THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE S. AFTER the accomplishment of prophecy in the destruction of the second temple, paganism became the religion of Jerusalem, and the insulting and intolerant Romans dedicated to Venus and Jove the spots which had been hallowed by the passion of the Saviour. But in the fourth century the banner of the cross triumphed over polytheism. The piety of Christian emperors raised churches on the ruins of heathen temples, and Jerusalem continued a seat of the true faith, till the "Star of Islamism" arose, and the Arabians changed the moral and political aspect of the world. For three ages the Holy City was subject in reciprocal succession to the caliphs of Bagdad, and to those of Cairo. But the commanders of the faithful in Egypt finally prevailed, and in the year 969 their dominion over Palestine was established. A century, however, had not elapsed before a storm from the north burst upon the fairest and largest portion of Muhammedan countries, and the calamity of foreign invasion was added to the miseries of political feuds. From the bleak and ungenial plains of Khozzer, at the north-east of the Caspian sea, a mass of fierce and unpolished Turkmans, called in history the Seljuk Turks, rolled to the milder regions of the south. Between the years 1038 and 1092, all Persia, Arabia, and most of Syria, owned for their lords, Togrol, Seljuk, Alp Arslan, and Malek Shah. In the divisions between the lords of the Moslem world, these Tartarian princes chose the side of the caliph of Bagdad; they rescued him from the rebellion of his Turkish guards, and from the hostility of his Egyptian rival. They then carried on offensive war with the enemies of their ally, and a general of Malek Shah, about the year 1076, tore Jerusalem from their grasp. The new conquest was intrusted to Ortok, emir of a considerable body of Turks from the plains of Kipjack, and who soon converted his government into an independent principality. The city was alternately under the authority of the Seljuks and the Ortokites, for eighteen years, but in the vicissitudes of fortune, the Egyptians once more became lords of the ascendant, and recovered their power in Palestine.* Jerusalem, whether in a state of glory or of abasement, was alwayst held dear * De Guignes, livres 11 and 12. Jerome in his seventeenth epistle, says that people began to pilgrimise to Jerusalem directly after the ascension of Christ. guilt hoped that pardon might be procured by him who underwent the pains of pilgrimage, and who made the sacrifice of prayer in a land which, above all other countries, seemed to have been favoured by the Deity. As expiation was now the purpose of the religious traveller, it was the duty of directors of consciences to determine on what occasions the pe and sacred by the Christian. In the early ages of the church, a religious curiosity prompted people to visit those places which the scriptures have sanctified, and as perceptible objects awaken associated thoughts and feelings,t the travellers found their sympathies stronger and their devotions more fervent, in beholding the scenes of the ministry of their Divine master, than in simply read-nance was necessary. The Bible acing the narrative of his life. From the impious and vain attempt of the emperor Julian to re-edify the walls of the Holy City, the moral conclusion should have been drawn, that heaven had manifested its providence in order to complete its promises for the perfect abrogation of Judaism; but superstition readily fancied that there was some peculiar sanctity in the very ground of Jerusalem, and consequently the habit of visiting Palestine became strengthened.‡ Anxious restless quainted the pious with the manners of the East. A scrip and a staff were, in conformity with Asiatic customs, considered to be the accompaniments of every traveller: they were the only support of the poor, and were always carried by the rich. The village pastor delivered a staff* into the hands of the pilgrim, and put round him a scarf or girdle to which a leathern scrip was attached.† Friends and neighbours walked with him to the next town, and benedictions and tears sanctified and embittered the moment of Quis enim non rapitur in admirationem et stuporem, qui montem Oliviferum, mare Tibe- separation. On his return, he placed riadis, Jordanem, Hierosolymam, et alia loca qua the branch of the sacred palm-treef (which Christum frequentasse notum est, conspicit et he had brought from Jerusalem) over the menti suæ præsentem sistit generis humani sos- altar of his church, in proof of the accompitatorem, illic ea operantem aut passum quæ originem dedere sacris Christianorum ejus noto Europe the soil of Palestine ran through most men confitentium. Reland, Palæstina ex monuof the middle ages. At Pisa, the cemetery mentis veteribus illustrata, vol. 1. lib. 1. c. 4. called Campo Santo contains, they say, five page 21. "Not that the Deity can be adored in fathoms of Holy Land, brought in 1218 from JeJerusalem only; for who does not know that herusalem by the Pisans. Lalande, Voyage en is omnipresent; but the faithful may gratify Italie, tom. 2. their eyes by contemplating the scenes of the passion, and not enjoy them by faith alone. If we are devoted to any object, every circumstance, every thing relating to it interests us." Theodoreti Hist. Rel. p. 820. "Movemur nescio quo pacto locis ipsis, in quibus eorum, quos diligimus aut admiramur, adsunt vestigia. Me quidem ipsæ illæ nostræ Athenæ non tam operibus magnificis, exquisitisque antiquorum artibus delectant, quam recordatione summorum virorum, ubi quisque habitare, ubi sedere, ubi disputare solitus sit: studioseque eorum etiam sepulchra contemplor." Cicero de Legibus, 1. 2. c. 2. If the Roman, in contemplating the ruins of Greece, (Epist. ad Fam. 4. 5.,) found that a noble sympathy for the woes of nations banished all personal sorrows, the view of Cavalry could not excite feebler motions in the breast of a Christian. Even the dust of Palestine was adored: it was carefully conveyed to Europe, and the fortunate possessor, whether by original acquisition or by purchase, was considered to be safe from the malevolence of demons. As a proof that miracles had not ceased in his time, St. Augustine relates a story of the cure of a young man, who had some of the dust of the Holy City sus pended in a bag over his bed. De Civitate Dei, lib. 22. c. 8. The fashion of transporting It is necessary to inform those who are obliged to describe the customs of the middle ages, that the staff of the pilgrim very rarely resembled a long cross or a crook. It was generally a stick as tall as the bearer, with a knob in the middle, and sometimes one at the top. See Fosbrooke's Monachism, p. 422, &c. For remarks on the dress of a pilgrim, see note A. at the end of the volume. Dante mentions the pilgrim bringing home his staff, inwreathed with palm. Che si reca'l bordon di palma cinto. Del Purgatorio, canto, 33, 78. The word palmer denoted a holy traveller to Jerusalem. Archb. of Tyre, lib. 21. cap. 17. Du Cange, articles Palmarius and Palmifer. Menage Dict. Etymologique, article Paumiers. Chiamansi Palmieri, inquanto vanno oltra mare, laonde molte volte récano la palina. Dante, Vita Nuova, p. 80. Many writers have said that the pilgrim travelled to some certain place; the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular. The old authors, however, do not always attend to this distinction: Chaucer, for instance, as Mr. Tyrwhitt says, seems to consider all pilgrims to foreign parts as palmers. Notes on the Canterbury Tales, vol. ii. p. 393. 4to. edition. The words palmer and pilgrims are used as perfectly synonymous in the Visions of Pier's Ploughman. plishment of his vow; religious thanksgivings were offered up; rustic festivity saluted and honoured him, and he was revered for his piety and successful labours.* Though pilgrimages were generally considered acts of virtue, yet some of the leaders of the church accounted them useless and criminal. Gregory, bishop of Nice, in the fourth century, dissuades his flock from these journeys. They were not conscientious obligations, he said, for, in the description of persons whom Christ had promised to acknowledge in the next world, the name of pilgrim could not be found. A migratory life was dangerous to virtue, particularly to the modesty of women.t Horror at spectacles of vice would diminish with familiarity, and the moral principle would gradually he destroyed. Malice, idolatry, poisoning, and bloodshed, disgraced Jerusalem itself; and so dreadfully polluted was the city, that if any man wished to have a more than ordinary spiritual communication with Christ, he had better quit his earthly tabernacle at once, than endeavour to enjoy it in places originally sacred, but which had been since defiled. Some years A true devoted pilgrim is not weary To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps." Two Gentlemen of Verona, act. 2. sc. 7. The necessity of making a pilgrimage to Rome and other places was often urged by ladies who did not wish to be mewed in the solitary gloom of a cloister, "chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon." In the ninth century, a foreign bishop wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, requesting, in very earnest terms, that English women of every rank and degree might be prohibited from pilgrimising to Rome. Their gallantries were notorious over all the continent. Perpacuæ enim sunt civitates in Longobardia, vel in Francia, aut in Gallia, in qua non sit adultera vel meretrix generis Anglorum: quod scandalum est, et turpitudo totius ecclesiæ." Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ Med. vi. Dissert. 58. vol. v. p. 58. “There are few cities in Lombardy, in France, or in Gaul, in which there is not an English adultress or harlot, to the scandal and disgrace of the whole church." Morality did not improve as the world grew older. The prioress in Chaucer, demure as she is, wears a bracelet on which was inscribed the sentence, "Amor vincit omnia." The gallant monk, in the same pilgrimage, ties his hood with a true-lover's knot. Gregorei, episcopi Nyssa, de euntibus Ieros. Epist. edit. Molineo, &c. Hanov. 1607. Roman Catholic writers have been anxious to prove after the time of Gregory, a similar description of the depravity of Jerusalem was given by Saint Jerome, and the Latin father commends a monk, who, though a resident in Palestine, had but on one occasion travelled to the city.* The opinions of these two venerable spiritual guides could not stem the torrent of popular religion. The coffers of the church, were enriched by the sale of relics, and the dominion of the clergy became powerful, in proportion to the growth of religious abuses and corruptions. Pilgrims from India, Ethiopia, Britannia, and Hibernia, went to Jerusalem; and the tomb of Christ resounded with hymns in various languages. Bishops and teachers would have thought it a disgrace to their piety and learning, if they had not adored their Saviour, on the very spot where his cross had first shed the light of his gospel.† The assertion, that "the coffers of the church were enriched by the sale of relics," requires some observations; because the sale of one relic in particular encouraged the ardour of pilgrimages, and from that ardour the crusades arose. During the fourth century, Christendom was duped into the belief, that the very cross on which Christ had suffered had been discovered in Jerusalem. The city's bishop was the keeper of the treasure, but the faithful never offered their money in vain for a fragment of the holy wood. They listened with credulity to the assurance of their priests, that a living virtue pervaded an inanimate and insensible substance, and that the cross permitted itself every day to be divided into several parts, and yet remained uninjured and entire. It was publicly exthat St. Gregory did not condemn pilgrimages in the abstract. Perhaps so: he contends, however, that in his time no good could result from holy journeys. Molinæus, note No. 19. † Jerome, Epist. ad Marcell. Ep. 22. See, too, Bedæ, Hist. Eccl. lib. 5. c. 15-18. Thus Erasmus says, in his entertaining dialogue on pilgrimages, "that if the fragments of the cross were collected, enough would be found for the building of a ship." "Idem causanter de cruce Domini, quæ privatim ac publice tot locis ostendetur, ut si fragmenta conferantur in unum, navis onerariæ justum onus videri possint; et tamen totam crucem suam bajulavit Dominus. No doubt Swift had this passage in his mind when he observes, "an hibited during the religious festivities of Easter, and Jerusalem was crowded with pious strangers to witness the solemn spectacle. But after four ages of perpetual distribution, the world was filled with relics, and superstition craved for a novel object. Accordingly, the Latin clergy of Palestine pretended, that on the vigil of Easter, after the great lamps in the church of the resurrection had been extinguished, they were relighted by God himself. People flocked from the West to the East in order to behold this act of the Divinity, and to catch some portion of a flame, which had the marvellous property of healing all diseases, mental as well as bodily, if those who received it had faith.* The love of pilgrimages was nourished by a circumstance of no apparent connexion with devotional curiosity, the desire of expiation, the collecting of relics, or any other religious principle. Even so early as the days of Chilperic, France carried on a constant and extensive intercourse with Greece. The opposite shores of the Mediterranean were also known. Religion and commerce assisted each other, and the characters of a holy traveller and a worldly merchant other time Lord Peter was telling of an old sign-post that belonged to his father, with nails and timber enough in it to build sixteen large men of war." Tale of a Tub, sec. 4. * De Lumine Sancti Sepulchri Commentatio. Moshemii Dissertationes, vol. 2. Lubeck, 1727; and Du Cange's note on the thirteenth book of the Alexiad. p. 99. Like Tertullian and his school, these fire-worshippers "measured the merits of their assent by the absurdity of the proposition to be believed." De Guignes, in 37 vol. Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, Muratori Antiq. Italiæ Med. Evi Diss. 30. "It has been remarked very long ago, that Palestine is the natural seat of great maritime commerce; which, indeed, first arose in that quarter, although afterwards unnaturally, as it were, it removed to other less convenient shores. To perceive this, one need only cast an eye on the map of this country. It lies between two seas, from which there is a direct navigation to the farest eastern and western parts of the globe. The land carrage of commodities from India, and other oriental countries, unloaded at Aela, and to be transported to the Mediterranean sea, is very easy, and by the use of camels very cheap; and the caravan trade betwixt Asia and Africa must likewise take its way through Palestine Michaelis on the Mosaic Law, vol. 1. p. 72. Smith's translation. were often united in the same person. The hospitals which charity had founded for the faltering pilgrim on the road to Jerusalem were the resting places of the caravans. The Christians acted like the Muselmans and Hindus, whose expeditions to Mecca and Haridwar are for mercantile as well as for religious purposes. From the ninth century to the eleventh, no state was richer or more commercial than that of Amalfi. Its maritime laws were much respected in Europe, as the Rhodian decisions had been venerated by the Romans. Its money was current throughout the East. Amalfi was nominally dependent on the Emperor of Constantinople, and his formal sanction was obtained to a popular nomination of its dukes or governors.§ The wealthy Italians had commerce with Syria, and therefore enjoyed fairer opportunities than most other people to visit the hallowed haunts of pilgrims. The Muselmans also were fond of pilgrimages to Jerusalem. They venerated that city as having been honoured with the presence of Christ and other prophets, whose divine authority they acknowledged. In Muhammedan theology, it is the place of assemblage at the general resurrection. To die in Jerusalem is as beneficial as to die in heaven. The most in- Mis James de Vitry, speaking of the pilgrims, says, Latini devotionis gratia aut negotiationis advenientes, p. 1082 in Bonjarsius. William of Apulia bears out this assertion. Hic Arabes, Indi, Siculi noscuntur, et Afri. § Giannone Istoria di Napoli, lib. 7. cap. 3. They belonged to the Romish church, and were equally incommoded by the heresy of the Greeks, and the infidelity of the Saracens. They were well known in Cairo, one great seat of the Moslem power, and by means of rich presents to the officer of the caliph, they gained a royal license for the erection of a church in Jerusalem, wherein they might celebrate religious service, agreeably to the Latin ritual. A temple was accordingly built near that of the Resurrection, and dedicated to the Virgin, under the title of St. Mary ad Latinos. Provision was also made for the pilgrims of both sexes by means of the two hospitals, the chapels of which were put under the protection of St. John the Almoner,* and of St. Mary Magdalen. Some Benedictine monks administered the ceremonies of religion, and the duties of benevolence were performed by such of thos. pious Europeans, of the Romish communion, as had resolved to end their days in Palestine. The weary palmers found repose, the sick were healed, and the poor were relieved in these houses of charity. Humanity was paramount over the distinctions of sects, and even no unfortunate Muselman ever supplicated at the gate in vain. The alms of the people of Southern Italy, and of their conquerors, the Normans, supported the establishment, and the merchants of Amalfi were its faithful trustee.f But no principles of ecclesiastical discipline, no causes, whether superstitious or commercial, gave such strength to the spirit of pilgrimising, as the opinion which distinguished the tenth century, that the reign of Christ, or the Millenium, was at hand. The people, judging of divine matters by human, attributed to a great and good God all the angry passions of mortality. They underwent the austerities of the cloister, and the pains and labours which the monks imposed. God's vicegerents on earth * St. John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria, was a fit patron saint; for when, in the seventh century, Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Saracens, he sent money and provisions to the afflicted Christians, and supplied such as fled into Egypt. See Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 274. ed. 1812. Glaber, lib. I. c. 5. in Du Chesne, vol. iv. Archb. of Tyre, p. 934, 935. Revelations, ch. 20. v. 2-4. were propitiated by costly gifts, and so strong was the fanaticism, that private property was suffered to decay, and noble edifices were destroyed, from the conviction of their approaching inutility. From every quarter of the Latin world the poor affrighted Christians, deserting their homes and ordinary occupations, crowded to the Holy Land. The belief was general, that on the place of his former suffering Christ would judge the world: his zealous but ignorant votaries thought that these voluntary sacrifices and penances would be acceptable with heaven. Years rolled on years; the thunderbolts of vengeance remained in the skies; nature held her appointed course. The world discovered that its interpretations of prophecy had been rash and persumptuous; but Jerusalem became dearer than ever to the Christians, because it had been the subject of their reflections and feelings. Most of the causes of pilgrimages arrived, in the eleventh century, at the height of their influence and effect. The history of that period abounds with narratives of devotional expeditions.* The clergy of Germany had proclaimed their intention of visiting Jerusalem; and Ingulph, a native and historian of England, was one of a Norman troop which joined them at Mayence. The total number of pilgrims was seven thousand, and among the leaders are the names, respectable for rank, of the archbishop of Mayence, and the bishops of Bamberg, Ratisbon, and Utrecht. Their march down Europe, and through the Greek empire, was peaceable and unmolested; but, when they entered the territory of the infidels, they fell into the hands of Arab robbers, and it was not without great losses of money and lives that the band reached Jerusalem. The pilgrims were met by the patriarch, and the Latins and Syrians of the city. They made a solemn procession to the sepulchre, amidst the clangor of cymbals, and a brilliant display of lights ;† and the religious feelings of the strangers are well expressed by the declaration of one of them, that Jesus Christ, the inhabitant of the temple, alone knew the number of prayers which they *Gretser, de Sacris Peregrin, lib. 1. c. 6. † Grandi cymbalorum tonitru et luminarium immenso fulgore. - Ingulph. |