14 (return) [ See the Acts of the counci_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

tom. xii. p. 829, &c.]

15 (return) [ Confluxerunt ad concilium e multis regionibus, viri

potentes et honorati, innumeri quamvis cingulo laicalis militiae

superbi, (Baldric, an eye-witness, p. 86-88. Robert. Monach. p.

31, 32. Will. Tyr. i. 14, 15, p. 639-641. Guibert, p. 478-480.

Fulcher. Carnot. p. 382.)]

16 (return) [ The Truce of God (Treva, or Treuga Dei) was first

invented in Aquitain, A.D. 1032; blamed by some bishops as an

occasion of perjury, and rejected by the Normans as contrary to

their privileges (Ducange, Gloss Latin. tom. vi. p. 682-685.)]

17 (return) [ Deus vult, Deus vult! was the pure acclamation of

the clergy who understood Latin, (Robert. Mon. l. i. p. 32.) By

the illiterate laity, who spoke the Provincial or Limousin idiom,

it was corrupted to Deus lo volt, or Diex el volt. See Chron.

Casinense, l. iv. c. 11, p. 497, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital.

tom. iv., and Ducange, (Dissertat xi. p. 207, sur Joinville, and

Gloss. Latin. tom. ii. p. 690,) who, in his preface, produces a

very difficult specimen of the dialect of Rovergue, A.D. 1100,

very near, both in time and place, to the council of Clermont,

(p. 15, 16.)]

18 (return) [ Most commonly on their shoulders, in gold, or silk,

or cloth sewed on their garments. In the first crusade, all were

red, in the third, the French alone preserved that color, while

green crosses were adopted by the Flemings, and white by the

English, (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651.) Yet in England, the red ever

appears the favorite, and as if were, the national, color of our

military ensigns and uniforms.]

19 (return) [ Bongarsius, who has published the original writers

of the crusades, adopts, with much complacency, the fanatic title

of Guibertus, Gesta Dei per Francos; though some critics propose

to read Gesta Diaboli per Francos, (Hanoviae, 1611, two vols. in

folio.) I shall briefly enumerate, as they stand in this

collection, the authors whom I have used for the first crusade.

I. Gesta Francorum.

II. Robertus Monachus.

III. Baldricus.

IV. Raimundus de Agiles.

V. Albertus Aquensis VI. Fulcherius Carnotensis.

VII. Guibertus.

VIII. Willielmus Tyriensis. Muratori has given us,

IX. Radulphus Cadomensis de Gestis Tancredi,

(Script. Rer. Ital. tom. v. p. 285-333,)

X. Bernardus Thesaurarius de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae,

(tom. vii. p. 664-848.)

The last of these was unknown to a late French historian, who has

given a large and critical list of the writers of the crusades,

(Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13-141,) and most of whose

judgments my own experience will allow me to ratify. It was late

before I could obtain a sight of the French historians collected

by Duchesne. I. Petri Tudebodi Sacerdotis Sivracensis Historia de

Hierosolymitano Itinere, (tom. iv. p. 773-815,) has been

transfused into the first anonymous writer of Bongarsius. II. The

Metrical History of the first Crusade, in vii. books, (p.

890-912,) is of small value or account. * Note: Several new

documents, particularly from the East, have been collected by the

industry of the modern historians of the crusades, M. Michaud and

Wilken.—M.]

So familiar, and as it were so natural to man, is the practice of

violence, that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation,

the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national

hostility. But the name and nature of a holy war demands a more

rigorous scrutiny; nor can we hastily believe, that the servants

of the Prince of Peace would unsheathe the sword of destruction,

unless the motive were pure, the quarrel legitimate, and the

necessity inevitable. The policy of an action may be determined

from the tardy lessons of experience; but, before we act, our

conscience should be satisfied of the justice and propriety of

our enterprise. In the age of the crusades, the Christians, both

of the East and West, were persuaded of their lawfulness and

merit; their arguments are clouded by the perpetual abuse of

Scripture and rhetoric; but they seem to insist on the right of

natural and religious defence, their peculiar title to the Holy

Land, and the impiety of their Pagan and Mahometan foes. 20

I. The right of a just defence may fairly include our civil and

spiritual allies: it depends on the existence of danger; and that

danger must be estimated by the twofold consideration of the

malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet has

been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of extirpating all other

religions by the sword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is

refuted by the Koran, by the history of the Mussulman conquerors,

and by their public and legal toleration of the Christian

worship. But it cannot be denied, that the Oriental churches are

depressed under their iron yoke; that, in peace and war, they

assert a divine and indefeasible claim of universal empire; and

that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are

continually threatened with the loss of religion or liberty. In

the eleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks presented

a real and urgent apprehension of these losses. They had subdued,

in less than thirty years, the kingdoms of Asia, as far as

Jerusalem and the Hellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on

the verge of destruction. Besides an honest sympathy for their

brethren, the Latins had a right and interest in the support of

Constantinople, the most important barrier of the West; and the

privilege of defence must reach to prevent, as well as to repel,

an impending assault. But this salutary purpose might have been

accomplished by a moderate succor; and our calmer reason must

disclaim the innumerable hosts, and remote operations, which

overwhelmed Asia and depopulated Europe. 2011

20 (return) [ If the reader will turn to the first scene of the

First Part of Henry the Fourth, he will see in the text of

Shakespeare the natural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes

of Dr. Johnson the workings of a bigoted, though vigorous mind,

greedy of every pretence to hate and persecute those who dissent

from his creed.]

2011 (return) [ The manner in which the war was conducted surely

has little relation to the abstract question of the justice or

injustice of the war. The most just and necessary war may be

conducted with the most prodigal waste of human life, and the

wildest fanaticism; the most unjust with the coolest moderation

and consummate generalship. The question is, whether the

liberties and religion of Europe were in danger from the

aggressions of Mahometanism? If so, it is difficult to limit the

right, though it may be proper to question the wisdom, of

overwhelming the enemy with the armed population of a whole

continent, and repelling, if possible, the invading conqueror

into his native deserts. The crusades are monuments of human

folly! but to which of the more regular wars civilized. Europe,

waged for personal ambition or national jealousy, will our calmer

reason appeal as monuments either of human justice or human

wisdom?—M.]

II. Palestine could add nothing to the strength or safety of the

Latins; and fanaticism alone could pretend to justify the

conquest of that distant and narrow province. The Christians

affirmed that their inalienable title to the promised land had

been sealed by the blood of their divine Savior; it was their

right and duty to rescue their inheritance from the unjust

possessors, who profaned his sepulchre, and oppressed the

pilgrimage of his disciples. Vainly would it be alleged that the

preeminence of Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Palestine, have

been abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the

Christians is not a local deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem

or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the

violation of the moral precepts of the gospel. Such arguments

glance aside from the leaden shield of superstition; and the

religious mind will not easily relinquish its hold on the sacred

ground of mystery and miracle.

III. But the holy wars which have been waged in every climate of

the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to Hindostan,

require the support of some more general and flexible tenet. It

has been often supposed, and sometimes affirmed, that a

difference of religion is a worthy cause of hostility; that

obstinate unbelievers may be slain or subdued by the champions of

the cross; and that grace is the sole fountain of dominion as

well as of mercy. 2012 Above four hundred years before the first

crusade, the eastern and western provinces of the Roman empire

had been acquired about the same time, and in the same manner, by

the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had

legitimated the conquest of the Christian Franks; but in the eyes

of their subjects and neighbors, the Mahometan princes were still

tyrants and usurpers, who, by the arms of war or rebellion, might

be lawfully driven from their unlawful possession. 21

2012 (return) [ “God,” says the abbot Guibert, “invented the

crusades as a new way for the laity to atone for their sins and

to merit salvation.” This extraordinary and characteristic

passage must be given entire. “Deus nostro tempore praelia sancta

instituit, ut ordo equestris et vulgus oberrans qui vetustae

Paganitatis exemplo in mutuas versabatur caedes, novum reperirent

salutis promerendae genus, ut nec funditus electa, ut fieri

assolet, monastica conversatione, seu religiosa qualibet

professione saeculum relinquere congerentur; sed sub consueta

licentia et habitu ex suo ipsorum officio Dei aliquantenus

gratiam consequerentur.” Guib. Abbas, p. 371. See Wilken, vol. i.

p. 63.—M.]

21 (return) [ The vith Discourse of Fleury on Ecclesiastical

History (p. 223-261) contains an accurate and rational view of

the causes and effects of the crusades.]

As the manners of the Christians were relaxed, their discipline

of penance 22 was enforced; and with the multiplication of sins,

the remedies were multiplied. In the primitive church, a

voluntary and open confession prepared the work of atonement. In

the middle ages, the bishops and priests interrogated the

criminal; compelled him to account for his thoughts, words, and

actions; and prescribed the terms of his reconciliation with God.

But as this discretionary power might alternately be abused by

indulgence and tyranny, a rule of discipline was framed, to

inform and regulate the spiritual judges. This mode of

legislation was invented by the Greeks; their penitentials 23

were translated, or imitated, in the Latin church; and, in the

time of Charlemagne, the clergy of every diocese were provided

with a code, which they prudently concealed from the knowledge of

the vulgar. In this dangerous estimate of crimes and punishments,

each case was supposed, each difference was remarked, by the

experience or penetration of the monks; some sins are enumerated

which innocence could not have suspected, and others which reason

cannot believe; and the more ordinary offences of fornication and

adultery, of perjury and sacrilege, of rapine and murder, were

expiated by a penance, which, according to the various

circumstances, was prolonged from forty days to seven years.

During this term of mortification, the patient was healed, the

criminal was absolved, by a salutary regimen of fasts and

prayers: the disorder of his dress was expressive of grief and

remorse; and he humbly abstained from all the business and

pleasure of social life. But the rigid execution of these laws

would have depopulated the palace, the camp, and the city; the

Barbarians of the West believed and trembled; but nature often

rebelled against principle; and the magistrate labored without

effect to enforce the jurisdiction of the priest. A literal

accomplishment of penance was indeed impracticable: the guilt of

adultery was multiplied by daily repetition; that of homicide

might involve the massacre of a whole people; each act was

separately numbered; and, in those times of anarchy and vice, a

modest sinner might easily incur a debt of three hundred years.

His insolvency was relieved by a commutation, or indulgence: a

year of penance was appreciated at twenty-six solidi 24 of

silver, about four pounds sterling, for the rich; at three

solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent: and these alms were

soon appropriated to the use of the church, which derived, from

the redemption of sins, an inexhaustible source of opulence and

dominion. A debt of three hundred years, or twelve hundred

pounds, was enough to impoverish a plentiful fortune; the

scarcity of gold and silver was supplied by the alienation of

land; and the princely donations of Pepin and Charlemagne are

expressly given for the remedy of their soul. It is a maxim of

the civil law, that whosoever cannot pay with his purse, must pay

with his body; and the practice of flagellation was adopted by

the monks, a cheap, though painful equivalent. By a fantastic

arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three thousand lashes;

25 and such was the skill and patience of a famous hermit, St.

Dominic of the iron Cuirass, 26 that in six days he could

discharge an entire century, by a whipping of three hundred

thousand stripes. His example was followed by many penitents of

both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice was accepted, a sturdy

disciplinarian might expiate on his own back the sins of his

benefactors. 27 These compensations of the purse and the person

introduced, in the eleventh century, a more honorable mode of

satisfaction. The merit of military service against the Saracens

of Africa and Spain had been allowed by the predecessors of Urban

the Second. In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed a

plenary indulgence to those who should enlist under the banner of

the cross; the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt

for all that might be due of canonical penance. 28 The cold

philosophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impression

that was made on a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of

their pastor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by

thousands to redeem their souls, by repeating on the infidels the

same deeds which they had exercised against their Christian

brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by

offenders of every rank and denomination. None were pure; none

were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who were

the least amenable to the justice of God and the church were the

best entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their

pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did

not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; 29

and should they survive, they could expect without impatience the

delay and increase of their heavenly reward. They offered their

blood to the Son of God, who had laid down his life for their

salvation: they took up the cross, and entered with confidence

into the way of the Lord. His providence would watch over their

safety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power would smooth the

difficulties of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillar of

Jehovah had marched before the Israelites into the promised land.

Might not the Christians more reasonably hope that the rivers

would open for their passage; that the walls of their strongest

cities would fall at the sound of their trumpets; and that the

sun would be arrested in his mid career, to allow them time for

the destruction of the infidels?

22 (return) [ The penance, indulgences, &c., of the middle ages

are amply discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi,

tom. v. dissert. lxviii. p. 709-768,) and by M. Chais, (Lettres

sur les Jubiles et les Indulgences, tom. ii. lettres 21 & 22, p.

478-556,) with this difference, that the abuses of superstition

are mildly, perhaps faintly, exposed by the learned Italian, and

peevishly magnified by the Dutch minister.]

23 (return) [ Schmidt (Histoire des Allemands, tom. ii. p.

211-220, 452-462) gives an abstract of the Penitential of Rhegino

in the ninth, and of Burchard in the tenth, century. In one year,

five-and-thirty murders were perpetrated at Worms.]

24 (return) [ Till the xiith century, we may support the clear

account of xii. denarii, or pence, to the solidus, or shilling;

and xx. solidi to the pound weight of silver, about the pound

sterling. Our money is diminished to a third, and the French to a

fiftieth, of this primitive standard.]

25 (return) [ Each century of lashes was sanctified with a

recital of a psalm, and the whole Psalter, with the accompaniment

of 15,000 stripes, was equivalent to five years.]

26 (return) [ The Life and Achievements of St. Dominic Loricatus

was composed by his friend and admirer, Peter Damianus. See

Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 96-104. Baronius, A.D. 1056,

No. 7, who observes, from Damianus, how fashionable, even among

ladies of quality, (sublimis generis,) this expiation (purgatorii

genus) was grown.]

27 (return) [ At a quarter, or even half a rial a lash, Sancho

Panza was a cheaper, and possibly not a more dishonest, workman.

I remember in Pere Labat (Voyages en Italie, tom. vii. p. 16-29)

a very lively picture of the dexterity of one of these artists.]

28 (return) [ Quicunque pro sola devotione, non pro honoris vel

pecuniae adoptione, ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem

profectus fuerit, iter illud pro omni poenitentia reputetur.

Canon. Concil. Claromont. ii. p. 829. Guibert styles it novum

salutis genus, (p. 471,) and is almost philosophical on the

subject. * Note: See note, page 546.—M.]

29 (return) [ Such at least was the belief of the crusaders, and

such is the uniform style of the historians, (Esprit des

Croisades, tom. iii. p. 477;) but the prayer for the repose of

their souls is inconsistent in orthodox theology with the merits

of martyrdom.]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part II.

Of the chiefs and soldiers who marched to the holy sepulchre, I

will dare to affirm, that all were prompted by the spirit of

enthusiasm; the belief of merit, the hope of reward, and the

assurance of divine aid. But I am equally persuaded, that in many

it was not the sole, that in some it was not the leading,

principle of action. The use and abuse of religion are feeble to

stem, they are strong and irresistible to impel, the stream of

national manners. Against the private wars of the Barbarians,

their bloody tournaments, licentious love, and judicial duels,

the popes and synods might ineffectually thunder. It is a more

easy task to provoke the metaphysical disputes of the Greeks, to

drive into the cloister the victims of anarchy or despotism, to

sanctify the patience of slaves and cowards, or to assume the

merit of the humanity and benevolence of modern Christians. War

and exercise were the reigning passions of the Franks or Latins;

they were enjoined, as a penance, to gratify those passions, to

visit distant lands, and to draw their swords against the nation

of the East. Their victory, or even their attempt, would

immortalize the names of the intrepid heroes of the cross; and

the purest piety could not be insensible to the most splendid

prospect of military glory. In the petty quarrels of Europe, they

shed the blood of their friends and countrymen, for the

acquisition perhaps of a castle or a village. They could march

with alacrity against the distant and hostile nations who were

devoted to their arms; their fancy already grasped the golden

sceptres of Asia; and the conquest of Apulia and Sicily by the

Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the most private

adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, must have yielded

to the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and

their natural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the

tales of pilgrims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The

vulgar, both the great and small, were taught to believe every

wonder, of lands flowing with milk and honey, of mines and

treasures, of gold and diamonds, of palaces of marble and jasper,

and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this

earthly paradise, each warrior depended on his sword to carve a

plenteous and honorable establishment, which he measured only by

the extent of his wishes. 30 Their vassals and soldiers trusted

their fortunes to God and their master: the spoils of a Turkish

emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp; and the

flavor of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women, 31 were

temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession,

of the champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful

incitement to the multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or

ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and

burghers, who were attached to the servitude of the glebe, might

escape from a haughty lord, and transplant themselves and their

families to a land of liberty. The monk might release himself

from the discipline of his convent: the debtor might suspend the

accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of his creditors; and

outlaws and malefactors of every cast might continue to brave the

laws and elude the punishment of their crimes. 32

30 (return) [ The same hopes were displayed in the letters of the

adventurers ad animandos qui in Francia residerant. Hugh de

Reiteste could boast, that his share amounted to one abbey and

ten castles, of the yearly value of 1500 marks, and that he

should acquire a hundred castles by the conquest of Aleppo,

(Guibert, p. 554, 555.)]

31 (return) [ In his genuine or fictitious letter to the count of

Flanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the

relics of saints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum

foeminarum voluptas, (p. 476;) as if, says the indignant Guibert,

the Greek women were handsomer than those of France.]

32 (return) [ See the privileges of the Crucesignati, freedom

from debt, usury injury, secular justice, &c. The pope was their

perpetual guardian (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651, 652.)]

These motives were potent and numerous: when we have singly

computed their weight on the mind of each individual, we must add

the infinite series, the multiplying powers, of example and

fashion. The first proselytes became the warmest and most

effectual missionaries of the cross: among their friends and

countrymen they preached the duty, the merit, and the recompense,

of their holy vow; and the most reluctant hearers were insensibly

drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion and authority. The

martial youths were fired by the reproach or suspicion of

cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army the sepulchre

of Christ was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and

children, who consulted rather their zeal than their strength;

and those who in the evening had derided the folly of their

companions, were the most eager, the ensuing day, to tread in

their footsteps. The ignorance, which magnified the hopes,

diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the Turkish

conquest, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs

themselves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and

the state of their enemies; and such was the stupidity of the

people, that, at the sight of the first city or castle beyond the

limits of their knowledge, they were ready to ask whether that

was not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labors. Yet

the more prudent of the crusaders, who were not sure that they

should be fed from heaven with a shower of quails or manna,

provided themselves with those precious metals, which, in every

country, are the representatives of every commodity. To defray,

according to their rank, the expenses of the road, princes

alienated their provinces, nobles their lands and castles,

peasants their cattle and the instruments of husbandry. The value

of property was depreciated by the eager competition of

multitudes; while the price of arms and horses was raised to an

exorbitant height by the wants and impatience of the buyers. 33

Those who remained at home, with sense and money, were enriched

by the epidemical disease: the sovereigns acquired at a cheap

rate the domains of their vassals; and the ecclesiastical

purchasers completed the payment by the assurance of their

prayers. The cross, which was commonly sewed on the garment, in

cloth or silk, was inscribed by some zealots on their skin: a hot

iron, or indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark;

and a crafty monk, who showed the miraculous impression on his

breast was repaid with the popular veneration and the richest

benefices of Palestine. 34

33 (return) [ Guibert (p. 481) paints in lively colors this

general emotion. He was one of the few contemporaries who had

genius enough to feel the astonishing scenes that were passing

before their eyes. Erat itaque videre miraculum, caro omnes

emere, atque vili vendere, &c.]

34 (return) [ Some instances of these stigmata are given in the

Esprit des Croisades, (tom. iii. p. 169 &c.,) from authors whom I

have not seen]

The fifteenth of August had been fixed in the council of Clermont

for the departure of the pilgrims; but the day was anticipated by

the thoughtless and needy crowd of plebeians, and I shall briefly

despatch the calamities which they inflicted and suffered, before

I enter on the more serious and successful enterprise of the

chiefs. Early in the spring, from the confines of France and

Lorraine, above sixty thousand of the populace of both sexes

flocked round the first missionary of the crusade, and pressed

him with clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy

sepulchre. The hermit, assuming the character, without the

talents or authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the

forward impulse of his votaries along the banks of the Rhine and

Danube. Their wants and numbers soon compelled them to separate,

and his lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, a valiant though needy

soldier, conducted a van guard of pilgrims, whose condition may

be determined from the proportion of eight horsemen to fifteen

thousand foot. The example and footsteps of Peter were closely

pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godescal, whose sermons had

swept away fifteen or twenty thousand peasants from the villages

of Germany. Their rear was again pressed by a herd of two hundred

thousand, the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, who

mingled with their devotion a brutal license of rapine,

prostitution, and drunkenness. Some counts and gentlemen, at the

head of three thousand horse, attended the motions of the

multitude to partake in the spoil; but their genuine leaders (may

we credit such folly?) were a goose and a goat, who were carried

in the front, and to whom these worthy Christians ascribed an

infusion of the divine spirit. 35 Of these, and of other bands of

enthusiasts, the first and most easy warfare was against the

Jews, the murderers of the Son of God. In the trading cities of

the Moselle and the Rhine, their colonies were numerous and rich;

and they enjoyed, under the protection of the emperor and the

bishops, the free exercise of their religion. 36 At Verdun,

Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy

people were pillaged and massacred: 37 nor had they felt a more

bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian. A remnant was

saved by the firmness of their bishops, who accepted a feigned

and transient conversion; but the more obstinate Jews opposed

their fanaticism to the fanaticism of the Christians, barricadoed

their houses, and precipitating themselves, their families, and

their wealth, into the rivers or the flames, disappointed the

malice, or at least the avarice, of their implacable foes.

35 (return) [ Fuit et aliud scelus detestabile in hac

congregatione pedestris populi stulti et vesanae levitatis,

anserem quendam divino spiritu asserebant afflatum, et capellam

non minus eodem repletam, et has sibi duces secundae viae

fecerant, &c., (Albert. Aquensis, l. i. c. 31, p. 196.) Had these

peasants founded an empire, they might have introduced, as in

Egypt, the worship of animals, which their philosophic descend

ants would have glossed over with some specious and subtile

allegory. * Note: A singular “allegoric” explanation of this

strange fact has recently been broached: it is connected with the

charge of idolatry and Eastern heretical opinions subsequently

made against the Templars. “We have no doubt that they were

Manichee or Gnostic standards.” (The author says the animals

themselves were carried before the army.—M.) “The goose, in

Egyptian symbols, as every Egyptian scholar knows, meant ‘divine

Son,’ or ‘Son of God.’ The goat meant Typhon, or Devil. Thus we

have the Manichee opposing principles of good and evil, as

standards, at the head of the ignorant mob of crusading invaders.

Can any one doubt that a large portion of this host must have

been infected with the Manichee or Gnostic idolatry?” Account of

the Temple Church by R. W. Billings, p. 5 London. 1838. This is,

at all events, a curious coincidence, especially considered in

connection with the extensive dissemination of the Paulician

opinions among the common people of Europe. At any rate, in so

inexplicable a matter, we are inclined to catch at any

explanation, however wild or subtile.—M.]

36 (return) [ Benjamin of Tudela describes the state of his

Jewish brethren from Cologne along the Rhine: they were rich,

generous, learned, hospitable, and lived in the eager hope of the

Messiah, (Voyage, tom. i. p. 243-245, par Baratier.) In seventy

years (he wrote about A.D. 1170) they had recovered from these

massacres.]

37 (return) [ These massacres and depredations on the Jews, which

were renewed at each crusade, are coolly related. It is true,

that St. Bernard (epist. 363, tom. i. p. 329) admonishes the

Oriental Franks, non sunt persequendi Judaei, non sunt

trucidandi. The contrary doctrine had been preached by a rival

monk. * Note: This is an unjust sarcasm against St. Bernard. He

stood above all rivalry of this kind See note 31, c. l x.—M]

Between the frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzantine

monarchy, the crusaders were compelled to traverse as interval of

six hundred miles; the wild and desolate countries of Hungary 38

and Bulgaria. The soil is fruitful, and intersected with rivers;

but it was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread

to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his

dominion over the earth. Both nations had imbibed the rudiments

of Christianity; the Hungarians were ruled by their native

princes; the Bulgarians by a lieutenant of the Greek emperor;

but, on the slightest provocation, their ferocious nature was

rekindled, and ample provocation was afforded by the disorders of

the first pilgrims Agriculture must have been unskilful and

languid among a people, whose cities were built of reeds and

timber, which were deserted in the summer season for the tents of

hunters and shepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was rudely

demanded, forcibly seized, and greedily consumed; and on the

first quarrel, the crusaders gave a loose to indignation and

revenge. But their ignorance of the country, of war, and of

discipline, exposed them to every snare. The Greek praefect of

Bulgaria commanded a regular force; 381 at the trumpet of the

Hungarian king, the eighth or the tenth of his martial subjects

bent their bows and mounted on horseback; their policy was

insidious, and their retaliation on these pious robbers was

unrelenting and bloody. 39 About a third of the naked fugitives

(and the hermit Peter was of the number) escaped to the Thracian

mountains; and the emperor, who respected the pilgrimage and

succor of the Latins, conducted them by secure and easy journeys

to Constantinople, and advised them to await the arrival of their

brethren. For a while they remembered their faults and losses;

but no sooner were they revived by the hospitable entertainment,

than their venom was again inflamed; they stung their benefactor,

and neither gardens, nor palaces, nor churches, were safe from

their depredations. For his own safety, Alexius allured them to

pass over to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; but their blind

impetuosity soon urged them to desert the station which he had

assigned, and to rush headlong against the Turks, who occupied

the road to Jerusalem. The hermit, conscious of his shame, had

withdrawn from the camp to Constantinople; and his lieutenant,

Walter the Penniless, who was worthy of a better command,

attempted without success to introduce some order and prudence

among the herd of savages. They separated in quest of prey, and

themselves fell an easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a

rumor that their foremost companions were rioting in the spoils

of his capital, Soliman 391 tempted the main body to descend into

the plain of Nice: they were overwhelmed by the Turkish arrows;

and a pyramid of bones 40 informed their companions of the place

of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand

had already perished, before a single city was rescued from the

infidels, before their graver and more noble brethren had

completed the preparations of their enterprise. 41

38 (return) [ See the contemporary description of Hungary in Otho

of Frisin gen, l. ii. c. 31, in Muratori, Script. Rerum

Italicarum, tom. vi. p. 665 666.]

381 (return) [ The narrative of the first march is very

incorrect. The first party moved under Walter de Pexego and

Walter the Penniless: they passed safe through Hungary, the

kingdom of Kalmeny, and were attacked in Bulgaria. Peter followed

with 40,000 men; passed through Hungary; but seeing the clothes

of sixteen crusaders, who had been empaled on the walls of

Semlin. he attacked and stormed the city. He then marched to

Nissa, where, at first, he was hospitably received: but an

accidental quar rel taking place, he suffered a great defeat.

Wilken, vol. i. p. 84-86—M.]

39 (return) [ The old Hungarians, without excepting Turotzius,

are ill informed of the first crusade, which they involve in a

single passage. Katona, like ourselves, can only quote the

writers of France; but he compares with local science the ancient

and modern geography. Ante portam Cyperon, is Sopron or Poson;

Mallevilla, Zemlin; Fluvius Maroe, Savus; Lintax, Leith;

Mesebroch, or Merseburg, Ouar, or Moson; Tollenburg, Pragg, (de

Regibus Hungariae, tom. iii. p. 19-53.)]

391 (return) [ Soliman had been killed in 1085, in a battle

against Toutoneh, brother of Malek Schah, between Appelo and

Antioch. It was not Soliman, therefore, but his son David,

surnamed Kilidje Arslan, the “Sword of the Lion,” who reigned in

Nice. Almost all the occidental authors have fallen into this

mistake, which was detected by M. Michaud, Hist. des Crois. 4th

edit. and Extraits des Aut. Arab. rel. aux Croisades, par M.

Reinaud Paris, 1829, p. 3. His kingdom extended from the Orontes

to the Euphra tes, and as far as the Bosphorus. Kilidje Arslan

must uniformly be substituted for Soliman. Brosset note on Le

Beau, tom. xv. p. 311.—M.]

40 (return) [ Anna Comnena (Alexias, l. x. p. 287) describes this

as a mountain. In the siege of Nice, such were used by the Franks

themselves as the materials of a wall.]

41 (return) [ See table on following page.]

“To save time and space, I shall represent, in a short table, the

particular references to the great events of the first crusade.”

[See Table 1.: Events Of The First Crusade]

None of the great sovereigns of Europe embarked their persons in

the first crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed

to obey the summons of the pope: Philip the First of France was

occupied by his pleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent

conquest; the kin`gs of Spain were engaged in a domestic war

against the Moors; and the northern monarchs of Scotland,

Denmark, 42 Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers to the

passions and interests of the South. The religious ardor was more

strongly felt by the princes of the second order, who held an

important place in the feudal system. Their situation will

naturally cast under four distinct heads the review of their

names and characters; but I may escape some needless repetition,

by observing at once, that courage and the exercise of arms are

the common attribute of these Christian adventurers. I. The first

rank both in war and council is justly due to Godfrey of

Bouillon; and happy would it have been for the crusaders, if they

had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished

hero, a worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom he was

descended in the female line. His father was of the noble race of

the counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine,

43 was the inheritance of his mother; and by the emperor’s bounty

he was himself invested with that ducal title, which has been

improperly transferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the

Ardennes. 44 In the service of Henry the Fourth, he bore the

great standard of the empire, and pierced with his lance the

breast of Rodolph, the rebel king: Godfrey was the first who

ascended the walls of Rome; and his sickness, his vow, perhaps

his remorse for bearing arms against the pope, confirmed an early

resolution of visiting the holy sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but

a deliverer. His valor was matured by prudence and moderation;

his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumult of a

camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a convent.

Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his

enmity for the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom

by the attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged

by his rivals. Godfrey of Bouillon 45 was accompanied by his two

brothers, by Eustace the elder, who had succeeded to the county

of Boulogne, and by the younger, Baldwin, a character of more

ambiguous virtue. The duke of Lorraine, was alike celebrated on

either side of the Rhine: from his birth and education, he was

equally conversant with the French and Teutonic languages: the

barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine, assembled their vassals;

and the confederate force that marched under his banner was

composed of fourscore thousand foot and about ten thousand horse.

II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in the king’s

presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh,

count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous of the princes who

assumed the cross. But the appellation of the Great was applied,

not so much to his merit or possessions, (though neither were

contemptible,) as to the royal birth of the brother of the king

of France. 46 Robert, duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of

William the Conqueror; but on his father’s death he was deprived

of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence and the activity

of his brother Rufus. The worth of Robert was degraded by an

excessive levity and easiness of temper: his cheerfulness seduced

him to the indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberality

impoverished the prince and people; his indiscriminate clemency

multiplied the number of offenders; and the amiable qualities of

a private man became the essential defects of a sovereign. For

the trifling sum of ten thousand marks, he mortgaged Normandy

during his absence to the English usurper; 47 but his engagement

and behavior in the holy war announced in Robert a reformation of

manners, and restored him in some degree to the public esteem.

Another Robert was count of Flanders, a royal province, which, in

this century, gave three queens to the thrones of France,

England, and Denmark: he was surnamed the Sword and Lance of the

Christians; but in the exploits of a soldier he sometimes forgot

the duties of a general. Stephen, count of Chartres, of Blois,

and of Troyes, was one of the richest princes of the age; and the

number of his castles has been compared to the three hundred and

sixty-five days of the year. His mind was improved by literature;

and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen 48 was

chosen to discharge the office of their president. These four

were the principal leaders of the French, the Normans, and the

pilgrims of the British isles: but the list of the barons who

were possessed of three or four towns would exceed, says a

contemporary, the catalogue of the Trojan war. 49 III. In the

south of France, the command was assumed by Adhemar bishop of

Puy, the pope egate, and by Raymond count of St. Giles and

Thoulouse who added the prouder titles of duke of Narbonne and

marquis of Provence. The former was a respectable prelate, alike

qualified for this world and the next. The latter was a veteran

warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who

consecrated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, but

to the perpetual service, of the holy sepulchre. His experience

and riches gave him a strong ascendant in the Christian camp,

whose distress he was often able, and sometimes willing, to

relieve. But it was easier for him to extort the praise of the

Infidels, than to preserve the love of his subjects and

associates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a temper

haughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he resigned an ample

patrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in the public opinion,

was not exempt from avarice and ambition. 50 A mercantile, rather

than a martial, spirit prevailed among his provincials, 51 a

common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and

Languedoc, 52 the vassals of the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles.

From the adjacent frontier of Spain he drew a band of hardy

adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians

flocked to his standard, and his united force consisted of one

hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the first to

enlist and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the

greatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting

farewell. IV. The name of Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard,

was already famous by his double victory over the Greek emperor;

but his father’s will had reduced him to the principality of

Tarentum, and the remembrance of his Eastern trophies, till he

was awakened by the rumor and passage of the French pilgrims. It

is in the person of this Norman chief that we may seek for the

coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay of religious

fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he had secretly

directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second with

astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi, his example and

discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army; he

instantly tore his garment to supply crosses for the numerous

candidates, and prepared to visit Constantinople and Asia at the

head of ten thousand horse and twenty thousand foot. Several

princes of the Norman race accompanied this veteran general; and

his cousin Tancred 53 was the partner, rather than the servant,

of the war.

In the accomplished character of Tancred we discover all the

virtues of a perfect knight, 54 the true spirit of chivalry,

which inspired the generous sentiments and social offices of man

far better than the base philosophy, or the baser religion, of

the times.

42 (return) [ The author of the Esprit des Croisades has doubted,

and might have disbelieved, the crusade and tragic death of

Prince Sueno, with 1500 or 15,000 Danes, who was cut off by

Sultan Soliman in Cappadocia, but who still lives in the poem of

Tasso, (tom. iv. p. 111-115.)]

43 (return) [ The fragments of the kingdoms of Lotharingia, or

Lorraine, were broken into the two duchies of the Moselle and of

the Meuse: the first has preserved its name, which in the latter

has been changed into that of Brabant, (Vales. Notit. Gall. p.

283-288.)]

44 (return) [ See, in the Description of France, by the Abbe de

Longuerue, the articles of Boulogne, part i. p. 54; Brabant, part

ii. p. 47, 48; Bouillon, p. 134. On his departure, Godfrey sold

or pawned Bouillon to the church for 1300 marks.]

45 (return) [ See the family character of Godfrey, in William of

Tyre, l. ix. c. 5-8; his previous design in Guibert, (p. 485;)

his sickness and vow in Bernard. Thesaur., (c 78.)]

46 (return) [ Anna Comnena supposes, that Hugh was proud of his

nobility riches, and power, (l. x. p. 288: ) the two last

articles appear more equivocal; but an item, which seven hundred

years ago was famous in the palace of Constantinople, attests the

ancient dignity of the Capetian family of France.]

47 (return) [ Will. Gemeticensis, l. vii. c. 7, p. 672, 673, in

Camden. Normani cis. He pawned the duchy for one hundredth part

of the present yearly revenue. Ten thousand marks may be equal to

five hundred thousand livres, and Normandy annually yields

fifty-seven millions to the king, (Necker, Administration des

Finances, tom. i. p. 287.)]

48 (return) [ His original letter to his wife is inserted in the

Spicilegium of Dom. Luc. d’Acheri, tom. iv. and quoted in the

Esprit des Croisades tom. i. p. 63.]

49 (return) [ Unius enim duum, trium seu quatuor oppidorum

dominos quis numeret? quorum tanta fuit copia, ut non vix totidem

Trojana obsidio coegisse putetur. (Ever the lively and

interesting Guibert, p. 486.)]

50 (return) [ It is singular enough, that Raymond of St. Giles, a

second character in the genuine history of the crusades, should

shine as the first of heroes in the writings of the Greeks (Anna

Comnen. Alexiad, l. x xi.) and the Arabians, (Longueruana, p.

129.)]

51 (return) [ Omnes de Burgundia, et Alvernia, et Vasconia, et

Gothi, (of Languedoc,) provinciales appellabantur, caeteri vero

Francigenae et hoc in exercitu; inter hostes autem Franci

dicebantur. Raymond des Agiles, p. 144.]

52 (return) [ The town of his birth, or first appanage, was

consecrated to St Aegidius, whose name, as early as the first

crusade, was corrupted by the French into St. Gilles, or St.

Giles. It is situate in the Iowen Languedoc, between Nismes and

the Rhone, and still boasts a collegiate church of the foundation

of Raymond, (Melanges tires d’une Grande Bibliotheque, tom.

xxxvii. p 51.)]

53 (return) [ The mother of Tancred was Emma, sister of the great

Robert Guiscard; his father, the Marquis Odo the Good. It is

singular enough, that the family and country of so illustrious a

person should be unknown; but Muratori reasonably conjectures

that he was an Italian, and perhaps of the race of the marquises

of Montferrat in Piedmont, (Script. tom. v. p. 281, 282.)]

54 (return) [ To gratify the childish vanity of the house of

Este. Tasso has inserted in his poem, and in the first crusade, a

fabulous hero, the brave and amorous Rinaldo, (x. 75, xvii.

66-94.) He might borrow his name from a Rinaldo, with the Aquila

bianca Estense, who vanquished, as the standard-bearer of the

Roman church, the emperor Frederic I., (Storia Imperiale di

Ricobaldo, in Muratori Script. Ital. tom. ix. p. 360. Ariosto,

Orlando Furioso, iii. 30.) But, 1. The distance of sixty years

between the youth of the two Rinaldos destroys their identity. 2.

The Storia Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the

end of the xvth century, (Muratori, p. 281-289.) 3. This Rinaldo,

and his exploits, are not less chimerical than the hero of Tasso,

(Muratori, Antichita Estense, tom. i. p. 350.)]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part III.

Between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades, a

revolution had taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and

the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe.

The service of the infantry was degraded to the plebeians; the

cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honorable name

of miles, or soldier, was confined to the gentlemen 55 who served

on horseback, and were invested with the character of knighthood.

The dukes and counts, who had usurped the rights of sovereignty,

divided the provinces among their faithful barons: the barons

distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of their

jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peers of each other

and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which

disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as of the same

species with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved

by pure and equal alliances; their sons alone, who could produce

four quarters or lines of ancestry without spot or reproach,

might legally pretend to the honor of knighthood; but a valiant

plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword, and

became the father of a new race. A single knight could impart,

according to his judgment, the character which he received; and

the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived more glory from this

personal distinction than from the lustre of their diadem. This

ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the

woods of Germany, 56 was in its origin simple and profane; the

candidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword

and spurs; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight

blow, as an emblem of the last affront which it was lawful for

him to endure. But superstition mingled in every public and

private action of life: in the holy wars, it sanctified the

profession of arms; and the order of chivalry was assimilated in

its rights and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The

bath and white garment of the novice were an indecent copy of the

regeneration of baptism: his sword, which he offered on the

altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion: his solemn

reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a

knight in the name of God, of St. George, and of St. Michael the

archangel. He swore to accomplish the duties of his profession;

and education, example, and the public opinion, were the

inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of God and the

ladies, (I blush to unite such discordant names,) he devoted

himself to speak the truth; to maintain the right; to protect the

distressed; to practise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the

ancients; to pursue the infidels; to despise the allurements of

ease and safety; and to vindicate in every perilous adventure the

honor of his character. The abuse of the same spirit provoked the

illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industry and peace; to

esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his own injuries;

and proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and military

discipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine the

temper of Barbarians, and to infuse some principles of faith,

justice, and humanity, were strongly felt, and have been often

observed. The asperity of national prejudice was softened; and

the community of religion and arms spread a similar color and

generous emulation over the face of Christendom. Abroad in

enterprise and pilgrimage, at home in martial exercise, the

warriors of every country were perpetually associated; and

impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic

games of classic antiquity. 57 Instead of the naked spectacles

which corrupted the manners of the Greeks, and banished from the

stadium the virgins and matrons, the pompous decoration of the

lists was crowned with the presence of chaste and high-born

beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the prize of his

dexterity and courage. The skill and strength that were exerted

in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to

the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they were

invented in France, and eagerly adopted both in the East and

West, presented a lively image of the business of the field. The

single combats, the general skirmish, the defence of a pass, or

castle, were rehearsed as in actual service; and the contest,

both in real and mimic war, was decided by the superior

management of the horse and lance. The lance was the proper and

peculiar weapon of the knight: his horse was of a large and heavy

breed; but this charger, till he was roused by the approaching

danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rode a

pad or palfrey of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his

greaves and buckler, it would be superfluous to describe; but I

may remark, that, at the period of the crusades, the armor was

less ponderous than in later times; and that, instead of a massy

cuirass, his breast was defended by a hauberk or coat of mail.

When their long lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors

furiously spurred their horses against the foe; and the light

cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could seldom stand against the

direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each knight was

attended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal

birth and similar hopes; he was followed by his archers and men

at arms, and four, or five, or six soldiers were computed as the

furniture of a complete lance. In the expeditions to the

neighboring kingdoms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feudal

tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntary service of the knights

and their followers were either prompted by zeal or attachment,

or purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbers of each

squadron were measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame, of

each independent chieftain. They were distinguished by his

banner, his armorial coat, and his cry of war; and the most

ancient families of Europe must seek in these achievements the

origin and proof of their nobility. In this rapid portrait of

chivalry I have been urged to anticipate on the story of the

crusades, at once an effect and a cause, of this memorable

institution. 58

55 (return) [ Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two

etymologies are produced: 1. From the Barbarians of the fifth

century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of the Roman

empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility; and 2. From the

sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with

ingenuus. Selden inclines to the first but the latter is more

pure, as well as probable.]

56 (return) [ Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania.

c. 13.]

57 (return) [ The athletic exercises, particularly the caestus

and pancratium, were condemned by Lycurgus, Philopoemen, and

Galen, a lawgiver, a general, and a physician. Against their

authority and reasons, the reader may weigh the apology of

Lucian, in the character of Solon. See West on the Olympic Games,

in his Pindar, vol. ii. p. 86-96 243-248]

58 (return) [ On the curious subjects of knighthood,

knights-service, nobility, arms, cry of war, banners, and

tournaments, an ample fund of information may be sought in

Selden, (Opera, tom. iii. part i. Titles of Honor, part ii. c. 1,

3, 5, 8,) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. iv. p. 398-412, &c.,)

Dissertations sur Joinville, (i. vi.—xii. p. 127-142, p.

161-222,) and M. de St. Palaye, (Memoires sur la Chevalerie.)]

Such were the troops, and such the leaders, who assumed the cross

for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As soon as they were

relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they

encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish

their vow, and hasten their departure. Their wives and sisters

were desirous of partaking the danger and merit of the

pilgrimage: their portable treasures were conveyed in bars of

silver and gold; and the princes and barons were attended by

their equipage of hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure and to

supply their table. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for

so many myriads of men and horses engaged them to separate their

forces: their choice or situation determined the road; and it was

agreed to meet in the neighborhood of Constantinople, and from

thence to begin their operations against the Turks. From the

banks of the Meuse and the Moselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed

the direct way of Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long as

he exercised the sole command every step afforded some proof of

his prudence and virtue. On the confines of Hungary he was

stopped three weeks by a Christian people, to whom the name, or

at least the abuse, of the cross was justly odious. The

Hungarians still smarted with the wounds which they had received

from the first pilgrims: in their turn they had abused the right

of defence and retaliation; and they had reason to apprehend a

severe revenge from a hero of the same nation, and who was

engaged in the same cause. But, after weighing the motives and

the events, the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and

misfortunes of his worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies,

the messengers of peace, requested in his name a free passage and

an equal market. To remove their suspicions, Godfrey trusted

himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith of Carloman,

581 king of Hungary, who treated them with a simple but

hospitable entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their

common gospel; and a proclamation, under pain of death,

restrained the animosity and license of the Latin soldiers. From

Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary,

without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of

Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry,

was a precaution not less useful for their safety than for his

own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no sooner had they

passed the river, than the king of Hungary restored the hostages,

and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the

success of their enterprise. With the same conduct and

discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the

frontiers of Thrace; and might congratulate himself that he had

almost reached the first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing

his sword against a Christian adversary. After an easy and

pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia,

Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the savage

country of Dalmatia 59 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual

fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were

either fugitive or hostile: loose in their religion and

government, they refused to furnish provisions or guides;

murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day the

vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the

punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and

treaty with the prince of Scodra. 60 His march between Durazzo

and Constantinople was harassed, without being stopped, by the

peasants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same faint

and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs,

who passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had

arms and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was

not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever

obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his military conduct

and the valor of Tancred; and if the Norman prince affected to

spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldiers with the full plunder of

an heretical castle. 61 The nobles of France pressed forwards

with the vain and thoughtless ardor of which their nation has

been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh

the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres,

through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics,

was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the

Roman pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was delivered

to the brother of the French monarch. 62 But in this visit of

piety and pleasure, they neglected to secure the season, and the

means of their embarkation: the winter was insensibly lost: their

troops were scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They

separately accomplished their passage, regardless of safety or

dignity; and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption,

the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached

Constantinople. But the count of Vermandois was produced as a

captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and

his person, against the law of nations, was detained by the

lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been

announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armor, who

commanded the emperor to revere the general of the Latin

Christians, the brother of the king of kings. 63 631

581 (return) [ Carloman (or Calmany) demanded the brother of

Godfrey as hostage but Count Baldwin refused the humiliating

submission. Godfrey shamed him into this sacrifice for the common

good by offering to surrender himself Wilken, vol. i. p. 104.—M.]

59 (return) [ The Familiae Dalmaticae of Ducange are meagre and

imperfect; the national historians are recent and fabulous, the

Greeks remote and careless. In the year 1104 Coloman reduced the

maritine country as far as Trau and Saloma, (Katona, Hist. Crit.

tom. iii. p. 195-207.)]

60 (return) [ Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress

of Gentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a

Roman colony, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called

Iscodar, or Scutari, (D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p.

164.) The sanjiak (now a pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was

the viiith under the Beglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600

soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rix dollars, (Marsigli, Stato

Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128.)]

61 (return) [ In Pelagonia castrum haereticum..... spoliatum cum

suis habi tatoribus igne combussere. Nec id eis injuria contigit:

quia illorum detestabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamque

circumjacentes regiones suo pravo dogmate foedaverat, (Robert.

Mon. p. 36, 37.) After cooly relating the fact, the Archbishop

Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judeos,

haereticos, Saracenos aequaliter habent exosos; quos omnes

appellant inimicos Dei, (p. 92.)]

62 (return) [ (Alexiad. l. x. p. 288.)]

63 (return) [ This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of

Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency

(Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Dissert. xxvii. sur Joinville, p.

315) the passages of Matthew Paris (A.D. 1254) and Froissard,

(vol. iv. p. 201,) which style the king of France rex regum, and

chef de tous les rois Chretiens.]

631 (return) [ Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land to

Constantinople Wilken—M.]

In some oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who

was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed

for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock

and cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the

fortune, or at least the apprehension of the Greek emperor

Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already appeared in this

history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by his

daughter Anne, 64 and by the Latin writers. 65 In the council of

Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderate succor,

perhaps of ten thousand soldiers, but he was astonished by the

approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The

emperor fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and

courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I

cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired

against the life or honor of the French heroes. The promiscuous

multitudes of Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike

destitute of humanity and reason: nor was it possible for Alexius

to prevent or deplore their destruction. The troops of Godfrey

and his peers were less contemptible, but not less suspicious, to

the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious: but he

was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond,

651 and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of

the French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the

luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion

of their invincible strength: and Jerusalem might be forgotten in

the prospect of Constantinople. After a long march and painful

abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the plains of

Thrace; they heard with indignation, that their brother, the

count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the Greeks; and their

reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some freedom of

retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission of

Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused,

in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters

were assigned among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that

narrow sea. But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds

of the two nations, who despised each other as slaves and

Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and suspicion

was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice is blind, hunger

is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault

the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the

waters. 66 Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net,

overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of

Constantinople were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined

with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties

listened to the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and

promises of the emperor insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of

the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he rekindled their

zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, which he

engaged to second with his troops and treasures. On the return of

spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful

camp in Asia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the

Greek vessels were suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The

same policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were

swayed by the example, and weakened by the departure, of their

foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius

prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the

same moment under the walls of Constantinople; and before the

feast of the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast

of Europe.

64 (return) [ Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A.D.

1083, indiction vii., (Alexiad. l. vi. p. 166, 167.) At thirteen,

the time of the first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps

married to the younger Nicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly

styles, (l. x. p. 295, 296.) Some moderns have imagined, that her

enmity to Bohemond was the fruit of disappointed love. In the

transactions of Constantinople and Nice, her partial accounts

(Alex. l. x. xi. p. 283-317) may be opposed to the partiality of

the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is brief and

ignorant.]

65 (return) [ In their views of the character and conduct of

Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire

has been partial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a

philosopher is less excusable than that of a Jesuit.]

651 (return) [ Wilken quotes a remarkable passage of William of

Malmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of Bohemond in

urging the crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita

vulgabatur, quod Boemundi consilio, pene totam Europam in

Asiaticam expeditionem moveret, ut in tanto tumultu omnium

provinciarum facile obaeratis auxiliaribus, et Urbanus Romam et

Boemundus Illyricum et Macedoniam pervaderent. Nam eas terras et

quidquid praeterea a Dyrrachio usque ad Thessalonicam

protenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat; ideirco

illas Boemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops haereditatis

Apuliae, quam genitor Rogerio, minori filio delegaverat. Wilken,

vol. ii. p. 313.—M]

66 (return) [ Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the River

Barbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through

a flat meadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople

is by the stone bridge of the Blachernoe, which in successive

ages was restored by Justinian and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro

Thracio, l. ii. c. 3. Ducange O. P. Christiana, l. v. c. 2, p,

179.)]

The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia, and

repel the Turks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus and

Hellespont. The fair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the

recent patrimony of the Roman emperor; and his ancient and

perpetual claim still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt.

In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, or affected, the ambitious

hope of leading his new allies to subvert the thrones of the

East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded him

from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknown and

lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content with

extorting from the French princes an oath of homage and fidelity,

and a solemn promise, that they

would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the

humble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent

spirit was fired at the mention of this foreign and voluntary

servitude: they successively yielded to the dexterous application

of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became the most

eloquent and effectual missionaries to multiply the companions of

their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the

honors of his captivity; and in the brother of the French king,

the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind

of Godfrey of Bouillon every human consideration was subordinate

to the glory of God and the success of the crusade. He had firmly

resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the

attack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed his

virtues, deservedly named him the champion of the empire, and

dignified his homage with the filial name and the rights of

adoption. 67 The hateful Bohemond was received as a true and

ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded him of former

hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he had

displayed, and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of

Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and

entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed

through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left

open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of

curious and costly furniture, that was heaped, in seeming

disorder, from the floor to the roof of the chamber. “What

conquests,” exclaimed the ambitious miser, “might not be achieved

by the possession of such a treasure!”—“It is your own,” replied

a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and

Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this

magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by the assurance of

an independent principality; and Alexius eluded, rather than

denied, his daring demand of the office of great domestic, or

general of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of

England, and the kinsmen of three queens, 68 bowed in their turn

before the Byzantine throne. A private letter of Stephen of

Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor, the most

excellent and liberal of men, who taught him to believe that he

was a favorite, and promised to educate and establish his

youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles

and Thoulouse faintly recognized the supremacy of the king of

France, a prince of a foreign nation and language. At the head of

a hundred thousand men, he declared that he was the soldier and

servant of Christ alone, and that the Greek might be satisfied

with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship. His obstinate

resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission;

and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the Barbarians, as

the sun amidst the stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and

insolence of the French, his suspicions of the designs of

Bohemond, the emperor imparted to his faithful Raymond; and that

aged statesman might clearly discern, that however false in

friendship, he was sincere in his enmity. 69 The spirit of

chivalry was last subdued in the person of Tancred; and none

could deem themselves dishonored by the imitation of that gallant

knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch;

assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; escaped to Asia

in the habit of a private soldier; and yielded with a sigh to the

authority of Bohemond, and the interest of the Christian cause.

The best and most ostensible reason was the impossibility of

passing the sea and accomplishing their vow, without the license

and the vessels of Alexius; but they cherished a secret hope,

that as soon as they trod the continent of Asia, their swords

would obliterate their shame, and dissolve the engagement, which

on his side might not be very faithfully performed. The ceremony

of their homage was grateful to a people who had long since

considered pride as the substitute of power. High on his throne,

the emperor sat mute and immovable: his majesty was adored by the

Latin princes; and they submitted to kiss either his feet or his

knees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to

confess and unable to deny. 70

67 (return) [ There are two sorts of adoption, the one by arms,

the other by introducing the son between the shirt and skin of

his father. Ducange isur Joinville, (Diss. xxii. p. 270) supposes

Godfrey’s adoption to have been of the latter sort.]

68 (return) [ After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man

of the king of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See

the first act in Rymer’s Foedera.]

69 (return) [ Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non

fingere. Tacit. vi. 44.]

70 (return) [ The proud historians of the crusades slide and

stumble over this humiliating step. Yet, since the heroes knelt

to salute the emperor, as he sat motionless on his throne, it is

clear that they must have kissed either his feet or knees. It is

only singular, that Anna should not have amply supplied the

silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The abasement of their

princes would have added a fine chapter to the Ceremoniale Aulae

Byzantinae.]

Private or public interest suppressed the murmurs of the dukes

and counts; but a French baron (he is supposed to be Robert of

Paris 71 presumed to ascend the throne, and to place himself by

the side of Alexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin provoked him to

exclaim, in his barbarous idiom, “Who is this rustic, that keeps

his seat, while so many valiant captains are standing round him?”

The emperor maintained his silence, dissembled his indignation,

and questioned his interpreter concerning the meaning of the

words, which he partly suspected from the universal language of

gesture and countenance. Before the departure of the pilgrims, he

endeavored to learn the name and condition of the audacious

baron. “I am a Frenchman,” replied Robert, “of the purest and

most ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that

there is a church in my neighborhood, 72 the resort of those who

are desirous of approving their valor in single combat. Till an

enemy appears, they address their prayers to God and his saints.

That church I have frequently visited. But never have I found an

antagonist who dared to accept my defiance.” Alexius dismissed

the challenger with some prudent advice for his conduct in the

Turkish warfare; and history repeats with pleasure this lively

example of the manners of his age and country.

71 (return) [ He called himself (see Alexias, l. x. p. 301.) What

a title of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now

prove his inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that

the swelling Barbarian, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in

the front in the battle of Dorylaeum, (l. xi. p. 317.) This

circumstance may justify the suspicion of Ducange, (Not. p. 362,)

that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of the district most

peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island of France, (L’Isle de

France.)]

72 (return) [ With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his

church to be that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quem

duello dimicaturi solent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus

(his tomb) pernoctant invictos reddit, ut et de Burgundia et

Italia tali necessitate confugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberiensis,

epist. 139.]

The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by Alexander,

with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; 73 and his best

hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of

infantry. The principal force of the crusaders consisted in their

cavalry; and when that force was mustered in the plains of

Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on horseback

amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men, completely armed

with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these soldiers

deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower of

European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this

formidable body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be

enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and archers; but

the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own disorder; and we

depend not on the eyes and knowledge, but on the belief and

fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, 74 in the estimate of six

hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the priests

and monks, the women and children of the Latin camp. The reader

starts; and before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall

add, on the same testimony, that if all who took the cross had

accomplished their vow, above six millions would have migrated

from Europe to Asia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive

some relief from a more sagacious and thinking writer, 75 who,

after the same review of the cavalry, accuses the credulity of

the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether the Cisalpine

regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were sufficient to

produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest

scepticism will remember, that of these religious volunteers

great numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm

the influence is irregular and transient: many were detained at

home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many

were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable

as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics. The savage

countries of Hungary and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones:

their vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish sultan; and the

loss of the first adventure, by the sword, or climate, or

fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousand men.

Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed

forwards on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment

to themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her

language sinks under the efforts of the princess Anne: 76 the

images of locusts, of leaves and flowers, of the sands of the

sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly represent what she had

seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims, that Europe

was loosened from its foundations, and hurled against Asia. The

ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the same doubt of

a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe,

that a larger number has never been contained within the lines of

a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of

the Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their

arms, have been already displayed. Of their troops the most

numerous portion were natives of France: the Low Countries, the

banks of the Rhine, and Apulia, sent a powerful reenforcement:

some bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and

England; 77 and from the distant bogs and mountains of Ireland or

Scotland 78 issued some naked and savage fanatics, ferocious at

home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned the

sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest

Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with

mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek

empire, till their companions had opened and secured the way of

the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the

Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre. Their

northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by

the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless

prodigality, their stores of water and provision: their numbers

exhausted the inland country: the sea was remote, the Greeks were

unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before the

voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire

necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the

flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and

Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were rendered more odious by

the name and reputation of Cannibals; the spies, who introduced

themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were shown several human

bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman encouraged a

report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the

terror of the infidels. 79

73 (return) [ There is some diversity on the numbers of his army;

but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states

it at five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, (see Usher’s

Annales, p 152.)]

74 (return) [ Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates

nineteen nations of different names and languages, (p. 389;) but

I do not clearly apprehend his difference between the Franci and

Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385) he contemptuously

brands the deserters.]

75 (return) [ Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition

implies an immense multitude. By Urban II., in the fervor of his

zeal, it is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims, (epist. xvi. Concil.

tom. xii. p. 731.)]

76 (return) [ Alexias, l. x. p. 283, 305. Her fastidious delicacy

complains of their strange and inarticulate names; and indeed

there is scarcely one that she has not contrived to disfigure

with the proud ignorance so dear and familiar to a polished

people. I shall select only one example, Sangeles, for the count

of St. Giles.]

77 (return) [ William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year

1130) has inserted in his history (l. iv. p. 130-154) a narrative

of the first crusade: but I wish that, instead of listening to

the tenue murmur which had passed the British ocean, (p. 143,) he

had confined himself to the numbers, families, and adventures of

his countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman,

Stephen earl of Albemarle and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard

with Duke Robert, at the battle of Antioch, (Baronage, part i. p.

61.)]

78 (return) [ Videres Scotorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium

cuneos, (Guibert, p. 471;) the crus intectum and hispida chlamys,

may suit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginosis may rather

apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions

the Welsh and Scots, &c., (l. iv. p. 133,) who quitted, the

former venatiorem, the latter familiaritatem pulicum.]

79 (return) [ This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more

frequently an artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena,

(Alexias, l. x. p. 288,) Guibert, (p. 546,) Radulph. Cadom., (c.

97.) The stratagem is related by the author of the Gesta

Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in

the siege and famine of Antioch.]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part IV.

I have expiated with pleasure on the first steps of the

crusaders, as they paint the manners and character of Europe: but

I shall abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind

achievements, which were performed by strength and are described

by ignorance. From their first station in the neighborhood of

Nicomedia, they advanced in successive divisions; passed the

contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road through the

hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious

warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended

from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the

pilgrimage of Jerusalem, his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman,

80 of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in

the defence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he

deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to

posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he

deposited his family and treasure in Nice; retired to the

mountains with fifty thousand horse; and twice descended to

assault the camps or quarters of the Christian besiegers, which

formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and

solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by

three hundred and seventy towers; and on the verge of

Christendom, the Moslems were trained in arms, and inflamed by

religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their

stations, and prosecuted their attacks without correspondence or

subordination: emulation prompted their valor; but their valor

was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy

and civil discord. In the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of

antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the

battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfrey or movable turret,

artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the

crossbow for the casting of stones and darts. 81 In the space of

seven weeks much labor and blood were expended, and some

progress, especially by Count Raymond, was made on the side of

the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and

secure their escape, as long as they were masters of the Lake 82

Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the

city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and

industry of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on

sledges from the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most

dexterous of his archers; the flight of the sultana was

intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek

emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master’s

protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from

the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or

at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder,

were awed by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel;

821 and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important

conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honor or

interest; and after a halt of nine days, they directed their

march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom

they suspected of a secret connivance with the sultan. The

consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honorably

restored without ransom; and the emperor’s generosity to the

miscreants 83 was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.

80 (return) [ His Mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the

Latins, and his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His

Turkish name of Kilidge-Arslan (A. H. 485-500, A.D. 1192-1206.

See De Guignes’s Tables, tom. i. p. 245) is employed by the

Orientals, and with some corruption by the Greeks; but little

more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are

dry and sulky on the subject of the first crusade, (De Guignes,

tom. iii. p. ii. p. 10-30.) * Note: See note, page 556. Soliman

and Kilidge-Arslan were father and son—M.]

81 (return) [ On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the

middle ages, see Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae, tom. ii.

dissert. xxvi. p. 452-524.) The belfredus, from whence our

belfrey, was the movable tower of the ancients, (Ducange, tom. i.

p. 608.)]

82 (return) [ I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between

the siege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez

before Mexico. See Dr. Robertson, History of America, l. v.]

821 (return) [ See Anna Comnena.—M.]

83 (return) [ Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders,

and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It should

seem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they

branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still

lurks in the minds of many who think themselves Christians.]

Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his

capital: he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange

invasion of the Western Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the

call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round

his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the

Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty

thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left behind

them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the flanks,

observed their careless and confident progress in two columns

beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach

Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, division was

surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish

cavalry. 84 The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and

the barbarous onset, overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their

order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the

personal valor, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond,

Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome

banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their succor, with the count

of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse; and was followed by

Raymond of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the

sacred army. Without a moment’s pause, they formed in new order,

and advanced to a second battle. They were received with equal

resolution; and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike people

of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the

Turks and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the

appellation of soldiers. 85 Their encounter was varied, and

balanced by the contrast of arms and discipline; of the direct

charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the

brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and a crooked sabre;

of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar

bow, and the arbalist or crossbow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown

to the Orientals. 86 As long as the horses were fresh, and the

quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day; and

four thousand Christians were pierced by the Turkish arrows. In

the evening, swiftness yielded to strength: on either side, the

numbers were equal or at least as great as any ground could hold,

or any generals could manage; but in turning the hills, the last

division of Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without

design on the rear of an exhausted enemy; and the long contest

was determined. Besides a nameless and unaccounted multitude,

three thousand Pagan knights were slain in the battle and

pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of

precious spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amused with

foreign arms and apparel, and the new aspect of dromedaries and

camels. The importance of the victory was proved by the hasty

retreat of the sultan: reserving ten thousand guards of the

relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and

hastened to implore the aid, and kindle the resentment, of his

Eastern brethren. In a march of five hundred miles, the crusaders

traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wasted land and deserted

towns, without finding either a friend or an enemy. The

geographer 87 may trace the position of Dorylaeum, Antioch of

Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare

those classic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the

old city, Akshehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As

the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a draught of water is

exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable thirst;

and on the banks of the first rivulet, their haste and

intemperance were still more pernicious to the disorderly throng.

They climbed with toil and danger the steep and slippery sides of

Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers cast away their arms to secure

their footsteps; and had not terror preceded their van, the long

and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by a

handful of resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable

chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, were

carried in litters: Raymond was raised, as it is said by miracle,

from a hopeless malady; and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as

he pursued that rough and perilous chase in the mountains of

Pisidia.

84 (return) [ Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his

brother Roger, (A.D. 1098, No. 15.) The enemies consisted of

Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum

nostro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon

and Hugh brothers! Tancred is styled filius; of whom? Certainly

not of Roger, nor of Bohemond.]

85 (return) [ Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione;

et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et

Turci, (Gesta Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of blood and

valor is attested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)]

86 (return) [ Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See Muratori, Antiq.

tom. ii. p. 517-524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. i. p. 531, 532.

In the time of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she describes

under the name of izangra, was unknown in the East, (l. x. p.

291.) By a humane inconsistency, the pope strove to prohibit it

in Christian wars.]

87 (return) [ The curious reader may compare the classic learning

of Cellarius and the geographical science of D’Anville. William

of Tyre is the only historian of the crusades who has any

knowledge of antiquity; and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps

of the Franks from Constantinople to Antioch, (Voyage en Turquie

et en Perse, tom. i. p. 35-88.) * Note: The journey of Col.

Macdonald Kinneir in Asia Minor throws considerable light on the

geography of this march of the crusaders.—M.]

To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond and

the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with

their respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred

knights. They overran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast

of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Syrian gates: the Norman standard

was first planted on the walls of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the

proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and

generous Italian; and they turned their consecrated swords

against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honor was

the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled

on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. 88 He was called to

the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been

suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of

Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son and champion:

but no sooner was he introduced into the city, than he inflamed

the people to the massacre of his father, occupied the throne and

treasure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia and

the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of

the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four years beyond the

Euphrates. 89

88 (return) [ This detached conquest of Edessa is best

represented by Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the

collections of Bongarsius Duchesne, and Martenne,) the valiant

chaplain of Count Baldwin (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13,

14.) In the disputes of that prince with Tancred, his partiality

is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus Cadomensis, the

soldier and historian of the gallant marquis.]

89 (return) [ See de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 456.]

Before the Franks could enter Syria, the summer, and even the

autumn, were completely wasted: the siege of Antioch, or the

separation and repose of the army during the winter season, was

strongly debated in their council: the love of arms and the holy

sepulchre urged them to advance; and reason perhaps was on the

side of resolution, since every hour of delay abates the fame and

force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive

war. The capital of Syria was protected by the River Orontes; and

the iron bridge, 891 of nine arches, derives its name from the

massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at either

end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: his

victory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crusaders, an

account which may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but

which clearly detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In

the description of Antioch, 90 it is not easy to define a middle

term between her ancient magnificence, under the successors of

Alexander and Augustus, and the modern aspect of Turkish

desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they retained

their name and position, must have left a large vacuity in a

circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the

number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with

the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the siege.

Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a great and populous

capital. At the head of the Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran

chief, commanded in the place: his garrison was composed of six

or seven thousand horse, and fifteen or twenty thousand foot: one

hundred thousand Moslems are said to have fallen by the sword;

and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks,

Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years

the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid

and stately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of

threescore feet in the valleys; and wherever less art and labor

had been applied, the ground was supposed to be defended by the

river, the morass, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these

fortifications, the city had been repeatedly taken by the

Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks; so large a

circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; and in

a siege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigor of

the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt.

Whatever strength and valor could perform in the field was

abundantly discharged by the champions of the cross: in the

frequent occasions of sallies, of forage, of the attack and

defence of convoys, they were often victorious; and we can only

complain, that their exploits are sometimes enlarged beyond the

scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey 91 divided a

Turk from the shoulder to the haunch; and one half of the infidel

fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horse

to the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his

antagonist, “I devote thy head,” he piously exclaimed, “to the

daemons of hell;” and that head was instantly cloven to the

breast by the resistless stroke of his descending falchion. But

the reality or the report of such gigantic prowess 92 must have

taught the Moslems to keep within their walls: and against those

walls of earth or stone, the sword and the lance were unavailing

weapons. In the slow and successive labors of a siege, the

crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or

money to purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and

implements of assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been

powerfully assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek

emperor: his absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and

Pisan vessels, that were attracted by religion or trade to the

coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the return precarious,

and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or

weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire

circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the

wants and recruited the garrison of the city. At the end of seven

months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by

famine, desertion and fatigue, the progress of the crusaders was

imperceptible, and their success remote, if the Latin Ulysses,

the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms of

cunning and deceit. The Christians of Antioch were numerous and

discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had acquired the favor

of the emir and the command of three towers; and the merit of his

repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself, the

foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, for

their mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and

the prince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of

the chiefs, that he could deliver the city into their hands. 921

But he claimed the sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his

service; and the proposal which had been rejected by the envy,

was at length extorted from the distress, of his equals. The

nocturnal surprise was executed by the French and Norman princes,

who ascended in person the scaling-ladders that were thrown from

the walls: their new proselyte, after the murder of his too

scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the servants of

Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon

found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent.

But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims

themselves were speedily encompassed and besieged by the

innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with

twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of

Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent on the verge

of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the

sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. 93 In

this extremity they collected the relics of their strength,

sallied from the town, and in a single memorable day, annihilated

or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabians, which they might

safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand men. 94

Their supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human

causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the

Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of

their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle is

described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may

observe the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace,

enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above

two thousand persons; we may distinguish his three thousand

guards, who were cased, the horse as well as the men, in complete

steel.

891 (return) [ This bridge was over the Ifrin, not the Orontes,

at a distance of three leagues from Antioch. See Wilken, vol. i.

p. 172.—M.]

90 (return) [ For Antioch, see Pocock, (Description of the East,

vol. ii. p. i. p. 188-193,) Otter, (Voyage en Turquie, &c., tom.

i. p. 81, &c.,) the Turkish geographer, (in Otter’s notes,) the

Index Geographicus of Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit.

Saladin.,) and Abulfeda, (Tabula Syriae, p. 115, 116, vers.

Reiske.)]

91 (return) [ Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum,

tanta virtute intorsit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit spinam et

vitalia interrupit; et sic lubricus ensis super crus dextrum

integer exivit: sicque caput integrum cum dextra parte corporis

immersit gurgite, partemque quae equo praesidebat remisit

civitati, (Robert. Mon. p. 50.) Cujus ense trajectus, Turcus duo

factus est Turci: ut inferior alter in urbem equitaret, alter

arcitenens in flumine nataret, (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53, p. 304.)

Yet he justifies the deed by the stupendis viribus of Godfrey;

and William of Tyre covers it by obstupuit populus facti novitate

.... mirabilis, (l. v. c. 6, p. 701.) Yet it must not have

appeared incredible to the knights of that age.]

92 (return) [ See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modest

Tancred who imposed silence on his squire, (Randulph. Cadom. c.

53.)]

921 (return) [ See the interesting extract from Kemaleddin’s

History of Aleppo in Wilken, preface to vol. ii. p. 36. Phirouz,

or Azzerrad, the breastplate maker, had been pillaged and put to

the torture by Bagi Sejan, the prince of Antioch.—M.]

93 (return) [ After mentioning the distress and humble petition

of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka,

or Kerboga, “Non evasuri estis nisi per gladium,” (Dynast. p.

242.)]

94 (return) [ In describing the host of Kerboga, most of the

Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17,) Robert

Monachus, (p. 56,) Baldric, (p. 111,) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p.

392,) Guibert, (p. 512,) William of Tyre, (l. vi. c. 3, p. 714,)

Bernard Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695,) are content with the vague

expressions of infinita multitudo, immensum agmen, innumerae

copiae or gentes, which correspond with Anna Comnena, (Alexias,

l. xi. p. 318-320.) The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albert

Aquensis at 200,000, (l. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and by Radulphus

Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 72, p. 309.)]

In the eventful period of the siege and defence of Antioch, the

crusaders were alternately exalted by victory or sunk in despair;

either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A

speculative reasoner might suppose, that their faith had a strong

and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers of

the cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, prepared

themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily

contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable

illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war display such

scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under

the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished;

but the Syrian air was still impregnated with the same vices; the

Christians were seduced by every temptation 95 that nature either

prompts or reprobates; the authority of the chiefs was despised;

and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless against those

scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military discipline,

than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days of the

siege and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with

wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistence of

weeks and months: the desolate country no longer yielded a

supply; and from that country they were at length excluded by the

arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of

want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats,

unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The

pictures of famine and pestilence are always the same, and always

disgustful; and our imagination may suggest the nature of their

sufferings and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil

were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest nourishment;

and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since,

after paying three marks of silver for a goat and fifteen for a

lean camel, 96 the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner,

and Duke Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been

reviewed in the camp: before the end of the siege they were

diminished to two thousand, and scarcely two hundred fit for

service could be mustered on the day of battle. Weakness of body

and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the

pilgrims; and every motive of honor and religion was subdued by

the desire of life. 97 Among the chiefs, three heroes may be

found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon was supported

by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and interest; and

Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long as

he was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish

the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Tholouse and

Provence was suspected of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of

Normandy was recalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the

church: Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the battle,

embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France and

Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he

bore, and the council in which he presided. The soldiers were

discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed

the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe; and the

saints were scandalized by the fall 971 of Peter the Hermit, who,

after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the

penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant

warriors, the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book

of life; and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was

applied to the deserters who dropped in the night from the walls

of Antioch. The emperor Alexius, 98 who seemed to advance to the

succor of the Latins, was dismayed by the assurance of their

hopeless condition. They expected their fate in silent despair;

oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse the

soldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found necessary to

set fire to their quarters.

95 (return) [ See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon

of royal birth, who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an

orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine.]

96 (return) [ The value of an ox rose from five solidi, (fifteen

shillings,) at Christmas to two marks, (four pounds,) and

afterwards much higher; a kid or lamb, from one shilling to

eighteen of our present money: in the second famine, a loaf of

bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a piece of gold. More

examples might be produced; but it is the ordinary, not the

extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the

philosopher.]

97 (return) [ Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta

de libro vitae, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda, (Will. Tyr.

l. vi. c. 5, p. 715.) Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse

Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres.]

971 (return) [ Peter fell during the siege: he went afterwards on

an embassy to Kerboga Wilken. vol. i. p. 217.—M.]

98 (return) [ See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of

Alexius, the victory of Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem,

in the Alexiad, l. xi. p. 317-327. Anna was so prone to

exaggeration, that she magnifies the exploits of the Latins.]

For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the same

fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a

cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles,

were frequent and familiar. In the distress of Antioch, they were

repeated with unusual energy and success: St. Ambrose had assured

a pious ecclesiastic, that two years of trial must precede the

season of deliverance and grace; the deserters were stopped by

the presence and reproaches of Christ himself; the dead had

promised to arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had

obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence was

revived by a visible sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery

of the Holy Lance. The policy of their chiefs has on this

occasion been admired, and might surely be excused; but a pious

fraud is seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons;

and a voluntary impostor might depend on the support of the wise

and the credulity of the people. Of the diocese of Marseilles,

there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, and his name

was Peter Bartholemy. He presented himself at the door of the

council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St. Andrew, which

had been thrice reiterated in his sleep with a dreadful menace,

if he presumed to suppress the commands of Heaven. “At Antioch,”

said the apostle, “in the church of my brother St. Peter, near

the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lance that

pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days that instrument

of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to

his disciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in

battle; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the

miscreants.” The pope’s legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to

listen with coldness and distrust; but the revelation was eagerly

accepted by Count Raymond, whom his faithful subject, in the name

of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance.

The experiment was resolved; and on the third day after a due

preparation of prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles

introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were the count

and his chaplain; and the church doors were barred against the

impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed

place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth

of twelve feet without discovering the object of their search. In

the evening, when Count Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and

the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt,

and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the

darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to secrete and

deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and the first sound, the

first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The

holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapped in a veil of silk

and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their

anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope,

and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm

of valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the

sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate

revolution by every aid that discipline and devotion could

afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters with an

injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching

conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and

their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of

victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of

Antioch were thrown open: a martial psalm, “Let the Lord arise,

and let his enemies be scattered!” was chanted by a procession of

priests and monks; the battle array was marshalled in twelve

divisions, in honor of the twelve apostles; and the holy lance,

in the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his

chaplain. The influence of his relic or trophy, was felt by the

servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ; 99 and its

potent energy was heightened by an accident, a stratagem, or a

rumor, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white

garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue,

from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope’s legate,

proclaimed them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St.

Maurice: the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or

scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the

imagination of a fanatic army. 991 In the season of danger and

triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was

unanimously asserted; but as soon as the temporary service was

accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal arms which the

count of Tholouse derived from the custody of the holy lance,

provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A

Norman clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the

truth of the legend, the circumstances of the discovery, and the

character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemond ascribed their

deliverance to the merits and intercession of Christ alone. For a

while, the Provincials defended their national palladium with

clamors and arms and new visions condemned to death and hell the

profane sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit

of the discovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the

author to submit his life and veracity to the judgment of God. A

pile of dry fagots, four feet high and fourteen long, was erected

in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the

elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches

was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of

Marseilles traversed the fire with dexterity and speed; but the

thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired

the next day; 992 and the logic of believing minds will pay some

regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some

efforts were made by the Provincials to substitute a cross, a

ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon

vanished in contempt and oblivion. 100 Yet the revelation of

Antioch is gravely asserted by succeeding historians: and such is

the progress of credulity, that miracles most doubtful on the

spot, and at the moment, will be received with implicit faith at

a convenient distance of time and space.

99 (return) [ The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom.

ii. p. ii. p. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy

lance than the Christians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius: the

Greek princess confounds it with the nail of the cross, (l. xi.

p. 326;) the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter’s staff, (p. 242.)]

991 (return) [ The real cause of this victory appears to have

been the feud in Kerboga’s army Wilken, vol. ii. p. 40.—M.]

992 (return) [ The twelfth day after. He was much injured, and

his flesh torn off, from the ardor of pious congratulation with

which he was assailed by those who witnessed his escape, unhurt,

as it was first supposed. Wilken vol. i p. 263—M.]

100 (return) [ The two antagonists who express the most intimate

knowledge and the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the

fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one

attached to the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman

prince. Fulcherius Carnotensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et

non fraudem! and afterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter

occultatam forsitan. The rest of the herd are loud and

strenuous.]

The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their invasion

till the decline of the Turkish empire. 101 Under the manly

government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were

united in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies which

they led in person were equal in courage, and superior in

discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. But at the time of the

crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw was disputed by his four

sons; their private ambition was insensible of the public danger;

and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, the royal vassals were

ignorant, or regardless, of the true object of their allegiance.

The twenty-eight emirs who marched with the standard or Kerboga

were his rivals or enemies: their hasty levies were drawn from

the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the Turkish

veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the

Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness

and discord to recover his ancient possessions; and his sultan

Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, expelled the children of

Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil and ecclesiastical

authority of the Fatimites. 102 They heard with astonishment of

the vast armies of Christians that had passed from Europe to

Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which broke the

power of the Turks, the adversaries of their sect and monarchy.

But the same Christians were the enemies of the prophet; and from

the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their

enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge them

forwards to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile.

An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell

with the events of war, was maintained between the throne of

Cairo and the camp of the Latins; and their adverse pride was the

result of ignorance and enthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt

declared in a haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone, that

their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of the faithful,

had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish yoke; and that the

pilgrims, if they would divide their numbers, and lay aside their

arms, should find a safe and hospitable reception at the

sepulchre of Jesus. In the belief of their lost condition, the

caliph Mostali despised their arms and imprisoned their deputies:

the conquest and victory of Antioch prompted him to solicit those

formidable champions with gifts of horses and silk robes, of

vases, and purses of gold and silver; and in his estimate of

their merit or power, the first place was assigned to Bohemond,

and the second to Godfrey. In either fortune, the answer of the

crusaders was firm and uniform: they disdained to inquire into

the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet;

whatsoever was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem was

their enemy; and instead of prescribing the mode and terms of

their pilgrimage, it was only by a timely surrender of the city

and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve their

alliance, or deprecate their impending and irresistible attack.

103

101 (return) [ See M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 223, &c.;

and the articles of Barkidrok, Mohammed, Sangiar, in D’Herbelot.]

102 (return) [ The emir, or sultan, Aphdal, recovered Jerusalem

and Tyre, A. H. 489, (Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p.

478. De Guignes, tom. i. p. 249, from Abulfeda and Ben Schounah.)

Jerusalem ante adventum vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos ejecimus,

say the Fatimite ambassadors]

103 (return) [ See the transactions between the caliph of Egypt

and the crusaders in William of Tyre (l. iv. c. 24, l. vi. c. 19)

and Albert Aquensis, (l. iii. c. 59,) who are more sensible of

their importance than the contemporary writers.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 67 / 79 章

14 (return) [ See the Acts of the council of Clermont, Concil.