performed, yet the personal excommunication of Bohemond should continue till he recalled his second wife.* After the fall of Jerusalem, Saladin carried his conquering army into the principality of Antioch. Five and twenty towns submitted, and Antioch itself became tributary to the Muselmans.† The victories of Saladin, and the loss of Jerusalem, were melancholy contrasts to those hopes of the triumph of Christianity over Islamism which the council of Clermont had held out to Europe. In the eighty-eight years that the Crusaders possessed the Holy City, peace seldom dwelt about her walls: surrounded by numerous hostile nations, she was in a continual siege; and as great a number of wars were undertaken for the maintenance of her existence, as for the purposes of conquest. In the time of Godfrey of Bouillon, Asia was in a state of more than usual imbecility. The Arabian and Tartarian storms were spent, the caliphs were pontiffs rather than sovereign princes, and the great empire of their predecessors was dismembered and scattered. But states which are formed by arms, not by policy, are as quick in their rise as rapid in their decay, and ruin and disorder are the scenes of ambition. The passions and abilities of the enterprising lords of Syria raised several powerful governments; the hostile aspect of the Moslems increased in terror, when the imperial and royal crowns of Germany and France were broken; and the crescent triumphed over the cross when Saladin united and led the Muselman nations to the conquest of Jerusalem. In strength of body, and personal and military prowess, the Turks and the Franks were equal; but the Turks were in Archb. of Tyre, 1019, &c. Sanutus, lib. 3, pars 9, cap. 9. Bohadin, cap. 46, &c. The archbishop of Tyre states the consolidation of the Muhammedan powers as a great cause of the overthrow of the Christians, p. 1001. § Among the causes of the superiority of the Turks over the Latins, in the decline of the kingdom, James de Vitry mentions the improvement of the Muselmans in military equipments. He says, that when the Latins first invaded Palestine, the Saracens were unskilful in battle, and knew only the use of the bow; but that, in the course of time, they acquired Latin discipline, multitudes; the Franks were few,* and as the twelfth century was an age of war rather than of policy, the Latins did not by intellectual superiority raise themselves above their enemies. The Christians scrupled not to break treatiest with and the Latin mode of fighting, with swords, lances, &c. p. 1115, 1116, in Bongarsius. These assertions are in direct contradiction to the statement of that excellent historian, Albert the battle of Dory leum, mentions the armour of Aix, who, in describing the preliminaries to and shields of the Turks, and, according to him, the archers preceded the heavily armed troops precisely in the Francic fashion. Lib. ii. c. xxvii. p. 206. It cannot, however, be supposed, Asiatic soldiers precisely assimilated to the Euthat the weapons and modes of warfare of the ropean forms: though it is likely that offensive and defensive armour perpetually varied, and that each of the hostile nations adopted many of the ideas of the other. But a perusal of the historians of the crusades will leave an impression on the mind, that, however varied might have been the minute alterations, yet that the general character of the arms of the respective combatants was different; that the Latins were heavily armed, and chiefly trusted for success to the force and weight of their charge; and that the Turks had lighter arms, and confided in the had more enthusiasm, but less discipline, than celerity of their evolutions. The first Crusaders the last for there is no doubt that the art of war improved among Christians as time advanced. The Atabeks Zenghi and Noureddin, Shiracouch and Saladin, were far greater generals than Kilidge Arslan and Kerboga, and their superiority had, of course, great weight in events. The * An account of the military force of the kingdom of Jerusalem has been already given, P. 83, ante. The state was occasionally assisted by new volunteers from Europe. vow which brought them to the Holy Land was generally for a limited time, at the conclusion of which they were always impatient to depart. Their armies broke up at the most critical conjunctures, as it was not the necessity of the service, but the extent of their vows which held them together. As soon, therefore, as they habituated themselves to the country, and attained some experience, they were gone, and new men supplied their places, to acquire experience by the same misfortunes, and to lose it by the same inconstancy." Burke's Abridgment of English History. Burke's Works, vol. x., p. 493, 8vo. edit. It was impossible that any respect could be entertained for people like the Latins, who were not only cruel invaders and sanguinary persecutors, but common robbers. At one time Baldwin III. gave the Muselmans liberty of pasturage round Paneas. As soon as the ground was covered with flocks of sheep, the Christians soldiers broke into the country, carried away the animals, and murdered their keepers. Archb. the Muselmans; they never attempted to depraved as the laity; or take as another conciliate the foe, or to live in terms test the singular assertion of an equally of large and liberal intercourse. Except grave and eminent historian,* that there in the case of Egypt, they allowed the was not one chaste woman in Palestine. Saracenian nations to unite, without mak-But whatever might have been the state ing any endeavour to break their force, of morals, although vice was perhaps and they were too proud and too ignorant more prevalent than virtue, although to win any members to their cause, from oriental luxury had spread its soft the great confederacy of Atabeks. Con- infection, still the history of the first ciliation could only be the result of weak- Crusaders shows that the holy sepulness; a tender, pitying forbearance of error chre was redeemed, notwithstanding its was held a criminal indifference by armed champions were utterly unworthy of vinsaints. The Moslem contempt of infidels dicating its cause; and that, whether in was not more sincere than was the hatred excess or in famine, in profligacy or in which the Christians felt for the supposed holiness, the valour of the martial pilenemies of God. The mere possession grims was triumphant. Some other by the Muselmans of the land where the causes must be sought for. The greatSon of Heaven had lived and died, was ness of the power of Saladin has been a crime in the eyes of the faithful, and mentioned. It was the want of union prescription, the soundest and most solid rather than the want of moral virtue, that title that is known in public jurisprudence, accelerated the ruin of the Christian kingwas despised by fanaticism. The peo- dom. The evils of the aristocratical ple of the east were Mosleins, the people nature of the feudal system were experiof the west were Christians; and the enced, and when the French barons redifference of religion blotted out and can- turned to Europe after the failure before celled all the rights both of nature and Damascus, they stated with truth that the society. division among the Latin princes were one great cause of the Muselmans' success. Civil dissensions among the lords of Palestine paralysed the Christian power.† The early writers accounted for the evanescence of the Francic state in Palestine, on the false principle, that worldly prosperity is always the reward of virtue, and that vice is never triumphant. The wrath of Heaven, they say, visited the crimes of the Croises; and those crimes were so enormous, that a description of them would appear more like a satire than a history. Vice, both in her horrid and her alluring forms, it is affirmed, disgraced the kingdom, and we know not whether to admire most, the declaration of one author,* that the clergy were as of Tyre, lib. xviii. cap. cxii. The principle of not keeping faith with infidels, seems consequent on a dogma in the Decretals. "Juramentum contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam præstitum non tenet." Tancred and St. Louis were almost the only two eminent Crusaders who distinguished themselves for preferring honesty and truth to utility and convenience. * Jacob de Vitry. Amidst the general declamations of this worthy author against vice, I observe some circumstances which made the state of crime peculiarly deplorable, Palestine was the refuge of the abandoned and profligate people of Europe. Justice appears to have been wretchedly administered in the Holy Land. After the commission of crimes, people fled from the Christian settlements into the Muhammedan states, and purchased impunity by apostacy. J. The turbulence and ambition of the barons frequently thwarted the general good; but the greatest evils resulted from the altercations of the Hospitallers with the priesthood, and from the mutual jealousy between the two chief military or ders. On a former occasion it has been stated, that on account of their martial services, the Papal See granted various privileges to the knights of St. John. de Vitry, p. 1097. I do not think that the manners of the Christians were more corrupt at the close, than at the commencement of the kingdom. In the year 1120, the state was under the afflic tion of its granaries being devoured by locusts and rats. The political economists thought that this event was the judgment of God on the horrible sins of his people. A council was held at Naplousa, and if the state of morals can be judged of from the code of laws then promul gated, vice must have reached its maturity of corruption. See p. 112, note, ante. Archb. of Tyre. Bayle's observation on the failure of the crusade of Thibaud V. count of Champagne, is a good one: "Par les raisons ordinaires, c'est à dire par la mauvaise intelligence des princes croisés, cette expédition n'aboutit à rien." Bayle, art. Thibaut. Considering that the Hospitallers em- prompted them to deeds of heroism: but ployed their fortunes for the maintenance in the course of time the fine spirit of of the poor, and the entertainment of pil- their institution became mingled with grims, the Pope dispensed with their worldly views, and a noble jealousy of paying tithes to the church. He pro- pre-eminence in danger degenerated into hibited the patriarch from publishing any personal malice and hatred. As the sentence of interdict or excommunication knights were the allies, and not the subagainst them; and they were not to re-jects of the king, no war was undertaken, gard any general interdict on the coun- and no battle was fought, without their tries wherein their preceptories might be concurrence. But as each division of situated. By these means the church of knights was independent of the other, the Hospitallers was perfectly independ- there were endless altercations about ent of the church of Jerusalem. Per- precedency in council and situation in petual disputes occurred respecting the the field. The disputes became known, interference of jurisdiction, and it was and were general throughout Christenthe great complaint of the patriarch, that dom, for there was scarcely a noble the Hospitallers received men into their family that had not some of its members communion whom the church had ex- in one of those societies. Every eye communicated.* Rome was made the was turned to the papal court for the arcourt for the settlement of these alterca- bitration of their disputes. Alexander tions. Most of the bishops of Palestine III. declared, that the bond of charity appeared, and pleaded what they termed ought to unite Christians of every dethe cause of religion, and called upon the nomination. By his influence, a treaty Pope to grant the tithes, and to restore of peace was signed between the two the primitive discipline of the church. orders. But the Pope could not remove Only two of the cardinals were disposed the great causes of dispute, ambition to rescind the papal decrees, and it was and avarice, and therefore dissatisfaction clear to the rest that there was no suffi- slept in the thin ashes of a seeming cient reason for weakening the papal friendship. authority over the military knights, by putting them also under episcopal jurisdiction. The subject was indefinitely adjourned, and the disputants returned to Palestine. We have marked as one sign of ruin in the kingdom of Jerusalem, the dissensions between the church and the knights of St. John. But much more pregnant with evil were the dissensions between those knights and the Templars. Every event in the military history of the Latin kingdom had shown, how valuable to the Christian cause had been the military friars and the red cross knights. Those warriors were the flower of Christendom, and the exactness of their discipline held in subordination the numerous mercenary troops whom their immense wealth enabled them to support. In the infancy of those societies, a generous emulation The archbishop of Tyre (p. 932, &c.) is the only original writer who mentions these disputes. As may be expected, he took the side of the church, and does not tell us the case of the Hospitallers. A detail of the disputes is not a desideratum. The marking of the existence of the imperium in imperio is the great matter. 1040 CHAPTER XI. THE THIRD CRUSADE. Effects in Europe of the failure of the second Crusade. Louis VII. of France, and Henry II. of England, encourage holy wars.-Envoys from Palestine visit France and England.-Sensation in Europe made by the battle of Tiberias.-The Troubadors.-Germany arms.-Philip Augustus and Henry II. take the cross.-Saladin tythe.-Richard Cour de Lion resolves on a Crusade.-March of the French and English.-Crusade of the Germans. -Death of the emperor Barbarossa. Formation of the Teutonic order.-Events in Palestine after the loss of Jerusalem.-Siege of Acre.-Richard's course from Marseilles to Sicily.-Occurrences in Sicily.-The French sail to Acre.-Departure of Richard.--He subjugates Cyprus.-He sets sail for Acre.-His cruelty. EUROPE rang with invectives against the holy Bernard, when the thousands of men whom his eloquence and miracles had roused to arms perished in the rocks of Cilicia. A general or a statesman would have pointed out errors in the policy or conduct of the Crusaders; | trous issues of the second Crusade were but the preacher sheltered himself under the usual defence of impostors, and declared that the sins of the people had merited Divine punishment, and that the men of his day resembled in morals the Hebrews of old, who perished in the journey from Egypt to the promised land. This language was justly felt to be cruel and insulting: it did not exculpate the saint in the opinion of the world, and the nations of the West were not again disposed to make religious wars the common concern of Christendom. Often indeed† both fanatical and saturnine spirits fancied that Crusades were the only road to celestial favour: in other cases softer feelings and gentler principles excited that courage which stern religion had failed to rouse; for in days of chivalry, when "lover's heaven" could only be reached by "sorrow's hell," the knight sometimes performed his penance, and proved his fealty in breaking a lance with the Saracens. But popes and councils in vain attempted the insurrection of nations. The disas For some remarks of Bayle and Jortin on the conduct of St. Bernard, see note M. After the first conquest of the Holy Land, individuals and parties of people continually went thither from Europe. There were vessels of conveyance at most seaports, bearing on their sterns a flag with a red cross upon it. From motives of safety the ships commonly sailed in fleets, and for general convenience two periods of sailing were fixed -- March and June. The summer passage was preferred, for the arch bishop of Tyre speaks of the autumn as the time when pilgrims generally reached the Holy Land, p. 808. M. Paris relates a story of one Godric of Finchale, who travelled to Jerusalem eating only bread and drinking only water, and arrived at the Holy City without having once changed his clothes. He performed the usual course of prayers and genuflexions in the Temple, and then enjoyed a luxurious wash in the Jordan. On coming forth from those celebrated waters, he cast off his shoes, and exclaimed, O God, who formerly walked with naked feet on this land, and permitted them to be pierced for my sake, I vow never again to wear shoes." He then, continues the historian, walked back to England. The reader, after having made a slight change in the two following lines of Shakspeare, can apply them to the present subject. "I know a lady in Venice would have walk'd Barefoot to Palestine, for a touch of his nether lip." fresh in the minds of the people of Europe; the cypress was generally, they thought, twined with the laurel in Palestine, and public opinion no longer fixed a mark of cowardice and pusillanimity on those who did not hasten to the sacred banners. In the third council of the Lateran, which met twenty years after the return to Europe of Louis and Conrad, the policy of king Almeric was ap plauded; Egypt was more dreaded than Syria, and the possession of Damietta was held out as the object to which all the efforts of the Christians should tend.* The clergy called on the world to arm : but the recollection of misery was too fresh, and the decrees of the council were heard of with sullenness and discontent. Louis, however, always cherished the hope of returning to the holy land,† and of reviving his faded glory: and at length he found his wishes met by a brother sovereign. Since virtue was his policy, as well as his duty, Henry II., in the height of his disputes with Thomas à Becket, had professed great sanctity, and following the example of the French king, he and his barons commanded that for one year a tax of two-pence, and for four subsequent years a tax of a penny in the pound should be levied on the moveables of the people of England.§ Among the deeds of virtue which washed from Henry the guilt of Becket's murder, was the supporting of two hundred knights Templars in Palestine for a year, and an agreement with the Pope to go and fight the infidels in Asia, or in Spain, for thrice that time, if his holiness should Among the causes of the first Crusade we mentioned the influence of the spirit of commerce on the love of pilgrimages. That spirit was afterwards mingled with the desire of conquest, particularly in the case of the Egyptian politics. Situated between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, Egypt was the communication between Europe and the Indies: and the possession of that country would have rendered the Europeans masters of commerce. † Bouquet, iv. 457. Louis VII. had taxed his people for the second Crusade. § Gervas, col. 1399. In the year 1168, Henry II. sent money to the Holy Land. Tveti Annales, p. 108. This last quoted writer is of but little use in the Crusades. He has not done much more than abridge Vinesauf. require it. In the year 1177, Henry and Louis agreed to travel together to the Holy Land. But the English monarch was prudent, and fond of peace, and the illness and subsequent death of the French king terminated the project. fend his own kingdom, than afford his personal aid to the Latins in Palestine. The king, however, was advised to consult with Philip Augustus on the propriety of a Crusade. Henry granted his license to all his subjects for waging of war with the infidels; but the patriarch was indignant at this deliberation and caution, and demanded from the monarch the presence of one of his sons at the head of an army. The request was congenial with the wishes of prince John; but his father refused; and Heraclius outraged decency in expressing his indignation. He openly reproached Henry for the murder of Thomas à Becket; and observing that the anger of the king arose, he exclaimed, "do to me, if you will, as you did to Thomas. I shall as willingly die in England by your hands, as in Syria by the hands of the infidels : for you are more cruel than any Saracen." The haughty and politic Henry neither replied to this railing, nor molested the person of the brutal priest. The monarch went to France, at the summons to religion, political animosities were suspended or forgotten; and the sovereigns of the two greatest nations of the west resolved that their armies should unite, and march to * The count of Tripoli, while regent of Jerusalem, endeavoured to strengthen his kingdom by new draughts of men from Europe. The importance of the embassy which he sent to the west was apparent from the dignity of the legates, for they were the patriarchs of Jerusalem and the grand masters of the Templars and Hospitallers. In the case of the patriarch, the dignity of his office rather than his moral character, was consulted. His haughtiness of temper, and his imperious passions, totally disqualified him from the office of mediator, and he was despised by the religious part of the world for associating with a woman, who, on account of the pride of her deportment, was generally known by the title of the patriarchess. The ambassadors arrived in Italy, and found the emperor Frederic Barbarossa and the Pope at Verona. His imperial majesty did not yet aspire to religious glory, and his holiness assured them he would recommend the Crusade to the kings of France * While Heraclius was in England in the and England. The grand master of the year 1185, he dedicated the church of St. John, Templars died in Italy, and the two re- Clerkenwell, and also that of the Temple in maining legates proceeded to Paris. Fleet Street, into which part of London the They offered the keys of the Holy City Templars had lately removed from Holborn. and the sepulchre to Philip Augustus, but After the suppression of the monasteries, the France was at that time at war with the priory church and house of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell were preserved as store-houses Flemings, and the council of the young during the remainder of Henry VIII.'s reign. In monarch would not listen to projects of the time of Edward the VI. most of the church, Asiatic conquests. The kiss of peace, with the great bell tower, was blown up by and a promise of maintenance to such gunpowder, and the stone was employed in The bell tower, of his subjects as should assume the building Somerset House. cross, were all that the ambassadors re-manship, graven, gilt, and enamelled, to the says Stow, was a most curious piece of workceived from the French king. Their great beauty of the city, and passing all others greatest hopes rested upon England, and that he had ever seen. That part of the quire on their arrival there they met with the which remained, and some side chapels, were deepest respect. But the Parliament repaired by Cardinal Pole in Mary's time. knew and echoed the opinion of the Stow's London, edit. 1720, book iv. p. 62, 63. A Latin inscription in Saxon capital letters monarch, that it would be wiser and commemorated the dedication of the Temple better for him to remain at home and de- church. The inscription was destroyed by the workmen who repaired the church in 1695. Dugdale, in the first edition of his Originales Juridiciales, printed a copy of it; and Strype, in his edition of Stow, has given a fac-simile. From this fac-simile a copy was made in 1810, and put up in the church by order of the Benchers of the two societies of the Inner and Middle Temple, Hoveden, p. 529. † Brompton, col. 1134. Sanatus, p. 172. Bernardus, 779. Bayle (Dict. art. Heraclius) is incorrect in desiring us to distinguish the amatory patriarch from him who was ambassador to Europe. There was but one patriarch of that name. |