That the Eastern Church was restored by the labor of the Western
faithful offers no small stimulus for our faith. We see the most
pious battles fought solely for God, an army burning with a passion
for martyrdom, without a king, without a prince, driven only by a
dedication to their own salvation. We read of how the Gauls went off
into the distant East, eager for battle, and they searched the secret
places of Delphic Apollo, and we know that the treasures taken from
the sacred shrines were thrown into the swamps of Toulouse. We know
that all these troops were summoned together by the princes in those
days; we have heard that, in this instance, not a single man was
compelled against his will, by any master, to go on the journey.
Here, weeping, confessing their sins, abandoning their possessions,
spurning their wives and fleeing from their children, they took up
arms. Foremost in the minds of all of them was the desire for a
blessed death, for the love of God. Here, I say, I wish to weigh
God's wonders: He who once strengthened the minds of the martyrs to
undergo torture out of a love for invisible things, again in our own
times, in an entirely unexpected way, which would have been
considered absurd had anyone said it, placed in the hearts of our men
such contempt for the things of this world, even in the hearts of the
most bloodthirsty and greedy men. He accomplished so much with so
few men, that one must refrain from praising those who did it, since
it is clearly God who was responsible. This is clearly demonstrated
by the fact that men who have won many victories often grow insolent,
and princes rise up against each other, or they become stained with
sin, and the Gentiles find them reduced, I might say, almost to the
level of animals. However, if they were to grow aware of themselves,
and were motivated by penitence, they would immediately be restored
to their proper fortunes and pious successes. Let us rejoice then in
the battles they won, undertaken purely out of spiritual desire,
granted by divine power, which had never before appeared, but was
made manifest in modern times; and let us not admire the fleshly wars
of Israel, which were waged merely to fill the belly.
The king of Tripoli ceaselessly petitioned our princes to remove
themselves from the town, and make an alliance with him. In response,
the leaders of the army, that is, Duke Godfrey, Raymond the Count of
Saint-Gilles, Robert, Count of Flanders and Robert, Count of Normandy,
took into account the fact that the land was abundant with new
produce, that beans, sowed earlier, ripened by the middle of March,
and that barley could be harvested before the middle of April, and
they also considered the general condition of the land, and the great
quantities of supplies, and they decided to resume the journey to
Jerusalem. They abandoned the siege of the town and reached Tripoli
on the sixth day of the week, on May 13, and they remained there
three days. The king of Tripoli made an agreement with our leaders,
and immediately freed more than 300 captives whom he held in chains.
At their departure, as a sign of his gratitude, he gave them 15,000
besants, as well as fifteen costly horses. In addition, he gave our
men a very good price on horses, donkeys, and other goods that would
prove useful for the army, as a result of which the Lord's expedition
was now fully restored to fighting condition. After this agreement
had been made, he also added that if the Crusaders won the war which
he had been told they were preparing strenuously to wage against the
emperor of Babylon, and if they captured Jerusalem, then he would
immediately convert to Christianity and hand himself and his land
over to them. When they left this city, on the second day of May,
they traveled over rough, narrow road all day and all night, and they
finally reached a fort named Betholon.[200] Then they traveled on to
a city located on the sea, called Zabari,[201] at whose river, called
the Braim,[202] they quickly and opportunely relieved the great
thirst from which they had been suffering. On the evening of the
Ascension of the Lord they ascended a mountain along a very narrow
road, in great fear that the narrowness of the path might prevent
them from evading any enemies they might meet at the end of the road.
But God's providence prevented anyone from daring to attack them.
Our soldiers formed a vanguard that kept the road free from hostile
attack. At length they reached a city by the sea, which was called
Baruth; then they went on to Sarepta,[203] once inhabited by the
Sidonians, and made famous by Elijah's feeding of the widow;[204]
from there they went to Sur,[205] and then to Acre, once the capital
of Palestine. Continuing on, they came to a castle called Caiphas,
finally reaching the renowned Caesarea of Palestine, where they
remained for three days after the end of May, celebrating Pentecost.
Then they went on to Ramathan,[206] famed as the birthplace of Samuel,
which some wiser men, more knowledgeable about topography, claim to
be Ramothgalaad, in the struggle for which the wicked Ahab was
defeated by Benadab, the king of the Syrians.[207] When they heard
that the Franks were coming, the inhabitants fled. This city, even
if it were not notable for any ancient monuments, would still seem to
me to overshadow all other cities because of the presence of the
brilliant martyr George, whose tomb they claim is there. After the
inhabitants left, a large supply of every kind of food was found
there, which offered, for many days, ample provisions for our army.
The leaders, after consulting with and obtaining the approval of the
clerics and bishops were were able to be present, decided to choose a
bishop for this city. They tithed themselves, enriching him with
gold and silver; they also supplied him with horses and other animals,
so that he and his household might live without the pain of
indigence, and in accordance with his rank. Amid general rejoicing,
the bishop[208] settled in the city which had been entrusted to him,
to guard the people, to build cathedral as soon as possible, and to
install officials who would look after the church, ready to obey the
leaders who had vehemently sought this out of love and worship of the
martyr.
Finally they reached the place which had provoked so many hardships
for them, which had brought upon them so much thirst and hunger for
such a long time, which had stripped them, kept them sleepless, cold,
and ceaselessly frightened, the most intensely pleasurable place,
which had been the goal of the wretchedness they had undergone, and
which had lured them to seek death and wounds. To this place, I say,
desired by so many thousands of thousands, which they had greeted
with such sadness and jubilation, they finally came, to Jerusalem.
As one reads that the sojourners ate and worshiped the Body of the
Lord,[209] so it may be said of these men that they adored Jerusalem
and took it by storm. Tuesday, the sixth of June, the siege was
begun with remarkable energy, by a remarkable combination of forces.
From the north, Count Robert of Normandy laid siege to it, near the
church of the blessed Saint Stephen, who, because he said that he had
seen the Son of man standing at the right hand of God, was covered
with a rain of stones by the Jews. From the west, Duke Godfrey, the
count of Flanders, and Tancred attacked. From the south, the count
of Saint-Gilles laid siege, on the mount of Zion, near the church of
the blessed Mary, mother of God, where the Lord is said to have sat
at dinner with his disciples, the day before his Passion. On the
third day after they had arrived at the city, Raymond, whose deeds on
the Lord's expedition were well known, this man, I say, whom they
called Pelet, together with another man who had the same name, and
several others, marched some distance from the place of siege, to see
if he could find any of the enemy wandering into our ambushes, as
they often did. Suddenly a band of nearly 200 Arabs fell upon them;
as soon as Raymond saw them, he attacked as fiercely as a lion, and,
in spite of their boldness, with the aid of God, they were subdued.
After killing many of them, and capturing thirty horses, they brought
the victory back to the army, which took pleasure in their glorious
deed. At dawn, on the second day of the next week, the outer,
smaller wall of the city was attacked with such force and with such
teamwork that both the city and its outskirts would have immediately
fallen to the Franks, if they had not lacked ladders. After the
outer wall was broken, and a broad passage opened through its rubble,
the ladder they did have was extended towards the battlements of the
main wall. Some of our knights climbed it quickly and began to fight
at long range. And when the arrows ran out, they fought with lances
and swords; both the defenders of the city and the besiegers battled
hand-to-hand with steel. Many of our men fell, but more of their men.
One should know that while Antioch was under siege, Jerusalem was
held by the Turks, under the authority of the king of Persia.
Moreover, the emperor of Babylon, as I mentioned previously, had sent
ambassadors to our army, for the sole purpose of determining the
condition of our enterprise. When they saw the terrible need that
afflicted the Christian army, and when they discovered that the
nobles had become foot-soldiers because of a lack of horses, they
considered us valueless in a struggle against the Turks, whom they
hated intensely. The king of Persia had taken great part of the
Babylonian empire, which was very large, for his people were wiser
and more energetic in military matters. When the Babylonian prince
heard, however, that the Franks--that is, God working through the
Franks--had taken Antioch, and had defeated Kherboga himself,
together with the pride of Persia, before the walls of Antioch, he
quickly gathered his courage, bore arms against the Turks, and laid
siege to them in Jerusalem, which they occupied. Then, I don't know
whether by force or by some agreement, they entered the town, and
placed many Turks, whether to guard it or to take charge of it I
don't know, in the tower bearing the name of David, which we think
more correctly should be called the tower of Zion. In any case,
during the siege they harmed none of us, merely watching peacefully
over their assigned tower. As a result, our men fought only with the
Saracens.
They were unable to buy bread during the siege, and for nearly ten
days food was difficult to find anywhere, until God brought help, and
our fleet reached the port of Jaffa. In addition, the army also
suffered from thirst, and they not only were worn out by this great
discomfort, but they had to drive their horses and pack animals a
great distance, six miles, to find water, all the while fearful that
the enemy might attack them. The fountain of Siloah, famous for
having cured the blind man in the Gospel,[210] which rises from
springs on mount Zion, supplied them with water, which was sold to
them at the highest prices. After messengers had announced that the
fleet had arrived at Jaffa, the leaders held a meeting and decided to
send a group of knights to the harbor to guard the ships and the men
in them. Early in the morning, at the crack of dawn, Raymond, of
whom we have spoken often, together with two other nobles, took 100
knights from the army of his lord, the count of Saint-Gilles, and set
out for the port, with his customary decisiveness. Thirty of the
knights separated from the main group and came upon approximately 700
Turks, Arabs, and Saracens, whom the king of Babylon had sent to
watch our comings and goings. Although greatly outnumbered, our men
forcefully attacked their troops, but the strength and ferocity of
the enemy was so great that we were threatened on all sides with
imminent death. They killed one of the two leaders, whose name was
Achard, as well as some of the most respected among the poor and the
foot-soldiers. As they were surrounding our men, pressing them with
arms on all sides, so that they were about to despair utterly, one
man came to the above-mentioned Raymond and told him of the plight of
his peers. "Why do you and your men remain here? See how your men,
who recently separated from you, are now fiercely surrounded by an
swarm of Saracens and Arabs. Unless you bring them help very quickly,
you will undoubtedly soon find them dead, if they have not already
perished. Therefore fly, hurry, I say, so that you may not be too
late." Together with all of his nobles, Raymond quickly set off to
look at the place where the fighting was going on. In preparing for
combat he placed his faith not in arms, not in strength, but in faith
in the Saviour. When the Gentile troops saw the Christian army, they
swiftly broke up into two groups. Calling upon the Most High for
support, our men attacked with such force that each man knocked the
opponent charging at him to the ground. Judging themselves unable to
withstand the onslaught of the Christians, the pagans stopped, and,
driven by fear, fled swiftly. Our men followed them quickly,
pursuing them for four miles. After having killed many of them, they
brought back 103 horses as trophies of victory. They refrained from
killing only one man, whom they brought back with them, and from whom
they learned everything that was going on among their enemies,
including what the prince of Babylon was planning against us.
Meanwhile the army was suffering from a terrible thirst, which
compelled them to sew together the hides of cattle and oxen, in which
they carried water from six miles away. They used the water carried
in such bags, which were putrid with recent sweat, and multiplied the
great suffering caused by hunger, to make barley bread for the army.
How many jaws and throats of noble men were eaten away by the
roughness of this bread. How terribly were their fine stomachs
revolted by the bitterness of the putrid liquid. Good God, we think
that they must have suffered so, these men who remembered their high
social position in their native land, where they had been accustomed
to great ease and pleasure, and now could find no hope or solace in
any external comfort, as they burned in the terrible heat.[211] Here
is what I and I alone think: never had so many noble men exposed
their own bodies to so much suffering for a purely spiritual benefit.
Although the hearts of the pilgrims burned for the dear, distant
pledges of their affections, for their sweet wives and for the
dignity of their possessions, nevertheless they remained steadfastly
in place there, and did not cease to pursue the battle for Christ.
The Saracens were always waiting in ambush around the springs and
rivers, eager to kill our men wherever they found them, strip their
bodies, and, if they happened to gain booty and horses, to hide them
in caves and caverns. Terrible hunger and thirst raged through the
army surrounding the city, and the very great rage of the enemy
prowling here and there thundered against them as well. But the
leaders of the sacred army, seeing that so many men of such different
capacities could scarcely endure such pain any longer, urged the use
of machines by means of which the city might be made more vulnerable,
so that, after all they had gone through, they might finally stand
before the monuments of the passion and burial of the Saviour. In
addition to the many other instruments, like battering rams with
which they might tear down the walls, or catapults to topple the
towers and walls, they ordered two wooden castles to be built, which
we usually call "falas." Duke Godfrey was the first to build his
castle, together with other machines; and Raymond, Count of
Saint-Gilles, who permitted himself to be second to no one, also
built his own. When they saw the machines being built, the castles
being constructed, the missile launchers and equipment being moving
up to the towers, the Saracens began, with unusual speed, to extend
and to repair their walls and towers. Working all night long, they
surprised our men by the speed with which they accomplished things.
Moreoever, the wood from which our men had built the castles and
other machines was brought from a distant region. When the leaders
of the army of the Lord perceived which side of the city was most
vulnerable, on a certain Sunday night they brought the castle,
together with some other machines, to that place. At dawn they set
up the machines on the eastern side, and on Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday they established them firmly in place. The count of
Saint-Gilles, however, set up his machine on the southern side. As
they burned with eagerness for the siege, their hearts were burning
with intolerable thirst, and a silver coin could not purchase enough
water to quench a man's thirst. Finally, on the fourth and fifth day,
gathering all their forces, they started to attack the walled city.
But before the attack took place, the bishops and priests directed
the people who were their subjects to sing litanies, and to undertake
fasts, to pray, and to give alms. The bishops remembered what had
once happened at Jericho, that the walls of the perfidious city had
fallen when the Israelites' trumpets sounded, and they marched seven
times around the city, carrying the sacred ark, and the walls of the
faithless city fell down.[212] They too circled Jerusalem in their
bare feet, their spirits and bodies contrite, as they tearfully cried
out the names of the saints. Both the leaders and the people came
together in this time of necessity, to implore divine assistance.
When this was accomplished with great humility, on the sixth day of
the week, after they had attacked the city with great forcefulness,
and their common effort had proved to be of no avail, such a great
torpor fell upon the whole army that their strength vanished, and the
steady misfortunes undermined the determination of the most
courageous men. As God is my witness, I have heard, from men
renowned for their truthfulness, who were present in the divine army,
that after their unsuccessful assault upon the walls of the city, you
would have seen the best of the knights who had returned from the
walls striking their hands, shouting angrily, lamenting that God had
deserted them. And I also learned, from sources no less reliable,
that Robert, count of Normandy, and the other Robert, prince of
Flanders, met and shared their mutual grief, weeping copiously, and
declaring themselves the most wretched of men, since the Lord Jesus
had judged them unworthy of worshipping His Cross, and of seeing, or
rather of adoring His tomb. But as the hour drew near at which Jesus,
who for the second time delivered the people from the prison of
Egypt, is believed to have ascended the Cross, duke Godfrey and his
brother, count Eustace, who had not stopped battling from their
castle, steadily struck the lower walls with battering rams, while at
the same time attacking the Saracens, who were fighting to protect
their lives and country, with stones, with various other kinds of
missiles, and even with the points of their swords,
Meanwhile, Lietaud, one of the knights, who will be known for
generations to come for his daring and for his deeds, was the first
to leap onto the walls of the city, startling the Gentiles who
surrounded him, and robbing them of their confidence When he had
mounted the wall, several of the young Franks whose pious boldness
had made them preeminent rushed forward, unwilling to seem inferior
to him who had preceded them, and they climbed to the top of the wall.
I would insert their names on this page, were I not aware of the
fact that, after they returned, they became infamous for criminal
acts; therefore, according to the judgment of men who love the name
of God, my silence is not unjust. Very soon, when the Saracens saw
the Franks breaching the walls, they quickly fled over the walls and
through the city. While they were retreating, our entire army rushed
in, some through the breaches made by the battering rams, others by
jumping from the tops of their machines. Their struggle to enter
resulted in harmful speed; with each man wanting to be perceived as
the first, they got in each other's way. Moreover, near the entrance
to the gates to the city, the Saracens had built secret covered pits,
which injured many of our men, not to speak of the difficulties
caused by the narrowness of the entrance as our men rushed in. The
Franks chased the fleeing pagans fiercely, killing everyone they came
upon, more in slaughter than in battle, through the streets, squares,
and crossroads, until they reached what was called the Temple of
Solomon. So much human blood flowed that a wave of damp gore almost
covered the ankles of the advancing men. That was the nature of
their success that day.
Raymond, the Count of Saint-Gilles, moved his army from the southern
flank and had a very large machine on wheels brought to the wall, but
between the machine, which was called the Castle, and the wall, was a
very deep pit. The princes soon conferred about how to accomplish
the breaching of the wall quickly, and ordered a messenger to
announce throughout the army that anyone who carried three stones
into the ditch would certainly receive a penny. In the space of
scarcely three days the moat was filled in, since night did not
prevent them from carrying out their project. When the moat had been
filled in by this means, they pushed the machine against the walls.
However, those who had taken on the defense of the inner city
resisted us, not out of bravery I say, but out of obstinate madness,
hurling what they call Greek fire at our men, and damaging the wheels
of the machine with stones. The Franks, however, with remarkable
skill, often managed to evade their blows and efforts. Meanwhile, at
the eastern side of the city, the tumult of battle alone made the
aforementioned count think that the Franks had broken into the city,
and were racing though it, spreading death. "Why," he said to his
men, "do we delay? Don't you see that the Franks have taken the city,
and are now triumphantly seizing great booty?" The count, together
with his men, then swiftly invaded the city. When he learned that
some of the Franks had spread through the city's palaces, some into
the Temple of the Lord, and that many were fighting at the altars of
the Temple of Solomon, as it was formerly called, in order to retain
power in the captured city he spoke with the emir (as they called
him) in charge of the tower of David, which was called Zion,
demanding that he hand over the tower with which he had been
entrusted. Thus the satrap, after a pact had been agreed upon
between them, opened for him the gate through which the pilgrims used
to pass when they entered Jerusalem, and where they were cruelly and
unfairly compelled to pay tribute, which was called *musellae*.
When the Provencals, that is, the army of the Count of Saint-Gilles,
and all the others had entered the city, a general slaughter of the
pagans took place. No one was spared because of tender years, beauty,
dignity, or strength: one inescapable death awaited them all. Those
who had retreated to the Temple of Solomon continued to battle
against us throughout the day, but our men, enraged at the feeble
arrogance of these desperate men, attacked them with united force,
and by means of their combined efforts penetrated to the depths of
the temple, where they inflicted such slaughter on the wretches
within the temple that the blood of the innumerable crowd of those
who were killed nearly submerged their boots. An innumerable crowd,
of mingled sexes and ages, had poured into this Temple; the Franks
granted some of them a few moments of life, so that they might remove
from the Temple the bodies of the fallen, of whom a foul pile lay
scattered here and there. After they had removed the bodies, they
were themselves put to the sword. Those who had climbed to the top
of the Temple, a large crowd of the common people, received the
standards of Tancred and Gaston as a sign that peace had been granted
to them in the meantime. However, whether Gaston, a famous and very
wealthy man, was a Gascon or a Basque, I don't exactly remember, but
I am certain that he was one or the other.[213] The army then ran
amok, and the entire city was looted. Palaces and other buildings
lay open, and silver, gold, and silken garments were seized as booty.
They found many horses and mules, and in the houses they found great
abundance of every kind of food. This was right and proper for the
army of God, that the finest things that offered themselves to each
man, no matter how poor, became his by right, without doubt or
challenge, no matter the social class of the man who first came upon
them. And then, putting these things aside, they ran, equally joyful
and sad, towards that which they had thirsted for so fervently.
They approached the sepulchre of the Lord and thanked Him for what
they had sought, the liberation of the Blessed Places; He had
performed such great deeds with them as his instruments, that neither
those who had performed them nor any other men could properly
evaluate these great deeds. They kept in mind how much anguish they
had endured to achieve this, and how they had accomplished what they
could not have hoped for, and when they considered that they
themselves had done deeds which had been unknown for centuries, no
man could understand how blessed were the tears which they poured
forth. Omnipotent God, what deep emotion, what joy, what grief they
felt, after unheard-of sufferings, never experienced by any army,
like the tortures of child-birth, when, like new-born children, they
saw that they had attained the fresh joys of the long-desired vision.
Therefore they were sad, and after they had joyfully wept tears
sweeter than any bread, they rejoiced, and with overflowing emotions
they embraced the most pious Jesus, the cause of their excruciating
daily labors, as though he had been hanging on the cross, or had been
held until that moment in the shelter of the tomb from time
immemorial. Magnificent gifts of gold and silver were offered there,
but sincere devotion was more valuable than any gift.
At last the next day shone forth, and the Franks, sorry that they had
permitted those who had climbed to the top of the Temple (to whom
Tancred and Gaston had given their own standards, as we said earlier)
to remain alive, invaded the heights of the temple and cut the
Saracens to pieces, killing the women together with the men. Some of
them, preferring suicide, threw themselves from the top of the Temple.
Tancred, however, because he and Gaston had given their pledges of
security, was much disturbed by this killing. Then our men ordered
some of the Saracens to carry off the dead, because the foul stench
of the bodies was oppressive, and the city was filled with so many
corpses that the Franks were unable to move without stepping on dead
bodies. Therefore the pagans, when they had carried the bodies from
the city, in front of the main gates piled up mountains of corpses,
and burned them in a huge pile. We merely read about, and have never
seen such a killing of Gentiles anywhere; God repaid them who had
inflicted such pain and death upon the pilgrims--who had suffered for
such a long time in that land--by exacting a retribution equal to
their hideous crimes. For no one except God himself can calculate
how much suffering, how many labors, how much destruction all of
those who sought the Holy Places endured at the hands of the arrogant
Gentiles. God certainly must have grieved more over their suffering
than over the delivery of his Cross and Tomb into profane hands. But
before we turn our stylus to other matters, it should be made clear
that the Temple of Solomon, to which we referred earlier, is not the
structure which Solomon himself built, which the Lord had predicted
would not continue to stand, "one stone upon another," and which was
destroyed, but an imitation of it, built by I don't know whom, as
tribute to the noble ancient House. It certainly was a place of very
great beauty, built out of gold and silver, of immeasurable price,
and of incredible variety, with walls and gates plated with layers of
precious metals. Count Raymond then had the prefect who had been in
charge of the citadel, to whom he had sent his banners, brought out
of the citadel that night, together with his entire retinue, and
given safe conduct to Ascalon.
Then, when the holy places had been liberated, the entire Christian
army was ordered to give alms and offerings, so that their souls
might be properly receptive to the divine grace that they needed to
choose the man who would rule the holy city as its king. On the
eighth day after the taking of the city, they made an offer to the
count of Saint-Gilles, because of his excellence, but he, although
mindful of his high position, refused to take on such an onerous task,
for good reason (he was an old man, who had only one eye, but was
famous for his remarkable feats of arms and for his energy). Finally,
they approached duke Godfrey, and, at the urgent insistence of
everyone, the labor rather than the honor of this task was imposed
upon him, for he would have to battle unremittingly against the great
strength of the Gentiles, and to show good will towards the
neighboring Christians. Slender, relatively tall, eloquent, and
even-tempered, he had made himself known for his strength in battle
on the Lord's expedition. According to reliable, accurate testimony,
the following story is told about a remarkable deed he did, when he
met at Antioch, on the bridge over the Pharphar, a Turk, wearing no
cuirass, but riding a horse. Godfrey struck his guts so forcefully
with his sword that the trunk of his body fell to the earth, while
the legs remained seated as the horse moved on. The men of
Lotharingia customarily had remarkable long as well as sharp swords.
We think that another of his deeds, no less glorious, and worthy to
be told, should be included. They had taken Nicea, and since things
had gone well at Nicea, they hurried off to besiege Antioch; on the
way, from time to time, when the chance to relax their usual caution
occurred, they hunted beasts in the nearby forests (the fields in
this region were not as tall and thick as in our country). On one
occasion, a bear of enormous size came out of the bushes; when the
army caught sight of him, they set out in pursuit. Frightened by the
shouting crowd, the bear immediately sought out the woods from which
it had emerged. While many men were surrounding it, one wretch
happened to reach the beast's lair. Leaping forward, the bear
attacked the rash man, pinned him in his arms, and with his teeth
swiftly seized the leg of the man lying there.[214]
Then the Duke, separated from his men, went to help him; when the
wretched man, weeping with pain and fear, saw him, he called upon the
man's noble nature, and urged him to help him. Nor did the Duke,
whose nature consisted almost entirely of virtue, delay helping him,
but he swiftly drew his sword from its scabbard and forcefully struck
the head of the beast. More annoyed than wounded, because of the
hardness of its bones, the beast attacked the Duke, removing its
teeth from the leg of the unfortunate man whom he had first attacked
so fiercely. The man quickly departed, without troubling himself
about the Duke's difficulty, but saving himself, leaving the man and
the beast to resolve their conflict between them. The beast, angry
at the blow he had received, leapt up, seized the Duke with his claws,
threw him down, and pinned him under his terrible limbs. With his
raging mouth he bit the Duke's leg,[215] but the noble-minded man
remained steadfast in spite of his fall, and tightly held onto the
sword he had drawn.[216]
As he lay there, and the beast continued to gnaw at the hip he had
seized, the Duke, fully aware of his predicament, placed his sword
between the head and arm of the beast, gathered all of his strength,
and drove the point of the blade into the depths of the beast's body.
When he felt the metal gliding through his viscera, the beast
finally relaxed the jaws that had sunk into the Duke's flesh. When
the Duke saw that he had been released from the beast's mouth, and
noticed that the beast was not moving from its place, he pushed with
both feet, but in the act of pushing he received an almost mortal
wound in his leg from the sword that was stuck in the breast of the
beast above him. He fell down in worse shape than when he had been
held by the beast, and now, weakened from loss of blood, after some
time he was found by his men. The Duke was now sorry, although too
late, for having gone out by himself, since this adventure was costly
for his own warriors, and for the entire sacred army. Until the
siege of Antioch was over, he had to be carried on a litter, and
since he could not look after himself or others, he quickly lost
almost 15,000 men of those who had belonged to him, but who abandoned
him when he became disabled.
Since we have dealt with the bear, we would also like to mention a
deed performed by his brother Baldwin, who is now still the ruler of
Jerusalem, since no other more fitting place for the story may occur.
He suffered a similarly severe wound in battle, in the course of
saving one of his foot-soldiers, who had supported him bravely.
Foresight led the doctor whom he summoned to resist covering the
wound with medicinal poultices, because he knew that the wound was
very deep, and while the skin could be made smooth, the wound would
fester deep within his body. He proposed to conduct a remarkable
experiment. He asked the king to order one of the Saracens whom they
held prisoner to be wounded in the same place and in the same manner
that Baldwin himself had been (for it was forbidden for him to ask
for Christian), and to have him killed thereafter, so that he might
look more freely into the corpse, and determine from this inspection
something about the king's own internal wounds. The prince's piety
recoiled in horror at this suggestion, and he recalled the example of
ancient Constantine, declaring that he would not be the cause of the
death of any man, no matter how insignificant, for such insignificant
salvation, when it is ever doubtful. The doctor then said to him,
"If you have decided that no man's life can be spent for your own
well-being, then at least give the order to bring forward a bear, an
animal useless except for show, and have it hung up by its front paws,
then struck with an iron blade, so that I may then examine his
entrails, and I shall be able to measure how far it went in, and
thereby determine the depth of your own wound." The king answered
him, "The beast will be brought immediately, since it is necessary:
consider it a done deed." When the doctor had finished his
experiment at the animal's expense, he found, as we mentioned above,
that harm would come to the king if the wound were quickly covered,
unless the pus was removed and the interior part of the wound would
heal. To have said these things about the piety of the kings is
sufficient; they would have been deservedly famous had the choice of
a bishop, and the bishopric itself, not been defective.
Up to this point the careful Muse has proceeded through brambles,
along a narrow path. A cloud obscures the traveller's path, and the
dawning of the late star scarcely grows warm. Let the plague of
blood have run only thus far; let there be no further time for
slaughter and hunger. If Fortune has sometimes smiled on our efforts,
the rapacious air of destruction has soon followed. When the walls
of Nicea fell, and the city of Antioch was captured, what good was
produced? The good that resulted from the sufferings, for each holy
martyr, when death was conquered. For if grievous things had to be
suffered, bearing poverty and death at the same time, the grief
brought about future joys. I shall use the voice of the writer of
the Psalms, "I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the
house of the Lord;"[217] our feet shall tread the halls of Solyme,
walking there joyfully. Franks, take these rewards of labor; do not
grieve for the unhappiness you have endured. Take pleasure in the
sight of the Sepulchre you had long hoped for, and in the restoration
of the tear-stained Cross, and all suffering will leave your hearts.
This city, often made the spoil of kings, was given over to utter
ruin. O city made blessed by this capture, from now on you should
rule, drawing to you Christian kingdoms. You will see the glories of
the earth come here, to show filial gratitude to you. Not Ezra nor
Judas Machabee did as much, after your sufferings; Hadrian, whence
Elia gets its name, was not able, in reviving you, to give so much.
This world fights for you and yours; concern for you involves almost
the entire age. Once Judea, when it was at its strongest, could
match this glory. Why are knights sung of in battle? I ask that you
be the ruin of Persia and not of yourself. Attack the prince of
Babylon, and whatever stands in the way of Jerusalem, so that good
men may visit the Cross of Jesus, bowing their pious heads at the
Tomb. I shall cry out that our times have learned what no future
annals will teach.[218]
While temporal activities, which are thought to be the concern of the
royal administration, were being taken care of, internal
ecclesiastical concerns were not to be neglected, and as soon as a
king was set up, they dealt with replacing the patriarch. At that
time there was a cleric, of what rank I am not sure, named Arnulf.
He had some skill at logic, significant knowledge of grammatical
learning, and for some time had taught, in the subject mentioned
above, the daughter of the king of England, a nun. The count of the
Normans, through his sister, had promised him as much as a bishop's
honors, if any of his bishops happened to die. Meanwhile, when the
journey to Jerusalem was proposed, the bishop of Bayeux, whose name
was Odo, and who was very wealthy, vowed to undertake the journey.
Since he was the brother of William the elder, king of England, and,
in addition to the office of bishop, among the English he held the
county of Kent, with the expectation of great wealth, he seemed ready
to dare new enterprises, to the extent of plotting to take over the
kingdom from his brother. When the king found out about his
intentions, he put him in prison, where he remained until the day the
king died. At this time the bishop regained his freedom and office,
and, as I said earlier, when the pilgrimage was proclaimed, Odo,
accompanied by a large retinue and immense resources, set out on the
journey. Arnulf enrolled himself in his retinue, and when death
overtook this bishop, within the borders of Romania if I am not
mistaken, Odo bequeathed, out of the fortune which he left behind, a
legacy to him, which consisted of almost all of his most precious
possessions. Since he possessed a considerable amount of literary
knowledge, as well as native eloquence, and his increased wealth made
him more well known, he began to drive our men on with many speeches,
and to increase his fame in this way. The fact that learned men were
in short supply made him even more illustrious, and since a man's
voice is of more concern than the life he has led, he was called to
the patriarchy of Jerusalem. For some time, then, he presented
himself as the bishop, though in name only; he fulfilled his new
office by sermonizing. Finally, after a short time, when news of his
election reached the Apostlic See, after the death of the bishop of
Puy, Pope Paschal decreed that Daimbert, the archbishop of Pisa,
should administer pastoral care to the Lord's army. After Jerusalem
had been captured and the king had taken office, Daimbert arrived
with a large fleet; short while later he examined the process by
which Arnulf had been chosen, and decided that, in accordance with
canon law, it should be challenged. After a thorough investigation
of the man's origin, he was found to be the son of a priest and
therefore one who should not only be barred from sacred office, but,
according to a decision by the council of Toledo, he should be
ordered to become an eternal slave of that church whose dignity had
been affronted by his engendering. When he had been deposed, then,
in spite of his strenuous efforts to defend himself, the leaders
wanted to mitigate the shame that he felt at being rejected, and so
they asked him whom they should choose. In accordance with his
depraved nature, which envied both his peers and juniors, he said,
"Choose the Pisan himself, who is carrying out his assignment." The
leaders agreed with his words, seized the archbishop in the church
where he was sitting, almost without asking his consent, and escorted
him themselves to the cathedral to take up the see. A short time
later, after the death of the glorious king Godfrey, during the reign
of his brother Baldwin, who had previously ruled over Edessa, they
accused Daimbert of treason. Convicted of the crime, he who had
resigned his metropolitan see was deprived of the office of patriarch.
When another election was held to determine who would be bishop,
Arnulf shrewdly nominated one of his peers, whom he knew to be
submissive, a simple, illiterate man, named Ebremar, who would offer
no resistance to Arnold's power. He, however, behaved in a religious
fashion, and I think that he did not carry out Arnulf's wishes in
every way. As result, he soon was accused at the Apostolic See, but
the accusation failed miserably. As a result, Arnulf, together with
those who had been his accomplices in the accusation against Ebremar,
incurred the wrath of the king, who deprived him of the guardianship
of the Sepulchre, and drove him from the city. Reinstated by the
leaders of the Apostolic See, the bishop returned to Jerusalem, to
the great shame of his persecutors. This is quite enough to have
said about the election and deposition of that would-be patriarch.
The election, which was null and void in the minds of all
right-thinking men, took place on the day of the festival of
Saint-Peter-in-chains, but since he had no help from a pious life, it
dissolved. The city was captured by the Franks on the fifteenth day
of July, on the sixth day of the week, almost at the hour when Christ
was put on the cross.
A short time later, only a few days in fact, ambassadors[219] arrived
from the city of Naplouse,[220] which, unless I am mistaken, in
ancient times was called Emmaus. They invited Tancred and count
Eustachius, the brother of the duke who was now king, both of whom
were brave, noteworthy men, to set out for the above mentioned city,
bringing with them a large army, to take control of it. They set out,
bringing many men with them, including great number of foot-soldiers,
and reached the outskirts of the city. The residents of the town,
of their own free will, then opened the fortifications and
surrendered to them. Other messengers came to king Godfrey, bearing
the news that the emperor of Babylon was getting large numbers of
troops ready to wage war against him. The king, made fiercer by what
he had just been told, dispatched messengers to his brother Eustace
and to Tancred, instructing and urging them to return to Jerusalem as
soon as possible. The king also indicated that the battle would take
place at Ascalon. When these most fearless men heard what had
happened, they hastily set off through the mountains, where they
found none of the Saracens they thought would be up in arms against
them; then they reached Caesarea in Palestine. From there they
retraced their steps, proceeding to Ram, the town mentioned above,
made famous by the memory of Saint George, and situated on the shore
of the sea, where they met up with many Arabs, who were the vanguard
of the army they were to face. Our men joined forces against them,
attacked them, and by their united efforts overwhelmed the enemy, who
were compelled to flee. Many were captured alive, and they revealed
the enemies' plans for the battle about to take place: where the army
was going to assemble; what was its size; and where they planned to
stand and fight. After he had gathered this information, Tancred
sent messengers directly to Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, to tell him
what he had learned. He sent other messengers to Arnulf, the man
known as the patriarch, and to the other leaders, saying, "You should
know that a great battle awaits you, and since it is certainly about
to take place, come quickly to Ascalon, supported by as many fine
troops as you can quickly and carefully gather." The king, than whom
no one was wiser in his faith in God, by the authority invested in
him proceeded to rouse the entire army of God to perform this task,
and designated Ascalon as the place to which they should proceed to
face the enemy. He himself, together with the man called the
patriarch, and Robert, count of Flanders, left the city on the third
day of the week.
But the count of Saint-Gilles and the count of Normandy informed the
king that they were unwilling to proceed until they learned whether
the battle was certain to take place; they said that meanwhile they
would return to Jerusalem, offering to come quickly if needed. The
king departed, and when he saw the enemy from afar, quickly sent news
of what he had found back to those who were in Jerusalem. He
summoned a certain bishop,[221] and sent him to the city, to entreat
everyone to delay no longer, but, at this moment of need, to join him.
On Wednesday the leaders gathered together the Lord's expeditionary
forces and moved their camp outside the city. The bishop who had
brought the king's words to those who had remained in Jerusalem was
captured by Saracens, as he was making his way back to the king. It
is not clear whether he died or was led away captive. Peter the
Hermit, the official in charge of work that to this point was pious,
together with clerics, both Greek and Latin, remained in the city,
organizing processions, supervising prayers, preaching sermons,
urging the giving of alms, so that God might deign to add this
supreme victory to the victories of his people. The ecclesiastics
who could be present, dressed in their sacred vestments, as though
they were going to perform sacred offices, marched to the Lord's
Temple, where they led masses and delivered sermons that moved the
men and women deeply, asking God to end their exile. But the man
with the name of patriarch, together with the other bishops who were
present, gathered with several of the leaders at the river which is
known to be on this side of Ascalon. There, by the trickery of the
Gentiles, many thousands of animals, including herds of cows, camels,
and sheep, had been put in place. When the leaders learned that they
had been placed there as booty to tempt our men, the order was
circulated throughout the encampment that none of this booty was to
be found in anyone's tent, unless he could show that it was necessary
for his food that day.[222] Meanwhile, 300 Arabs rode into view, and
our men pursued them so effectively that they captured two of them as
they fled, and harassed the others by pursuing them to their
encampment.
Later on the same day, the man performing the function of patriarch
had the announcement made through the entire army that early the next
day everyone would prepare for battle, and he threatened to
excommunicate anyone who stopped during the battle to pillage; each
man was to suppress his desire for booty until the end of the battle.
He asked that they concentrate on killing the enemy, so that they
might not be diverted from the task by desire for shameful gain,
thereby permitting greed to stand in the way of the victory they had
in their grasp. Friday morning our army entered a very lovely valley,
on a level with the nearby river, where they set up their separate
battle lines. The Duke, who was now king, the count of Flanders, the
count of Normandy, the count of Saint-Gilles, Eustace of Bologne,
Tancred and Gaston together, in addition to others, both in single
and in shared commands, stood before their units. Bowmen and lancers,
who customarily march in front of the troops of foot-soldiers, were
drawn up, and king Godfrey with his troops took up the left side,
while the count of Saint-Gilles took up a position near the sea, and
the counts of Flanders and Normandy rode on the right side. Tancred
and others marched along in the center. Our foot soldiers moved
against the enemy's forces; the Gentiles prepared themselves for
battle without moving. You would have seen them carrying on their
shoulders vessels, which enabled them to hold the cool water in small
sacks,[223] from which they thought that they would drink while
pursuing us as we fled. But God provided something other than the
enemy race was imagining, for meanwhile, Robert, the count of
Normandy, saw shining from afar the spear of the leader of the army;
it seemed to be covered with bright silver, and its top decorated
with thick gold. Steadily spurring his swift horse on, he attacked
the prince, who was carrying spear as a standard, with great force,
wounding him with terrible blow. On the other side, the count of
Flanders loosened his horse's reins and plunged into the thick of the
enemy. Tancred rushed among the tents with a great company, and the
troops, along with their leaders, were revelling everywhere.[224]
The fields and plains became bloody with carnage. The enemy was
unable to bear their losses, and soon fled in despair. Even as the
number of pagans was great, so was the carnage great. If the waves
of the sea were great, so the Lord shows himself much more marvelous
in the deeps.[225] Then, so that it might be clear that the hand of
God only, and not that of man, was waging war, you would seen them
flee blindly, with their eyes open, and in their attempt to avoid our
weapons, they threw themselves on them. There was no place of refuge:
tall trees offered no protection for many of them, nor were they able
to escape our arrows. Swift blows created massive destruction.[226]
All those whom flight could not protect were dead or almost dead from
the blows of our arrows and swords, which cut them down like cattle.
The count of Saint-Gilles, near the shore, from which he had launched
his own army against the enemy, attacked them like a storm, with such
vehemence that many of them, trying to escape from the blades,
voluntarily plunged into the sea.
When the victory had been won, thanks to God's leadership, the prince
of the Babylonian army, who, in their language, is called an emir,
was confounded, and, unable to control his astonishment at what had
happened to him, lamented at great length. He thought about the
great amount of supplies that he had brought, and the superb, strong,
fine-looking young men, the noble arms, the power of his allies, and,
I should have said, all the knights; in addition, he saw that they
had what would make the most sluggish of men secure, that is, they
had fought in front of their own city's gates, to which they could
surely retreat, and, what made it even safer, in their own land. And
he looked upon the Franks, in every way inferior in military might,
whose young men had been weakened by long hunger, whose swords were
rusty, whose lances were darkened, whose few remaining troops were
worn out, all of whose leaders were exhausted by bitter suffering, as
they rode on horses racked with every kind of disease, and, to put it
briefly, he marveled that these poor wretches, a band of exiles, had
conquered the countless soldiers of his own nation, and that the
glory of the entire East had been brought down by the least of men.
Our victory was also aided by the fact that, when the cry for retreat
spread through the enemy's army, the emir in charge of Ascalon,
seeing the Babylonian prince turn to flee, ordered that all those who
fled should be prevented from entering his city. The enemy was very
much astonished that the Franks had chosen not to fight before the
walls of Jerusalem, but had marched for nearly two days to meet them.
While the Franks were thanking God, as was right, for such a victory,
Robert, the count of Normandy, a man of remarkable generosity, even
in his impoverished exile, bought for twenty silver marks, from the
man who had captured it, the spear, which, as we have said, was
covered with silver, and which had stood before the prince of Babylon
as his standard. He then gave it, to stand at the Tomb of the Lord,
as a symbol of such a victory, to Arnulf, who was called the
Patriarch. They say that the sword which had belonged to this prince
was bought by someone for sixty besants. In addition, a large fleet
had followed the army to Ascalon so that, after the Franks had been
defeated and made captives, they might buy them from the victors, and
carry them off to be sold throughout the furthest kingdoms of the
East. However, when they saw the Egyptians shamefully fleeing, they
set sail instantly, and made their way into the interior by sea.
Finally, after having slaughtered the Saracens, and the Egyptians as
well, the Franks returned to the abandoned tents and collected booty
beyond count. They brought out a horde of gold and silver, the
wealth of the Assyrian nobility, and whatever precious household
goods they had, as well as all kinds of animals, and a collection of
various arms. They kept whatever could be used, and burned the rest.
Then they returned to Jerusalem, with overwhelming joy, pouring out
unnumbered tears of gratitude in memory of the passion and burial of
the Lord. As a result of this fortunate turn of events, the Franks
were now so prosperous that those who had begun the journey in
poverty and without enough to sustain them on the pilgrimage, now
returned from it laden with gold, silver, horses, and mules. They
won this glorious battle on August 13.
Since we offered, at the beginning of this volume, examples from
Scripture which we thought were relevant to such an enterprise, we
may now be able to find something in the words of the prophet
Zechariah that fits the siege of Jerusalem. He says, "The Lord, who
stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, and
forms the spirit of man within him, speaks." He stretches the skies
who spread (the influence of) the church, as he propagated his seed
from the East, according to Isaiah,[227] by means of the apostles,
even as he had to gather the church through them from the West. He
lays the foundations, since he permits the pagans to persevere in
their heard-hearted falsehood. He places the spirit within man when
he grants innate reason in the mind of every true believer. "Behold
I shall make Jerusalem the lintel of intoxication unto all the people
roundabout."[228] The lintel rises about the door; house is entered
through the door; drinking is harmful to the stomach. If we call the
door faith in the Lord Jesus, through whom we come to the Father,
then the Church of Jerusalem, because both the Law and the Word of
the Lord came from it, we may correctly call the lintel, because it
gave rise to these things. For Paul, after fourteen years, returned
to it, to confer with Peter and the others about the Gospel, "lest he
had run, or should run, in vain."[229] But this is the lintel of
drunkenness unto all the people roundabout, since all nations were
disgusted and nauseated by those things in which the traces of our
faith resided. "But Judah will be in the siege against Jerusalem.
"[230] He says not only that it will be a terror to foreigners, but
that Judah, that is, the faithful people, will besiege Jerusalem,
acknowledging that it will be trodden by the nations. "In that day I
shall place Jerusalem as a heavy rock upon all people."[231] If I
may take the part for the whole, in accordance with the frequent
practice of Scripture, Jerusalem becomes a heavy weight for all the
people because it recently imposed upon all people who are called
Christian the weight of a very great labor for her liberation. "All
that lift up Jerusalem will be cut in pieces, and all the kingdoms of
the earth will be gathered together against it"[232] Who are those
who will lift it up, if not those who, after the times of nations
have ended, lift it up from its own destruction? The Lord says,
"Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of
the Gentiles be fulfilled."[233] They will be torn apart because no
one can say or even imagine how great the labor, the suffering, the
misery of hunger and thirst would be that they endured in the siege.
And, to speak like Ezekiel, "every head was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled;"[234] that is, perhaps, either by the steady
attack of siege-machines, or by carrying heavy weights. But after
Jerusalem has been raised, "all the kingdoms of the earth will gather
against her," which should not be taken allegorically, but, as the
story that has just been told, was offered as something visible to
heavenly eyes. For what kingdom of the East did not send its men to
war, bringing every kind of siege-engine, which I did not mention
earlier, and everything necessary to besiege a city? They brought,
in addition to soldiers, merchants to buy the Franks, since they
expected that the pagans would win because of the great size of their
forces, and perhaps they had heard that the number was greater than
Kherboga actually had. "On that day, God says, I will smite every
horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness."[235] If the
horse is taken to mean earthly honor, the rider of the horse is
undoubtedly to be understood as he who is preeminent in honor. All
honor is astonished because every power or kingdom, stupified by
God's army, dares do nothing. Every prince went mad, because he did
not know what to do, nor where to turn; deprived of force, each
learned what the strength of God's army was. "And I will open my
eyes upon the house of Judah, and I will smite every horse of the
people with blindness."[236] If Judah is the confessor, I may
certainly call them confessors who have never chosen to abandon the
origin of their faith, that is, the Franks, upon whom the entire
weight of the journey fell. God opened his eyes upon them when he
showed the grace of his goodness to them by bringing about this
outcome. He struck the horses of the people with blindness when he
punished the arrogance of the Gentiles by showing them his
displeasure. In Sacred Scripture the horse often stands for pride.
For what greater blindness is there than to make war on the sons of
God? What is more blameful than to fail to acknowledge God, to glory
in one's own ignorance, and to war against the faithful? But why
exercise the license of allegory, piecing words together, when
historical truth prevents us from going astray in belief? Didn't we
say earlier that the enemy was struck with blindness, and overcome
with astonishment at the swords which threatened them? And I marvel
that the horse was able to see well enough to move when its rider had
clearly gone mad. "And the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart:
The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my confident in the Lord of
hosts, their God."[237] Whom should I call the leaders of Judah,
unless they be the leaders of that faithful army, who prayed that the
inhabitants of Jerusalem be confident, when they ardently desired to
restore the holy city by means of the strength of the Christian army,
so that Christianity might grow, the Lord's memory be honored, and
the Gentiles everywhere be attacked? But their strength is said to
be in the Lord of armies, which can be seen today, when a small force
of men assembles against all of the pagan kingdoms. Everything they
did was foreseen by Him who rules the heavenly powers. At this point
one should add, "Their God," since their thoughts were not directed
to any but their own God, that is, the Christian God. "In that day
will I make the governors of Judah like a fiery furnace among the
wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all
the people round about, on the right hand and on the left."[238] On
this day, I say, of faith or of divine prosperity, the leaders who
govern the Christian people, either externally in arms, or internally
by means of spiritual doctrine, will become the furnace. That is,
burning internally with heavenly love, they consume the wood of
sinners among the Gentiles, while externally, they consume the
evil-doers in battle as though they were straw. We have no doubt
that God did not undertake this merely to liberate one city, but to
scatter the seeds that will grow long and far against the madness of
the Antichrist. They devour all the people round about, on the left
and on the right, for they bring all those on the right into the
piety of Christianity, while they destroy the wicked, those who are
recognized as belonging to the left, and who are worthy of vengeful
destruction. "And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own
place, in Jerusalem."[239] If Jerusalem is the Church, its place is
the faith of Christ, therefore Jerusalem inhabits Jerusalem, since
the terrestial city is restored so that she may long for a vision of
heavenly peace, since she she has a place, since she clings
steadfastly to Christ. "The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah,
as in the beginning, that the glory of the house of David and the
glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves
against Judah."[240] The Lord saves the tents of Judah in the
beginning, since He, after having accomplished miracles for our
fathers, also granted glory to our own times, so that modern men seem
to have undergone pain and suffering greater than that of the Jews of
old, who, in the company of their wives and sons, and with full
bellies, were led by angels who made themselves visible to them. I
say that today's men are the ones whom he more truly saves, because
he truly receives as his children those whose bodies he has allowed
to be slain, and whom he punishes in the temporal world. He says,
"That the glory of the house of David may not glorify itself," that
is, that the ancients, who excelled in their victories in war, may
refrain from excessive pride, when they think of how modern men have
done better than they. "The glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
may magnify itself against Judah," opposes to modern accomplishments
the pride of those who once reigned in Jerusalem and did famous
things. By David, who was the most powerful, he expresses whatever
generates the greatest pride, as though he were saying that although
David had been the most celebrated in warfare, and some of the kings
who succeeded him sought glory, they could in no way equal what our
own men have done. The word "to dwell" *(habitare)* however, we
say means "to dominate," since it is the frequentive of the word "to
have" *(habeo, habes)*. David raising himself up in glory
against Judah, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are
mentioned because they are the material in which those who wish to
make little of our deeds take pride. "In that day shall the Lord
defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem."[241] And did he not today also
protect that meager band whom he guarded in the midst of countless
pagans? They make bold, armed attacks on the neighboring nations
every day, who have all they can do to protect themselves against
their attacks, without presuming to go on the attack themselves.
"And he who has offended among them in that day shall be as David,
and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord
before them."[242] Certainly David, whose punishment is not
described in the present passage, is not to be considered seriously
at fault. Therefore whoever of us shall offend is like David, for
God does not permit his lechery or his pride to go unpunished, as the
deeds related above indicate. And soon, in the course of their
sinning, he inflicted upon them the punishment that they very much
deserved, either hunger, or some other kind of torment. Therefore
the house of David become like the house of God, because it was
returned to spiritual grace by means of divine censure. Those like
David, upon whom God imposes his paternal correction, may still be
embraced by his spirit. In the sight of God he becomes like an angel,
for when through imminent punishment man sees himself banished by
God's authority from his own affections, he then burns more ardently
to love God. When he understands that he is being punished like a
child, he loves like an angel. The sight of God is the pious emotion
of the inner man. "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will
seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." We
generally seek for things that are not visible to us. Why would God
seek unless to propose the things that should be done according to
eternal providence? Therfore God seeks "to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem,"[243] and, "in that day," because in his
fine judgment he foresees and ordains that those who resist the faith
are struck with eternal damnation, or are destroyed or diminished
according to the extent of their own weakness. Therefore he says,
"thou shalt break them like potter's vessel,"[244] whom you shall
rule "with a rod of iron."[245] But God does this by internal
illumination, which is certainly what is meant by "day," but this is
something which cannot be expressed in rational terms. "And I will
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications."[246] I have said that the
inhabitants of Jerusalem were the house of David, whom omnipotent God,
although he has granted and still grants them many victories,
subdued and continues to subdue with frequent misfortunes. While he
does not permit them to despair at their continual misfortunes, nor
does he allow them to grow prideful at their frequent good fortune,
the sacred distributor necessarily pours the spirit of grace and
prayers upon them, so that, while no prosperity, even the most
satisfying, seems to smile upon them without soon being followed by
adversity, the soul always filled with anxiety is compelled to place
its hope in Him who aids them in every circumstance. Now, laying
aside all mystery, we may think how this material Jerusalem was so
often in doubt and fear, since she was, according to Ezekiel,[247]
"set in the midst of the nations, with nations around her," a tiny
city surrounded by countless nations. And while they steadily fear
the attacks of barbarian nations, since they are not utterly stupid,
they are never without the grace of the fear and love of God, these
people who never lack matter for pious affection and prayers. Of
course, with the arrows of adversity the Omnipotent is accustomed to
compel his people to remember him; by stimulating the flesh he
customarily inflames their minds, and while they fear destruction
they are always ready to invoke the aid of God with their vows and
prayers.