the crusaders, and thus divided the forces, and paralyzed
all the efforts made by the Christians to establish and secure their yet
infirm dominion. At length Zenghi, emir of Aleppo, and Mosul marched
against Edessa, the government of which principality had been transferred,
on the accession of Baldwin de Bourg to the throne of Jerusalem, to
Joscelyn de Courtenay, and from him had descended to his son. The son had
not inherited the virtues or the valour of his father; and while Zenghi
attacked, stormed, and took Edessa, he was rioting in debaucheries at
Turbessel. So severe a reverse spread consternation through Palestine.
Others, though of a less important nature, followed; and the news of these
misfortunes soon reached Europe, where it gave matter to the eloquence of
St. Bernard, and occasion for a new crusade.
Long before this period, all the chiefs who had at first led the armies of
the Cross to Jerusalem had tasted of the cup reserved for all men, and few
words will end the history of each. Godfrey, Baldwin, and Baldwin de Bourg
we have already conducted to the tomb. Boemond,[489] as I have said, fell
into the hands of the Moslems; and after a captivity of two years, was
permitted to pay a ransom, and return to his principality. On arriving, he
found that his noble relative, Tancred,[490] had not only preserved, but
increased his territories during his absence; and after several years
continual warfare with Alexius on the one hand, and the Moslems on the
other, mingled with opposition to the King of Jerusalem, Boemond sailed
for Europe. There the fame he had acquired obtained for him the hand of
Constantia,[491] daughter of the King of France. Her younger sister,
Cecilia, was bestowed upon Tancred, who had remained in the government of
Antioch.
By the aid of France, Boemond raised large forces and landing in Greece,
ravaged the dominions of Alexius, who was at length fain to conclude a
peace with the powerful and enterprising Italian. The Prince of Antioch
then sent forward the greater part of his troops to the Holy Land, while
he himself returned to Italy to prepare for the same journey. Death,
however, staid his progress;[492] for, after a short illness, he ended his
career in Apulia, in 1109.[493] Tancred still survived, and defended
constantly the territories of his cousin against every attack for three
years after the decease of Boemond. At last the consequences of a wound
he had received some time before proved fatal, and the noblest and most
chivalrous of all the Christian warriors died in the prime of his days. On
his death-bed he called to him his wife, and Pontius, the son of the
Prince of Tripoli,[494] and, aware of the necessity of union among the
Christians, he recommended strongly their marriage, after death should
have dissolved the ties between himself and Cecilia. The government of
Antioch he bequeathed to his cousin Roger;[495] but, with the same noble
integrity which he had displayed through life, he made the new regent
promise, that in case the son of Boemond should ever come to claim those
territories, they should be resigned to him without dispute. Thus died
Tancred; who, from all that we read of the crusaders, was, with the
exception of Godfrey, the noblest of the followers of the Cross--a gallant
leader, a disinterested man, a generous friend, a true knight.
Previous to his death, however, he had been engaged in all the great
events in Palestine. After the election of Godfrey, and the battle of
Ascalon, the other chiefs of the crusade had either returned to Europe or
spread themselves over the country, in pursuit of their own schemes of
private ambition, leaving the new kingdom of Jerusalem to be supported by
its king and Tancred, with an army of less than three thousand men. This
penury of forces however, did not long continue, or the Holy Land must
soon have resumed the yoke it had thrown off. The spirit of pilgrimage was
still active in Europe; and combined with this spirit was the hope of
gain, springing from vague and exaggerated accounts of the wealth and the
principalities which the leaders of the first expedition had acquired.
Pilgrimages now differed from those that had preceded the conquest of
Jerusalem, in being armed; and many bodies, of several thousand men each,
arrived both by sea and land, and proved exceedingly serviceable in
peopling the devastated lands of Palestine. Various larger enterprises,
more deserving the name of crusades, were planned and attempted, which it
would be endless to name, and tedious to recount. Nearly five hundred
thousand people set out from Europe for Syria,[496] and to these several
of those crusaders who had gone back to Europe joined themselves, urged
either by shame for their former desertion, or by the hope of obtaining
easier conquests, and less dangerous honours. Of these, then, I will speak
first, before noticing more particularly the armed pilgrimages, in order
that I may trace to the end all those leaders of the first crusade who
died in the Holy Land. The first great expedition set out not many years
after the taking of Jerusalem, and consisted of several smaller ones from
various countries, which united into larger bodies as they proceeded, and
endeavoured to force their way through Asia Minor. At the head of these
armies were Count Albert,[497] of Lombardy; Conrad, Constable of the
Western Empire; Stephen, Count of Blois, whom we have seen flying from the
land to which shame now drove him back; Stephen, Duke of Burgundy; the
Bishops of Laon and of Milan; the Duke of Parma; Hugh, Count of
Vermandois,[498] who now again turned towards Jerusalem; and the Count of
Nevers: as well as William, Count of Poitiers; Guelf, Duke of Bavaria; and
Ida, Marchioness of Austria. At Constantinople the first division met with
Raimond of Toulouse,[499] who had returned to that city from the Holy
Land, in search of aid to pursue the schemes of a grasping and ambitious
spirit. The new crusaders put themselves, in some degree, under his
command and guidance; but their first step was to disobey his orders, and
to take the way of Paphlagonia, instead of following the track of the
former crusade. They were for many days harassed in their march by the
Turks, then exposed to famine and drought, and finally attacked and cut to
pieces by Kilidge Aslan, who revenged, by the death of more than a hundred
thousand Christians,[500] all the losses they had caused him to undergo.
The principal leaders made good their escape, first to Constantinople, and
then to Antioch; except Hugh of Vermandois, who died of his wound at
Tarsus. The Count of Nevers,[501] who commanded the second body, met the
same fate as the rest, and followed them to Antioch, after the destruction
of his whole force. William of Poitiers, with the Duke of Bavaria and the
Marchioness Ida, were also encountered by the victorious Saracens, and
their defeat added another to the triumphs of the infidels and to the
Christian disasters. The Duke of Bavaria, stripping himself of his arms,
fled to the mountains, and made his escape. The precise fate of Ida of
Austria remained unknown; but it appears certain she was either suffered
to die in captivity, or was crushed to death under the horses' feet.[502]
The Count of Poitiers, completely destitute of all resources, and
separated from his companions, wandered on foot till he arrived at
Antioch,[503] where he was kindly received by Tancred, still alive, and
met the other chiefs who had encountered disasters like his own.[504] The
principal leaders proceeded straight to Jerusalem, with the exception of
Raimond of Toulouse, who had long fixed his heart upon the conquest of the
rich tract of Tripoli, which he attempted for some time in vain. Death
staid him in his progress,[505] and Baldwin succeeded in accomplishing
what he had designed; after which the king erected the territory acquired
into a feudal county, which was bestowed upon the son of the deceased
Raimond.
In the mean while Stephen, Count of Blois, reached Jerusalem; and having,
by a second completed pilgrimage, wiped out, as he thought, the disgrace
of having quitted the first crusade, he embarked, with William of
Poitiers, to return to Europe. A contrary wind, however, drove back the
vessel into Jaffa,[506] and here Stephen found himself called upon to join
Baldwin in an attack upon the Turks. The king advanced with only seven
hundred knights,[507] deceived by reports of the enemy's weakness; but in
the plains of Ramula he found himself suddenly opposed to the whole
Turkish army. The spirit of Chivalry forbade his avoiding the encounter,
and in a short time the greater part of his force was cut to pieces. He
himself, with his principal knights, made their way to the castle of
Ramula, from which he contrived to escape alone. The rest were taken,
fighting bravely for their lives; and though some were spared, Stephen of
Blois[508] was one of several who were only reserved for slaughter. Thus
died the leaders of the first crusade who met their fate in Palestine, and
thus ended the greater and more general expeditions which had been
sanctioned by the council of Clermont, and excited by the preaching of
Peter the Hermit. The ultimate fate of that extraordinary individual
himself remains in darkness. On the capture of Jerusalem, when the
triumphant Europeans spread themselves through the city, the Christian
inhabitants flocked forth to acknowledge and gratulate their
deliverers.[509] Then it was that all the toils and dangers which the
Hermit had endured, were a thousand fold repaid, and that all his
enthusiasm met with its reward. The Christians of Jerusalem instantly
recognised the poor pilgrim who had first spoken to them words of hope,
and had promised them, in their misery under the Turkish oppression, that
aid and deliverance which had at length so gloriously reached them.[510]
In the fervour of their gratitude they attributed all to him; and, casting
themselves at his feet, called the blessing of Heaven on the head of their
benefactor. After that period Peter is mentioned several times by the
historians of Jerusalem;[511] and we find that he certainly did act a very
principal part in the clerical government of the city.[512] Whether he
returned to Europe or not I confess I do not know. He is said to have
founded the abbey of Montier, in France, and to have died there; but this
rests upon no authority worthy of confidence.
In the meanwhile, many of the Christians who had escaped the active swords
of the Saracens in Asia Minor made their way to Jerusalem, and served to
people and protect the land. Various armaments, also, arrived at the
different seaports, bearing each of them immense numbers of military
pilgrims, who, after having visited the holy places, never failed to offer
their services to the king of Jerusalem, for the purpose of executing any
single object that might be desirable at the time.
Three only of these bodies are worthy of particular notice, that of the
English, Danes,[513] and Flemings, who assisted Baldwin at the
unsuccessful siege of Sidon--the Norwegian expedition which succeeded in
taking that city--and that of the Venetians, who afterward aided in the
capture of Tyre. The Genoese[514] and the Pisans, also, from time to time
sent out vessels to the coast of Palestine; but these voyages, which
combined in a strange manner the purposes of traffic, superstition, and
warfare, tended rather to the general prosperity of the country by
commerce, and to its protection, by bringing continual recruits, than to
any individual enterprise or conquest.
Many anecdotes are told of the first crusaders by their contemporary
historians, which--though resting on evidence so far doubtful as to forbid
their introduction as absolute facts--I shall mention in exemplification
of the manners and customs of the time.
The number of women and children who followed the first crusaders to the
Holy Land is known to have been immense; but it is not a little
extraordinary, that in spite of all the hardships and dangers of the way,
a great multitude of both arrived safe at Jerusalem. The women we find, on
almost all occasions, exercising the most heroic firmness in the midst of
battles and destruction; and Guibert gives a curious account of the
military spirit which seized upon the children during the siege of
Antioch. The boys of the Saracens and the young crusaders, armed with
sticks for lances, and stones instead of arrows, would issue from the town
and the camp, and under leaders chosen from among themselves,[515] who
assumed the names of the principal chiefs, would advance in regular
squadrons, and fight in the sight of the two hosts, with a degree of
rancour which showed to what a pitch the mutual hatred of the nations was
carried. Even after the crusaders had fallen in battle or had died of the
pestilence, their children still pursued their way, and getting speedily
accustomed to fatigue and privation, evinced powers of endurance equal to
those of the most hardy warriors.
With the army of the Cross also was a multitude of men--the same author
declares--who made it a profession to be without money; they walked
barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded the beasts of burden in the
march, living upon roots and herbs, and presenting a spectacle both
disgusting and pitiable. A Norman,[516] who, according to all accounts,
was of noble birth, but who, having lost his horse, continued to follow as
a foot-soldier, took the strange resolution of putting himself at the head
of this race of vagabonds, who willingly received him for their king.
Among the Saracens these men became well known, under the name of
_Thafurs_ (which Guibert translates _Trudentes_), and were held in great
horror from the general persuasion that they fed on the dead bodies of
their enemies: a report which was occasionally justified, and which the
king of the Thafurs took care to encourage. This respectable monarch was
frequently in the habit of stopping his followers one by one, in any
narrow defile, and of causing them to be searched carefully, lest the
possession of the least sum of money should render them unworthy of the
name of his subjects.[517] If even two sous were found upon any one, he
was instantly expelled from the society of his tribe, the king bidding
him, contemptuously, buy arms and fight.
This troop, so far from being cumbersome to the army, was infinitely
serviceable, carrying burdens, bringing in forage, provisions, and
tribute, working the machines in the sieges, and, above all, spreading
consternation among the Turks, who feared death from the lances of the
knights less than that further consummation, they heard of, under the
teeth of the Thafurs.
Mercy towards the Turks was considered, by the contemporary clergy, to
whom we owe all accounts of the crusades, as so great a weakness, that
perhaps fewer instances of it are on record than really took place; for we
seldom find any mention of clemency to an infidel, without blame being
attached to it. Thus the promise of Tancred to save the Turks on the roof
of the temple is highly censured, as well as the act of the Count of
Toulouse, in granting their lives to some five hundred wretches, who had
taken refuge in the Tower of David.
One deed of this kind is told of Baldwin I., more as in its consequences
it saved the king's person, than as any thing praiseworthy in itself.
Passing along one day on horseback, after his troops had been employed in
wasting the country, Baldwin is said to have met with an Arabian woman,
who had been taken in labour by the way.[518] He covered her with his own
cloak, ordered her to be protected by his attendants, and having left her
with two skins of water, and two female camels, he pursued his march. The
chances of the desultory warfare of those times soon brought back her
husband to the spot, and his gratitude was the more ardent as the benefit
he had received was unusual and unexpected. After the fatal day of Ramula,
while Baldwin, with but fifty companions, besieged in the ill-fortified
castle of that place, was dreaming of nothing but how to sell his life
dearly, a single Arab approached the gates in the dead of the night, and
demanded to speak with the king. He was in consequence brought to
Baldwin's presence,[519] where he recalled to his mind the kindness once
shown to the Arab woman, his wife; and then offered to lead him safely
through the lines of the enemy. The fate of Palestine at that moment hung
upon Baldwin's life, and, trusting himself in the hands of the Arab, he
was faithfully conducted to his own camp,[520] where he appeared, says
William of Tyre, like the morning star breaking through the clouds.
Superstition, which in that age was at its height in Europe, was, of
course, not unknown in Palestine, and all sorts of visions were seen.
Battles, according to the monkish accounts, were won by relics and
prayers more than by swords and lances. A part of the Holy Cross was said
to be found in Jerusalem, a thousand more martyrs were dug up than ever
were buried, and we find one of the bishops _ferens in pyxide lac sanctæ
Mariæ Virginis_. Ghosts[521] of saints, too, were seen on every occasion,
and the Devil himself, in more than one instance, appeared to the
crusaders, tempting them with consummate art to all kinds of crimes. The
evil spirit, however, often--indeed generally--found himself cheated by
his victims in the end, who, by repentance, gifts to the church, and
fanatical observances, easily found means to "swear the seal from off
their bond."
The appearance of an army in the times of the first crusade was highly
gorgeous and magnificent.[522] The number of banners of purple and gold,
and rich colours--each feudal baron having the right to bear his banner to
the field--rendered the Christian host in full array as bright a spectacle
as the sun could shine upon. The armour of the knights also gave a
glittering and splendid effect to the scene; nor was this armour as has
been represented, entirely of that kind called chain mail, which formed
the original hauberk. It varied according to various nations, and it is
evident from the continual mention of the corslet or breastplate, by all
the authors I have had occasion to cite in this work, that that piece of
plate armour was used during the first crusade.[523] It is probable,
however, that the armour generally worn was principally linked mail,
which, in the case of the knights, enveloped the whole body, being
composed of a shirt of rings, with hose, shoes, and gauntlets, of the same
materials. The helmet might also be covered with a chain hood, which
completed the dress. In addition to this, it is not unlikely that a
cuirass was frequently worn with the shirt, as we find, from the poem of
William the Breton on Philip Augustus, that it was even then a common
practice to wear a double plastron or cuirass, though plate armour had
returned into common use. The shield, charged with some design, but
certainly not with regular armorial bearings, together with the lance,
sword, and mace, completed the arms, offensive and defensive, of a knight
of that day.[524] I cannot find that either the battle-axe or the armour
for the horse is mentioned during the crusade; yet we know that both had
been made use of long before. The foot-soldiers were in some cases allowed
to wear a shirt of mail, but not a complete hauberk, and were armed with
pikes, bows, and crossbows; though it would seem that they gained their
knowledge of the latter instrument from the Saracens, there being several
lamentations, in all the accounts of their first entrance into Asia Minor,
over their unskilfulness in the use of the arbalist. The luxury with which
the Christians marched to the crusade may be conceived from the narrative
given by Albert of Aix, of the rout of the troops of Conrad and his
companions, who followed to the Holy Land, immediately after the capture
of Jerusalem. Among the spoils taken by the Turks, he mentions
ermines,[525] sables, and all kinds of rich furs, purple and gold
embroidery, and an incalculable quantity of silver. The roads, he says,
were so strewed with riches, that the pursuers trod upon nothing but
besants and other pieces of money, precious stones, vases of gold and
silver, and every sort of silk and fine stuff.
The Turks proceeded to battle with even greater magnificence; and, after
the victories of Antioch and Ascalon, we read continually of invaluable
booty, jewels,[526] golden helmets and armour standards of silver, and
scimitars of unknown worth. The arms of the Turks were lighter, in all
probability, than those of the Christians, and in general consisted of the
sword and the bow, in the use of which they were exceedingly skilful.[527]
We find, however, that the various nations of which the Mahommedan armies
were composed used very different weapons; though all were remarkable for
the manner in which they eluded their enemies, by their skill in
horsemanship, and the fleetness of their chargers. One nation, mentioned
by Albert of Aix under the title of Azoparts, are called _the invincible_,
and were furnished with heavy maces, with which they aimed at the heads of
the horses, and seldom failed to bring them down.
After the conquest of Palestine by the Christians,[528] the surrounding
tribes continued to wage an unceasing war against their invaders; but
nevertheless many of the Mussulman towns within the limits of the kingdom
of Jerusalem submitted to the conquerors, and were admitted to pay
tribute. A free communication also took place between the followers of the
two religions, and a greater degree of connexion began to exist than was
very well consistent with the fanaticism of either people. A mixed race
even sprang up from the European[529] and Asiatic population, the children
of parents from different continents being called Pullani. At the same
time the country was governed by European laws,[530] which, not coming
within the absolute scope of this book, I must avoid treating of, from the
very limited space to which I am obliged to confine myself. Suffice it to
say, that Godfrey of Bouillon, among the first cares of government,
appointed a commission to inquire into the laws and customs of the various
nations which formed the population of the country he was called to rule.
From the investigation thus entered into was drawn up an admirable code of
feudal law, under the title of _Assizes de Jerusalem_. Two institutions of
a strictly chivalrous nature, which were founded, properly speaking,
between the first and second crusades,[531] I must mention here, as all
the after-history of knighthood is more or less connected with their
progress. I mean the two military orders of the Hospital and the Temple.
The spirit of religious devotion and military fervour had been so
intimately united during the whole of the crusade, that the combination of
the austere rules of the monk, with the warlike activity of the soldier,
seems to have been a necessary consequence of the wars of the Cross.
Long previous to the crusade, some of the citizens of Amalfi having been
led to Jerusalem,[532] partly from feelings of devotion, partly in the
pursuit of commerce, had witnessed the misery to which pilgrims were
exposed on their road to the Holy Land, and determined to found an
hospital in which pious travellers might be protected and solaced after
their arrival at the end of their journey. The influence which the Italian
merchants possessed through their commercial relations at the court of the
calif, easily obtained permission to establish the institution proposed. A
piece of ground near the supposed site of the holy sepulchre was assigned
to them, and the chapel and hospital were accordingly built, at different
times, and placed under the patronage, the one of St. Mary, and the other
of St. John the Almoner.
A religious house was also constructed for those charitable persons, of
both sexes, who chose to dedicate themselves to the service of the
pilgrims, and who, on their admission, subjected themselves to the rule of
St. Benedict. All travellers, whether Greeks or Latins, were received into
the hospital; and the monks even extended their charitable care to the
sick or poor Mussulmans who surrounded them.
During the siege of Jerusalem by the crusaders, all the principal
Christians of the town were thrown into prison; among others, the abbot
(as he is called by James of Vitry)[533] of the monastery of St. John. He
was a Frenchman by birth, named Gerard; and, after the taking of the city,
was liberated, with other Christian prisoners, and returned to the duties
of his office, in attending the sick and wounded crusaders who were
brought into the Hospital. After the battle of Ascalon, Godfrey visited
the establishment, where he still found many of the followers of the
crusade, who, struck with admiration at the institution, and filled with
gratitude for the services they had received, determined to embrace the
order, and dedicate their lives also to acts of charity. Godfrey, as a
reward for the benefits which these holy men had conferred on his
fellow-christians, endowed the Hospital (now in a degree separated from
the abbey of St. Mary) with a large estate, in his hereditary dominions in
Brabant. Various other gifts were added by the different crusaders of
rank; and the Poor Brothers of the Hospital of St. John began to find
themselves a rich and flourishing community. It was at this period that
they first took the black habit and the white cross of eight points, and
subjected themselves, by peculiar vows, to the continual attendance on
pilgrims and sick persons.[534] Pascal II. soon after bestowed upon the
order several valuable privileges, among which were, exemption from all
tithes, the right of electing their own superior, and absolute immunity
from all secular or clerical interference. The constant resort of
pilgrims to the Holy Land not only increased the wealth of the
Hospitallers, but spread their fame to other countries. Princes and kings
conferred lands and benefices upon them, and the order began to throw out
ramifications into Europe, where hospitals, under the same rule, were
erected, and may be considered as the first commanderies of the
institution.
At the death of Gerard, which took place almost immediately after that of
Baldwin I., Raimond Dupuy, one of the crusaders who had attached himself
to the Hospital on having been cured of his wounds received at the siege
of Jerusalem, was elected master, and soon conceived the idea of rendering
the wealth and number of the Hospitallers serviceable to the state in
other ways than those which they had hitherto pursued. His original
profession of course led him to the thought of combining war with
devotion, and he proposed to his brethren to reassume the sword, binding
themselves, however, by a vow, to draw it only against the enemies of
Christ. In what precise year the Hospitallers first appeared in arms is
not very clearly ascertained; but it is a matter of no moment, and it is
certain that they became a military body during the reign of Baldwin du
Bourg.[535]
The order of St. John was then divided into three classes, knights,
clergy, and serving brothers. Each of these classes still, when absent
from the field, dedicated themselves to the service of the sick; but the
knights were chosen from the noble or military rank of the Hospitallers,
and commanded in battle and in the hospital. The clergy, besides the
ordinary duties of their calling, followed the armies as almoners and
chaplains; and the serving brothers fought under the knights in battle, or
obeyed their directions in their attendance on the sick. At first, the
garments and food of these grades were the same. The vows also were alike
to all, and implied chastity, obedience to their superior and to the
council, together with individual poverty.
The objects now proposed were war against the infidels, and protection and
comfort to the Christian pilgrims. The knights were bound by strict and
severe rules; they were enjoined to avoid all luxury, to travel two or
three together, seeking only such lodging in the various towns as was
provided for them by their community, and burning a light during the
night, that they might be always prepared against the enemy. Their
faults[536] were heavily punished by fasts, by imprisonments, and even by
expulsion from the order; and they were taught to look for no reward but
from on high. Nevertheless, before the good Bishop of Acre composed his
curious work on the Holy Land, probably about the year 1228, the
Hospitallers, he tells us, were buying for themselves castles and towns,
and submitting territories to their authority like the princes of the
earth.
The origin of the order of Red-cross Knights, or Templars, was very
different, though its military object was nearly the same. The Christian
power in Palestine was probably as firmly established at the time of
Baldwin du Bourg, as during any other period of its existence; yet the
mixture of the population, the proximity of a thousand inimical tribes,
the roving habits of the Turks, who--generally worsted by the Christians
in the defence of cities and in arrayed fields--now harassed their enemies
with a constant, but flying warfare; all rendered the plains of the Holy
Land a scene of unremitting strife, where the pilgrim and the traveller
were continually exposed to danger, plunder, and death. Some French
knights, who had followed the first crusade,[537] animated beyond their
fellows with the religious and military fury which inspired that
enterprise, entered into a solemn compact to aid each other in freeing the
highways of the Holy Land, protecting pilgrims and travellers, and
fighting against the enemies of the Cross. They embraced the rule of St.
Augustin; renounced all worldly goods, and bound themselves by oath to
obey the commands of their grand master; to defend the Christian faith; to
cross the seas in aid of their brethren; to fight unceasingly against the
infidel, and never to turn back from less than four adversaries.[538] The
founders of this order were Hugh de Paganis and Geoffrey de St.
Aldemar--or, according to some, de St. Omer--who had both signalized
themselves in the religious wars. Having no fixed dwelling, the Templars
were assigned a lodging in a palace in the immediate vicinity of the
Temple, from whence they derived the name by which they have since been
known. The number of these knights was at first but nine, and during the
nine years which followed their institution, they were marked by no
particular garb,[539] wearing the secular habit of the day, which was
furnished to them by charity alone. The clergy of the temple itself
conferred on their body a space of ground between that building and the
palace,[540] for the purpose of military exercises, and various other
benefices speedily followed. At the council[541] of Troyes, their
situation was considered, and a white garment was appointed for their
dress. Their vows became very similar to those of the knights of St. John;
the numbers of the body rapidly augmented; possessions and riches flowed
in upon them apace, as their services became extended and general. They
added a red cross to their robe, and raised a banner of their own, on
which they bestowed the name of _Beauséant_. The order, as it increased,
was soon divided into the various classes of servants of arms, esquires,
and knights; and, in addition to their great standard, which was white
with the red cross--symbolical, like their dress, of purity of life, and
courage, even to death--they bore to battle a banner composed of white and
black stripes, intended to typify their tenderness to their friends and
implacability towards their enemies.--Their valour became so noted, that,
like that of the famous tenth legion,[542] it was a support to itself;
and, according to James of Vitry, any Templar, on hearing the cry to arms,
would have been ashamed to have asked the number of the enemy. The only
question was, "Where are they?"
On entering the order, the grand master cautioned the aspirant that he
was, in a manner, called upon to resign his individuality. Not only his
property and his body, but his very thoughts, belonged, from the moment of
his admission, to the institution of which he became a part. He was bound
in every thing to obey the commands of his superior, and poverty of course
formed a part of his vow. His inclinations, his feelings, his passions,
were all to be rendered subservient to the cause he embraced; and he was
exhorted to remember, before he engaged himself to the performance of so
severe an undertaking, that he would often be obliged to watch when he
desired to sleep, to suffer toil when his limbs required rest, and to
undergo the pangs of thirst and the cravings of hunger when food would be
most delightful.
After these and similar warnings of the painful and self-denying nature of
the task which he was about to impose upon himself, he was asked three
times if he still desired to enter into the order, and on giving an answer
in the affirmative, he was invested with the robe, and admitted to the
vows, after previous proof that he was qualified in other respects,
according to the rules of the institution.
No possible means has ever been devised of keeping any body of men poor;
and the Templars, whose first device was two knights riding on one horse,
to signify their poverty and humility, were soon one of the richest, and
beyond comparison the proudest, of the European orders. Their preceptories
were to be found in every country, and as their vows did not embrace[543]
the charitable avocations which, with the knights of St. John, filled up
the hours unemployed in military duties, the Templars soon added to their
pride all that host of vices which so readily step in to occupy the void
of idleness. While the knights of St. John, spreading benefit and comfort
around them, notwithstanding many occasional faults and errors, remained
esteemed and beloved, on the whole, both by sovereigns and people; the
knights of the Temple were only suffered for some centuries, feared,
hated, avoided; and at last were crushed, at a moment when it is probable
that a reform was about to work itself in their order.[544]