Pope Urban, whose name was Odo before becoming Pope, was descended
from a noble French family[73] from the area and parish of Rheims,
and they say, unless the report is in error, that he was the first
French Pope. A cleric, he was made a monk of Cluny, after the abbot
of glorious memory who aided Hugo;[74] not long afterwards he was
made prior, and then, because of his abilities, he was appointed
bishop of the city of Ostia, by order of Pope Gregory VII; finally,
he was elected supreme pontiff of the Apostolic See. His greatness
of spirit was made manifest when he urged that the journey be
undertaken, because when he first showed how it was to be done the
whole world was astonished. His death, resplendent in miracles,
attests to the state of his mind. According to what the bishop who
succeeded him at Osti wrote,[75] many signs were seen after he was
dead and buried; a certain young man stood at his tomb, and swore by
his own limbs that no sign had ever been given or might be given by
the merit of Urban, who was called Odo. Before he could move a step,
he was struck dumb, and paralyzed on one side; he died the next day,
offering testimony to the power of Urban. This great man, although
honored with great gifts, and even with prayers, by Alexius, prince
of the Greeks, was driven much more by the danger to all of
Christendom, which was diminished daily by pagan incursions (for he
heard that Spain was steadily being torn apart by Saracen invasions),
decided to make a journey to France, to recruit the people of his
country. It was, to be sure, the ancient custom for pontiffs of the
apostolic see, if they had been harmed by neighboring people, always
to seek help from the French: the Pontiffs Stephen and Zacharias, in
the time of Pepin and Charles,[76] took refuge with them; Pepin made
an expedition to Ticinum to restore to the church its patrimony, and
to place Stephen back on his throne.[77] Charles compelled king
Desiderius,[78] by the mere threat of combat, to return what he had
seized by force. More respectful and humble than other nations
toward blessed Peter and pontifical decrees, the French, unlike other
peoples, have been unwilling to behave insolently against God. For
many years we have seen the Germans, particularly the entire kingdom
of Lotharingia, struggling with barbaric obstinacy against the
commands of Saint Peter and of his pontiffs.[79] In their striving,
they prefer to remain under a daily, or even eternal excommunication
rather than submit. Last year while I was arguing with a certain
archdeacon of Mainz about a rebellion of his people, I heard him
vilify our king and our people, merely because the king had given a
gracious welcome everywhere in his kingdom to his Highness Pope
Paschal and his princes; he called them not merely Franks, but,
derisively, "Francones."[80] I said to him, "If you think them so
weak and languid that you can denigrate a name known and admired as
far away as the Indian Ocean, then tell me upon whom did Pope Urban
call for aid against the Turks? Wasn't it the French? Had they not
been present, attacking the barbarians everywhere, pouring their
sturdy energy and fearless strength into the battle, there would have
been no help for your Germans, whose reputation there amounted to
nothing." That is what I said to him. I say truly, and everyone
should believe it, that God reserved this nation for such a great
task. For we know certainly that, from the time that they received
the sign of faith that blessed Remigius brought to them until the
present time, they succumbed to none of the diseases of false faith
from which other nations have remained uncontaminated either with
great difficulty or not at all. They are the ones who, while still
laboring under the pagan error, when they triumphed on the
battlefield over the Gauls, who were Christians, did not punish or
kill any of them, because they believed in Christ. Instead, those
whom Roman severity had punished with sword and fire, native French
generosity encased in gold and silver, covered with gems and amber.
They strove to welcome with honor not only those who lived within
their own borders, but they also affectionately cared for people who
came from Spain, Italy, or anywhere else, so that love for the
martyrs and confessors, whom they constantly served and honored, made
them famous, finally driving them to the glorious victory at
Jerusalem. Because it has carried the yoke since the days of its
youth, it will sit in isolation,[81] a nation noble, wise, war-like,
generous, brilliant above all kinds of nations. Every nation borrows
the name as an honorific title; do we not see the Bretons, the
English, the Ligurians call men "Frank" if they behave well? But now
let us return to the subject.
When the Pope crossed our borders, he was greeted with such great joy
by crowds in the cities, towns, and villages, because no one alive
could remember when the bishop of the apostolic see had come to these
lands. The year of the incarnate Word 1097 was hastening to its end,
[82] when the bishop hastily convoked a council, choosing a city in
Auvergne, famous for the most learned of all bishops, Sidonius,
although its name has now been changed to Clermont. The council was
even more crowded because of the great desire to see the face and to
hear the words of such an excellent, rarely seen person. In addition
to the multitudes of bishops and abbots, whom some, by counting their
staves, estimated at approximately 400, learned men from all of
France and the dependent territories flowed to that place. One could
see there how he presided over them with serene gravity, with a
dignified presence, and, if I may use the words of Sidonius, with
what peppery eloquence[83] the most learned Pope answered whatever
objections were raised. It was noted with what gentleness the most
brilliant man listened gently to the most vehemently argued speeches,
and how little he valued the social position of people, judging them
only by God's laws.
Then Philip, king of the French, who was in the thirty-seventh year
of his reign, having put aside his own wife, whose name was Berta,
and having carried off Bertrada, the wife of the count of Anjou, was
excommunicated by the Pope, who spurned both the attempts by
important people to intercede for the king, and the offers of
innumerable gifts. Nor was he afraid that he was now within the
borders of the kingdom of France. In this council, just as he had
planned before leaving Rome and seeking out the French for this
reason, he gave a fine speech to those who were in attendance. Among
other things, which were said to exceed the memories of the listeners,
he spoke about this project. His eloquence was reinforced by his
literary knowledge; the richness of his speech in Latin seemed no
less than that of any lawyer nimble in his native language. Nor did
the crowd of disputants blunt the skill of the speaker. Surrounded
by praiseworthy teachers, apparently buried by clouds of cases being
pressed upon him, he was judged to have overcome, by his own literary
brilliance, the flood of oratory and to have overwhelmed the
cleverness of every speech. Therefore his meaning, and not his exact
words, follow: "If, among the churches scattered through the whole
world, some deserve more reverence than others because they are
associated with certain people and places, then, because of certain
persons, I say, greater privileges are granted to apostolic sees; in
the case of places, some privilege is granted to royal cities, as is
the case with the city of Constantinople. We are grateful for having
received from this most powerful church the grace of redemption and
the origin of all Christianity. If what was said by the Lord remains
true, namely that "salvation is from the Jews," and it remains true
that the Lord of the Sabbath has left his seed for us, lest we become
like those of Sodom and Gomorrha, and that Christ is our seed, in
whom lies salvation and blessing for all people, then the earth and
the city in which he lived and suffered is called holy by the
testimony of Scripture. If this land is the inheritance of God, and
his holy temple, even before the Lord walked and suffered there, as
the sacred and prophetic pages tell us, then what additional sanctity
and reverence did it gain then, when the God of majesty took flesh
upon Himself there, was fed, grew up, and moving in his bodily
strength walked here and there in the land? To abbreviate a matter
that could be spun out at much greater length, this is the place
where the blood of the Son of God, holier than heaven and earth, was
spilled, where the body, at whose death the elements trembled, rested
in its tomb. What sort of veneration might we think it deserves? If,
soon after our Lord's death, while the city was still in the
possession of the Jews, the Evangelist called it sacred, when he said,
"Many bodies of the saints that have been asleep here have awoken,
and come to the holy city, and they been seen by many."[84], and it
was said by the prophet Isaiah, "His tomb will be glorious,"[85],
since this very sanctity, once granted by God the sanctifier himself,
cannot be overcome by any evil whatsoever, and the glory of his tomb
in the same way remains undiminished, then, O my dearly beloved
brothers, you must exert yourselves, with all your strength, and with
God leading you and fighting for you, to cleanse the holiness of the
city and the glory of the tomb, which has been polluted by the thick
crowd of pagans, if you truly aspire to the author of that holiness
and glory, and if you love the traces that he has left on earth. If
the Maccabees once deserved the highest praise for piety because they
fought for their rituals and their temple, then you too, O soldiers
of Christ, deserve such praise, for taking up arms to defend the
freedom of your country. If you think you must seek with such effort
the thresholds of the apostles and of others, then why do you
hesitate to go see and to snatch up the cross, the blood, and to
devote your precious souls to rescuing them? Until now you have
waged wrongful wars, often hurling insane spears at each other,
driven only by greed and pride, for which you have deserved only
eternal death and damnation. Now we propose for you battles which
offer the gift of glorious martyrdom, for which you will earn present
and future praise. If Christ had not died and been buried in
Jerusalem, had not lived there at all, if all these things had not
taken place, surely this fact alone should be enough to drive you to
come to the aid of the land and the city: that the law came from Zion
and the word of God from Jerusalem. If all Christian preaching flows
from the fountain of Jerusalem, then let the rivulets, wherever they
flow over the face of the earth, flow into the hearts of the Catholic
multitude, so that they may heed of what they owe to this overflowing
fountain. If "rivers return to the place whence they flow, so that
they may continue to flow,"[86] according to the saying of Solomon,
it should seem glorious to you if you are able to purify the place
whence you received the cleansing of baptism and the proof of faith.
And you should also consider with the utmost care whether God is
working through your efforts to restore the church that is the mother
of churches; he might wish to restore the faith in some of the
eastern lands, in spite of the nearness of the time of the Antichrist.
For it is clear that the Antichrist makes war neither against Jews,
nor against pagans, but, according to the etymology of his name, he
will move against Christians. And if the Antichrist comes upon no
Christian there, as today there is scarcely any, there will be no one
to resist him, or any whom he might justly move among. According to
Daniel and Jerome his interpreter, his tent will be fixed on the
Mount of Olives, and he will certainly take his seat, as the Apostle
teaches, in Jerusalem, "in the temple of God, as though he were God,
"[87] and, according to the prophet, he will undoubtedly kill three
kings pre-eminent for their faith in Christ, that is, the kings of
Egypt, of Africa, and of Ethiopia. This cannot happen at all, unless
Christianity is established where paganism now rules. Therefore if
you are eager to carry out pious battles, and since you have accepted
the seedbed of the knowledge of God from Jerusalem, then you may
restore the grace that was borrowed there. Thus through you the name
of Catholicism will be propagated, and it will defeat the perfidy of
the Antichrist and of the Antichristians. Who can doubt that God,
who surpasses every hope by means of his overflowing strength, may so
destroy the reeds of paganism with your spark that he may gather
Egypt, Africa and Ethiopia, which no longer share our belief, into
the rules of his law, and "sinful man, the son of perdition,"[88]
will find others resisting him? See how the Gospel cries out that
"Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the time of
the nations will be fulfilled."[89]"The time of nations" may be
understood in two ways: either that they ruled at will over the
Christians, and for their own pleasures have wallowed in the troughs
of every kind of filth, and in all of these things have found no
obstruction (for "to have one's time" means that everything goes
according to one's wishes, as in "My time has not yet come, but your
time is always ready,"[90] and one customarily says to voluptuaries,
"You have your time;") or else the "time of nations" means the
multitudes of nations who, before Israel is saved, will join the
faith. These times, dearest brothers, perhaps will now be fulfilled,
when, with the aid of God, the power of the pagans will be pushed
back by you, and, with the end of the world already near, even if the
nations do not turn to the Lord, because, as the Apostle says, "there
must be a falling away from faith."[91] Nevertheless, first,
according to the prophecies, it is necessary, before the coming of
the Antichrist in those parts, either through you or through whomever
God wills, that the empire of Christianity be renewed, so that the
leader of all evil, who will have his throne there, may find some
nourishment of faith against which he may fight. Consider, then,
that Almighty providence may have destined you for the task of
rescuing Jerusalem from such abasement. I ask you to think how your
hearts can conceive of the joy of seeing the holy city revived by
your efforts, and the oracles, the divine prophecies fulfilled in our
own times. Remember that the voice of the Lord himself said to the
church, "I shall lead your seed from the East, and I shall gather you
from the West."[92] The Lord has led our seed from the East, in that
he brought forth for us in double manner[93] out of the Eastern land
the early progeny of the Church. But out of the West he assembled us,
for through those who last began the proof of faith, that is the
Westerners, (we think that, God willing, this will come about through
your deeds), Jerusalem's losses will be restored. If the words of
Scripture and our own admonitions do not move your souls, then at
least let the great suffering of those who wish to visit the holy
places touch you. Think of the pilgrims who travel the Mediterranean;
if they are wealthy, to what tributes, to what violence are they
subjected; at almost every mile they are compelled to pay taxes and
tributes; at the gates of the city, at the entrances of churches and
temples, they must pay ransoms. Each time they move from one place
to another they are faced with another charge, compelled to pay
ransom, and the governors of the Gentiles commonly coerce with blows
those who are slow to give gifts. What shall we say about those who
have taken up the journey, trusting in their naked poverty, who seem
to have nothing more than their bodies to lose? The money that they
did not have was forced from them by intolerable tortures; the skin
of their bones was probed, cut, and stripped, in search of anything
that they might have sewed within. The brutality of these evil-doers
was so great that, suspecting that the wretches had swallowed gold
and silver, they gave them purgatives to drink, so that they would
either vomit or burst their insides. Even more unspeakable, they cut
their bellies open with swords, opening their inner organs, revealing
with a hideous slashing whatever nature holds secret. Remember, I
beg you, the thousands who died deplorably, and, for the sake of the
holy places, whence the beginnings of piety came to you, take action.
Have unshakable faith that Christ will be the standard-bearer and
inseparable advance guard before you who are sent to His wars."
The superb man delivered this speech, and by the power of the blessed
Peter absolved everyone who vowed to go, confirming this with an
apostolic benediction, and establishing a sign of this honorable
promise. He ordered that something like a soldier's belt, or rather
that for those about to fight for the Lord, something bearing the
sign of the Lord's passion, the figure of a Cross, be sewn onto the
tunics and cloaks of those who were going. If anyone, after
accepting this symbol, and after having made the public promise, then
went back on his good intentions, either out of weak regretfulness,
or out of domestic affection, such a person, according to the Pope's
decree, would be considered everywhere an outlaw, unless he came to
his senses and fulfilled the obligation which he had foully laid
aside. He also cursed with a horrible anathema all those who might
dare to harm the wives, sons, and possessions of those who took up
God's journey for all of the next three years.
Finally, he entrusted the leadership of the expedition to the most
praiseworthy of men, the bishop of the city of Puy (whose name, I
regret, I have never discovered or heard). He granted him the power
to teach the Christian people as his representative, wherever they
went, and therefore, in the manner of the apostles, he laid hands
upon him and gave him his blessing as well. How wisely he carried
out his commission the results of this wonderful effort demonstrate.
And so, when the council held at Clermont at the octave of blessed
Martin in the month of November was over, the great news spread
through all parts of France, and whoever heard the news of the
Pontiff's decree urged his neighbors and family to undertake the
proposed "path of God" (for this was it epithet). The courtly
nobility were already burning with desire, and the middle-level
knights were bursting to set out, when lo the poor also were aflame
with desire, without any consideration for the scarcity of their
resources, and without worrying about suitably disposing of their
homes, vineyards, and fields. Instead, each sold his assets at a
price much lower than he would have received if he had been shut up
in a painful prison and needed to pay an immediate ransom. At this
time there was a general famine, with great poverty even among the
very wealthy, since when even though there were enough things, here
and there, for sale for some people, they had nothing or scarcely
anything with which those things could be bought. Masses of poor
people learned to feed often on the roots of wild plants, since they
were compelled by the scarcity of bread to search everywhere for some
possible substitute. The misery that everyone was crying out about
was clearly threatening to the powerful people as they watched, and,
while each man, considering the anguish of the starving mob to be of
little importance, became fastidiously parsimonious, fearing that he
might squander the wealth for which he had worked hard by spending
money too easily. The thirsty hearts of the avaricious, who rejoiced
that the times smiled upon their brutal rates of interest, thought of
the bushels of grain they had stored through the fertile years, and
calculated how much their sale would add to their accumulating
mountains of money. Thus, while some suffer terribly, and others
swiftly go about their business, Christ, "breaking the ships of
Tarshish with a powerful wind,"[94] resounded in everyone's ears, and
he "who freed those who were in adamantine chains" broke[95] the
shackles of those desperate men whose hearts were ensnared by greed.
Although, as I just said, hard times reduced everyone's wealth,
nevertheless, when the hard times provoked everyone to spontaneous
exile, the wealth of many men came out into the open, and what had
seemed expensive when no one was moved, was sold at a cheap price,
now that everyone one was eager for the journey. As many men were
rushing to depart (I shall illustrate the sudden and unexpected drop
in prices with one example of those things that were sold), seven
sheep brought an unheard-of price of five cents. The lack of grain
became surfeit, and each tried to get whatever money he could scrape
together by any means; each seemed to be offering whatever he had,
not at the seller's, but at the buyer's price, lest he be late in
setting out on the path of God. It was a miraculous sight: everyone
bought high and sold low; whatever could be used on the journey was
expensive, since they were in a hurry; they sold cheaply whatever
items of value they had piled up; what neither prison nor torture
could have wrung from them just a short time before they now sold for
a few paltry coins. Nor is it less absurd that many of those who had
no desire to go, who laughed one day at the frantic selling done by
the others, declaring that they were going on a miserable journey,
and would return even more miserable, were suddenly caught up the
next day, and abandoned all their good for a few small coins, and set
out with those at whom they had laughed.
Who can tell of the boys, the old men, who were stirred to go to war?
Who can count the virgins and the weak, trembling old men? Everyone
sang of battle, but did not say that they would fight. Offering
their necks to the sword, they promised martyrdom. "You young men,"
they said, "will draw swords with your hands, but may we be permitted
to earn this by supporting Christ."[96]
Indeed they seemed to have a desire to emulate God, "but not
according to knowledge,"[97] but God, who customarily turns many vain
undertakings to a pious end, prepared salvation for their simple
souls, because of their good intentions. There you would have seen
remarkable, even comical things; poor people, for example, tied their
cattle to two-wheel carts, armed as though they were horses, carrying
their few possessions, together with their small children, in the
wagon. The little children, whenever they came upon a castle or a
city, asked whether this was the Jerusalem to which they were going.
At that time, before people set out on the journey, there was a great
disturbance, with fierce fighting, throughout the entire kingdom of
the Franks. Everywhere people spoke of rampant thievery, highway
robbery; endless fires burned everywhere. Battles broke out for no
discernible reason, except uncontrollable greed. To sum up briefly,
whatever met the eye of greedy men, no matter to whom it belonged,
instantly became their prey. Therefore the change of heart they soon
underwent was remarkable and scarcely believable because of the
heedless state of their souls, as they all begged the bishops and
priests to give the sign prescribed by the above-mentioned Pope, that
is, the crosses. As the force of powerful winds can be restrained by
the gentle rain, so all of the feuds of each against the other were
put to rest by the aspiration imbedded undoubtedly by Christ Himself.
While the leaders, who needed to spend large sums of money for their
great retinues, were preparing like careful administrators, the
common people, poor in resources but copious in number, attached
themselves to a certain Peter the Hermit, and they obeyed him as
though he were the leader, as long as the matter remained within our
own borders. If I am not mistaken, he was born in Amiens, and, it is
said, led a solitary life in the habit of a monk in I do not know
what part of upper Gaul, then moved on, I don't know why, and we saw
him wander through cities and towns, spreading his teaching,
surrounded by so many people, given so many gifts, and acclaimed for
such great piety, that I don't ever remember anyone equally honored.
He was very generous to the poor with the gifts he was given, making
prostitutes morally acceptable for husbands, together with generous
gifts, and, with remarkable authority, restoring peace and treaties
where there had been discord before. Whatever he did or said seemed
like something almost divine. Even the hairs of his mule were torn
out as though they were relics, which we report not as truth, but as
a novelty loved by the common people. Outdoors he wore a woolen
tunic, which reached to his ankles, and above it a hood; he wore a
cloak to cover his upper body, and a bit of his arms, but his feet
were bare. He drank wine and ate fish, but scarcely ever ate bread.
This man, partly because of his reputation, partly because of his
preaching, had assembled a very large army, and decided to set out
through the land of the Hungarians. The restless common people
discovered that this area produced unusually abundant food, and they
went wild with excess in response to the gentleness of the
inhabitants. When they saw the grain that had been piled up for
several years, as is the custom in that land, like towers in the
fields, which we are accustomed to call "metas"[98] in every-day
language, and although supplies of various meats and other foods were
abundant in this land, not content with the natives' decency, in a
kind of remarkable madness, these intruders began to crush them.
While the Hungarians, as Christians to Christians, had generously
offered everything for sale, our men willfully and wantonly ignored
their hospitality and generosity, arbitrarily waging war against them,
assuming that they would not resist, but would remain entirely
peaceful. In an accursed rage they burned the public granaries we
spoke of, raped virgins, dishonored many marriage beds by carrying
off many women, and tore out or burned the beards of their hosts.
None of them now thought of buying what he needed, but instead each
man strove for what he could get by theft and murder, boasting with
amazing impudence that he would easily do the same against the Turks.
On their way they came to a castle that they could not avoid passing
through. It was sited so that the path allowed no divergence to the
right or left. With their usual insolence they moved to besiege it,
but when they had almost captured it, suddenly, for a reason that is
no concern of mine, they were overwhelmed; some died by sword, others
were drowned in the river, others, without any money, in
abject poverty, deeply ashamed, returned to France. And because this
place was called Moisson, and when they returned they said that they
had been as far as Moisson, they were greeted with great laughter
everywhere.[99]
When he was unable to restrain this undisciplined crowd of common
people, who were like prisoners and slaves, Peter, together with a
group of Germans and the dregs of our own people, whose foresight had
enable them to escape, reached the city of Constantinople on the
calends of August (July 30). But a large army of Italians, Ligurians,
Langobards, together with men from parts of countries beyond the
Alps, had preceded him, and had decided to wait for his army and the
armies of the other Frankish leaders, because they did not think that
they had a large enough army to go beyond the province of the Greeks
and attack the Turks. By order of the emperor they had been granted
permission to buy everything they wanted, and to conduct business in
the city, but, on the advice of this prince, they were forbidden to
cross the Arm of Saint George, which was the sea that provided border
with the Turks, because he said that it was sure destruction for so
few men to go up against so many. But they were not held back by the
decency of the people of the province, nor were they mollified by the
emperor's affability, but they behaved very insolently, wrecking
palaces, burning public buildings, tearing the roofs of churches that
were covered with lead, and then offering to sell the lead back to
the Greeks. Disturbed by such foul arrogance, the emperor instructed
them to delay their crossing of the waters of the Arm no longer.
Once they had made the crossing, they continued to behave as they had
on the other side; those who had taken a vow to fight against the
pagans fought against men of our own faith, destroying churches
everywhere, and stealing the possessions of Christians. Since they
were not subject to the severity of a king, who might correct their
errors with judicial strength, nor did they reflect soberly upon
divine law, which might have restrained the instability of their
minds, they fell to sudden death, because death comes to meet the
undisciplined, and the man who cannot control himself does not last
long.
When they finally reached Nicomedia,[100] the Italians, Lombards, and
Germans, unable to bear the pride of the Franks, separated from them.
For the Franks, as their name indicates,[101] were famous for their
great energy, but, in large groups, unless they are restrained by a
firm hand, they are fiercer than they should be. And so the people
from beyond the Alps, having separated, as we just said, from the
Franks, chose as their leader a certain Rainald, and entered the
province which is called Romania.[102] Four days march from
Nicomedia, they came upon a castle which its builder had been pleased
to call Exorogorgum,[103] and which, since it had been abandoned by
its inhabitants, lay open to the troops, who immediately rushed in.
The inhabitants had fled out of fear of the invaders; desperate to
save themselves, they gave no thought to carrying with them their
goods, of which they had a considerable amount. Thus the troops
found an abundance of food there, and they ate their full. When the
Turks discovered that the Christians had occupied the castle, they
laid siege to it with great force. In front of the entrance to the
city was a well, and below it, not far from the city walls, another
well, where their leader Rainald cleverly set an ambush, to keep an
eye on the Turks. Soon the Turks who were being watched advanced
towards the city, and on the day on which the memory of the blessed
Michael was celebrated,[104] the duke and his retainers were attacked,
and many of those who lay in ambush were killed, while others were
forced to return in disgrace within the battlements. The surrounding
Turks attacked so relentlessly that the Crusaders were prevented from
drawing water. They became so thirsty that they drew blood from
their horses and asses, and were compelled to drink the blood. Some,
by dipping their belts and rags into a cistern, and squeezing the
liquid into their mouths, seemed to find some relief. Others,
horrible though it is to say, drank their own urine,[105] while
others dug a hole and placed themselves in the hole they had dug,
covering their parched breasts with the recently dug up earth, in the
belief that they might relieve their burning insides with a bit of
moisture. The bishops and priests who were present, and were
themselves suffering in the same way, seeing that the dangers were
hideous and human help unavailable, offered consolation, continuing
to promise heavenly rewards. For eight days their suffering
continued. While they all seemed to be subject to the same misery,
they did not all hope for God's mercy in the same way; those who had
been the leaders plotted treacherously to save themselves. Rainald,
who lead them in prosperity, secretly and foully concluded a pact
with the Turks, promising to betray to them all the soldiers he
commanded. And so he marched out as though about to battle them, but
while pretending to lead them in this way, he and many of his own men
fled to the Turks, and he remained with them from then on; the others
were captured. Some of the prisoners were challenged about their
faith, and ordered to renounce Christ, but they proclaimed Christ
with steady heart and voice, and were decapitated.
And now Christ will have new honors, like those he had long ago,
ornamenting our age with new martyrs. How fragrant are the laurels
on the brows of those who prepare to offer their throats to the swift
blade! I shall call them happy who endure those few moments: their
firm faith has brought them eternal life. Now the least of us need
despair no longer, having dared what can scarcely be imitated.[106]
The Turks divided up among themselves some of the captives, whose
lives they had spared, or rather reserved for a more painful death,
and submitted them to dismal servitude at the hands of cruel masters.
Some were exposed in public, like targets, and were pierced by
arrows; others were given away as gifts, while others were sold
outright. Those to whom they were given took them back to their own
homes, bringing some of them to the region called Khorasan, and
others to the city of Antioch, where they would endure wretched
slavery under the worst masters imaginable.
They underwent a torture much longer than that endured by those whose
heads were severed swiftly by the sword. A cruel master drives them,
subjecting them to painful labor; everywhere the pious man serves the
ungrateful man. The conscientious worker is flogged; the faithful
man, who performs eagerly and competently, is punished. What he sees,
what he hears, what he does during the day, because he resists doing
evil, becomes foul torture. I have no doubt that their suffering was
more excruciating than three days of torture on the rack.[107]
These were the first martyrs God made in the nearly desperate state
of our modern times.
Meanwhile Peter, about whom we spoke earlier, often troubled by the
folly of his retinue, disturbed by frequent losses, finally gave the
reins of leadership over to well-born man, a powerful warrior from
beyond the Seine, whose name was Walter,[108] in the hope that those
whom he had been unable to control by warnings might at least be
restrained by military authority. Walter hurried, together with his
insane army, to reach Civitot,[109] a city that is said to be located
above Nicaea.[110] When the Turks, who were keeping track of our
movements, found out, they hurried to Civitot, eager to act out their
great ill will. Half-way there, they met up with the above-mentioned
Walter and his group, and they killed him and a great many of his men.
Peter, called the Hermit, unable to restrain the insanity of the
men he had gathered together, was afraid of being caught up in their
undisciplined, improvident folly, and wisely retreated to
Constantinople. The Turks attacked them without warning, and,
finding some of them asleep, and others not only without weapons, but
unclothed as well, immediately killed them all. Among them they
found a certain priest performing mass, and they killed him in the
very act of completing the sacrament; while he was sacrificing to God,
they sacrificed him at the same altar.
What better host can be offered to God than the flesh of him who
becomes a victim for his God. What prayer did he utter from the
depths of his heart when the trumpets of battle sounded? The victors
tore them to pieces, the clangor of arms resounded, and the wretched
band of fugitives howled. The fine priest embraced the altar,
holding the sacred host closely, "Good Jesus," he said,"you are here
as my protection. Since I am holding you, let the hope of flight
disappear. I shall enter into an eternal pact with you. I am killed,
and you, God, shall carry out the sacred things we have begun."[111]
Those who were able to escape fled to the city of Civetot. The
depths of the sea received some, who, unable to escape, preferred to
choose their death rather than have it thrust upon them. Others
sought out the mountains and hid among the rocks, while others hid in
the woods. After they had captured or taken vengeance on those they
found outside, the Turks quickly attacked those who were hiding
inside the castle and they set up a siege, bringing wood to start
fire. They lit fires for those who were being besieged, thinking
that the fire would burn those inside the castle. However, in
accordance with God's judgment, the whole force of the fire fell upon
the Turks, and burned some of them, while none of it reached our men.
They continued to attack, however, and the town was captured. Those
whom they found alive they tied up and then, as had been done to the
others before them, they were sent to the various provinces from
which the enemy had come, to endure perpetual exile. These things
happened in the month of October. When the treacherous Emperor was
informed of the disaster that had befallen the faithful, the wretch
was elated with joy, and ordered that the remaining troops be given
permission to cross the Arm of Saint George, and to retreat to the
nearer parts of Greece. When he saw them return to the territory
over which he had power, he forced them to sell their arms to him.
Such was the end of the group under the command of Peter the Hermit.
We have followed this story without interrupting it so that we might
show that Peter's group in no way helped the others, but in fact
added to the audacity of the Turks. And now we shall return to the
men we have passed over, who followed the same path that Peter did,
but in a far more restrained and fortunate way.
Duke Godfrey, the son of count Eustace of Boulogne, had two brothers:
Baldwin, who ruled Edessa, and succeeded his brother as king of
Jerusalem, and who still rules there; and Eustace, who rules in the
county he inherited from his father. They had a powerful father, who
was competent in worldly affairs, and their mother was, if I am not
mistaken, a learned Lotharingian aristocrat, but most remarkable for
her innate serenity and great devotion to God. The joys she received
from such exemplary sons were due, we believe, to her profound
religious belief. Godfrey, about whom we are now speaking, had
received a duchy in Lotharingia as his maternal heritage. All three,
in no way inferior to their mother in honesty, flourished in great
military deeds, as well as in the restraint of their behavior. The
glorious woman used to say, when she marveled at the result of the
journey and the success of her sons, that she had heard from the
mouth of her son the duke a prediction of the outcome long before the
beginning of the expedition. For he said that he wanted to go to
Jerusalem not as a simple pilgrim, as others had done, but forcefully,
with a large army, if he could raise one. In accordance with this
divinely inspired intuition, fortune later smiled on his project.
The three brothers, heedless of the great honors they already had,
set out on the journey. But even as Godfrey was wiser than his other
brothers, so he was equipped with a larger army. He was joined by
Baldwin, Count of Mons, son of Robert, the paternal uncle of the
young count of Flanders. With the splendid knightly ceremony and
spectacle, the band of powerful young men entered the land of the
Hungarians, in possession of what Peter was unable to obtain: control
over his army. Two days before Christmas, the first of the French
leaders to arrive, they reached the city of Constantinople, but their
lodgings were outside the city. The treacherous emperor, frightened
when he heard that the brilliant duke had arrived, offered formal,
but grudging signs of respect, and offered him permission to dwell in
front of the walls, in a suburb of the city. And so, after accepting
the emperor's offer, the duke and each of his men sent their own
squires to get straw and whatever was necessary for their horses from
wherever they could. While they were thinking that they could go
safely and securely wherever they wished, the foul prince secretly
ordered the men around him to kill, without making any distinctions,
all of the men who were carrying out the duke's instructions,
wherever they found them. When Baldwin, the duke's brother, found
out about this, he set an ambush; when he discovered the
Turcopolitans violently attacking his own men, he forcefully attacked
them, as was right. And with God's favor he won such a victory that
he captured sixty of them; he killed some of them and handed others
over to his brother the duke. When news of this event reached the
impious emperor, he was filled with self-reproach. Made more
cautious by this event, the duke left the suburb of the city where he
had been staying, and set up camp outside of its borders. However,
as evening approached, the emperor, unable to put aside his anger,
hastily collected an army and began hostilities against the duke and
his men. Forcefully accepting the challenge, the duke defeated them
and drove them in flight back into the city, killing seven men.
After this fortunate turn of events, the duke returned to his
encampment, and remained there for five days, while he and the
emperor negotiated a treaty. The frightened emperor asked that the
duke cross the Arm of Saint George, promising in return that he would
order to be brought to them supplies of whatever kinds of food were
to be found in Constantinople and that he would give alms to their
poor. And this was done.
Since we have spoken about the duke and his journey up to this point,
I must return to the leaders of central France; I shall give a brief
sketch of who they were, by what roads they traveled, and what the
outcome of their efforts was. The Bishop of Puy, a man to be admired
for his life, knowledge, teaching, and wisdom in military affairs,
together with a large group of his countrymen, chose to set out
through the land of the Slavs. Earlier I expressed my regret at not
knowing his name, and for being unable to learn it from the history
of which I seem to be the interpreter; finally, however, through
those who knew him on that expedition, and who were familiar with him,
I learned that this precious man's name was Aimarus.
Among the rest of the leaders, it seems to me that Hugh the Great,
the brother of Philip the king of the Franks, must be dealt with
first. Although others were wealthier or more powerful, he was
second to none in birth or in the probity of his behavior. He was
most justly celebrated for being forceful in arms, serenely secure in
his noble birth, and, even more important, humble towards every
sacred order, forthright and restrained. Certain leaders attached
themselves to him, thinking that they would make him king if it
happened that, after the Gentiles were driven out, the occupation of
the land came about as a result of battle.
After him came Count Stephen, a man endowed with such power that,
according to report, he controlled as many castles as the year has
days. His generosity was unexcelled, his presence very pleasing, his
performance in council sober, steady, and thoughtfully mature; he so
excelled in his activities as a knight, that the entire holy army
chose him as their chief magistrate and general for the duration of
the battle against the Turks. His wife was the wisest of women, the
daughter of King William the elder, who had conquered the kingdoms of
the English and the Scots. If we wish to praise her wisdom,
generosity, bountifulness, and opulence, I fear lest, by praising his
wife, we cast shadow on the magnificent man, which he has earned now
that he has been deprived of her. Robert the younger, son of Robert
the elder, to whom the emperor had sent a letter, with great
eagerness took charge of building up their forces; he gave up the
county of Flanders, which he had ruled with great military skill, to
become a fellow soldier on the journey with those who had chosen to
become exiles for Christ. The rest of the present history will
indicate how steadily he carried out what he had begun. Leaving
behind their superb wives and their fine sons, they put aside
whatever they felt great affection for, choosing instead exile. I
say nothing about their honors and possessions, which are outside our
concerns. But what surprises us most is the way in which loving
husbands and wives, attached even more closely to each other by the
bond of children, could be separated, when there was no present
danger to either.
It would hardly be right to remain silent about Robert, Count of
Normandy, whose bodily indulgences, weakness of will, prodigality
with money, gourmandising, indolence, and lechery were expiated by
the perseverance and heroism that he vigorously displayed in the army
of the Lord. His inborn compassion was naturally so great that he
did not permit vengeance to be taken against those who had plotted to
betray him and had been sentenced to death, and if something did
happen to them, he wept for their misfortune. He was bold in battle,
although adeptness at foul trickery, with which we know many men
befouled themselves, should not be praised, unless provoked by
unspeakable acts. For these and for similar things he should now be
forgiven, since God has punished him in this world, where he now
languishes in jail, deprived of all his honors.
Each of the illustrious leaders was followed on the journey by many
lesser princes, whom we shall not list at this point, because it
might seem to be distracting, and we shall perhaps have better reason
for naming them in the course of the narration. Who can
count the masters of one, two, three, or four castles? There were so
many that the siege of Troy could scarcely have brought so many
together. At the time that this expedition was being undertaken by
the magnates of the kingdom, and a meeting was being held by them
with Hugh the Great, with Philip the king present, at Paris, in the
month of February, on the eleventh day of the month, a lunar eclipse
took place just before midnight. Little by little the moon turned to
the color of blood, until it had turned completely and hideously
blood red, but at dawn an unusually bright splendor shone around the
circle of the moon. Soon afterward stars seemed to fall from the
skies, like a heavy rain. This was so like a portent that many
churches considered it to be one, and they instituted public prayers
to avert the punishment that it might signify, and they wrote down
the time of the event.
Soon after, in the month of August, on the eighth day, just before
sunset, the part around the center of the moon turned black, and many
people saw this happen. It should be said that, although the moon
normally undergoes eclipses when full, nevertheless some of these
changes of colors are manifestations of portents, and are customarily
recorded in the pontifical books and in the deeds of kings. Other
things were also seen, most of which we shall pass over.
Raymond, Count of Saint Gilles is placed last, not because he is of
no worth, but to complete the list. Because he lived at the furthest
edge of France, he has offered us less information about his
activities; but he ennobles the telling of this history, from the
beginning to the end, with the model of his great virtue and
constancy. Having left behind his own son to rule his land, he
brought with him his present wife and the only son he had had with
her. Raymond was older than the other leaders, but his army was in
no way inferior, except perhapsfor the Provencal habit of talking too
much. When this large force of powerful knights, having traveled
over the road which we customarily take to Rome, arrived in Apulia,
they had contracted a great many illnesses, and many died, because of
the great heat of the summer, the foul air, and the strange food. To
cross the sea they gathered at different ports:
many went to Brundisi, pathless Hydrus (Otrante) received others,
while the fishy waters of Bari welcomed others.[112]
Hugh the Great did not wait for his men and the knights of the
princes who were his allies, but hastily and unwisely went to the
port of Bari, and after a fortunate sea-journey, arrived at
Dyrrachium.[113] He should have considered that at the prospect of
so many men, such great numbers of knights and foot soldiers, all of
Greece, as one might say, trembled to its very foundations. And
although other leaders had greater repute among us than he,
nevertheless, among foreigners, and particularly among the Greeks,
who are the laziest of men, his unbounded fame as the brother of the
king of France preceded him. Therefore, when the leader appointed by
the emperor to govern that place saw such well-known man without a
large retinue about him, he seized the opportunity to make something
out of his isolation. He took the man and ordered him to be
conducted carefully and respectfully to Constantinople, with one
purpose in mind: that he might promise the frightened prince that he
would not harm his life or honor. Thus what happened to this famous
man weakened the courage of the great leaders who came after him, for
the cleverness of the treacherous prince compelled the others, either
by force, or in secret, or by imprecations, to do what he had done.
But now the end of this book has come.