The Crusades1095-1291

“No idle fancy was it when of yore Pilgrims in countless numbers braved the seas, And legions battled on the farthest shore,

Only to pray at Thy sepulchral bed, Only in pious gratitude to kiss The sacred earth on which Thy feet did tread.”

—UHLAND, An den Unsichtbaren

I. Character and Causes of the Crusades

“‘O, holy Palmer!’ she began, —For sure he must be sainted manWhose blessed feet have trod the groundWhere the Redeemer’s tomb is found.”

—Marmion, V. 21

he Crusades were armed pilgrimages to Jerusalem under thebanner of the Cross. They formed one of the mostcharacteristic chapters of the Middle Ages of Western

Europe. They had a romantic and sentimental, as well as areligious and military interest. They were a sublime product ofthe European Christian imagination, and constitute a chapter ofrare interest in the history of humanity. They exhibited themight of the Christianity of the new nations of Western Europe,which were just emerging from barbarism and heathenism. Theymade religion subservient to war and war subservient to religion.They were a succession of tournaments between two continents andtwo religions, struggling for supremacy—Europe and Asia,Christianity and Mohammedanism. Such a spectacle the world hasnot seen before nor since, and may never see again.1 The romanticand sentimental sway the Crusades held in the West was stillevident when, on April 17, 1492, Columbus signed an agreement togiving the proceeds of his undertaking beyond the western seas tothe recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. Before his fourth and final

T

1 Gibbon, who treats the Crusades with scorn as a useless exhibition ofreligious fanaticism, called them the “world’s debate,” Ch. LIX.

journey to America he wrote to Alexander VI, renewing his vow tofurnish troops for the rescue of that sacred shrine.2

These expeditions occupied the attention of Europe for morethan two centuries, beginning in 1095. Yea, they continued to bethe concern of the popes until the beginning of the sixteenthcentury. There were seven greater Crusades, the first beginningin 1095, the last terminating with the death of Louis IX (1270).Between these dates and after 1270 there were other minorexpeditions, and of these not the least worthy of attention werethe tragic Crusades of the children.

The most famous western men of their age were identifiedwith the Crusades. Emperors and kings went at the head of thearmies: Conrad III, Frederick Barbarossa, Frederick II, Richard Iof England, Louis VII, Philip Augustus and Louis IX, and Andrewof Hungary. Fair women of high station, such as, Alice ofAntioch; Queen Eleanor of France; Ida of Austria; Berengaria,wife of Richard; and Margaret, queen of Louis IX, accompaniedtheir husbands or went alone to the seats of war. Kings’ sons,such as, Frederick of Swabia, Sigurd, and Edward, son of HenryIII, accompanied by Eleanor, his wife, shared the same risks.Priests, abbots, and higher ecclesiastics fought manfully in theranks and at the head of troops.3 The popes stayed at home, butwere tireless in their appeals to advance the holy project. TheCrusades were the chief passion of many of the best popes of thetimes, such as Honorius III and Gregory X. Monks, like Peter theHermit, Bernard, and Fulke of Neuilly, stirred the flames ofenthusiasm by their eloquence. But if some of the best men ofEurope and those in the most eminent stations of life went on theCrusades, so also did some of a lesser sort. It has been so inall wars.

The Crusading armies were known by such titles as the army“of the Cross,” “of Christ,” “of the Lord,” “of the Faith.” 4 TheCross was the badge of the Crusaders and gave them their favorite

2 John Fiske, Discovery of America, I 318, 419, 505.3 The Itinerary of Richard I, giving an account of the Third Crusade, laysstress upon the good fighting qualities of the prelates and clergy. Itspeaks of one priest who never tired of incessantly hurling darts from asling at the enemy, I 42. The archbishop of Besançon superintended andpaid for the construction of a great machine for battering down thewalls of Acre, I 60. Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury, old man that hewas, had two hundred knights and three hundred followers serving underhim. “Abbots and bishops led their own troops, fighting manfully forthe faith,” I 62.

2

name. The Crusaders were called the soldiers of Christ,pilgrims, peregrini, and “those signed with the Cross,” crucisignati orsignatores. Determining to go on a crusade was called “taking theCross” or “taking the sign of the Cross.”5

Contemporaries had no doubt of the Crusades being a holyundertaking. The account of Guibert called the First Crusade“The Deeds of God, accomplished through the Franks,” Gesta Dei perFrancos.

Those who fell under eastern skies, or on their way to theEast, received the benefit of special indulgences for sinscommitted and were esteemed as martyrs in the popular judgment ofthe people. These special indulgences were courtesy of Pope JohnVIII (872-882). Pressed by the Saracens who were devastatingItaly, he promised absolution from sins, as far as it belonged tohim to give it, to the soldiers fighting bravely against thepagans.6 This precedent was followed by Urban II, who promisedthe first Crusaders marching to Jerusalem that the journey shouldbe counted as a substitute for penance.7 Eugenius, 1146, wentfarther, in distinctly promising the reward of eternal life. Inhis chronicle of the First Crusade, the Abbot Guibert said Godinvented the Crusades as a new way for the laity to atone fortheir sins and to merit salvation.8

These rewards were not confined to spiritual privileges.Eugenius III, in his exhortations to the Second Crusade, placedthe Crusaders in the same category with clerics before the courtsin the case of most offences.9 The kings of France, joined withthe Holy See, from 1188 to 1270, in granting to them temporaladvantages, exemption from debt, and freedom from taxation and4 Milites Christi, Robert the Monk, VII, Rec., III 867; Christi militia, Guibert,VII, II, Rec., IV 229. The army was also called crucifer exercitus,Ekkehard, Rec. V 16. 5 The French terms were se croiser, prendre la croix, prendre le signe de la croix.See, for example, Villehardouin, 2, 8, 18, Wailly’s ed. Pp. 3, 7, 13.This historian of the Fourth Crusade also calls the Crusaders les croisés,38, Wailly’s ed. P. 24.6 Quoniam illi, qui cum pietate catholicæ religionis in belli certamine cadunt, requies eosæternæ vitæ sucsipiet contra paganos atque infideles strenue dimicantes, etc,. Gottlob,Kreuzablass, 25. 7 Quicumque pro sola devotione . . . ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem profectusfuerit, iter illud pro omni pænitentia reputetur, Gottlob, 72 sqq.; Mirbt. Quellen, 1148 Gesta, I 1; Rec., IV 124.9 Lea, Hist. of Inquis., I 44, says, “Crusaders were released from earthlyas well as heavenly justice by being classed with clerks and subjectedonly to spiritual justice.”

3

the payment of interest. Complaints were frequently made by thekings of France that the Crusaders committed the most offensivecrimes under cover of ecclesiastical protection. Thesecomplaints called forth instructions from Innocent IV (1246) andAlexander IV (1260) to the bishops not to protect such offenders.William of Tyre, in his account of the First Crusade, andprobably reading into it some of the experiences of a later date,said (Bk. I. 16), “Many took the Cross to elude theircreditors.”10

If it is hard for us to put the idea of war and bloodshedtogether with the achievement of a purely religious purpose, itmust be remembered that no such feeling prevailed among thepeople in the Middles Ages in Western Europe. The wars of theperiod of Joshua and the Judges still formed a stimulatingexample for these people. St. John Chrysostom, BlessedAugustine, and other Church Fathers of the fifth century liftedup their voices against the violent destruction of heathentemples that went on in Egypt and Gaul. However, whatevercompunction or twinge of conscience might have been felt for thewanton slaying of Saracens by Christian armies in an attitude ofaggression, the same compunction was not felt when the Saracensplaced themselves in the position of holding the sacred sites ofPalestine.

Bernard of Clairvaux, known by many in the West as SaintBernard, said, pagans must not be slain even if they cannot beprevented by other means from oppressing the faithful. However,it is better that they should be put to death than that the rodof the wicked should rest on the lot of the righteous. Therighteous, according to Bernard, need not fear sin in killing theenemy of Christ. Christ’s soldier can securely kill and moresafely die. When he dies, it profits him; when he slays, itprofits Christ. The Christian is joyful at the death of a paganbecause it glorifies Christ and when he himself is killed, he hasreached his goal.11 The pope claimed the conquest of Palestine bythe destruction of the Saracens was a legal act; a claim hejustified by reason of the preaching of the Apostles in thatcountry and its conquest.12 10 See Origin of the Temporal Privileges of Crusaders, by Edith C. Bramhall, “AmJour. of Theol.” 1901, pp. 279-292, and Gottlob, Kreuzablas, pp. 140 sqq.11 De militibus templi, II, III, Migne, 182, 923 sq.12 This is what Fulcher meant, Rec., III 323, when he put into Urban’smouth the words nunc jure contra barbaros pugnent qui olim fratres dimicabant. Twohundred years later Alvarus Pelagius made the same argument: quamvis

4

When asked whether clerics might go to war, Thomas Aquinasreplied in the affirmative when the prize was the defense of theChurch or the poor and oppressed, and not worldly gain.13

The testimony of Matthew Paris might be added to othertestimonies esteeming the Crusaders. Summing up the events ofthe half-century ending with 1250, he said: 14 “A great multitudeof nobles left their country to fight faithfully for Christ. Allof these were manifest martyrs and their names are inscribed inindelible characters in the book of life.” Women forced theirhusbands to take the Cross.15 Women who attempted to hold theirhusbands back suffered evil consequences for it.16 Kings, who didnot go across the seas, had a passion for the Holy Sepulchre.Edward I commanded his son to take his heart and deposit itthere, setting apart £2000 for the expedition. Robert Bruce alsowanted his heart to find its way to its last earthly resting-place in Jerusalem.

The Crusades began and ended in France. The French elementwas the ruling factor, from Urban II, who was a native ofChâtillon, near Rheims, and Peter of Amiens, to Louis IX.17 Thecontemporary accounts of the Crusades were for the most partwritten by Frenchmen. Guibert of Nogent and other chroniclersregard the Crusades as especially the work of their countrymen.The French expression, outre-mer, was used for the goal of theCrusades.18 The movement spread throughout, Europe from Hungary toScotland; Spain alone being an exception. She was engaged in a

Saraceni Palestinam possident, juste tamen exinde depelluntur, etc. See Schwab, Joh.Gerson, 26.13 Summa, II. (2), 188, 3; Migne, III 1366 sq.: militare propter aliquidmundanum est omni religioni contrarium, non autem militare propter obsequium Dei, etc.He adds that clerics going to war must act under the command of pricesor of the Church, and not at their own suggestion.14 Luard’s ed., V, 19615 Baldric of Dol, Hist. Jerus., I 8; Rec., IV 17: gaudebant uxores abeuntibusmaritis dilectissimi, etc.16 Cæsar of Heisterbach, Dia., X 22, speaks of a woman suffering withsevere pains in childbirth who, as soon as she consented to herhusband’s going on a crusade, was delivered with ease.17 The name Franks became the current designation for Europeans in theEast, and remains so to this day. The crusading enthusiasm did notfully take hold of Germany till the twelfth century. Hauck, Kirchengesch.Deutschlands, IV 80.18 The expression was a translation of the Latin ultra mare, used for theEast, and, so far as is known, for the first time by Gregory VII, Reg.II 37; Migne, 148, 390.

5

crusade of her own against the Moors. The First Lateran Council(can. 13) had commended equally the crusades against the Saracensin the Holy Land and the Moors in Spain. In Italy and Rome,where the most zeal for this holy cause might have been expected,there was little enthusiasm.19

The aim of the Crusades was the conquest of the Holy Landand the defeat of Islam. Enthusiasm for Christ was the movingimpulse. The lower motives of ambition, avarice, love ofadventure, and the hope of earthly and heavenly rewards, however,joined this laudable impulse. The whole chivalry of Europe,aroused by a pale-faced monk, and encouraged by a Hildebrandianpope, threw its steel-clad self upon the Orient to execute thevengeance of heaven upon the insults and barbarities of Moslemsheaped upon Christian pilgrims, and to rescue the grave of theRedeemer of mankind from the grasp of the followers of the FalseProphet.

Sadly, in Jerusalem the Crusaders sought the living amongthe dead (cf. Luke 24:5). They mistook the visible for theinvisible, confused the terrestrial and the celestial Jerusalem,and returned disillusioned.20 They learned in Jerusalem, or afterages have learned through them, that Christ is not there, that Heis risen, and ascended into the heavens, where He sits at thehead of a spiritual kingdom. They conquered the city in whichChrist was crucified, Jerusalem (1099), and lost it (1187); theyreconquered it (1229), only to lose it again (1244). Falsereligions are not to be converted by violence; only the slow butsure process of moral persuasion can convert them. Hatredkindles hatred and those who take the sword shall perish by thesword (cf. Job 36:14i). Bernard learned from the failure of theSecond Crusade that the struggle that is waged against the sinfullusts of the heart is a better one, than was the struggle wagedto conquer Jerusalem.

19 Gregorovius, IV 288, says no traces of enthusiasm can be found inRome. “Senate and people would probably have laughed in derision hadUrban summoned them to rise in religious enthusiasm to forsake the ruinsof Rome and advance to the rescue of Jerusalem.” The crusades were afinancial detriment to Rome because they diverted pilgrimages from thetombs of the Apostles to the tomb of the Savior.20 Hegel, Philosophie der Gesch., 3d ed. 1848, p. 476, brings out this ideamost impressively.i All Old Testament citations are numbered according to the Greek Septuagint Old Testament, which was the only Holy Bible known to the NewTestament Christians and was quoted by the writers of the New Testament.

6

The Crusades were undoubtedly the culminating act of themedieval drama. Now at last, after centuries of argument, thetwo great faiths, Christianity and Mohammedanism, resorted toman’s ultimate tribunal of disputes—the Supreme Court of War.All medieval development, all the expansion of commerce andChristendom, all the fervor of religious belief, all the power offeudalism and glamour of chivalry came to a climax in a TwoHundred Years’ War for the soul of man and the profits of trade.

The most immediate cause of the Crusades was the advance ofthe Seljuq Turks. The world had adjusted itself to Moslemcontrol of the Near East; the Fatimids of Egypt had ruled mildlyin Palestine; and, barring some exceptions, the Christians therehad enjoyed a wide liberty of worship. Al-Hakim, the mad Caliphof Cairo, had destroyed the church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1010,but the Mohammedans themselves had contributed substantially toits restoration.21 In 1047 the Moslem traveler Nasir-i-Khosrudescribed it as “a most spacious building, capable of holding8000 persons, and built with the utmost skill. Inside, thechurch is everywhere adorned with Byzantine brocade, worked ingold. . . . And they have portrayed Jesus—peace be upon Him! —riding upon an ass.”22 This was but one of many Christian churchesin Jerusalem. Christian pilgrims had free access to the holyplaces. A pilgrimage to Palestine had long been a form ofdevotion or penance. Everywhere you went in Europe you met“palmers” who, as a sign of pilgrimage accomplished, wore crossedpalm leaves from Palestine; such men, said Piers Plowman, “hadleave to lie all their lives thereafter.”23 In 1070 the Turks tookJerusalem from the Fatimids, and pilgrims began to bring homeaccounts of oppression and desecration.

The next in importance as an immediate cause of the Crusadeswas the dangerous weakening of the Byzantine Empire. For sevencenturies it had stood at the crossroads of Europe and Asia,holding back the armies of Asia and the hordes of the steppes.Now its internal discords, its disruptive heresies, its isolationfrom the West by the Western schism of 1054, had left it toofeeble to fulfill its historic task. While the Bulgars,Patzinaks, Cumans, and Russians assaulted its European gates, theTurks were dismembering its Asiatic provinces. In 1071 theByzantine army was almost annihilated at Manzikert; the Seljuqscaptured Edessa, Antioch (1085), Tarsus, even Nicæa, and gazed21 Thompson, Middle Ages, I, 565.22 LeStrange, Palestine under the Moslems, 202.23 Coulton, Panorama

7

across the Bosporus at Constantinople itself. The EmperorAlexius I (1081-1118) saved a part of Asia Minor by signing ahumiliating peace, but he had no military means of resistingfurther attack. If Constantinople should fall, all EasternEurope would lie open to the Turks, and the victory of Tours(732) would be undone. Forgetting theological pride, Alexiussent delegates to Urban II and the Council of Piacenza, urgingLatin Europe to help him drive back the Turks; it would be wiser,he argued, to fight the infidels on Asiatic soil than wait forthem to swarm through the Balkans to the Western capitals.Indeed, we must not forget the feeling of revenge for theMohammedans begotten in the resistance offered to their invasionsof Italy and Gaul.24 In 841 they sacked St. Peter’s, and in 846they threatened Rome for the second time, and again a third timewhen John VIII was pope. The Normans wrested a part of Sicilyfrom the Saracens at the battle of Cerame (1063), took Palermo(1072), Syracuse (1085), and the rest of Sicily ten years later.A burning desire took hold of the Franks to be in possession of—

“those holy fieldsOver whose acres walked those blessed feetWhich fourteen hundred years ago were nail’dFor our advantage on the bitter Cross.”

—SHAKESPEARE.

From early on Jerusalem was the goal of Christianpilgrimage. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, foundthe Cross and built the church over the site of the tomb in whichJesus our Lord was lain. Jerome spent the last period of hislife in Bethlehem, translating the Scriptures into Latin andpreparing for eternity. It was in vain that such Fathers as St.Gregory of Nyssa, 25 Blessed Augustine, and even Jerome himself,emphasized the nearness of God to believers wherever they may beand the failure of those whose hearts are not imbued with Hisspirit to find Him even at Jerusalem.

The movement steadily grew. The Holy Land became a land ofwonders to the imagination filled with the divine presence ofChrist. To have visited it, to have seen Jerusalem, to have

24 Röhricht, Gesch. d. ersten Kreuzzuges, p. 6, says that in these strugglesthe crusading enthusiasm was born.” 25 See the beautiful testimony of Gregory, who advised a Cappadocianabbot against going with his monks to Jerusalem, Schaff, Ch. Hist. III906.

8

bathed in the Jordan, was for a man to have about him a halo ofsanctity. The accounts of returning pilgrims were listened to inmonasteries and on the street with open-mouthed curiosity. Tosurmount the dangers of such a journey in a pious frame of mindwas a means of atonement for sins.26 Special laws were enacted onof behalf the pilgrims. Hospitals and other philanthropicinstitutions were erected for their comfort along the main routeand in Jerusalem.

Other circumstances gave additional impulse to the movement,such as the hope of securing relics, of which Palestine andConstantinople were the chief storehouses; and the opportunity ofstarting a profitable trade in silk, paper, spices, and otherproducts of the East.

The Mohammedans did not seriously interrupt thesepilgrimages after their conquest of Jerusalem by Omar in 637,until Syria and Palestine passed into the hands of the sultans ofEgypt three centuries later. Under Al-Hakim (1010), a fiercepersecution broke out against the Christian residents ofPalestine. It was, however, of short duration and was followedby a larger stream of pilgrims than before. The favorite routewas through Rome and by the sea, a dangerous avenue, as Saracenpirates infested it. The conversions of the Hungarians in thetenth century opened up the route along the Danube. Barons,princes, bishops, monks followed one after the other, some ofthem leading large bodies of pious tourists. In 1035 Robert ofNormandy went at the head of a great company of nobles. When hefound many waiting at the gates of Jerusalem, unable to pay thegold bezant demanded for admission, he paid it for them. In 1054Luitbert, Bishop of Cambray, is said to have led three thousandpilgrims. In 1064 Siegfried, Archbishop of Mainz, wasaccompanied by the bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Regensburg,and twelve thousand pilgrims.27 Then, suddenly, the Seljuq Turks,

26 Fulke the Black, Count of Anjou (987-1040), made three journeys toJerusalem in penance for sacrilege and other crimes. He had burned hisyoung wife at the stake dressed in her gayest attire, and caused his sonto crouch at his feet harnessed like an ass. At Jerusalem he showed hisdevotion by going about with a halter about his neck. He bit off apiece of the Lord’s tombstone with his teeth and carried back to Europeobjects most sacred and priceless, such as the fingers of Apostles andthe lamp in which the holy fire was lit. Odolric, Bishop of Orleans,gave a pound of gold for the lamp and hung it up in the church atOrleans, where its virtue cured multitudes of sick people.27 Hauck, IV 79.

9

who conquered the Holy Land in 1076, put a check upon the freedomof pilgrimages. With the intense fanaticism of new converts,this rude and savage tribe heaped all manner of insults andinjuries upon the Christians. Many were imprisoned or sold intoslavery. Those who returned to Europe carried with them a taleof woe that aroused the religious feeling of all classes.

That brings us to still another immediate cause of theCrusades, and that was the ambition of the Italian cities—Pisa,Genoa, Venice, and Amalfi—to extend their rising commercialpower. When the Normans captured Sicily from the Moslems (1060-91), and Christian arms reduced Moslem rule in Spain (1085), thewestern Mediterranean was freed for Christian trade; the Italiancities, as ports of exit for domestic and transalpine products,grew rich and strong, and planned to end Moslem ascendancy in theeastern Mediterranean, and open the markets of the Near East toWest European goods. How close these Italian merchants were tothe ear of the Pope, we do not know, so we cannot be sure as towhere in the hierarchy of causes this last cause should beplaced, but it was clearly an immediate, contributing cause ofthe Crusades.

Another immediate cause, though a less weighty one, was theappeal for help coming from the Greek emperors.28 The EasternEmpire had been fast losing its hold on its Asiatic possessions.Romanus Diogenes, who was leading the Byzantine army when it wasso soundly defeated in battle with the Turks (1071) at Manzikert,was taken prisoner. During the rule of his successor, an emirestablished himself in Nicæa, the seat of the First ŒcumenicalCouncil called by the Constantine the Great, and extended hisrule as far as the shores of the sea of Marmora. AlexiusComnenus, coming to the throne (1081), was less able to resistthe advance of Islam and lost Antioch and Edessa in 1086.Pressed by his Asiatic foes, and seeing the very existence of histhrone threatened, he asked the West for help. He dwelt, it istrue, on the laying waste of Jerusalem; but it is in accordancewith his imperial character to surmise that he was more concernedfor the defense of this own empire than for the honor ofreligion.28 Ekkehard, 5,Rec., V 14, may exaggerate when he speaks of very frequentletters and embassies from the Greek emperors to the West, per legationesfrequentissimas et epistolas etiam a nobis visas . . . lugubriter inclamanter, etc. Theletter of Alexius to Robert of Flanders (1088) has been the subject ofmuch inquiry. Hagenmeyer pronounces it genuine, after a most carefulinvestigation, Epistulæ, etc., 10-44.

10

This dual appeal met, as we know all too well, with aresounding response in Europe in both its religious spirit and inits warlike instincts of chivalry. When it came time for thechief figure in the Latin Church, Urban II, to lift up his voice,his words acted upon the sensitive emotions of his hearers aswould sparks upon dry leaves.29

29 Diehl, in Essays on the Crusades, 92, seems even to deny that an appeal wasever made by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius for aid to the West, andspeaks of it as in invention of a later time. Certainly no criticismcould be more unwarranted unless all the testimonies of the contemporarywriters are to be ruthlessly set aside.

11

II. The Call to the Crusades

“the romanceOf many colored Life that Fortune poursRound the Crusader.”

—WORDSWORTH, Ecclesiastical Sonnets

he call which resulted in the first expedition for therecovery of Jerusalem was made by Pope Urban II at theCouncil of Clermont in 1095. Its chief popular advocate was

Peter the Hermit. TOther popes had entertained the idea. Gerbert, as Sylvester

II, had appealed to Christendom to rescue Jerusalem, and anabortive expedition had landed in Syria (1001). Gregory VII,amid his consuming strife with Henry IV, had exclaimed, “I wouldrather expose my life in delivering the holy places than reignover the universe.”1 That quarrel was still hot when Urbanpresided over the Council of Piacenza in March of 1095. Hesupported the pleas of Alexius’s legates there, but counseleddelay till a more widely representative assembly might consider awar against Islam. He was too well informed to picture victoryas certain in so distant an enterprise; he doubtless foresaw thatfailure would seriously damage the prestige of Christianity andthe Church. Probably he longed to channel the disorderlypugnacity of feudal barons and Norman buccaneers into a holy warto save Europe and Byzantium from Islam. He had dreamed ofbringing the Eastern Orthodox Church again, as he saw it, underpapal rule and envisioned a mighty Christendom united under thetheocracy of the popes, with Rome once more the capital of theworld without protest from the fallen Constantinople, the cityfounded by Constantine the Great to be the New Rome.i It was a1 Lacroix, Military and Religious Life, 108.iNew Rome was the name Constantine gave his new capital city when hemove the capital of the Roman Empire there from old Rome. Constantinopewas the city’s popular name.

12

conception of the highest order of statesmanship. From March toOctober of 1095 Urban II toured northern Italy and southernFrance, sounding out leaders and ensuring support.

The idea for such a movement was not born at the close ofthe eleventh century. Gregory VII, appealed to by Michael VII ofConstantinople, had, in two encyclicals (1074) 2 urged the causeupon all Christians and summoned them to go to the rescue of theByzantine capital. He reminded them that the pagans had forcedtheir way almost up to the wall of the city and killed manythousands of their brethren like cattle.3 He also repeatedlycalled attention to the project in letters to the counts ofBurgundy and Poitiers and Henry IV. His ulterior hope was thesubjugation of the Eastern churches to the dominion of the popes.In the year 2074 he was able to announce to Henry IV that fiftythousand Roman Catholic soldiers stood ready to take up arms andfollow him to the East, but Gregory was prevented from executinghis plan by his quarrel with the emperor.

Peter the Hermit, an otherwise unknown monk of Amiens,France, on returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, spread itstale of woes and horrors.4 In Jerusalem Archbishop Simeon hadurged him to carry to Europe an appeal for help against theindignities to which the Christians were being subjected. Afterprayer and fasting, while he lay asleep, Peter had a dream inwhich Christ appeared to him and bade him to go and quicklyspread the appeal so this holy place might soon be purged.5 He

2 Reg., I 49; II 37, Migne, 148, 329 390.3 multa millia Christianorum quasi pecudes occidisse, Reg., 49.24 The date of the pilgrimage is not given, but may be accepted ashaving fallen between 1092-1094. Peter is called “the Hermit” by allthe accounts, beginning with the earliest, the Gesta Francorum. There isno good ground for doubting that he was from Amiens, as Albert of Aachendistinctly states. William of Tyre says from the “bishopric of Amiens.”Hagenmeyer, p. 39, accepts the latter as within the truth.

3

4

5 William of Tyre, Bk. I 12, Rec., I 35, gives only a few lines to thevisions and the words spoken by the Lord. His account of the meetingwith Urban is equally simple and scarcely less brief. Peter found, sohe writes, “the Lord Pope Urban in the vicinity of Rome and presentedthe letters from the patriarch and Christians of Jerusalem and showedtheir misery and the abominations which the unclean races wrought in theholy places. Thus prudently and faithfully he performed the commissionentrusted to him.”

13

hurried westward, carrying a letter from Simeon, and secured theear of Urban at Rome.6 This is the story told by William of Tyreand by Albert of Aachen before him. Alleged dreams and visionswere potent forces during the First Crusade, and it is altogetherlikely that many a pilgrim looking upon the desolation ofJerusalem had heard the same call within himself, which Peter, inimagination or in a real dream, heard the Lord making to him.Urban listened to Peter’s account as he had listened to theaccounts of other returning pilgrims. He had seen citizens ofJerusalem itself, with his own eyes, and exiles from Antioch,bewailing the plight of those places and begging for alms.7

Peter, as he journeyed through Italy and across the Alps, 8

proclaimed the same message. The time for action had come.At the Council of Piacenza, in the spring of 1095, envoys

were present from the Emperor Alexius Comnenus and madeaddresses, invoking aid against the advancing Turks.9 From Marchto October of 1095 he toured northern Italy and southern France,sounding out leaders and ensuring support. In the followingNovember the famous Council of Clermont in Auvergne, in SouthernFrance, was held, which decreed the First Crusade.10

At Clermont, Urban was on his native soil and probably spokein the Provençal tongue, though we have only Latin reports of itavailable to us. When we recall the general character of the ageand the listening throng, with its mingled feelings of love ofadventure and simple faith, we cannot wonder at the response madeto the impassioned appeals of the head of the Latin Church.

The council was comprised of a vast number of ecclesiasticsand laymen, especially from France. Urban II was present in6 Durant, The Story of Civilization, IV, The Age of Faith, p. 585, says this oldstory is not verifiable.7 At the Council of Clermont Urban made reference to the “very manyreports” which had come of the desolation of Jerusalem, Fulcher, Rec.,III 324. Robert the Monk, I 1, Rec., III 727, says relatio gravis sæpissimejam ad aures nostras pervenit. According to Baldric he appealed to the manyamong his hearers who could vouch for the desolate condition of the holyplaces from their won experience, Rec., IV 14. See Hagenmeyer, 74-77.8 So William of Tyre, Bk. I 13. Later writers extend the journey ofPeter inordinately.9 William of Tyre does not mention this embassy. It may be because ofthe low opinion he had of Alexius, whom (II 5) he pronounces schemingand perfidious.10 There is no statement that the council formally decreed the Crusade.For the acts we are dependent upon scattered statements of chroniclersand several other unofficial documents.

14

person. In attendance on opening day were fourteen archbishops,two hundred fifty bishops, and four hundred abbots. Though it wasa cold November, thousands of people came from a hundredcommunities. They pitched their tents in the open fields, theygathered in a vast assemblage that no hall could hold, andthrobbed with emotion as their fellow Frenchman Urban, raised ona platform in their midst, delivered what has been called themost influential speech in medieval history. It was a fortunatemoment for Urban, a moment that has been compared to ChristmasDay, 800, when Charlemagne was crowned.11 It stirred the deepestfeelings of his hearers and was repeated throughout all Europe.12

He appealed to his hearers as Frenchmen, distinguished above allother nations by remarkable glory in arms, courage, and bodilyprowess. He appealed to the deeds of Charlemagne and his sonLewis, who had destroyed pagan kingdoms and extended theterritory of the Church.

O race of Franks! Race beloved and chosen byGod! . . . From the confines of Jerusalem and fromConstantinople a grievous report has gone forth that anaccursed race, wholly alienated from God, has violentlyinvaded the lands of these Christians, and has depopulatedthem by pillage and fire. They have led away a part of thecaptives into their own country and a part they have killedby cruel tortures. They destroy the altars, after havingdefiled them with their uncleanness. The Kingdom of theGreeks is now dismembered by them, and has been deprived ofterritory so vast in extent that it could not be traversedin two months’ time.

On whom, then, rests the labor of avenging thesewrongs, and of recovering this territory, if not upon you—you upon whom, above all others, God has conferredremarkable glory in arms, great bravery, and strength tohumble the heads of those who resist you? Let the deeds ofyour ancestors encourage you—the glory and grandeur ofCharlemagne and your other monarchs. Let the Holy Sepulchreof Our Lord and Savior, now held by unclean nations, arouseyou, and the holy places that are now stained withpollution. . . . Let none of your possessions keep you back,

11 Ranke, Weltgeschichte. According to William of Tyre, Peter the Hermitwas present at Clermont. The contemporary writers do not mention hispresence.12 Gregorovius, IV 287, is right when he says, “the importance ofUrban’s speech in universal history outweights the orations ofDemosthenes and Cicero.”

15

nor anxiety for your family affairs. For this land whichyou now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and themountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; itscarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Henceit is that you murder and devour one another, that you wagewars, and that many among you perish in civil strife.

Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let yourquarrels end. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre,wrest that land from a wicked race, and subject it toyourselves. Jerusalem is a land fruitful above all others,a paradise of delights. That royal city, situated at thecenter of the earth, implores you to come to her aid.Undertake this journey eagerly for the remission of yoursins, and be assured of the reward of imperishable glory inthe Kingdom of Heaven.12

Through the crowd an excited exclamation arose, Dieu li volt

—“God wills it, God wills it!” 13 “It is the will of God,” shoutedUrban, and called upon them to make it their battle cry. “Letthese words be your battle cry when you unsheathe the sword,” hesaid. “You are soldiers of the Cross. Wear upon your breasts orshoulders the blood-red sign of the Cross. Wear it as a tokenthat His help will never fail you and as the pledge of a vownever to be recalled.”14 The Spanish word cruzada—meaning “markedwith the Cross” came to be used for those undertaking the fightagainst the infidels.

Thousands at once took the vow and sewed the Cross on theirgarments or branded it upon their bare flesh. Adhemar, Bishop ofPuy, knelt at Urban’s feet, asking permission to go. He waspromptly appointed papal legate. The next day envoys cameannouncing that Raymund of Toulouse had taken the vow. Thespring of 1096 was set for the expedition to start. Urbandiscreetly declined to lead the army in person.15

12 Ogg, 282-8.13 Deus vult, Deos lo volt, Diex el volt. These are the different forms in whichthe response is reported. For this response in its Latin form, Robertthe Monk is our earliest authority, I 2, Rec., III 729. He says unavociferatio “Deus vult, Deus vult.”14 In the First Crusade all the crosses were red. Afterward green andwhite colors came into use. Urban himself distributed crosses.Guibert, II 5, Rec., IV 140, and Fulcher, I 4, state that Urban had theCrusaders wear the Cross as a badge.15 Urban’s letters, following up his speech at Clermont, are given byHagenmeyer, Epistulæ, p. 136 sqq.

16

The energetic Pope passed on to other cities—Tours,Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes . . . and for nine monthspreached the crusade. When he reached Rome after two years’absence, he was enthusiastically acclaimed by the least piouscity in Christendom.

Thousands throughout Europe followed the example set atClermont. Fiery preachers carried Urban’s message. Judging byhis results, Peter the Hermit was foremost among them. Hisappearance was well suited to strike the popular imagination. Herode on an ass, his face emaciated and haggard, his feet bare, aslouched cowl on his head, 16 and a long mantle reaching to hisankles. To top it all off, he carried a rather tall Cross and,when you added into the mix his being rather short in stature; 17

he cut quite a figure. His keen wit, 18 his fervid and ready, butrude and unpolished eloquence19 made a profound impression uponthe throngs that gathered to hear him.20 His messages seemed tothem to be of divine origin.21 They plucked the very hairs fromhis ass’ tail to be preserved as relics. A more potent effectwas wrought than mere temporary wonder. Reconciliations betweenhusbands and wives and persons living out of wedlock wereeffected, and peace and concord established where there had beenfeuds and litigations. Large gifts were made to the preacher.None of the other preachers of the Crusade, Vokmar, Gottschalk,and Emich, 22 could compare with Peter the Hermit for the spellhis eloquence cast upon the masses. He was held in higher esteemthan prelates and abbots.23 And Guibert of Nogent says that hecould recall no one who was held in like honor.24

16 Petrum more hermi vilissima cappa tegebat, Radulf of Caen. The abovedescription is taken from strickly contemporary accounts.17 The statura brevis of Radulf becomes in William of Tyre’s account pusillus,persona contemptibilis.18 Thusly is translated Radulf’s spiritus acer. 19 Albert of Aachen: neminem invenerunt qui tam ferocissimo et superbo loqui auderetquousque Petrus. 20 So Guibert speaks of the crowds listening to him as tanta populorummultitudo. Hagenmeyer, p. 114, accepting Guibert’s statement, refers toimmense throngs, ungeheure Zahl.21 Guibert: quidquid agebat namque seu loguebatur quasi quiddam subdivinum videbatur.22 So Ekkehard, XII, Rec., V 20 sq. who has something derogatory to sayof all of these preachers and also of Peter’s subsequent career. Quempostea multi hyporcritam esse dicebant.23 Robert the Monk, I 5, Rec., III 731. Super ipsos prœsules et abbates apicereligionis efferebatur.

17

In a few months large companies were ready to march againstthe enemies of the Cross.

A new era in Western European history had begun.25 A newpassion had taken hold of its people. A new arena of conquestwas opened for the warlike feudal lords, a tempting field ofadventure and release for knights and debtors, an opportunity offreedom for serfs and villeins. All classes, lay and clerical,saw a solace for sin, a satisfaction of Christian fancy, and aheaven-appointed mission, in the expedition to the cradle oftheir faith. The struggle of states with the papacy was for themoment at an end. All Europe was suddenly united in a common andholy cause, of which the Supreme Pontiff of the Latin Church wasbeyond dispute the appointed leader.

Three routes were chosen by the Crusaders to reach the HolyLand. The first was the overland route by way of the Danube,Constantinople, and Asia Minor. The second, adopted by Philipand Richard in the Third Crusade, was by the Mediterranean toAcre. The route of the last two Crusades, under Louis IX, wasacross the Mediterranean to Egypt, which was to be made the baseof operations from which to reach Jerusalem.

III. The First Crusade and the Capture of Jerusalem1095-99

“And what if my feet may not tread where He stood,

Nor my ears hear the dashing of Galilee’s flood,Nor my eyes see the Cross which He bowed Him to

bear,

24 Guibert: neminem meminerim similem honore haberi. Baldric speaks of him asPetrus quidam magnus heremita, or as we would say, “that great hermit,Peter.”25 Hegel, Philosophie der Gesch., p. 444, calls the Crusades “the culminatingpoint of the Middle Ages.” Contemporaries like Guibert of Nogent, 123,could think of no movement equal in glory with the Crusades. OrdericusVitalis, III 458, praised the union of peoples of different tongues in aproject so praiseworthy.

18

Nor my knees press Gethsemane’s garden of prayer,

Yet, Loved of the Father, Thy Spirit is nearTo the meek and the lowly and penitent here;And the voice of Thy Love is the same even now,As at Bethany’s tomb or on Olivet’s brow.”

—WHITTIER

xtraordinary inducements brought multitudes to the standard.A plenary indulgence remitting all punishments due to sinwas offered to those who should fall in the war. Serfs were

allowed to leave the soil to which they had been bound; citizenswere exempted from taxes; debtors enjoyed a moratorium oninterest; prisoners were freed, and sentences of death werecommuted to life service in Palestine. Thousands of vagrantsjoined in the sacred tramp. Men tired of hopeless poverty,adventurers ready for brave enterprise, younger sons hoping tocarve out fiefs for themselves in the East, merchants seeking newmarkets for their goods, knights whose enlisting serfs had leftthem laborless, timid spirits shunning taunts of cowardice,joined with sincerely religious souls to rescue the land ofChrist's birth and death. Propaganda of the kind customary inwar stressed the powerlessness of Christians in Palestine, theatrocities of Moslems, the blasphemies of the Mohammedan creed;Moslems were described as worshipping a statue of Mohammed,1 andpious gossip related how the Prophet, fallen in an epileptic fit,had been eaten alive by hogs.2 Fabulous tales were told ofOriental wealth and of dark beauties waiting to be taken by bravemen.3

E

Such a variety of motives could hardly assemble ahomogeneous mass capable of military organization. In many caseswomen and children insisted upon accompanying their husbands orparents, perhaps with reason, for prostitutes soon enlisted toserve the warriors. The 15th of August 1096, the Feast of the

1 Chanson de Roland, II. 848f, in French Classics, Paris, n.d., Lib.Hatier.2 Munro, D.C., in N.Y. Herald Tribune, Apr. 26, 1031.3 Thompson, Social and Economic History, 389.

19

Dormitioni of the All-Holy Theotokosii, fixed by the Council ofClermont for the departure of the Crusaders, was slow in coming.The excitement was too intense for some of the people to wait.As early as March, throngs of both sexes and all ages began togather in Lorraine and at Treves to demand leaders to take themimmediately to Jerusalem.4 Soon the first swarm of these rowdies,comprising some twelve to twenty thousand, under Walter thePenniless, was off to Jerusalem. At villages along the way thechildren cried out, “Is this Jerusalem, is this Jerusalem?”William of Mamesbury wrote (IV 2), “The Welshman left hishunting, the Scot his fellowship with lice, the Dane his drinkingparty, the Norwegian his raw fish. Fields were deserted of theirhusbandmen; whole cities migrated. . . . God alone was placedbefore their eyes.”

With such enthusiastic, but incompetent, leadership theymarched safely through Hungary, but were either cut to pieces atthe storming of Belgrade or destroyed in the Bulgarian forests.The leader and a few stragglers were all that reachedConstantinople.

Soon enough a second swarm, comprising more than fortythousand, were led by the Hermit himself. As safe as Hungarywas, so deadly was Bulgaria. There they found one continuoustrack of blood and fire, robbery and massacre, marking the routeof their predecessors. Only a remnant of seven thousand reachedConstantinople. It was chiefly disorderly bands such as thesethat attacked the Jews of Germany and Bohemia, rejected theappeals of the local clergy and citizenry, and degenerated for atime into brutes cloaking their blood lust in piety. Therecruits had brought modest funds and little food, and theirinexperienced leaders had made scant provision for feeding them.i Dormition or Falling Asleep. Known in the Latin Church as the Assumption of theBlessed Virgin Mary.ii Theotokos is a Greek word, which means God-bearer or Birth-giver of God orMother of God is a title that was bestowed upon Mary, the mother of Jesus,by the Council of Ephesus, the Third Œcumenical Council (431-433 A.D.).The belief that Mary was the Mother of God had been the common traditionof the Church since New Testament times. 4 For the account of these early expeditions, we are chiefly dependentupon Albert of Aachen. Guibert makes no distinction of sections, andhas only a cursory notice of the expeditions before the arrival of Peterin Constantinople.

i

4

20

Many of the marchers had underestimated the distance; and as theyadvanced along the Rhine and the Danube the children in thissecond swarm, like those in the first, asked impatiently at eachturn, was not this Jerusalem? 5 When their funds ran out, andthey began to starve, they were forced to pillage the fields andhomes on their route and soon they added rape to rapine.6 Thepopulation resisted violently. Some towns closed their gatesagainst them, and others bade them Godspeed with no delay.Arriving at last before Constantinople virtually penniless, anddecimated by famine, plague, leprosy, fever, and battles on theway, they were welcomed by Alexius, but not satisfactorily fed;they broke into the suburbs, and plundered churches, houses, andpalaces. To deliver his capital from these preying locusts,Alexius provided them with vessels to cross the Bosporus, sentthem supplies, and bade them wait until better-armed detachmentscould arrive. Whether through hunger or restlessness, theCrusaders ignored these instructions, and advanced upon Nicæa.Finally, a false rumor that the vanguard had captured Nicæa, thecapital of the Turks in Asia Minor, lured the main body into theplain of Nicæa, where large numbers were surrounded and massacredby a Turkish force. This disciplined force of Turks; all skilledbowmen that had marched out from the city almost annihilated thisfirst division of the First Crusade. Walter the Penniless wasamong the slain. Their bones, piled high into a ghastly pyramid,became the first monument of the Crusade. Finding himself unableto control his followers, Peter the Hermit had fled back toConstantinople before the battle began. No doubt the defeat ofNicæa largely destroyed Peter’s reputation.7 Soon, others, whohad found themselves unable to wait, hasten on to theirdestruction. These preliminary expeditions of the First Crusademay have cost three hundred thousand lives. One band, probably apart of a third swarm, that was led by banners bearing thelikeness of a goose and a goat, which were considered as bearersof the Holy Spirit, was estimated at the incredible number of twohundred thousand.8

5 Guizot, France, I 384.6 Lacroix, P., History of Prostitution, 904.7 See Hagenmeyer, 204 sq. Peter apologized to the emperor for thedefeat on the ground of his inability to control his followers, who, hedeclared, were unworthy to see Jerusalem. Anna Comnena calls Peter the“inflated Latin.”8 Anna Comnena says the Crusaders flowed together from all directionslike rivers. She gives the number of Peter’s army as eighty thousand-

21

Meanwhile the feudal leaders who had taken the Cross hadassembled their own forces in their respective places. Thisunited force consisted, according to the lowest statements, ofmore than three hundred thousand. No King was among them; indeedPhilip I of France, William II of England, and Henry IV ofGermany were all under sentence of excommunication when Urbanpreached the crusade. But many counts and dukes enlisted, nearlyall of them French or Frank; the First Crusade was largely aFrench enterprise, and to this day the Near East speaks of WestEuropeans as Franks. By diverse routes these hosts made theirway to Constantinople. Bohemund proposed to Godfrey that theyseize the city; Godfrey refused, saying that he had come only tofight infidels; 9 The masculine, half-barbarous knights of theWest despised the subtle and cultured gentlemen of the East asheretics lost in effeminate luxury. They looked withastonishment and envy upon the riches laid up in the churches,palaces, and markets of the Byzantine capital, and thought thatgood fortune should belong to the brave. Alexius may have gottenwind of these notions among his saviors. He had asked forassistance against the Turks, but he had not bargained upon theunited strength of Europe gathering at his gates; he could neverbe sure whether these warriors aspired to Jerusalem so much as toConstantinople, nor whether they would restore to his empire anyformerly Byzantine territory that they might take from the Turks.He offered the Crusaders provision, subsidies, transport,military aid, and, for the leaders, handsome bribes; 10 in returnhe asked that the nobles should swear allegiance to him as theirfeudal sovereign; any lands taken by them were to be held infealty to him. The nobles, softened with silver, swore. Hissubtle policy and precautions were felt as an insult by theWestern chieftains. In diplomacy he was more than their match.Expecting fair dealing; they were met with diplomatic duplicity.

Early in 1097 the armies, totaling some thirty thousand men,still under divided leadership, crossed the straits. Luckily,the Moslems were even more divided than the Christians were. Notonly was Moslem power in Spain spent, and in northern Africa rent

foot and one hundred thousand-horse. Fulcher speaks of the numberssetting out from the West as “an immense assemblage. The islands of thesea and the whole earth were moved by God to make contribution to thehost. The sadness was for those who remained behind, the joy for thosewho departed.” 9 Guizot, France, I 384.10 Cambridge Medieval History, 334.

22

with religious faction, but in the East the Fatimid caliphs ofEgypt held southern Syria, while their foes, the Seljuq Turks,held northern Syria and most of Asia Minor. Armenia rebelledagainst its Seljuq conquerors, and allied itself with the“Franks.” So helped, the arms of Europe advanced to siege Nicæa.Based on Alexius’ pledge that their lives would be spared, theTurkish garrison surrendered (June 19, 1097). The Greek Emperorraised the Imperial flag over the citadel, protected the cityfrom indiscriminate pillage, and appeased the feudal leaders withsubstantial gifts; but the Christian soldiery complained thatAlexius was in league with the Turks. After a week's rest, theCrusaders set out for Antioch. They met and won a bloody victoryover a Turkish army on July 1, 1097, and continued on throughAsia Minor with no other enemies than a shortage of water andfood, and a degree of heat for which the Western blood wasunprepared. The Crusaders were forced to eat horseflesh, camels,dogs, and mice, and even worse.11 Men, women, horses, and dogsdied of thirst on this bitter march of five hundred miles. Thesufferings from thirst exceeded, if possible, the sufferings fromhunger. Crossing the Taurus, some nobles separated their forcesfrom the main army to make private conquests—Raymond, Bohemund,and Godfrey in Armenia, Tancred and Baldwin (brother of Godfrey)in Edessa; there Baldwin, by strategy and treachery, 12 foundedthe first Latin principality in the East (1098). The mass of theCrusaders complained ominously at these delays; the noblesreturned, and the advance to Antioch was resumed.

Antioch, described as a “city extremely beautiful,distinguished, and delightful,”13 by Gesta Francorum, resistedsiege for eight months. Many Crusaders died from exposure to thecold winter rains, or from hunger; some found a novel nourishmentby chewing the sweet reeds called “zucra”; now for the first timethe “Franks” tasted sugar, and learned how it was pressed fromcultivated herbs.14 Prostitutes provided more dangerous sweets; anamiable archdeacon was slain by the Turks as he reclined in anorchard with his Syrian concubine.15 In May, 1098, word came thata great Moslem army was approaching under Karbogha, Prince ofMosul; Antioch fell (June 3, 1098) a few days before this armyarrived; many of the Crusaders, fearing that Karbogha could not11 Fulcher, I 13, Rec., III 336.12 Gibbon, VI, 72.13 Gesta Francorum, app.14 Thompson, Social and Economic History, 396.15 Gibbon, VI, 75.

23

be withstood, boarded ships on the Orontes, and fled. Alexius,advancing with a Greek force, was misled by deserters intobelieving that the Christians had already been defeated; heturned back to protect Asia Minor, and was never forgiven.16

During the siege of Antioch, which had fallen to the Seljuqs(1084) the ranks were decimated by famine, pestilence, anddesertion, among the deserters was Stephen of Chartres and hisfollowers. Peter the Hermit and William of Carpentarius wereamong those who attempted flight, but were caught in the act offleeing and severely reprimanded by Bohemund.17

To restore courage to the Crusaders, Peter Bartholomew, apriest from Marseilles, pretended to have found the spear thathad pierced the side of Christ. The place where it wassupposedly hidden under the altar of St. Peter’s Church wasrevealed in a dream to the priest Peter Bartholomew, the chaplainof Raymund of Toulouse.18 When the Christians marched out tobattle the spear was carried aloft as a sacred standard; andthree knights, robed in white, issued from the hills at the callof the papal legate Adhemar, who proclaimed them to be themartyrs St. Maurice, St. Theodore, and St. George. So inspiredthe Crusaders achieved a decisive victory. Bartholomew, accusedof a pious fraud offered to undergo the ordeal of fire as a testof his veracity. He ran through a gauntlet of burning faggots, i

and emerged apparently safe; but he died of burns or anoverstrained heart on the following day; and the holy spear waswithdrawn from the standards of the host.19

Bohemund became by grateful consent Prince of Antioch. TheChieftains claimed that Alexius’ failure to come to their aidreleased them from their vows of allegiance. After spending sixmonths in refreshing and reorganizing their weakened forces, theyled their armies toward Jerusalem. At last, on June 8, 1099,after a campaign of three years, the Crusaders, reduced to 12,000

16 Raymund of Agiles says Alexius treated the crusading army such thatso “long as ever he lives, the people will curse him and call him atraitor.17 Contemporary authorities represent the reprimand as given toCarpentarius. As Hagenmeyer suggests, Peter was included andCarpentarius’ name alone mentioned because he was of royal blood.18 Among those who helped to dig for the weapon was Raymund of Agiles.Its authenticity was a matter of dispute, Adhemar being one of those whodoubted. i timbers.19 William of Tyre, Siege of Jerusalem, ch. clxi.

24

combatants, stood in exaltation and fatigue before the walls ofJerusalem. By the humor of history, the Turks whom they had cometo fight had been expelled from the city by the Fatimids a yearbefore. The caliph offered peace on terms of guaranteed safetyfor Christian pilgrims and worshipers in Jerusalem, but theCrusaders demanded unconditional surrender. The Fatimid garrisonof 1000 men resisted for forty days.20

Friday, the day of the Crucifixion, was chosen for the finalassault. A great tower surmounted by a golden Cross was draggedalongside the walls and the drawbridge let down. At a criticalmoment, as the later story went, a soldier of brilliantappearance21 was seen on the Mount of Olives, and Godfrey,encouraging the besiegers, exclaimed: “It is St. George theMartyr. He has come to our help.” According to most of theaccounts, Letold of Tournay22 was the first to scale the walls.It was noticed that the moment of this crowning feat was threeo’clock, the hour of the Savior’s death.

On July 15, 1099, Godfrey and Tancred led their followersover the walls and knew the ecstasy of a high purposeaccomplished after heroic suffering.23 Then, reports the priestlyeyewitness Raymond of Agiles,

wonderful things were to be seen. Numbers of theSaracens were beheaded . . . others were shot witharrows, or forced to jump from the towers; others weretortured for several days and then burned in flames.In the streets were seen piles of heads and hands andfeet. One rode about everywhere amid the corpses ofmen and horses.24

20 According to Robert the Monk, IV, Rec., III 824, a heavenly sign wasgranted on the eve of the final attack, a flame burning in the westernsky, ignis de cælo veniens ab occidente. One of the interesting remains of theperiod are two letters written by Stephen, count of Chartres, to hiswife Adele, the one before Nicæa and the other during the siege ofAntioch. They are given in Hagenmeyer, Epistulæ, pp. 138, 149.21 Miles splendidus et refulgens.22 Guibert, VII 7, Rec., IV 226; Robert the Monk, VII, Rec., III 867.23 Raymund of Agiles reports that the Crusaders forgot the exhortationof the priest Peter Bartholomew to make the last part of the journeybarefoot. “They remembered their wariness no more, and hastening theirsteps reached the walls amidst tears and praises.”24 In Taylor, Medieval Mind, I, 551

25

Other contemporaries contribute details: women were stabbedto death, suckling babes were snatched by the leg from theirmothers’ breasts and flung over the walls, or had their necksbroken by being dashed against posts; 25 and seventy thousandMoslems remaining in the city were slaughtered. The survivingJews were herded into a synagogue and burned alive. The victorsflocked to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, whose grotto, it isbelieved had once held the crucified Christ. There, embracingone another, they wept with joy and release, and thanked the Godof Mercies for their victory.

These scenes of carnage belong to the many dark pages ofJerusalem’s history and show how, in the quality of mercy; thecrusading knight was far below the ideal of Christian perfection.The streets were choked with the bodies of the slain. The Jewswere burnt with their synagogues. The greatest slaughter was inthe temple enclosure. With an exaggeration that can hardly becredited, but without a twinge of regret or a syllable of excuse,it is related that the blood of the massacred in the temple areareached to the very knees and bridles of the horses.26 The numbernone but God knew.27

Penitential devotions followed easily upon the gory butcheryof the sword. Headed by Godfrey, clad in a suit of white linen,the Crusaders proceeded to the church of the Holy Sepulchre andoffered up prayers and thanksgivings. William of Tyre relatesthat Adhemar and others, who had fallen by the way, were seenshowing the path to the holy places. The devotions over, thework of the massacre was renewed. Neither the tears of women,nor the cries of children, nor the protests of Tancred, who forthe honor of chivalry was concerned to save three hundred, towhom he had promised protection—none of these helped to softenthe ferocity of the conquerors.

As if to enhance the spectacle of pitiless barbarity,Saracen prisoners were forced to clear the streets of the deadbodies and blood to save the city from pestilence. “They wept

25 Albertus Aquens in Milman, IV, 38n.26 So, Raymund of Agiles, an eyewitness, usque ad genua et usque ad frenosequorum, XX, Rec., III 300. This he calls “the righteous judgment ofGod.”27 So the Gesta: tales occisiones de paganorum gente nullus unquam audivit nec vidit . . .nemo scit numerum eorum nisi solus deus. The slain are variously estimatedfrom forty thousand to one hundred thousand. Guibert, Gesta, VII 7,Rec., IV 227, further says that in the temple area there was such a seaof blood, sanguinis unda, as almost to submerge the pedestrian.

26

and transported the dead bodies out of Jerusalem,” is theheartless statement of Robert the Monk.28

Such was the piety of the Crusaders. The religion of theMiddle Ages combined self-denying asceticism with heartlesscruelty to infidels, Jews, and heretics. “They cut down with thesword,” said William of Tyre, “everyone whom they found inJerusalem, and spared no one. The victors were covered withblood from head to foot.” In the next breath, speaking of thedevotion of the Crusaders, the archbishop added, “It was a mostaffecting sight which filled the heart with holy joy to see thepeople tread the holy places in the fervor of an excellentdevotion.” The Crusaders had won the Tomb of the Savior andgazed upon a fragment of the True Cross, i which some of theinhabitants were fortunate enough to have kept concealed duringthe siege.

Before returning to Europe, Peter the Hermit received thehomage of the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem, who rememberedhis visit as a pilgrim and his services on their behalf. Thiswas the closing scene of his connection with the Crusades.29

Returning to Europe, he founded the monastery at Huy, in thediocese of Liège, and died (1115). A statue was dedicated to hismemory at Amiens, June 29, 1854. He is represented in the garbof a monk, a rosary at his waist, a Cross in his right hand,preaching the First Crusade.

Urban II died two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem andbefore the tidings of the event had time to reach his ears.

No more favorable moment could have been chosen for theCrusade. The Seljuqian power, which was at its height in theeleventh century, was broken up into rival dynasties and factionsby the death of Molik Shah (1092). The Crusaders entered as awedge before the new era of Moslem conquest and union opened.

28 IX, Rec., III 869. Robert gives an awful picture of the streetsfilled with dismembered bodies and running with gore.i It should be understood that when the True Cross is referred to, whether it is so stated or not, it may well be that it is not the complete True Cross that is being referred to but a fragment, or a large, or an almost complete relic of the True Cross to which reference is being made.29 William of Tyre is the earliest witness to this scene. Leaving outembellishments, it does not seem to be at all unnatural. Hagenmeyer,pp. 265-269, calls it the “sheer invention of William’s fancy.”

27

IV. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem1099-1143

ight days after the capture of the Holy City a permanentgovernment was established, known as the Latin Kingdom ofJerusalem. Godfrey of Bouillon, whose exceptional integrity

had finally won recognition, was chosen to rule Jerusalem and itsenvirons under the modest title of Defender of the HolySepulchre. He declined the title of royalty as he was unwillingto wear a crown of gold where the Savior had worn a crown ofthorns.1 He adopted the title Baron and Defender of the HolySepulchre.

EThe price of sovereignty is the capacity for self-defense.

Godfrey proved to be up to the task when two weeks after the

1 The official title of the kings was rex Latinorum in Hierusalem. Inrejecting the crown, says William of Tyre; “Godfrey did so as abelieving prince. He was the best of kings, the light and mirror of allothers,” lumen et speculum, IX. 9, Rec., I 377. The clergy had dreamed ofthe complete subjection of the civil government of Jerusalem to thespiritual government under the patriarch. The first patriarch not onlysecured for his jurisdiction one-fourth of Jerusalem and Jaffa, but thepromise from Godfrey of the whole of both cities, provided Godfrey wassuccessful in taking Cairo or some other large hostile city, or shoulddie without male heirs. See Röhricht, Gesch. des ersten Kreuzzuges, p. 218.

28

great liberation, an Egyptian army came up to Ascalon toreliberate a city holy for too many faiths. Godfrey defeated itand went on to extend his realm, but survived the capture ofJerusalem only a year, dying July 18, 1100. His body was laidaway in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. On his tomb was theinscription: “Here lies Godfrey of Bouillon, who conquered allthis territory for the Christian religion. May his soul be atrest with Christ.”2

Here, where Byzantine rule had ceased 465 years before, nopretense was made of subordination to Alexius; the Latin Kingdomof Jerusalem became at once a sovereign state. The Greek Churchwas disestablished, its patriarch fled to Cyprus, and theparishes of the New Kingdom accepted the Latin liturgy, anItalian primate, and papal rule. Arnold, chaplain to Robert ofNormandy, was elected the first Latin patriarch, but his electionwas soon declared irregular, and Dagobert, or Daimbert,Archbishop of Pisa, was elected in his place on Christmas Day,1099.3 Latin Sees were erected throughout the land and also aLatin Patriarchate of Antioch was established. Dagobert securedlarge concessions from Godfrey, including the acknowledgment ofhis kingdom as a fief of the patriarch. After the fall ofJerusalem (1187) the patriarchs lived in Acre.4

From its birth the kingdom was in need of help. Less than ayear after the capture of the city the Latin Patriarch Dagobertmade an appeal to the “rich” German nation for reinforcements.5

The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was destined to have a short,unsettled existence of less than a century, and in that time towitness a succession of nine sovereigns.

The constitution and judicial procedure of the new realmwere fixed by the Assizes of Jerusalem or, as they are also

2 Hic jacet inclitus dux Godefridus de Bouillon qui totam sitam terram acquisivit cultui christiano,cujus anima regnet cum Christo.3 According to Raymund of Agiles, Arnulf was a man of loose life and hisamours subjects of camp songs.4 From the fall of Acre, 1291 to 1848, the patriarch, with twoexceptions, lived in Rome. In 1848 Valerga, appointed patriarch by PiusIX, took up his residence in Jerusalem.5 See Dagobert’s appeal in Hagenmeyer, Epistulœ, 176 sq., 412 sqq. Hespeaks of “Jerusalem as the most excellent of all places for sanctity,”and says, “for this reason it was oppressed by the pagans and infidels.”Fulcher, writing of the year 1100, declares that there were only threehundred knights and as many footmen left for the defense of Jerusalem,Jaffa, and Ramleh. See quotation in Hagenmeyer, 415.

29

called, the Letters of the Holy Sepulchre.6 These were depositedunder seal in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They wereafterward lost. Our knowledge of their contents is derived fromthe codes of Cyprus and the Latin Kingdom of Constantinople,which were founded upon the Jerusalem code.

These statutes reproduced the feudal system of Europe. Theconquered territory was distributed among the barons who heldtheir possessions under the King of Jerusalem as overlord. Thefour chief fiefs were Jaffa and Ascalon; Kerat, east of Jordan;Galilee; and Sidon. The counts of Tripoli and Edessa and theprince of Antioch were independent of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.A system of courts was provided, the highest being presided overby the King. Trial by combat of arms was recognized. A secondcourt provided for justice among the Europeans. A third gave itto the natives. Villeins or slaves were treated as propertyaccording to the discretion of the master, but are also mentionedas being subject to the courts of law. The slave and the falconwere estimated as equal in value. Two slaves were held at theprice of a horse and three slaves at the price of twelve oxen.Man became of age at twenty-five, woman at twelve. In Europe,the feudal system was a natural product. In Palestine, it was anexotic. The barons laid obligations on the people that wereseverer than any in contemporary Europe. The native Christianpopulation looked back to Moslem rule as a golden age.7

The Christian occupation of Palestine did not bring with ita reign of peace. The kingdom was torn by the bitter intriguesof barons and ecclesiastics, while it was being constantlythreatened from without. The inner strife was the chief sourceof weakness. The monks settled down in swarms over the country,and the Franciscans became the guardians of the holy places. Theillegitimate offspring of the Crusaders by Moslem women, calledpullani, were a degenerate race, marked by avarice, faithlessness,and debauchery.8

His brother Baldwin, Count of Edessa, who was crowned atBethlehem, succeeded Godfrey. Though less noble than Godfrey, hewas a man of intelligence and the most vigorous of the kings ofJerusalem. He died of a fever in Egypt, and his body was laid torest at the side of his brother’s in Jerusalem.

6 Wilken devotes a long treatment to the subject, I pp. 307-424.7 Thompson, Economic History, 397.8 Fulani, “anybodies.” The designation fulan ibn fulan, “so and so, the sonof so and so,” is a very scornful mode of address among Arabs.

30

During Baldwin’s reign (1100-1118), the limits of thekingdom were greatly extended.9 Cæsarea fell in 1101, St. Jeand’Acre, otherwise known as Ptolemais in 1104, and Berytus, orBeyrut in 1110. Sidon capitulated to Sigurd, son of the King ofNorway, who had with him ten thousand Crusaders. A third of AsiaMinor was reduced, a part of the territory reverting to the GreekEmpire. Damascus never fell into European hands. With theprogress of their arms, the Crusaders built strong castles fromPetra to the far North, as well as on the eastern side of theJordan. Their ruins attest to the firm purpose of their buildersto make their occupation permanent. “We who were Westerners,”said Fulcher of Chartres, “are now Easterners. We have forgottenour native land.” It is proof of the attractiveness of thecause, if not also of the country, that so many Crusaders soughtto establish themselves there permanently. Many who went toEurope returned a second time, and kings spent protracted periodsin the East.

During Baldwin’s reign most of the leaders of the FirstCrusade died or returned to Europe. But the ranks were beingcontinually recruited by fresh expeditions. Pascal II, thesuccessor of Urban II, sent forth the call for recruits. TheItalian cities furnished fleets, and did important service inleague with the land forces. The Venetian, the Pisans, and theGenoese established quarters of their own in Jerusalem, Acre, andother cities. The thousands who took the Cross in Lombardy,France, and Germany, were led by Anselm, Archbishop of Milan;Stephen, Duke of Burgundy; William, Duke of Aquitaine; Ida ofAustria; and others. Hugh of Vermandois, who had gone to Europe,returned. Bohemund likewise returned with thirty-four thousandmen, and opposed the Greek Emperor. At least two Christianarmies attempted to attack Islam in its stronghold at Baghdad.

Under Baldwin II (1118-1131), the nephew of Baldwin I, Tyrewas taken (1124). This event marked the apogee of the Crusaders’possessions and power.

9 The following mode of reducing a tribe of robbers is characteristic.The robbers took refuge in a cave. Baldwin resorted to smoking themout. Two emerged; Baldwin spoke kindly to them, dressed one up and senthim back with fair promises, while he put the other to death. Tenothers emerged. One was sent back and the other nine put to death. Thesame method was employed until two hundred and thirty had been inducedto come forth and were put to death. The fires were then started againuntil all came forth and met the same fate.

31

Under King Fulk, Count Anjou (1131-43), Baldwin II’ssuccessor and the husband of his daughter, Millicent, the newstate included most of Palestine and Syria; but the Moslems stillheld Aleppo, Damascus, and Emesa. The kingdom was divided intofour fiefdoms and was checked by an ecclesiastical hierarchysubject only to the pope. Ceding the control of several portsfurther weakened him. Zangi, surnamed Imad-ed-din—the Pillar ofthe Faith, threatened the very existence of this FrankishKingdom.

The young kingdom had many elements of weakness, but it hada unique support in the new orders of military monks. As farback as 1048 the merchants of Amalfi had obtained Moslempermission to build a hospital at Jerusalem for poor or ailingpilgrims. About 1120 the staff of this institution wasreorganized by Raymond du Puy as a religious order vowed tochastity, poverty, obedience, and the military protection ofChristians in Palestine: and these Hospitalers, or Knights of theHospital of St. John, became one of the noblest charitable bodiesin the western Christian world. About the same time (1119) Hughde Payens and eight other crusader knights solemnly dedicatedthemselves to monastic discipline and the martial service ofChristianity. They obtained from Baldwin II a residence near thesite of Solomon’s Temple and were soon called Knights Templar.They lived under a little followed rule drawn up for them by themonk Bernard. The rule he drew up for them was a stern rule inwhich he praised them for being “most learned in the art of war,”and bade them to “wash seldom,” and crop their hair closely.10

“The Christian who slays the unbeliever in the Holy War,” wroteBernard to the Templars, in a passage worthy of Mohammed, “issure of his reward; more sure if he himself is slain. TheChristian glories in the death of the pagan, because Christ isthereby glorified”; 11 men must learn to kill with a goodconscience if they are to fight successful wars. A Hospitalerwore a black robe with a white cross on the left sleeve; aTemplar a white robe with a red cross on the mantle. Each hatedthe other religiously. From protecting and nursing pilgrims theHospitalers and Templars passed to active attacks upon Saracenstronghold; though the Templars numbered but three hundred, andthe Hospitalers some six hundred, in 1180, 12 they played aprominent part in the battles of the Crusades, and earned great10 Archer and Kingsford, Crusades, 171.11 Milman, IV, 251.12 William of Tyre, xxi, 7.

32

repute as warriors. Both orders campaigned for financialsupport, and received it from Church and state, from rich andpoor; in the thirteenth century each owned great estates inEurope, including abbeys, villages, and towns. Both astonishedChristians and Saracens by building vast fortresses in Syria,where, dedicated individually to poverty, they enjoyed collectiveluxury amid the toils of war.13 In 1190 the Germans in Palestine,aided by a few at home, founded the Teutonic Knights, andestablished a hospital near Acre.

Most of the Crusaders returned to Europe after freeingJerusalem, leaving the manpower of the harassed governmentperilously low. Many pilgrims came, but few remained to fight.To the north the Greeks watched for a chance to recover Antioch,Edessa, and other Byzantine cities; while to the east, theSaracens were being aroused and unified by Moslem appeals andChristian raids. Mohammedan refugees from Jerusalem told inbitter detail of the fall of that city to the Christians; theystormed the Great Mosque of Baghdad, and demanded that Moslemarms should liberate Jerusalem, and the sacred Dome of the Rock,from unclean infidel hands.14 The caliph was powerless to heedtheir pleas, but Zangi, the young slave-born Prince of Mosul,responded. In 1144 his small well-led army took the Christianseastern outpost at al-Ruah and a few months later he recapturedEdessa for Islam. Zangi was assassinated, but a son, Nur-ud-din,of equal courage and greater ability, succeeded him. It was thenews of these events that stirred Europe. This Second Crusadeowed its origin to the profound impression made in Europe by thefall of Edessa, as well as the zealous eloquence of monk Bernardof Clairvaux.

13 Archer, 176.14 Muir, Caliphate, 578.

33

V. The Fall of Edessa and the Second Crusade

he monk Bernard appealed to Pope Eugenius III to soundanother call to arms. Eugenius, enmeshed in conflict withthe infidels of Rome, begged Bernard to undertake the task

himself. It was a wise suggestion, for Bernard was a greater manthan was he whom he had made pope. Bernard regarded the summons

T34

as a call from God1 When he left his cell at Clairvaux to preachthe crusade to the French, the skepticism that hides in thehearts of faith was silenced, and the fears spread by narrativesof the First Crusade were stilled. Bernard first persuaded KingLouis VII to take the Cross. Louis had before promised to go ona crusade, in remorse for his burning the church at Vitryi withthirteen hundred people inside. With the King at his side hespoke to the multitude at Vézelay (1146); when he had finished,the crowd enlisted en masse. The crosses prepared for themproved too few, so Bernard tore his robe to pieces to provideadditional emblems. 2 “Cities and castles are emptied of theirinmates,” he wrote to the Pope; “there is not left one man toseven women, and everywhere there are widows to still livinghusbands.” Having won France Bernard proceeded along the Rhineas far as Cologne, where his fervent eloquence induced EmperorConrad III to accept the crusade as the one cause that couldunify the Guelf and Hohenstaufen factions then tearing the realmapart. Many nobles followed Conrad’s lead; among them the youngFrederick of Swabia who would become Barbarossa, and would die inthe Third Crusade.

During Christmas week at Spires, Bernard preached animpassioned sermon. “What is there, O man,” he representedChrist as saying, while seated in judgment of the imperial hearerat the last day, — “What is there which I ought to have done forthee and have not done?” He contrasted the physical prowess, 3

1 De consideratione, II. 1, Reinkens’ translation, pp. 31-37. In this chapter of his famous tract, Bernard explains and justifies his course in the Crusade.i The name Vitry does not identify the place to which reference is being made. Vitry is part of the name of several locales in France, e.g., Vitry-sur-Seine, Vitry-en-Artois, etc.2 Odo, I.1, cæperunt undique conclamando cruces expetere . . . coactus est vestes suas in cruces scindere et seminare.3 As a proof of Conrad’s strength, William of Tyre, XVII. 4, relates that at the siege of Damascus he hewed a man clad in armor through head,neck, and shoulder to the armpit with one stroke of his blade. ii This Greek word means Passover in English. Jesus Christ is the Christian Passover Lamb whose blood saves Christians as the lamb’s bloodon the lintels of the Jews doors saved them from death in the time of Moses (Ex 12:13; Jn. 1:29, 36). Most English speakers know this Feast by the pagan name of Easter. The name is derived from Anglo-Saxon E['a]stre, a goddess of light or spring, in honor of whom a festival wascelebrated in April.

35

the riches, and the honors of the emperor with the favor of thesupreme judge of human actions. Bursting into tears, the emperorexclaimed: “I shall henceforth not be found ungrateful to God’smercy. I am ready to serve Him, seeing I am admonished by Him.”Thousands flocked to hear this fervent preacher, who addedmiraculous healings to the impression of his eloquence.

At Paschaii (1147) Conrad and the Germans set out; atPentecost Louis and the French followed at a cautious distance,uncertain whether the Germans or the Turks were their most hatedfoes. The Germans felt a like hesitation between Turks andGreeks; and so many Byzantine towns were pillaged on the way thatmany closed their gates, and dispensed a scanty ration by basketslet down from the walls. Manuel Comnenus, now the EasternEmperor gently suggested that the noble hosts should cross theHellespont at Sestos, instead of going through Constantinople;but Conrad and Louis refused. A party in Louis’ council urgedhim to take Constantinople for France; he refrained; but againthe Greeks may have learned of his temptation. They werefrightened by the stature and armor of the Western knights, andamused by their feminine entourage. His troublesome Eleanoraccompanied Louis, and troubadours accompanied the Queen. Thecounts of Flanders and Toulouse were escorted by theircountesses. The baggage train of the French was heavy withtrunks and boxes of apparel and cosmetics designed to ensure thebeauty of these ladies against all the vicissitudes of climate,war, and time. Manuel hastened to transport the two armiesacross the Bosporus, and supplied the Greeks with debased coinagefor dealings with the Crusaders. In Asia a dearth of provisions,and the high prices demanded by the Greeks, led to many conflictsbetween saviors and saved; and Frederick of the Red Bear mournedthat his sword had to shed Christian blood for the privilege ofencountering infidels.

Conrad insisted, against Manuel’s advice, on taking theroute followed by the First Crusade. Louis, who had received theoriflamme from Eugenius’ own hands at St. Denis, followed thesame route taken by Conrad. His queen, Eleanor, a renownedbeauty, and many ladies of the court accompanied the army. Asthe armies marched they pillaged the towns along the way. TheGreek Emperor Manuel and Conrad were brothers-in-law, havingmarried sisters, but this tie was no protection to Conrad’sseventy thousand-man army. Despite or because of their Greek

i

36

guides, the Germans fell into a succession of foodless wastes andMoslem snares; and their loss of life was disheartening. Williamof Tyre said the guides, provided by Manuel, “children of Belial”as he called them, treacherously led them astray in theCappadocian mountains.4 At Dorylaeum, where the First Crusade haddefeated Qilij Arslan, Conrad’s army met the main Moslem force,and was so badly beaten that hardly one Christian in tensurvived. The French army, far behind, deceived by false news ofa German victory, advanced recklessly, and was decimated bystarvation and Moslem raids. Misadventures and duplicityperpetrated by both insiders and outsiders practically decimatedboth armies. The two sovereigns met at Nicæa and proceededtogether to Ephesus. Conrad returned to Constantinople by ship,and Louis, after reaching Attalia, bargained with Greek shipcaptains to transport his army by sea to Christian Tarsus orAntioch; the captains demanded an impossible fee per passenger;Louis and several nobles, and Eleanor and several ladies, tookpassage to Antioch, leaving the French army in Attalia.Mohammedan forces swept down upon the city, and slaughterednearly every Frenchman in it (1148).

At Antioch, Eleanor laid herself open to the serious chargeof levity, if not to infidelity to her marriage vow. She and theKing were publicly separated afterward at Jerusalem, and laterwere divorced by the Pope. Eleanor was then joined to Henry ofAnjou, and later became the queen of Henry II of England.

Conrad who reached Acre by ship from Constantinople metLouis at Jerusalem, and in company with Baldwin III the twosovereigns from the West offered their devotions in the Church ofthe Holy Sepulchre. Louis had reached Jerusalem with ladies butno army, while Conrad arrived with a pitiful remnant of the forcewith which he had left Ratisbon. At a council of the three heldunder the walls of Acre, 5 they decided to direct their armsagainst Damascus before proceeding to the more distant Edessa.From the pitiful remnant of Conrad’s force and soldiers already

4 Bk, XVI, 20. William suggests that Manuel’s jealousy was arousedbecause Conrad asserted the title, King of the Romans. Diehl, Essays onthe Crusades, p. 107, doubts the statement that Manuel’s guidesintentionally misled and betrayed the Germans. He, however,acknowledges that Greek inhabitants of Asia Minor “fleeced or starvedthe Latins.”5 William of Tyre, XVII, gives a list of the distinguished personagespresent, Bishop Otto of Freising, the Emperor’s brother, being amongthem.

37

in the capital, an army was improvised, and marched againstDamascus under the divided command of Conrad, Louis, and BaldwinIII (1143-62). During the siege disputes arose among the noblesas to which should rule Damascus when it fell. Moslem agentsfound their way into the Christian army, and bribed certainleaders to a policy of inaction or retreat.6 When word came thatthe emirs of Aleppo and Mosul were advancing with a large forceto relieve Damascus, the advocates of retreat prevailed; theChristian army broke into fragments, and fled to Antioch, Acre,or Jerusalem. Conrad, defeated and diseased, returned indisgrace to Germany (1148). Eleanor and most of the Frenchknights returned to France. Louis remained another year inPalestine, making pilgrimages to sacred shrines.

Europe was stunned by the collapse of the Second Crusade.Men began to ask how it was that the Almighty allowed Hisdefenders to be so humiliated; critics assailed Bernard as areckless visionary who had sent men to their death; emboldenedskeptics called in question the most basic tenets of theChristian sins. Bernard, who keenly felt the humiliation of thefailure, replied that the ways of the Almighty are beyond humanunderstanding, and that the disaster must have been a punishmentfor Christian sins. “The judgments of the Lord are just,” hewrote, “but this one is an abyss so deep that I dare to pronouncehim blessed who is not scandalized by it.” 7 As for the chargethat he was responsible for the expedition, Bernard exclaimed,“Was Moses to blame, in the wilderness, who promised to lead thechildren of Israel to the Promised Land? Was it not rather thesins of the people which interrupted the progress of theirjourney?”

The philosophic doubts that Abélard (d. 1142) had earlierscattered about now found expression even among the commonpeople. Enthusiasm for the Crusades rapidly waned; and the Ageof Faith in Europe prepared to defend itself by fire and swordagainst the inroads of alien beliefs, or no belief at all.

Edessa remained lost to the Crusaders and Damascus neverfell into their power.

6 Guizot, France, 427F; Cambridge Medieval History, V, 307.7 De consideratione, II 1.

38

VI. Saladin

eanwhile a strange new civilization had developed inChristian Syria and Palestine. The Europeans who hadsettled there since 1099 gradually adopted the Near Eastern

garb of wound headdress and flowing robe as suited to a climateof sun and sand. As they became more familiar with the Moslemsliving in the kingdom, mutual unfamiliarity and hostilitydecreased. Moslem merchants freely entered Christian settlementsand sold their wares; Moslem and Jewish physicians were preferredby Christian patients; 1 Moslem worship in mosques was permittedby the Christian clergy; and the Koran was taught in Moslemschools in Christian Antioch and Tripolis. Many Crusadersmarried Syrian women and soon their mixed offspring constituted alarge element of the population. Christian princes madealliances with Moslem emirs against Christian rivals, and Moslem

M

1 Adams, B., Law of Civilization and Decay, 94.

39

emirs sometimes asked the aid of the “polytheists” in diplomacyor war. Ibn Jubair, who toured Christian Syria in 1183,described his fellow Moslems there as prosperous, and as welltreated by the Franks. He mourned to see Acre “swarming withpigs and crosses,” and odorous with a vile European smell, but hehad some hopes that the infidels would gradually be civilized bythe superior civilization to which they had come.2

In the forty years of peace that followed the SecondCrusade, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem continued to be torn withinternal strife, while its Moslem enemies moved toward unity.Nur-ud-din spread his power from Aleppo to Damascus (1164); whenhe died, Saladin brought Egypt and Moslem Syria under one rule(1175). Guy de Lusignan maneuvered his way to the throne (1186)causing alienation and discontent to spread among thearistocracy; “if this Guy is a king,” said his brother Geoffrey,“I am worthy to be a god.” Reginald of Châtillon made himselfsovereign in the great castle of Karak beyond the Jordan, nearthe Arabian frontier, and repeatedly violated the truce arrangedbetween the Latin King and Saladin. He announced his intentionto invade Arabia, destroy the tomb of “the accursed camel driver”at Medina, and smash the Kaaba at Mecca in fragments to theground.3 His small force of knightly adventurers sailed down theRed Sea, landed at el-Haura, and marched to Medina. There theywere surprised by an Egyptian detachment, and all were cut downexcept a few who escaped with Reginald, and some prisoners whowere taken to Mecca and slaughtered instead of goats at theannual pilgrimage sacrifice (1183).

Saladin had heretofore contented himself with minor foraysagainst Palestine; now, offended to the depths of his piety, here-formed the army that had won him Damascus, and met the forcesof the Latin Kingdom in an indecisive battle on the historicplain of Esdrælon (1183). A few months later he attackedReginald at Karak, but failed to enter the citadel. In 1185 hesigned a four-year truce with the Latin Kingdom. But in 1186Reginald, bored with peace, waylaid a Moslem caravan, and tookrich booty and several prisoners, including Saladin’s sister.“Since they trusted in Mohammed,” said Reginald, “let Mohammedcome and save them.” Mohammed did not come; but Saladin did.Infuriated, he sounded the call for a holy war against theChristians, and swore to kill Reginald with his own hand.

2 In Munro and Sellery, 275f.3 Lane-Poole, Saladin, 175.

40

The crucial engagement of the Crusades was fought at Hittin,on the hill above Tiberias, where tradition has placed thedelivery of the Sermon on the Mount. The Templars andHospitalers were there in force. On July 4 or 5, 1187 thedecisive battle was fought. Saladin, familiar with the terrain,took up positions controlling all the wells; the heavily armoredChristians, having marched across the plain in midsummer heat,entered battle gasping with thirst. Taking advantage of thewind, the Saracens started a brush fire whose smoke furtherharassed the Crusaders. In the blind confusion the Frank footmenwere separated from the cavalry, and were cut down; the knights,fighting with desperation against weapons, smoke, and thirst, atlast fell exhausted to the ground, and were captured or slain.Apparently by Saladin’s orders, no mercy was shown to Templars orHospitalers. Guy of Lusignan, the masters of the Temple4 and theHospital, and Reginald of Châtillon, Lord of Kerak, were takenprisoner. Saladin directed that King Guy and Duke Reginald bebrought before him; to the King he gave drink as a pledge ofpardon; to Reginald he gave the choice of death or acknowledgingMohammed as a prophet of God; when Reginald refused, Saladin slewhim. Part of the booty taken by the victors was the True Cross,which had been borne as a battle standard by a priest. Saladinsent it to the caliph at Baghdad. The fate of the Holy Land wasdecided. With no army remaining to challenge him, Saladin wenton to capture Acre, where he reed four thousand prisoners, andpaid his troops with the wealth of the busy port. For a fewmonths nearly all Palestine was in his hands.

As he approached Jerusalem the leading citizens came out tosue for peace. He said that, as they believed, so he believedthat Jerusalem is the home of God and that he would not willinglylay siege to it, or put it to assault. He offered it freedom tofortify itself, and to cultivate the land unhindered for fifteenmiles around, and promised to supply all deficiencies of moneyand food, until Pentecost. If, when that day came, they saw hopeof being rescued, they might keep the city and honorably resisthim; if no such prospect appeared, they were to yield peaceably,and he would spare the lives and property of the Christianinhabitants. The delegates refused the offer, saying that theywould never surrender the city where the Savior had died for4 According to the letter of Terricius, Master of the Temple, twohundred ninety Templars perished, and the Saracens covered the wholeland from Tyre to Gaza like swarms of ants. Richard of Hoveden (an.1187) says the Templars fought like lions.

41

mankind.5 The siege lasted only twelve days. Saladin enteredJerusalem on October 2, 1187. The conditions of surrender weremost creditable to the chivalry of the great commander. Therewere no scenes of savage butchery such as followed the entry ofthe Crusaders ninety years before. When the city capitulated,Saladin required a ransom of ten gold pieces for each man, fivefor each woman, one for each child; the poorest seven thousandwere to be freed on the surrender of the thirty thousand goldbezants, which had been sent to the Hospitalers by Henry II ofEngland. The relics stored away in the church of the HolySepulchre were to be delivered up by the conqueror for the sum offifty thousand bezants, paid by Richard I. These terms wereaccepted, says a Christian chronicler, “with gratitude andlamentation”; perhaps some learned Christians compared theseevents of 1187 with those of 1099. Saladin's brother al-Adilasked for the gift of a thousand slaves from the still unransomedpoor; it was granted, and he freed them. Balian, leader of theChristian resistance, asked a like boon, received it, and freedanother thousand; the Christian primate asked and received anddid likewise. Then Saladin said: “My brother has made his alms,and the patriarch and Balian have made theirs; now I would makemine.” He then freed all the old who could not pay. Seeminglyonly some fifteen thousand of the sixty thousand capturedChristians remained unransomed, and became slaves. Among theransomed were the wives and daughters of the nobles who had beenkilled or captured at Hittin. Softened by their tears, Saladinreleased to them such husbands and fathers (including King Guy)as could be found in Moslem captivity, and (relates Ernoul,squire to Balian) to “the dames and damsels whose lords were deadhe distributed from his own treasure so much that they gavepraise to God, and published abroad the kindness and honor thatSaladin had done them.”6

The freed King and nobles took an oath never to bear armsagainst him again. Safe in Christian Tripolis and Antioch, theywere “released by the sentence of the clergy from the enormity oftheir promise,” and laid plans of vengeance against Saladin.7 TheSultan allowed the Jews to dwell again in Jerusalem, and to anyChristians, who would lay down their arms, he gave the right toenter; he assisted their pilgrimage, and protected their

5 Land-Poole, Saladin, 205f.6 Ibid., 2327 246.

42

security.8 The Dome of the Rock, which had been converted into achurch, was purified from Christian taint by sprinkling with rosewater, and the golden Cross was cast down amid Moslem cheers andChristian groans. Saladin led his wearied troops to the siege ofTyre, found it impregnable, dismissed most of his army, andretired ill and worn to Damascus (1188), in the fiftieth year ofhis age.

Thus ended the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Since then theworship of Islam has continued on Mount Moriah withoutinterruption.

After 1187 a long line of nominal kings of Jerusalempresented a romantic picture in European affairs. The last realking, Guy of Lusignan, was released, and resumed his kinglypretension without a capital city. Conrad of Montferrat, who hadmarried Isabella, daughter of Amalric, was granted the right ofsuccession. He was murdered before reaching the throne, andHenry of Champagne became King of Jerusalem on Guy’s accession tothe Crown of Cyprus. In 1197 the two crowns of Cyprus andJerusalem were united in Amalric II. At his death the crownpassed to Mary, daughter of Conrad of Montferrat. Mary’s husbandwas John of Brienne. At the marriage of their daughter,Iolanthe, to the Emperor Frederick II, that sovereign assumed thetitle, King of Jerusalem.

8 De Vaux, Carra, Penseurs d’Islam, I, 26.

43

VII. The Third Crusade 1189-92

he Third Crusade was undertaken to regain Jerusalem, whichhad been lost to Saladin (1187). It enjoyed the distinctionof having had for its leaders the three most powerful

princes of Western Europe, the Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa;Philip Augustus, King of France; and the English King, Richard I,surnamed Cœur de Lion, or the Lionhearted.1 It brought togetherthe chivalry of the East and the West at the time of its highestdevelopment and called forth the heroism of two of the bravestsoldiers of any age, Saladin and Richard. It has been morewidely celebrated in romance than any of the other Crusades has:from the songs of the mediæval minstrel to Lessing in his Nathanthe Wise and Walter Scott in Talisman. But in spite of the splendidarmaments, the expedition was almost a complete failure.

T

Urban III is alleged to have died of grief on the news ofSaladin’s victories.2 An official summons was hardly necessary tostir the crusading ardor of Europe from one end to the other.Danes, Swedes, and Frisians joined with Welshmen, Englishmen,

1 The story of Richard’s seizing a lion and tearing out its throbbingheart was a subject of English romance in the fourteenth century andprobably of French romance in the thirteenth century.2 It required at least fifteen days for a ship to go from Acre toMarseilles, and about the same time for news to reach Rome fromJerusalem. Gottlob, 119 sq, quotes the indulgences offered to Crusadersby Alexander III, on the news of Saladin’s conquests in Egypt and hisdefeat of the Christians at Banias (1181). Alexander appealed to theexamples of Urban II and Eugenius III.

44

Frenchmen, and Germans in readiness for a new expedition. Ahundred years had elapsed since the First Crusade, and itsleaders were already invested with a halo of romance and glory.The aged Gregory VIII, whose reign lasted less than two months(1187), spent his expiring breath in an appeal to the princes todesist from their feuds. Under the influence of William,Archbishop of Tyre, and the Archbishop of Rouen, Philip Ausgustusof France and Henry II of England laid aside their quarrels andtook the Cross. At Henry’s death, his son Richard, then thirty-one years of age, set about with impassioned zeal to makepreparations for the Crusade. Richard augmented the treasure,left by Henry, with sums secured from the sale of castles andbishoprics.3 For ten thousand marks he released William ofScotland from homage, and he would have sold London itself, so hesaid, if a purchaser rich enough had offered himself.4 Baldwin,Archbishop of Canterbury, supported his sovereign, preaching theCrusade in England and Wales, and accompanied the expedition.5

The famous Saladin tax was levied in England, and perhaps also inFrance, requiring the payment of a tithe by all not joining theCrusade.

The retention of Tyre, Antioch, and Tripolis left theChristians some strands of hope. Italian fleets still controlledthe Mediterranean, and stood ready to carry fresh Crusaders for aprice. William, Archbishop of Tyre, returned to Europe, andrecounted to assemblies in Italy, France, and Germany the fall ofJerusalem. At Mainz his appeal so moved Frederick Barbarossathat the great Emperor, sixty-seven years old, set out almost atonce with his army (1189), and all Christendom applauded him asthe second Moses who would open a way to the Promised Land.Crossing the Hellespont at Gallipoli, the new host, on a newroute, repeated the errors and tragedies of the First Crusade.Turkish bands harassed its march and cut off its supplies;hundreds starved to death.

Richard I of the Lion Heart, recently crowned King ofEngland at the age of thirty-one, resolved to try his hand on theMoslems. Richard, fearing French encroachment upon the Englishpossessions in France while he was away, insisted that Philip3 He sold the Archbishopric of York for 3,000 pounds. Henry is reportedto have left 900,000 pounds in gold and silver. Rog. Of Wendover,(1180).4 Richard of Devizes, X.5 Giraldus Cambrensis accompanied the Archbishop and gathered thematerials for his Itinerary on the way.

45

Augustus should accompany him; the French King—a lad of twenty-three—agreed; and the two youthful monarchs received the Crossfrom William of Tyre. Richard and Philip met at Vézelai. Amongthe great lords who joined them were Hugh, Duke of Burgundy,Henry II, Count of Champagne, and Philip of Flanders. The FrenchKing chose a red Cross as a badge for himself and his men,Richard chose a white Cross, and the Duke of Flanders a greenCross.

In the meantime Frederick Barbarossa had reached theBosphorus. Mindful of his experiences with Conrad III, whom hehad accompanied on the Second Crusade, he avoided the mixedcharacter of Conrad’s army by admitting to the ranks only thosewho were physically strong and had money amounting to at leastthree marks. The army numbered one hundred thousand, of whomfifty thousand sat in the saddle. Frederick of Swabiaaccompanied his father, the Emperor.

Setting forth from Ratisbon in May of 1189, the German armyhad proceeded by way of Hungary to Constantinople. The GreekEmperor, Isaac Angelus, far from regarding the Crusaders’approach with favor, threw Barbarossa’s commissioners into prisonand made a treaty with Saladin.6 He coolly addressed the westernEmperor as “the first Prince of Germany.” The opportunity wasafforded Frederick of uniting the East and West once more under asingle scepter. Wallachians and Servians promised him theirsupport if he would dethrone Isaac and take the crown. Butthough there was provocation enough, Frederick refused to turnaside from his purpose, the reconquest of Jerusalem, 7 and inMarch of 1190 his troops were transferred across the Bosphorus.He took Iconium, and reached Cilicia. There his career wasbrought to a sudden termination when on June 10 Frederick wasdrowned ignominiously in the waters of the little CalycadnusRiver, 8 in Cilicia (1190); and only a fraction of his army

6 Frederick announced his expedition in a letter to Saladin, in which heenumerated the tribes that were to take part in it, from the “tallBavarian” to the sailors of Venice and Pisa. See Itin. Reg. Ricardi deHoveden, etc.7 Ranke, VIII 246 sqq., spicily speculates upon the possibleconsequences of Isaac’s dethronement, and, as a German, regrets thatFrederick did not take the prize, Es war ein Moment das nicht so leicht wiederkommen konnte.8 Ranke, VIII 249, regards the view taken by Schaff as the better one,Hist. of the Christian Church, V, p. 259. “His career was brought to a suddentermination on June 10 in the waters of the Kalycadnus River into which

46

survived to join in the siege of Acre. His flesh was buried atAntioch, and his bones, intended for the crypts of the Church ofthe Holy Sepulchre, were deposited in the Church of St. Peter inTyre. A lonely place, indeed, for the ashes of the mightymonarch, and far-removed from those of his great predecessor,Charlemagne at Aachen! Scarcely ever has a life so eminent hadsuch a tragic and deplored ending. In the best imperial fashion,Frederick had sent messengers ahead, calling upon Saladin toabandon Jerusalem and deliver up the True Cross. With ademoralized contingent, Frederick of Swabia reached the walls ofAcre, where he soon after became a victim of the plague, inOctober of 1190.

Richard's army of Normans (for few Englishmen took part inthe Crusades) sailed from Marseilles and Philip's army fromGenoa, for a rendezvous in Sicily (1190). There the kingsquarreled and otherwise amused themselves for half a year.Richard found employment on the island in asserting the rights ofhis sister Joan, widow of William II of Sicily, who had beenrobbed of her dowry by William’s illegitimate son, Tancred, theKing of Sicily. Richard seized Messina from the offensiveTancred “quicker than a priest could chant matins,”9 and restoredit for 40,000 ounces of gold. So solvent, he embarked his armyfor Palestine.

In spite of armed disputes between Richard and Philip, thetwo kings came to an agreement to defend each other during theCrusades. Among the curious stipulations of this agreement was

he had plunged to cool himself.” Fordham University Center for MedievalStudies, Paul Hasall, ORB sources editor, Historia de Expeditione FredericiImperatoris takes a different view. “The advance unit of the army hadcamped on the plains of Seleucea. “Up to this point the whole army ofthe Holy Cross—the rich and the poor, the sick and those who seemedhealthy—had journeyed through the glare of the sun and the burning beatof summer along a torturous road which led them across rocky cliffsaccessible only to birds and mountain goats. The Emperor had shared inall the dangers and wished both to moderate the inordinate heat and toavoid climbing a mountain peak. Accordingly, he attempted to swimacross the very swift Calycadmus River. As the wise man says, “Thoushalt not swim against the river's current” (Eccles. 4:32). Wise thoughhe was in other ways, the Emperor foolishly tried his strength againstthe current and power of the river. Although everyone tried to stophim, he entered the water and plunged into a whirlpool. He, who hadoften escaped great dangers, perished miserably.” 9 Itinerary, III 16.

47

one that only knights and the clergy were to be allowed to playgames for money, and the amount staked on any one day was not toexceed twenty shillings.

Leaving Sicily, 10 from which Philip had sailed eleven daysbefore, Richard proceeded to Cyprus. Some of his ships werewrecked on the coast of Cyprus where the Greek governor promptlyimprisoned the crews. This caused Richard to pause for a momentto conquer Cyprus, and give it to Guy de Lusignan, the homelessKing of Jerusalem. Richard’s nuptials were consummated on theisland with Berengaria of Navarre, whom he preferred to Philip’ssister Alice, to whom he had been betrothed. He reached Acre inJune of 1191. “For joy at his coming,” says Baha-ed-din, theArab historian, “the Franks broke forth in rejoicing, and litfires in their camps all night through. The hosts of theMussulmans were filled with fear and dread.” 11 Philip hadpreceded him; the siege of Acre by the Christians had alreadylasted nineteen months, and had cost thousands of lives. A fewweeks after Richard's arrival the Saracens surrendered. Thevictors asked, and were promised, two hundred thousand goldpieces, sixteen hundred selected prisoners, and the restorationof the True Cross, Saladin confirmed the agreement, and theMoslem population of Acre, excepting the sixteen hundred, wereallowed to depart with such provisions as they could carry.Philip Augustus, ill with fever, returned to France, leavingbehind him a French force of ten thousand five hundred men.Richard became sole leader of the Third Crusade.

Acre, or Ptolemais, under Mount Carmel, had become themetropolis of the Crusaders, as it was the key to the Holy Land.Christendom had few capitals so gay in its fashions and throngedwith people of such diverse nationalities. Merchants were therefrom the great commercial marts of Europe. The houses, placedamong gardens, were rich with painted glass. The Hospitalers andthe Templars had extensive establishments there.

10 Richard’s fleet, when he sailed from Messina, consisted of honehundred and fifty large ships and fifty-three galleys.11 The Itinerary, III. 2, says Richard’s arrival was welcomed withtransports of joy, outcries, and blowing of trumpets. He was takenashore as if the desired of all nations had come, and the night was madeso bright with wax torches and flaming lights hat it seemed to beusurped by the brightness of the day, and the Turks thought the wholevalley was on fire.” Richard of Devizes, LXIII., says, “The besiegersreceived Richard with as much joy as if it had been Christ who had comeagain.”

48

Guy of Lusignan, who had been laying siege against Acre fortwo years and had been captured and released by Saladin uponcondition of renouncing all claims to his crown and going beyondthe seas, had secured easy absolution from the priest from thissolemn oath, and had with Baldwin of Canterbury, Hubert Walter,Bishop of Salisbury, and the Justiciari Ranulf of Glanvillarrived on the scene before Richard.

Saladin was watching the besiegers and protecting thegarrison. The horrors of the siege made it one of the memorablesieges of the Middle Ages.12 It was carried on from the sea aswell as on the land. The Turks used Greek fire with greateffect.13 The struggle was participated in by women as well as themen. Some Crusaders apostatized as a means for prolonging life.14

With the aid of the huge machine Check Greek, and other enginesconstructed by Richard in Sicily, and by Philip, the city wasmade to surrender in July of 1191. By the terms of thecapitulation the city’s stores, two hundred thousand pieces ofgold, fifteen hundred prisoners and the True Cross were to passinto the hands of the Crusaders.

Now began a confused and unique campaign in which blows andbattles alternated with compliments and courtesies, while theEnglish King and the Kurd Sultan illustrated some of the finestqualities of their civilizations and creeds. Neither was a

i A high judicial officer in medieval England.12 The loss before Acre was very heavy. The Itinerary gives a list of 6archbishops, 40 counts, and 500 knights who lost their lives. IV 6. DeHoveden also gives a formidable list, in which are included the names ofthe dukes of Swabia, Flanders, and Burgundy, the archbishops ofBesançon, Arles, Montréal, etc. Baldwin died Nov. 19, 1190. TheItinerary compares the siege of Acre to the siege of Troy, and says, (I32) “it would certainly obtain eternal fame as a city for which thewhole world contended.” 13 The Itinerary and other documents make frequent reference to its deadlyuse. Among the machines used on both sides were the petrariœ, whichhurled stones, and mangonels used for hurling stones and other missiles.Itinerary, III 7, etc. One of the grappling machines was called a “cat.”The battering ram was also used, and the sow, a covering under which theassailants made their approach to the walls. King Richard was an expertin the use of the arbalest, or crossbow. 14 The price of a loaf of bread rose from a penny to 40 shillings, and ahorse-load of corn was sold for 60 marks. De Hoveden, etc. Hors fleshwas greedily eaten, even to the intestines, which were sold for 10 sols.Even grass was sought after to appease hunger. A vivid description ofthe pitiful sufferings from famine is given in the Itinerary, I 67-83.

49

saint: Saladin could dispense death with vigor when militarypurposes seemed to him to require it; and the romantic Richardpermitted some interruptions in his career as a gentleman. Whenthe leaders of besieged Acre delayed in carrying out the agreedterms of surrender, Richard had twenty five hundred Moslemprisoners beheaded before the walls as a hint to hurry.15 WhenSaladin learned of this he ordered the execution of all prisonersthereafter taken in battle with the English King. Changing histune, Richard proposed to end the Crusades by marrying his sisterJoan to Saladin's brother al-Adil. The Church denounced thescheme, and it was dropped.

Knowing that Saladin would not stay quiet in defeat, Richardreorganized his forces and prepared to march sixty milessouthward along the coast to relieve Jaffa, which, again inChristian hands, was under Moslem siege. Many nobles refused togo with him, preferring to stay behind in Acre and intrigue forthe kingship of the Jerusalem, which they trusted Richard wouldtake. The Christian chronicler of Richard’s crusade says that,after the long siege, the victorious Christians,

given up to sloth and luxury, were loath to leave acity so rich in comforts—to wit, the choicest of winesand the fairest of damsels. Many, by a too intimateacquaintance with these pleasures, became dissolute,till the city was polluted by their luxury, and theirgluttony and wantonness put wise men to the blush.16

Baldwin of Canterbury’s chaplain wrote, 17

We found our army given up to shameful practices, andyielding to ease and lust, rather than encouraging virtue.The Lord is not in the camp. Neither chastity, solemnity,faith, nor charity are there—a state of things which, I callGod to witness, I would not have believed if I had not seenit with my own eyes.

Richard made matters more difficult by ordering that nowomen should accompany the army except washerwomen who could not

15 Guizot, France, 439f; Gibbon, VI, 119.16 Lane-Poole, Saladin, 307.17 The Itinerary, I. 66, says Baldwin was made sick unto death when he saw“the army altogether dissolute and given up to drinking, women, anddice.”

50

be an occasion of sin. He atoned for the defects of his troopsby the excellence of his generalship, and his inspiring valor onthe field; in these respects he excelled even Saladin, as well asall the other Christian leaders of the Crusades.

His army met Saladin's at Arsuf, and won an indecisivevictory (1191). Saladin offered to renew battle, but Richardwithdrew his men within Jaffa's walls. Saladin sent him an offerof peace. During the negotiation Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat,who held Tyre, entered into separate correspondence with Saladin,proposing to become his ally, and retake Acre for the Moslems, ifSaladin would agree to his appropriating Sidon and Beirut.Despite this offer, Saladin authorized his brother to sign apeace with Richard yielding to the Christians all the coastalcities that they then held, and half of Jerusalem. So pleasedwas Richard that he ceremoniously conferred knighthood upon theson of the Moslem ambassador (1192). A while later, hearing thatSaladin was faced with revolt in the East, he rejected Saladin'sterms, besieged and took Darum, and advanced to within twelvemiles of Jerusalem. Saladin, who had dismissed his troops forthe winter, called them back to arms. Meanwhile dissension brokeout in the Christian camp, scouts reported that the wells on theroad to Jerusalem had been poisoned, and the army would havenothing to drink. A council was held to decide strategy; itvoted to abandon Jerusalem and march upon Cairo, two hundredfifty miles away. Richard, sick, disgusted, and despondent,retired to Acre, and thought of returning to England.

But when he heard that Saladin had again attacked Jaffa, andhad taken it in two days, Richard's pride revived him. He sailedat once for Jaffa with such troops as he could muster. Arrivedin the harbor, he cried, “Perish the hindmost!” and leaped to hiswaist into the sea. Swinging his famous Danish ax, he beat downall who resisted him, led his men into the city, and cleared itof Moslem soldiers almost before Saladin could learn what hadoccurred (1192). The Sultan summoned his main army to hisrescue. It far outnumbered Richard's three thousand, but thereckless courage of the King carried the day. Saladin, seeingRichard unmounted, sent him a charger, calling it a shame that sogallant a warrior should have to fight on foot. Saladin'ssoldiers soon had enough; they reproached him for having sparedthe Jaffa garrison, which was now fighting again.

On the next day fortune changed. Reinforcements reachedSaladin; and Richard, sick again, and unsupported by the knightsat Acre and Tyre, once more sued for peace. In his fever he

51

cried out for fruit and a cooling drink; Saladin sent him pearsand peaches and snow, and his own physician. On September 2,1192, the two heroes signed a peace for three years, andpartitioned Palestine: Richard was to keep all the coastal citieshe had conquered, from Acre to Jaffa; Moslems and Christians wereto pass freely into and from each other’s territory, and pilgrimswould be protected in Jerusalem; but that city was to remain inMoslem hands. (Perhaps Italian merchants interested incontrolling the ports had persuaded Richard to yield the HolyCity.) The peace was celebrated with feasts and tournaments;“God alone,” says Richard's chronicler, “knoweth the measurelessdelight of both peoples”, 18 for a moment men ceased to hate.After this signal victory at Joppa Richard closed his militaryachievements in Palestine. Called back in October of 1192 by thetreachery of his brother John, Richard set sail from Acre amidthe laments of those who remained behind, but before boarding hisship for England, Richard sent a last defiant note to Saladin,promising to return in three years and take Jerusalem. Saladinreplied that if he must lose his land he would prefer to lose itto Richard than to any other man alive.19

Saladin's moderation, patience, and justice had defeatedRichard's brilliance, courage, and military art; the relativeunity and fidelity of the Moslem leaders had triumphed over thedivisions and disloyalties of the feudal chiefs; and a short lineof supplies behind the Saracens proved of greater advantage thanChristian control of the seas. The Christian virtues and faultswere better exemplified in the Moslem sultan than in theChristian king. Saladin was religious to the point ofpersecution, and allowed himself to be unreasonably bitteragainst the Templars and Hospitalers. Usually, however, he wasgentle to the weak, merciful to the vanquished, and so superiorto his enemies in faithfulness to his word that Christianchroniclers wondered how so wrong a theology could produce sofine a man. He treated his servants with gentleness, and himselfheard all petitions. He “esteemed money as little as dust,” andleft only one dinar in his personal treasury.20 Not long beforehis death he gave his son ez-Zahir instructions that no Christianphilosopher could surpass:

18 Ibid., 35719 Ibid.20 De Vaux, I, 27.

52

My son, I commend thee to the most high God . . . DoHis will, for in that way lies peace. Abstain fromshedding blood . . . for blood that is spilt neversleeps. Seek to win the hearts of thy people, andwatch over their prosperity; for it is to secure theirhappiness that thou art appointed by God and me. Tryto gain the hearts of thy ministers, nobles, andemirs. If I have become great it is because I havewon men's hearts by kindness and gentleness.21

He died in 1193, aged only fifty-five.The advance upon Jerusalem had been delayed by rivalries

between the armies and their leaders. Richard’s prowess, largemeans, and personal popularity threw Philip into the shade, andhe was soon on his way back to France, leaving the Duke ofBurgundy as leader of the French. The French and the Germansalso quarreled.22 A fruitful source of friction was the quarrelbetween Guy of Lusignan and Conrad of Montferrat over the crownof Jerusalem, until the matter was finally settled by Conrad’smurder and the recognition of Guy as King of Cyprus, and Henry ofChampagne, the nephew of both Richard and Philip Augustus, asKing of Jerusalem.

A dark blot rests upon Richard’s memory for the murder incold blood of twenty five hundred prisoners in the full sight ofSaladin’s troops and as a punishment for the nonpayment of theransom money. The massacre, a few days before, of Christiancaptives, if it really happened, in part explains but cannotcondone the crime.23 21 Lane-Poole, Saladin, 367.22 The Itinerary, I 44.23 This pretext is upon the sole authority of de Hoveden, an. 1191. Hesays, however, that Saladin did not execute the Christian captives untilRichard had declined to withdraw his threat and to give more time forthe payment of the ransom money and the delivery of the True Cross.Archer, Hist. of the Crusades, p. 331, thinks that Baha-ed-din’s accountimplies Saladin’s massacre; but Lane-Poole, Life of Saladin, p. 307, is ofthe contrary opinion. The Itinerary, IV 4, states that Richard’sfollowers “leapt forward to fulfil his commands, thankful to the divinegrace for the permission to take such vengeance for the Christians whomthe captives had slain with bolts and arrows.” It has nothing to say ofa massacre by Saladin. Lane-Poole, carried away by admiration forSaladin, takes occasion at this point to say that “in the struggle ofthe Crusades the virtues of civilization, magnanimity, toleration, realchivalry, and gentle culture were all on the side of the Saracens.” The

53

Eyewitnesses vouch for Richard’s feats of physical strengthand martial skill. They speak of him as cutting swathes throughthe enemy with his sword and mowing them down “as the reapers mowdown the corn with their sickles.” So mighty was his strengththat, when a Turkish admiral rode at him in full charge, Richardsevered his neck and one shoulder by a single blow. But theKing’s dauntless, though coarse, courage was not joined to thegifts of a leader fit for such a campaign.24 His savage war shout,“God and the Holy Sepulchre aid us,” failed to unite the troopsdivided by jealousies and to establish military discipline. Thecamps were a scene of confusion. Women left behind by Richard’sorder at Acre came up to corrupt the army, while day after day“its manifold sins, drunkenness, and luxury increased.” Once andperhaps twice Richard came so near the Holy City that he mighthave looked down into it had he so chosen.25 But, like PhilipAugustus, he never passed through its gates.

The exploits of the English King won even the admiration ofthe Arabs, whose historian reports how Richard rode along theSaracen front, lance at rest, and none dared attack him.Presents passed between him and Saladin.26 One who accompanied theDuke of Burgundy was party to the massacre of the Turkish captives.24 Itinerary, VI 23. Here is a description of one of Richard’s frequentfrays as given in the Itinerary, VI 4: “Richard was conspicuous above allthe rest by his royal bearing. He was mounted on a tall charger andcharged the enemy singly. His repeated blows shivered his ashen lance;but instantly drawing his sword, he pressed upon the fugitive Turks andmowed them down, sweeping away the hindmost and subduing the foremost.Thus he thundered on, cutting and hewing. No kind of armor could resisthis blows, for the edge of his sword cut open the heads from the top tothe teeth. Thus waving his sword to and fro, he scared away the routedTurks as a wolf when he purses the flying sheep.”25 De Joinville, Life of St. Louis, an. 1253, says no doubt with truth thatRichard would have taken Jerusalem but for the envy and treachery of theDuke of Burgundy. He repeats the saying of Richard, which is almost toogood not to be true. When an officer said, “Sire, come here and I willshow you Jerusalem,” the King throwing down his arms and looking up toheaven exclaimed, “I pray thee, O Lord God, that I may never look on theHoly City until I can deliver it from Thy enemies.” The Itinerary hasnothing to say on the subject. Richard of Devizes, XC, states thatHubert, Bishop of Salisbury, after his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, urgedthe King to go in as a pilgrim but that “the worthy indignation of hisnoble mind would not consent to receive from the courtesy of theGentiles what he could not obtain by the gift of God.”

26 Baha-ed-din, as quoted by Lane-Poole, p. 354. De Hoveden speaks offruits, the Itinerary of horses. Later story ascribes to Saladin a yearly

54

Third Crusade ascribes to him the valor of Hector, themagnanimity of Achilles, the prudence of Odysseus, the eloquenceof Nestor, and equality with Alexander. French writers of thethirteenth century tell how Saracen mothers, long after Richardhad returned to England, used to frighten their children intoobedience or silence by the spell of his name, so great was thedread he had inspired. Even without the pious traits of Godfreyand Louis IX, Richard nevertheless stands, by his valor, muscularstrength, and generous mind, in the very front rank of remarkableCrusaders.

On his way back to England Leopold, Duke of Austria, whoseenmity he had incurred before Joppa, seized him. The Duke turnedhis captive over to the Emperor, Henry VI, who had a grudge tosettle growing out of Sicilian matters. Richard was releasedonly on the humiliating terms of paying an enormous ransom andconsenting to hold his kingdom as a fief of the Empire. WhenSaladin died on March 4, 1193, Christendom joined with Arabwriters in praise of the chivalric courage, culture, andmagnanimity27 of the most famous by far of the foes of theCrusaders. What could be more courteous than his granting therequest of Hubert Walter for the stationing of two Latin priestsin the three churches of the Holy Sepulchre, Nazareth, andBethlehem? 28

grant of one thousand bezants of gold to the Knights of St. John atAcre. In order to test the charity of the knights, the sultan had goneto the hospital in disguise and found the reports of their mercifultreatment well founded. Of this and of the story of his knighthood atthe hands of Humphrey of Toron, and vouched for by the contemporaryItinerary of King Richard, the Arab authorities know nothing. See Lane-Poole, Life of Saladin, 387 sqq.27 A western legend given by Vincent de Beauvais relates that as Saladinwas dying he called to him his standard-bearer and bade him carrythrough the streets of Damascus the banner of his death as he hadcarried the banner of his wars; namely, a rag attached to a lance, andcry out, “Lo, at his death, the King of the East can take nothing withhim but this cloth only.”28 The Itinerary gives a story of Saladin and the notorious miracle of theHoly Fire until recently shown in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Itmay well be true. When Saladin, on one occasion, saw the Holy Flamedescend and light a lamp, he ordered the lamp, he ordered the lamp blownout to show it was a fraud. But it was immediately rekindled as if by amiracle. Extinguished a second and a third time, it was again and againrekindled. “Oh, what use is it to resist the invisible Power!” exclaimsthe author of the Itinerary, V 16.

55

The recapture of Acre and the grant of protection to thepilgrims on their way to Jerusalem were paltry achievements inview of the loss of life, the long months spent in making readyfor the Crusade, the expenditure of money, and the combination ofthe great nations of Europe. In this case, as in the otherCrusades, it was not so much the Saracens, or even the splendidabilities of Saladin, which defeated the Crusaders, but theirfeuds among themselves. Never again did so large an army fromthe West contend for the Cross on Syrian soil

56

VIII. The Fourth Crusade and the Capture ofConstantinople

1202-4

he Third Crusade had freed Acre, but had left Jerusalemunredeemed; it was discouragingly small result from theparticipation of Europe's greatest kings. The drowning of

Barbarossa, the flight of Philip Augustus, the brilliant failureof Richard, the unscrupulous intrigues of Christian knights inthe Holy Land, the conflicts between Templars and Hospitalers,and the renewal of war between England and France broke the prideof Europe and further weakened the theological assurance ofChristendom. But the early death of Saladin, and the breakup ofhis empire, released new hopes. Innocent III (1198-1216), onascending the papal throne, threw himself with all the energy ofhis nature into the effort of reviving the crusading spirit. Heissued letter after letter1 to the sovereigns of England, France,Hungary, and Sicily.2 He wrote to the Byzantine Emperor, urginghim to resist the Saracens and subject the Greek Church to itsmother, Rome.3 The failure of preceding crusades was ascribed tothe sins of the Crusaders. But for them, one Christian wouldhave chased a thousand, or even ten thousand, and the enemies ofthe Cross would have disappeared like smoke or melting wax.4

T

The pope set aside one-tenth of his revenue for the expenseof a new expedition, and he directed the cardinals to do thesame. The clergy and all Christians were urged to giveliberally. The goods and lands of Crusaders were to enjoy thespecial protection of the Holy See. Princes were instructed tocompel Jewish moneylenders to remit interest due from those goingon the expedition. Legates were dispatched to Genoa, Pisa, andVenice to stir up zeal for the project; and these cities were1 See the ample description of Hurter, I pp. 221-230, etc.2 Epp. Of Innocent, I 353, 354, etc., Migne, 214, 329 sqq.3 Ep. I 353, Migne, 214, 325 sqq.4 Psalm 67:2 “As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish; as wax melteth before the fire, so let sinners perish at the presence of God.”

57

forbidden to furnish the Saracens supplies of arms, food, orother material. A cardinal was appointed to make special prayersfor the Crusade, as Moses had prayed for Israel against theAmalekites.

The Cistercian Abbot, Martin, preached in Germany; 5 and theeloquent Fulke of Neuilly, receiving his commission from InnocentIII, 6 distinguished himself by winning thousands of recruitsfrom the nobility and populace of Burgundy, Flanders, andNormandy. Under his preaching (1199) Count Thibaut of Champagne,7 Louis of Blois, Baldwin of Flanders, and Simon de Montfort tookthe vow. So also did Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne. As inthe case of the First Crusade, the army was lead by nobles, notby sovereigns. With these successes, the results were stilldisheartening. The Emperor Frederick II was a boy of four;Philip Augustus thought one crusade enough for a lifetime; andRichard I, forgetting his last word to Saladin, laughed. “Youadvise me,” he said, “to dismiss my three daughters—pride,avarice, and incontinence. I bequeath them to the mostdeserving: my pride to the Templars, my avarice to the monks ofCiteaux, my incontinence to the prelates.”8 But Innocentpersisted. He suggested that a campaign against Egypt; couldsucceed through Italian control of the Mediterranean, and wouldoffer a means of approaching Jerusalem from rich and fertileEgypt as a base.

The leaders, meeting at Soissons (1200), sent a deputationto Venice to secure transportation for the army. Agreeing withInnocent, they chose Egypt as the point of landing and attack, itbeing held that a movement would be most apt to be successfulwhich cut off the Saracens’ supplies at their base in the land ofthe Nile.9

After much haggling Venice agreed, in return for eighty fivethousand marks of silver, to furnish shipping for forty five

5 Guntherus, Migne, 212, 225.6 A French translation of Innocent’s letter commissioning Fulke topreach the Crusade is given by Charasson, p. 99.7 Thibaut, the twenty-two, and Louis, then twenty-seven, were nephews ofthe King of France, Villehardouin, 3; Wailly’s ed., p. 5. Thibaut diedbefore the Crusaders departed from France. 8 Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerary through Wales, i, 3.9 Villehardouin, who was one of the six members of the commission(Wailly’s ed., p. 11), says, “The Turks could be more easily destroyedthere than in any other country.” The Crusaders often called Egypt “theland of Babylon.”

58

hundred knights and horses, nine thousand squires, twentythousand infantry, and supplies for nine months; it would alsoprovide fifty war galleys “for the love of God”; but on conditionthat half the spoils of conquest should go to the VenetianRepublic.10 The Venetians, however, had no intention of attackingEgypt; they made millions annually exporting timber, iron, andarms to Egypt, and importing slaves; they did not propose tojeopardize this trade with war, or to share it with Pisa andGenoa. While negotiating with the Crusaders' committee, theymade a secret treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, guaranteeing thatcountry against invasion (1201). 11 Ernoul, a contemporarychronicler, alleges that Venice received a huge bribe to divertthe crusade from Palestine.12

In the summer of 1202 the new hosts mustered at Venice.There were Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, Count Louis of Blois,Count Baldwin of Flanders, Simon de Montfort of Abligensian fame,and, among many other notables, Geoffroi de Villehardouin (1160-1213), Marshal of Champagne, who would not only play a leadingpart in the diplomacy and campaigns of the crusade, but wouldenshrine its scandalous history in face-saving memoirs thatmarked the beginning of French prose literature. France, asusual, supplied most of the Crusaders. Every man had beeninstructed to bring a sum of money, proportionate to his means,to raise the eighty five thousand marks payable to Venice for heroutlay. The total fell short by thirty four thousand marks.Thereupon Enrico Dandolo, the almost blind Dogei “of the greatheart,”13 with all the sanctity of his ninety-four years, proposedthat the unpaid balance should be forgiven if the Crusaders wouldhelp capture Zara, 14 the capital of Dalmatia and the mostimportant Adriatic port after Venice itself. It had beenconquered by Venice in 998 and had often revolted and been

10 Adams, Civilization and Decay, 133.11 Gibbon, ed. Bury, VI, 528.12 Villehardouin, Introd., xvii.i The elected chief magistrate of the former republics of Venice and Genoa.13 Villehardouin describes him as a man de bien grand cœur. He died atninety-seven, in 1205, and was buried in the Church of St. Sophia [sic].In his reply to the deputation, the Doge recognized the high birth ofthe Crusaders in the words, “we perceive that the lords are in thehighest rank of those who do not wear a crown” (Villehardouin, 16;Wailly’s ed., 13). 14 Villehardouin, 56 sqq.; Wailly’s ed., 33 sq.

59

subdued. Now this delightful morsel belonged to Hungary, and wasthat country’s only outlet to the sea; its wealth and power weregrowing, and Venice feared its competition for the Adriatictrade. Zara’s predatory attacks upon Venetian vessels formed thepretext for its capture.15 The threat of papal excommunication,presented by the papal legate, did not check the preparations.Dandolo’s offer was accepted. After the solemn celebration ofthe Mass, the fleet set sail, with Dandolo as virtual commander.

The departure of four hundred eighty gaily-rigged vessels isdescribed by several eyewitnesses16 and constitutes one of themost important scenes in the naval enterprise of the Queen of theAdriatic.

The combined fleets took Zara in five days, razed it to theground, and divided the spoils. No wonder Innocent wrote thatSatan had been the instigator of this destructive raid upon aChristian people and excommunicated the participants in it.17

Then the Crusaders begged absolution of the Pope; he gaveit, but demanded restoration of the booty: they thanked him forthe absolution, and kept the booty. The Venetians simply ignoredthe excommunications, and proceeded to the second part of theirplan—the conquest of Constantinople.

The rightful Emperor, Isaac Angelus, was languishing inprison with his eyes put out by the hand of the usurper, AlexiusIII, his own brother. Isaac’s son, Alexius, had visited InnocentIII and Philip of Swabia, appealing for aid on behalf of hisfather. Philip, claimant to the German throne, had married theprince’s sister. Greek messengers appeared at Zara to appeal toDandolo and the Crusaders to take up Isaac’s cause. The proposalsuited the ambition of Venice, which could not have wished for amore favorable opportunity to confirm her superiority over the

15 Villehardouin mentions only the proposition to go against Zara.Robert of Clary and other writers state that Dandolo made a previousproposition that the fleet should proceed to Mohammedan territory andthat the first booty should be used to pay the Crusaders’ debt. He thensubstituted the proposition to go against Zara, and the Crusaders wereforced by their circumstances to accept. There is some ground for thecharge that in May, 1202, Dandolo made a secret treaty with the Sultanof Egypt. See Pears, 271 sqq.16 Villehardouin and Robert de Clary. Clary’s account is very vivaciousand much the more detailed of the two.17 The news of the death of Fulke of Neuilly reached the Crusaders on the eve of their breaking away from Venice. Villehardouin, 73; Wailly’sed., 43, calls him le bon, le saint homme.

60

Pisans and Genoans, which had been threatened, if not impaired,on the Bosphorus.

The Byzantine monarchy had learned nothing from theCrusades. It gave little help, and derived much profit; itregained most of Asia Minor, and looked with equanimity upon themutual weakening of Islam and the West in the struggle forPalestine. The Emperor Manuel had arrested thousands ofVenetians in Constantinople, and had for a time ended Venetiancommercial privileges there (1171).18 Isaac II Angelus (1185-95)had not hesitated to ally himself with the Saracens.19 In 1195Isaac was deposed, imprisoned, and blinded by his brother AlexiusIII. Isaac's son, Alexius, fled to Germany; in 1202 he went toVenice, asked the Venetian Senate and the Crusaders to rescue andrestore his father, and promised in return all that Byzantiumcould supply for their attack upon Islam. He was persuaded topledge the Crusaders two hundred thousand marks of silver, equipan army of ten thousand men for service in Palestine, and submitthe Greek Orthodox Church to the Roman Pope.20 A few of theCrusaders, like Simon de Montfort, refused to be used for privateends and withdrew from the expedition.21 Despite this subtle gift,Innocent III forbade the Crusaders, on pain of excommunication,to attack Byzantium. Just as some of the nobles refused to sharein the expedition; a part of the army considered itself absolvedfrom the Crusade, and went home. But the prospect of capturingthe richest city in Europe proved irresistible. On October 1,1202, the great armada of four hundred eighty vessels sailed amidmuch rejoicing, while priests on the war-castles of the shipssang Veni Creator Spiritus.22

Before it reached Corfu, Alexius joined the armada inperson. Soon it would pass through the Dardanelles and beanchored opposite the Golden Horn. Now, after various delays, itwas there. The armada arrived before Constantinople on June 24,1203. “You may be assured,” says Villehardouin,

that those who had never seen Constantinople openedwide eyes now; for they could not believe that so rich

19 Gibbon, VI, 100.20 Oman, C.W.C., Byzantine Empire, 280-2.21 Villehardouin, 109. Pears, p. 268, speaks pathetically of theCrusaders as “about to commit the great crime of the Middle Ages, by thedestruction of the citadel against which the hitherto irresistible waveof Moslem invasion had beaten and been broken.” 22 Robert of Clari in Villehardouin, Introd., xxiv.

61

a city could be in the whole world, when they saw herlofty walls and her stately towers wherewith she wasencompassed, and these stately palaces and loftychurches, so many in number as no man might believewho had not seen them, and the length and breadth ofthis town which was sovereign over all others. Andknow that there was no man among us so bold but thathis flesh crept at the sight; and therein was nomarvel; for never did any men undertake so great abusiness as this assault of ours, since the beginningof the world.23

An ultimatum was delivered to Alexius III: he must restorethe empire to his blinded brother or to the young Alexius, whoaccompanied the fleet. He refused; the Crusaders landed, againstweak opposition, before the walls of the city. The aged Dandolowas the first to touch the shore. After prayers and exhortationby the bishops and clergy, the Galata tower was taken. AlexiusIII fled to Thrace; the Greek nobles escorted Isaac Angelus fromhis dungeon to the throne, and in his name a message was sent tothe Latin chieftains that he was waiting to welcome his son.After drawing from Isaac a promise to abide by the commitmentsthat his son had made with them, Dandolo and the barons enteredthe city, and the young Alexius IV was crowned co-emperor. Butwhen the Greeks learned of the price at which he had bought hisvictory they turned against him in anger and scorn. The peoplereckoned the taxes that would be needed to raise the subsidiespromised to his saviors; the nobility resented the presence of analien aristocracy and force; the clergy furiously rejected theproposal that they should bow to Rome. Meanwhile some Latinsoldiers, horrified to find Moslems worshiping in a mosque in aChristian city, set fire to the mosque, and slew theworshippers.24 The fire raged for eight days, spread through threemiles, and laid a considerable section of Constantinople inashes.

The Greeks found agreements made with the Venetiansimpossible to fulfill. Confusion reigned among them. A second23 Villehardouin, 31.24 Arabs were allowed to live in the city and were granted the privileges of their religious rites. Gibbon with characteristic irony says, “The Flemish pilgrims were scandalized by the aspect of a mosque or a synagogue in which one God was worshipped without a partner or a son.”

62

fire started in a mosque evoked the wrath of the Crusaders. Thediscontent with the hard terms of the agreement and the presenceof the Occidentals gave Alexius Dukas, surnamed Murzuphlos, fromhis shaggy eyebrows, opportunity to dethrone Isaac and his sonand to seize the reins of government. He killed Alexius IV,reimprisoned Isaac Angelus, took the throne as Alexius V Ducas,and began to organize an army to drive the Latins from their campat Galata. But the Greeks had been too long secure within theirwalls to keep the virtues of their Roman name. After a month ofsiege they surrendered. Alexius V fled; the prince was put todeath and was soon followed to the grave by Isaac, his son. Thevictorious Latins passed like consuming locusts through thecapital. The day the city fell was April 12, 1204.25 Unrestrainedpillage and riot followed.

So long kept from their promised prey, they now—in GreatWeeki—subjected the rich city to such spoliation as Rome hadnever suffered from Vandals or Goths. Not many Greeks werekilled—perhaps two thousand; but spoilation and despoliation wereunconfined. The nobles divided the palaces among them, andappropriated the treasures they found there; the soldiers enteredhomes, churches, shops, and took whatever caught their fancy.Few were exempted from the orgies of unbridled lust. Churchesand altars were despoiled. Chalices were turned into drinkingcups. A prostitute was placed in the chair of the patriarchs inHagia Sophia, i where she sang ribald songs and danced for theamusement of the soldiers.26 Churches were rifled not only of thegold, silver, and jewels accumulated by them through amillennium, but of sacred relics that would later be peddled inWestern Europe at good prices. Hagia Sophia suffered more damage

25 Villehardouin, 233, Wailly’s ed. P. 137, pronounces the capture of Constantinople one of the most difficult feats ever undertaken, une des plus redoutables choses à faire qui jamais fut. A city of such strong fortifications the Franks had not seen before. The apologist that he is, he hides the treachery involved, which circumvented those strong fortifications.i Most English speakers call this as Easter week.i The Greek name Hagia Sophia is translated Holy Wisdom in English. JesusChrist is the Word and Wisdom of the Father; hence Holy Wisdom issynonymous with Jesus Christ.26 Hurter (I.P. 685), comparing the conquest of Constantinople with the capture of Jerusalem, praises the piety of Godfrey and the first Crusaders over against the Venetians and their greed for booty. He forgot the awful massacre in Jerusalem.

63

than the Turks would inflict upon it in 1453; 27 the Great HolyTableii was torn to pieces to distribute its silver and gold.28

Innocent III, writing of the conquest of the city, said: —

You have spared nothing that is sacred, neither agenor sex. You have given yourselves up toprostitution, to adultery, and to debauchery in theface of the entire world. You have gorged your guiltypassions, not only on married women, but also uponwomen and virgins dedicated to the Savior. You havenot been content with the imperial treasures and thegoods of rich and poor, but you have seized even thewealth of the Church and what belongs to it. You havepillaged the silver tables of the altars; you havebroken into the sacristies and stolen the vessels.29

To the revulsion they felt on hearing of these orgies,succeeding ages have added regret for the irreparable loss whichliterature and art suffered in the wild and protracted sack ofConstantinople. For the first time in eight hundred years itsaccumulated treasures were exposed to the ravages of the spoiler,who broke up the Holy Tables and sacked the Altars in itschurches, as in Hagia Sophia, and melted priceless pieces ofbronze statuary on the streets and highways.30

Constantinople proved to be the richest of sacredstorehouses. It was full of relics, which excited the greed andsatisfied the superstition of the Crusaders, who found nothinginconsistent in joining devout worship and the violation of theeighth commandment in getting possession of the objects ofworship.31 With a credulity which seems to have asked noquestions, skulls and bones of saints, pieces of wearing apparel,and other sacred objects were easily discovered and eagerly sentto Western Europe, from the stone on which Jacob slept and Moses’

27 Jackson, Sir T.C., Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture, I, 101.ii Symbolizing the Throne of God, it is known in the West as the Altar or Altar Table.28 Diehl, Manuel, 635.29 Reg., VIII Ep., 133.30 Nicetas gives a list of these losses. See Gibbon, LX, and Hurter.31 Villehardouin, 191; Wailly’s ed., 111, says des reliques il n’en faut pointparler, car en ce jour il y en avait autant dans la ville que dans le reste du monde. Theaccount of Guntherus, Migne, 212, 253 sqq., is the most elaborate. Hisinformant, the Abbot Martin, was an insatiable relic hunter.

64

rod which was turned into a serpent, to the True Cross andfragments of Mary’s garments.32 What California was to the world’ssupply of gold in 1849 and the mines of the Transvaal have beento its supply of diamonds—the capture of Constantinople was tothe supply of relics for Latin Europe. In 1205 Bishop Nivelon ofSoissons sent to Soissons: the head of St. Stephen, the fingerthat Thomas thrust into the Savior’s side, a thorn from the Crownof Thorns, a portion of the sleeveless shirt of the Virgin Maryand her cincture, a portion of the towel with which the Lordgirded himself at the Mystical Supper, one of the Baptist andForerunner John’s arms, and other antiquities scarcely lessvenerable. The city of Halberstadt and its bishop, Conrad, werefortunate enough to secure some of the Blood shed on the Cross,parts of the sponge and reed and the purple robe, and many othertrophies. Sens received the Crown of Thorns. A Tear of Christwas conveyed to Seligencourt and led to a change of its name tothe Convent of the Sacred Tear.33 Amiens received John theForerunner’s head. The True Cross was divided by the grace ofthe bishops among the barons. A piece was sent by Baldwin toInnocent III.

Perhaps no sacred relics were received with more outwarddemonstrations of honor than the True Crown of Thorns, whichBaldwin II transferred to the King of France for ten thousandmarks of silver.34 It was given free passage by the EmperorFrederick II and was carried through Paris by the French Kingbarefoot and in his shirt. A part of the True Cross and theswaddling clothes of Bethlehem were additional acquisitions ofParis.

The Venetians, familiar with the city that had oncewelcomed them as merchants, knew where the greatest treasures

32 See Riant; Hurter, I. 694-702; Pears, 365-370. A volume would scarcecontain the history, real and legendary, of these objects of veneration.33 A curious account is given by Dalmatius of Sergy, of his discovery ofthe head of St. Clement in answer to prayer, and the deception hepracticed in making away with it. The relic went to Cluny and wasgreatly prized. See Hurter. The successful stealth of Abbot Martin istold at length by the German Guntherus, Migne, 212, 251 sq. 34 Matthew Paris, in his account, says, “It was precious beyond gold ortopaz, and to the credit of the French Kingdom, and indeed, of all theLatins, it was solemnly and devoutly received in grand procession amidstthe ringing of bells and the devout prayers of the faithful followers ofChrist, and was placed in the King’s chapel in Paris. Luard’s ed., IV75; Giles’ trans., I. 311.

65

lay, and stole with superior intelligence; the four bronze horsesthat had surveyed the Greek city would now romp over the Piazzadi San Marco; nine tenths of the collections of art and jewelrythat would later distinguish the Treasury of St. Mark’s came fromthis well-managed theft.35 Some attempt was made to limit rape;many of the soldiers modestly contented themselves withprostitutes; but Innocent III complained that the pent-up lust ofthe Latins spared neither age nor sex nor religious profession,and that Greek nuns had to bear the embraces of French orVenetian peasants or grooms.36Amid the pillage, libraries wereransacked, and precious manuscripts were ruined or lost; twofurther fires consumed libraries and museums as well as churchesand homes; of the plays of Sophocles and Euripides, till thencompletely preserved, only a minority survived. Thousands of artmasterpieces were stolen, mutilated, or destroyed.

When the riot of rapine had subsided, the Latin nobles choseBaldwin of Flanders to head the Latin Kingdom of Constantinople(1204), and made French its official language. The ByzantineEmpire was divided into feudal dominions, each ruled by a Latinnoble. Venice, eager to control the routes of trade, securedHadrianople, Epirus, Acarnania, the Ionian Isles, part of thePeloponnesus, Euboea, the Ægean Isles, Gallipoli, and threeeighths of Constantinople; the Genoese were dispossessed of theirByzantine “factories” and outposts; and Dandolo, now limping inimperial buskins, took the title of “Doge of Venice, Lord of OneFourth and One Eighth of the Roman Empire”; 37 soon afterward hedied, in the fullness of his unscrupulous success. For the mostpart Latins, in some cases hastily enrolled into holy orders forthe occasion, replaced the Greek clergy; and Innocent III, stillprotesting against the attack, accepted with grace the formalreunion of the Greek with the Latin Church. Most of theCrusaders returned home with their spoils; some settled in thenew dominions; only a handful reached Palestine, and withouteffect. Perhaps the Crusaders thought that Constantinople, intheir hands, would be a stronger base against the Turks thanByzantium had been. Generations of strife between the Latins andthe Greeks now absorbed the vitality of the Greek world: theByzantine Empire never recovered from the blow; and the capture

35 Dalton, Byzantine Arts, 538.36 Gibbon, VI, 171.37 Beard, Miriam, History of the Business Man, 109.

66

of Constantinople by the Latins prepared, across two centuries,its capture by the Turks.

It would be difficult to find in history a more notablediversion of a scheme from its original purpose than the FourthCrusade. Inaugurated to strike a blow at the power that held theHoly Land, it destroyed the Christian city of Zara, overthrewwhat was once the capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople,and inflicted severe damage and committed profound sacrilegeagainst the Great Church—Hagia Sophia, the greatest church in allChristendom. As the First Crusade had resulted in theestablishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, so the FourthCrusade resulted in the establishment of the Latin Empire ofConstantinople.

67

IX. The Latin Empire of Constantinople1204-1261

he Latin Empire of Constantinople, which followed thecapture of the city, lasted from 1204 to 1261. The Latinnobles who met in council and chose Baldwin of Flanders to

be Emperor1 consisted of six electors representing the Venetiansand six representing the Crusaders. He was crowned by the papallegate in Hagia Sophia and at once set about to introduce Latinpriests and to subdue the Greek Orthodox Church.

TThe attitude of Innocent III to this remarkable exhibition

of Christian military action was one of righteous indignation andpolitical acquiescence in the new responsibility thrust upon theApostolic see.2 He appointed the Venetian, Thomas Morosini,Archbishop; and the Latin Patriarchate, established with him, hasbeen perpetuated to this day, and is an almost unbearable offence

1 The mode of election was fixed before the capture of the city,Villehardouin, 234, 245-261; Wailly’s ed., 137, 152 sqq. The electiontook place in a chamber of the palace. The leader of the French forces,Boniface of Montferrat, married the widow of the Emperor Isaac and wasmade King of Salonica. Innocent III (VIII. 134, Migne, 215, 714)congratulated Isaac’s widow upon her conversion to the Latin Church..2 He wrote to Baldwin that, while it was desirable that the EasternChurch should be subdued, he was more concerned that the Holy Landshould be rescued. He urged him and the Venetians to eat the bread ofrepentance that they might fight the battle of the Lord with a pureheart.

68

to the Greeks.3 If Innocent had followed Baldwin’s suggestions,he would have convoked an Œcumenical Council in Constantinople.

The last of the Latin emperors, Baldwin III (1237-1261)spent most of his time in Western Europe making vain appeals formoney. After his dethronement (1261) by Michael Palæologus hepresented a pitiable spectacle, seeking to gain the ear ofprinces and ecclesiastics.

For two hundred years more the Greeks had an uncertaintenure on the Bosphorus. The loss of Constantinople was bound tocome sooner or later in the absence of a moral and politicalrevival of the Greek people. The Latin conquest of the city wasa romantic episode, not a stage in the progress of civilizationin the East; nor did it hasten the coming of the new era ofletters in Western Europe. It widened the schism of the Church.The only party to reap substantial gain from the Fourth Crusadewas the Venetians.4

The effects of the Fourth Crusade were simply a continuationof the evil tragedy that was the Crusades. But for it, the cityof Constantinople might well never have fallen into the hands ofthe Turks. Then, the Sea of Marmora and the Black Sea would nowbe surrounded by “prosperous and civilized nations” that couldhave helped hasten the civilization of the Franks and the rest ofWestern Europe. A doubtful albeit a possible proposition.Constantinople was of a certainty not in a state of good healthas a city or an empire; however, it should be noted that, thoughit does invite it, poor health does not automatically begetdeath.

3 The Greek patriarch had left the city reduced to a state of apostolicpoverty, of which Gibbon, LXI, says that “had it been voluntary it mightperhaps have been meritorious.”4 Pears concludes his work, The Fall of Constantinople, by the false judgmentthat the effects of the Fourth Crusade were altogether disastrous forcivilization. He surmises that, but for it the city would never havefallen into the hands of the Turks, and the Sea of Marmora and the BlackSea would now be surrounded by prosperous and civilized nations,” pp.412 sqq. There was no movement of progress in the Byzantine Empire forthe Crusaders to check.

69

X. The Children’s Crusades1212-1216

“The rich East blooms fragrant before us; All Fairy-land beckons us forth,We must follow the crane in her flight o’er themain,From the posts and the moors of the North.”

—CHARLES KINGSLEY, The Saint’s Tragedy.

he scandal of the Fourth Crusade, added to the failure ofthe Third, gave no comfort to a Christian’s faith soon to befaced with the rediscovery of Aristotle and the subtle

rationalism of Averroës. Thinkers were much exercised to explainwhy God had allowed the defeat of His defenders in so holy acause, and had granted success only to Venetian villainy. Amidthese doubts in Western Europe it occurred to simple souls thatonly innocence could regain the citadel of Christ. Thus wasspawned the most tragic of the Crusader tragedies. The crusadesof the children resulted in the slaughter of the innocents on alarge scale.

T

The crusading epidemic broke out among the children ofFrance and Germany in 1212. Begotten in enthusiasm fanned by thezealous presbyters, the movement ended in pitiful disaster. Thecenter of the movement in Germany were Nicholas, a child of ten,and a second leader whose name has been lost to antiquity.Cologne was the rallying point.

Nicholas announced that God had commissioned him to lead acrusade of the children to the Holy Land. Presbyters and laitycondemned him, but the idea spread readily in an age even moresubject than most to waves of emotional enthusiasm. Parentsstruggled to deter their children, but thousands of boys (andsome girls in boys’ clothing), averaging twelve years of age,slipped away and followed Nicholas. Some were perhaps glad toescape from the monarchy of the home to the freedom of the road.Even children of noble families enlisted. Along with the boysand girls went men and women, good and bad. Soon a swarm of30,000 children1 left Cologne for the Holy Land. Many died of

1 Hurter regards the numbers handed down as greatly exaggerated.

70

hunger; wolves ate some stragglers. Thieves mingled with themarchers and stole their clothing and food.

When the survivors reached Genoa, the earthy Italianslaughed them into doubt; no ships would transport them. Whenthey appealed to Innocent III he gently told them to go home.Some marched disconsolately back over the Alps, while manysettled in Genoa and learned the ways of a commercial world.2

The army under the anonymous leader passed through easternSwitzerland and across the Alps to Brindisi, from which some ofthe children sailed, never to be heard from again.

In France, in this same year, a twelve-year-old shepherdnamed Stephen came to Philip Augustus, and announced that Christ,appearing to him while he tended his flock, had bidden him lead achildren's crusade to Palestine. The King ordered him to returnto his muttons; nevertheless 20,000 youngsters gathered to followStephen’s lead. Questioned as to where they were going, theyreplied, “We go to God, and seek for the Holy Cross beyond thesea.” They made their way to Marseilles, where, Stephen hadpromised them, the ocean would divide to let them reach Palestinedryshod. The ocean failed to divide as prophesied.3 AtMarseilles they fell prey to two slave dealers, who for “the sakeof God and without price” offered to take them across theMediterranean. The names of the two shipowners have beenpreserved—Hugo Ferreus and William Porcus. Two of the sevenships were wrecked off Sardinia, with the loss of all on board;the other children were brought to Tunisia or Egypt, where theywere sold as slaves. The shipowners were hanged by order ofFrederick II.4

Gregory IX commemorated the shipwreck of the littleCrusaders in the chapel of the New Innocents, ecclesia novoruminnocentium, which he built on San Pietro. Three years laterInnocent III again appealed to Europe to recover the land ofChrist, and returned to the plan that Venice had frustrated—an

2 Wilken for this assertion quotes the History of the Genoese Senate and People,by Peter Bizari, Antwerp, 1679. One of the families was the house ofthe Vivaldi.3 An epigram, dwelling upon the folly of the movement, ran: — “Ad mare stultorum

Tendebat iter puerorum.” “To the sea of the fools Led the path of the children.”

4 Encyclopædia Britannica, VI, 788; MacLaurin, C., Mere Mortals, II, 215f.

71

attack upon Egypt. In summoning Europe to a new crusade,Innocent III included the spectacle of their sacrifice in hisappeal. “They put us to shame. While they rush to the recoveryof the Holy Land, we sleep.”5 Impossible as such a movement mightseem in our calculating age, it is attested to by too many goodwitnesses to permit its being relegated to the realm of legend, 6

and the trials and death of the children of the thirteenthcentury will continue to be associated with the slaughter of thechildren of Bethlehem at the hand of Herod.

5 See Wilken, VI 83.6 So Wilken, Sie ist durch die Zeugnisse glaubwürdieger Geschichtschreiber so fest begründet, dass ihre Wahrheit nicht bezweifel werden kann, p. 72. Röhricht, Hist. Zeitschrift, XXXVI 5, also insists upon the historical genuineness of the reports.

72

XI. The Collapse of the Crusades1217-91

nnocent III, at the Fourth Lateran Council, again appealedto Europe to recover the land of Christ, and returned to theplan that Venice had frustrated—an attack upon Egypt. His

ardor for the reconquest of Palestine continued unabated till hisdeath. A fresh crusade constituted on of the main objects forwhich the council was called. The date set for it to start wasJune 1, 1217. The Pope promised £30,000 from his private funds,and a ship to convey the Crusaders going from Rome and itsvicinity. The cardinals joined him in promising to contributeone-tenth of their incomes and the clergy were called upon to setapart one-twentieth of their revenues for three years for theholy cause. To the penitent contributing money to the crusade,as well as to those participating in it, full indulgence for sinswas offered.1 A letter, forbidding the sale of all merchandiseand munitions of war to the Saracens for four years, was orderedread every Sunday and fast day in Christian ports.

I

Innocent died without seeing the expedition start. For hissuccessor Honorius III, its promotion was a ruling passion, buthe also died without seeing it realized.

In 1217 the Fifth Crusade left German, Austria, and Hungaryunder the Hungarian King Andreas, and safely reached Damietta, atthe easternmost mouth of the Nile. The city fell after a year'ssiege; and Malik al-Kamil, Sultan of Egypt and Syria offeredterms of peace—the surrender of most of Jerusalem, the liberationof Christian prisoners, and the return of the True Cross. TheCrusaders demanded indemnity as well, which al-Kamil refused.War was resumed, but went badly when expected reinforcements fromthe Emperor Frederick II, to whom they had appealed, did notcome. Finally an eight-year truce was signed that gave theCrusaders the True Cross, but restored Damietta to the Moslems, 2

1 Plenam suorum peccaminum veniam indulgemus. See Mansi, XXII 1067; Mirbt, Quellen, 126, Gottlob, 137 sq.2 Funk, in Wetzer-Welte, VII 1166, says that in view of contemporary testimony, Frederick’s sickness cannot be doubted. Roger Wendover, an. 1227, however, doubted it. Funk is wrong in saying that it was not till1239 that Gregory, aggravated by the Emperor’s conduct, impeached Frederick’s plea of sickness. In his sentence of excommunication of

73

and required the evacuation of all Christian troops from Egyptiansoil.

The Crusaders blamed their tragedy upon Frederick II, theyoung Emperor of Germany and Italy. He had taken the crusader’svow in 1215, and had promised to join the besiegers at Damietta;but political complications in Italy, and perhaps an inadequatefaith, detained him. Frederick II had little of the crusadingspirit, and certainly the experiences of his ancestors Conrad andBarbarossa were not adequate to encourage him. His vow, made athis coronation in Aachen and repeated at his coronation in Rome,seems to have had little binding force for him. His marriagewith Iolanthe, granddaughter of Conrad of Montferrat and heiressof the crown of Jerusalem, did not accelerate his preparations towhich Honorius III urged him. In 1227 he sailed from Brindisi;but he returned to port after three days on account of sicknessamong his men.3 The Fifth Crusade was destined to reach itsresults more by diplomacy more than by the sword.

In 1228, while excommunicate for failing to come to therescue of the Fifth Crusade, Frederick II, the young Emperor ofGermany and Italy, at last set out on the Sixth Crusade. He setforth with forty galleys and six hundred knights, and arrived inAcre on Sept. 7, 1228. In Palestine, he received no help fromthe good Christians there, who shunned an outlaw from the Church.Frederick was to find himself excommunicate some five times overhis lifetime.

The sultans of Egypt and Damascus were in bitter conflict atthe time of Frederick’s arrival. Taking advantage of thesituation, Frederick decided upon a diplomatic solution. Inpursuit of a diplomatic solution, Frederick II sent emissaries toal-Kamil, who was now leading the Saracen army at Nablus. Al-Kamil replied courteously; and the Sultan’s ambassador, Fakhru’dDin, was impressed by Frederick’s knowledge of the Arabiclanguage, literature, science, and philosophy. The two rulersentered into a friendly exchange of compliments and ideas; and tothe astonishment of both Christendom and Islam they signed atreaty (1229) that ceded to Frederick Acre, Jaffa, Sidon,

1228, asserted that Frederick “was enticed away to the usual pleasures of his kingdom and made a frivolous pretext of bodily infirmity.” In 1235, at a time when emperor and pope were reconciled, Gregory spoke of Jerusalem “as being restored to our well-beloved son in Christ, Frederick.” 3 For the text of Frederick’s summons to his crusade of 1221, see Mathews, Select Med. Documents, 120 sq.

74

Nazareth, Bethlehem, and all of Jerusalem except the enclosure—sacred to Islam—containing the Dome of the Rock. Christianpilgrims were to be admitted to this enclosure to perform theirprayers on the site of Solomon's Temple; and similar rights wereto be enjoyed by Mohammedans in Bethlehem.4 All prisoners werereleased and each side pledged itself to peace for ten years andten months.5

On March 19, 1229, he crowned himself with his own hand inthe Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The same day the Archbishop ofCæsarea pronounced, in the name of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, aninterdict over the city. 6

The excommunicate Emperor had succeeded where for a centuryChristendom had failed; the two cultures, brought together for amoment in mutual understanding and respect, had found it possibleto be friends. The Christians of the Holy Land rejoiced, butPope Gregory IX denounced the pact as an insult to Christendomand refused to ratify it.

It was certainly a singular spectacle that the Holy Cityshould be gained by a diplomatic compact and not by hardship,heroic struggle, and the intervention of a miracle or two,whether real or imagined. It was still more singular that thesacred goal should be reached without the aid of ecclesiasticalsanction, nay in the face of solemn papal denunciation.

Recalled probably by the dangers threatening his kingdom,Frederick arrived in Europe in the spring of 1229, but only tofind himself for the fourth time put under the ban by hisimplacable antagonist, Gregory. In 1235 Gregory was againappealing to Christendom to make preparations for anotherexpedition, and in his letter of 1239, excommunicating theEmperor for the fifth time, he pronounced him the chiefimpediment in the way of a crusade.7

After Frederick’s departure, the Christian nobility ofPalestine took control of Jerusalem, and allied the Christianpower in Asia with the Moslem ruler of Damascus against theEgyptian Sultan (1244). That latter called to his aid the

4 See Röhricht, Regesta regni Hier., 262, and Bréholles, III. 86-90.5 Kantorowicz, E., Frederick II, 185f.6 Geroldus, patriarch of Jerusalem and notified Gregory IX ofFrederick’s “fraudulent pact with the Egyptian sultan.” Röhricht, 263.7 In 1240 a petition signed by German bishops and princes and addressed to Gregory urged him to cease from strife with Frederick as it interfered with a crusade.

75

Khwarazmian Turks, who captured Jerusalem, plundered it, andmassacred a large number of its inhabitants.

Frederick II has been called by Freeman an unwillingCrusader and the conquest of Je4dusalem a grotesque episode inhis life.8 Frederick certainly had no compunction about living onterms of amity with Mohammedans in his kingdom, and he probablysaw no wisdom in endangering his relations with them at home byunsheathing the sword against them abroad.9 He visited the mosqueof Omar in Jerusalem without making any protest against itsritual. Perhaps, with his freedom of thought, he did not regardthe possession of Palestine after all as of much value. In anycase, Frederick’s religion—whatever he had of religion—was not ofa kind to flame forth in enthusiasm for a pious scheme in whichsentiment formed a prevailing element.

Gregory’s continued appeals in 1235 and the succeeding yearscalled for some minor expeditions, one of them led by Richard ofCornwall, later German Emperor-elect. The condition of theChristians in Palestine grew more and more deplorable and, in abattle with the Baibers, Oct. 14, 1244, they met with adisastrous defeat, and thenceforth Jerusalem was closed to them.

While Innocent IV preached a crusade against Frederick II,and offered to all that would war against the Emperor in Italythe same indulgences and privileges granted to those who servedin the Holy Land, the saintly Louis IX of France organized theSeventh Crusade. Shortly after the fall of Jerusalem he took thecross, and persuaded his nobles to do likewise; to certainreluctant ones, at Christmas, he presented costly garmentsbearing an in-woven cross. He labored to reconcile Innocent withFrederick, so that a united Europe might support the Crusade.Innocent refused; instead, he sent a friar—Giovanni de PianoCarpini—to the Great Khan, suggesting a union of Mongols andChristians against the Turks; the Khan replied by inviting thesubmission of Christendom to the Mongol power.

One more great Crusader, one in whom genuine piety was aleading trait, was yet to set his face toward the East and, bythe abrupt termination of his career through sickness, to furnishone of the most memorable scenes in the long drama of theCrusades. The Sixth and Seventh Crusades owe their origin to thedevotion of Louis IX, King of France, also known in the West asSt. Louis. Louis combined the piety of a monk with the chivalry

8 Hist. Essays, I 283-313.9 Bréholles, V 327-340.

76

of a knight, and stands in the front rank of Christian sovereignsof all times.10 His religious zeal showed itself not only indevotion to the confessional and the mass, but in steadfastrefusal, in the face of threatened torture, to deviate from hisfaith and in patient resignation under the most trying adversity.A considerate regard for the poor and the just treatment of hissubjects were among his traits. He washed the feet of beggarsand, when a Dominican warned him against carrying his humilitytoo far, he replied, “If I spent twice as much time in gaming andat the chase as in such services, no man would rise up to findfault with me.”

On one occasion, when he asked Joinville if he were calledupon to choose between being a leper and committing mortal sin,which his choice would be, the seneschali replied, “he wouldrather commit thirty mortal sins than be a leper.” The next daythe King said to him, “How could you say what you did? There isno leper so hideous as he who is in a state of mortal sin. Theleprosy of the body will pass away at death, but the leprosy ofthe soul may cling to it forever.”

At last, in 1248, Louis set out with his French knights,including Jean Sieur de Joinville, 11 who would narrate theexploits of his King in a famous chronicle. The expeditionreached Damietta, and soon captured it; but the annual inundationof the Nile, which had been forgotten in planning the campaign,began as the Crusaders arrived, and flooded the country so thatthey were confined to Damietta for half a year. They did notaltogether regret it; “the barons,” says Joinville, “took togiving great feasts . . . and the common people took to10 “Piety was his ruling passion.” Guizot, p. 117. De Joinvillefrequently calls him “the good King” and Matthew Paris “that mostChristian King.”i the chief steward or butler of a great household [syn: major-domo]11 Joinville, accompanied by twenty knights, joined the King at Cyprus.He was a man of religious fervor. He made pilgrimages to all theshrines in the vicinity of his castle before his departure, and neverfailed in his long absence to confine himself to bread and water onFridays (History, an. 1250). One of his paragraphs gives a graphicinsight into the grief that must have been felt by thousands ofCrusaders as they left their homes for the long and uncertain journey tothe East. It runs: “In passing near the castle of Joinville, I darednever turn my eyes that way for fear of feeling too great regret andlest my courage should fail on leaving my children and my fair castle ofJoinville, which I loved in my heart.”

77

consorting with lewd women.”12 When the army resumed its march itwas depleted by hunger, disease, and desertion, and weakened bylack of discipline. At Mansura, despite brave fighting, it wasdefeated, and fled in wild rout; 10,000 Christians were captured,including Louis himself, fainting with dysentery (1250). An Arabphysician cured him; after a month of tribulation he wasreleased, but only in return for the surrender of Damietta, and aransom of 500,000 livres. When Louis agreed to this enormousransom, the Sultan reduced it by a fifth, and trusted the Kingfor an unpaid half.13 Louis led the remnant of his army to Acre,and stayed there four years, vainly calling upon Europe to ceaseits wars and join him in a new campaign. He dispatched the monkWilliam of Rubruquis to the Mongol Khan renewing the invitationof Innocent—with similar results. In 1254 he returned to France.

His years in the East had quieted the factionalism of theChristians there; his departure released it. From 1256 to 1260 acivil war of the Venetian against the Genoese in the Syrian portsdragged every faction into it, and exhausted the Christian forcesin Palestine. Seizing the opportunity, Baibars, the slave Sultanof Egypt, marched up the coast and took one Christian town afteranother: Cæsarea (1265), Safad (1266), Jaffa (1267), Antioch(1268). The captured Christians were slaughtered or enslaved,and Antioch was so devastated with plunder and fire that it neverrecovered.

Roused to new fervor in his old age, Louis IX took the crossa second time (1267). His three sons followed his example; butthe French nobility rejected his plans as quixotic, and refusedto join; even Joinville, who love him, would have none of thisEighth Crusade. This time the King, wise in government andfoolish in war, landed his inadequate forces in Tunisia, hopingto convert its beyi to Christianity, and to attack Egypt from thewest. He had hardly touched African soil when he “fell sick of afluxii in the stomach,” 14 and died with the word “Jerusalem” onhis lips (1270).

The final disaster came when some Christian adventurersrobbed a Moslem caravan in Syria, hanged nineteen Moslemmerchants, and sacked several Moslem towns. Sultan Khalil12 Villehardouin, 177.13 Ibid., 220i A native ruler of the former Kingdom of Tunis.ii A discharge of large quantities of fluid material from a bodily surface or cavity.14 320

78

demanded satisfaction; and on receiving none, he marched againstAcre, the strongest Christian outpost in Palestine; taking itafter a siege of forty-three days, he allowed his men to massacreor enslave 60,000 prisoners (1291). Tyre, Sidon, Haifa, andBeirut fell soon afterward. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalemmaintained a ghostly existence for a time in the titles of vainpotentates, and for two centuries a few adventurers orenthusiasts embarked upon sporadic and futile efforts to resumethe “Great Debate”; but Europe knew that the Crusades had come toan end. A year later Prince Edward of England landed at Acre,bravely led some futile sallies, and hurried back to accept theEnglish crown.

Attempts to again fan the embers of the once fervidenthusiasm into a flame were in vain. Gregory X, who was in theHoly Land at the time of his election to the papal chair, carriedwith him westward a passionate purpose to help the strugglingLatin colonies in Palestine. Before leaving Acre (1272) hepreached from Psalms 136:6-7, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, letmy right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my throat,if I remember thee not.” His appeals, issued a day or two afterhis coronation, met with little response. The Council of Lyons(1274), which he convened, had for its chief object thearrangements for a Crusade. Two years later Gregory died, andthe enterprise was abandoned. In 1289 Tripoli was lost, and thebitter rivalry between the Military Orders hastened the surrenderof Acre (1291), 15 and with it all Christian rule in Syria wasbrought to an end. The Templars and Hospitalers escaped. Thepopulation of sixty thousand was reduced to slavery or put to thesword. For one hundred fifty years Acre had been the metropolisof Latin life in the East. It had furnished a camp for armyafter army, and witnessed the entry and departure of kings andqueens from the chief states of Europe. But the city was also abyword for turbulence and vice. Nicolas IV had sent ships to aidthe besieged, and again called upon the princes of Europe forhelp; but his call fell on closed ears.

As the Crusades progressed, a voice was lifted here andthere calling in question the religious appropriateness of thesecampaigns and their ultimate value. At the close of the twelfthcentury, the Abbot Joachim complained that popes were making thema pretext for their own aggrandizement, and upon the basis of

15 For a contemporary description of Acre, see Itin. Regis Ricardi, I 32.

79

Joshua 6:26 and 3 Kings 16:34, he predicted a curse upon anattempt to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. “Let the popes,” hesaid, “mourn over their own Jerusalem—that is, the universalChurch not built with hands and purchased by divine blood, andnot over the fallen Jerusalem.”16 Humbert de Romanis, general ofthe Dominicans, in making out a list of matters to be handled atthe Council of Lyons (1274) felt obliged to refute no less thanseven objections to the Crusades. They were such as these. Itwas contrary to the precepts of the New Testament to advancereligion by the sword. Christians may defend themselves, buthave no right to invade the lands of another. It is wrong toshed the blood of unbelievers and Saracens; and the disasters ofthe Crusades proved they were contrary to the will of God.17

The successors of Nicolas IV, however, continued to cling tothe idea of conquering the Holy Land by arms. During thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries they made repeated appeals tothe piety and chivalry of Western Europe, but these were voicesas from another age. The deliverance of Palestine by the swordwas a dead issue. New problems were engaging men’s minds. Theauthority of the popes—now in exile in Avignon, now given to aluxurious life at Rome, or engaged in wars over papal territory—was incompetent to unite and direct the energies of Europe as ithad once done. They did not discern the signs of the times.More important tasks there were for Christendom to accomplishthan to rescue the holy places of the East.

Erasmus struck the right note and expressed the view of alater age. Writing at the very close of the Middle Ages makingan appeal18 for the proclamation of the Gospel by preaching andspeaking of wars against the Turks, he said, “Truly, it is notmeet to declare ourselves Christian men by killing very many butby saving very many; not if we send thousands of heathen peopleto hell, but if we make many infidels Christian; not if wecruelly curse and excommunicate, but if we with devout prayersand with our hearts desire their health, and pray unto God, tosend them better minds.”19

16 Com. in Jerem., see Neander, Ch. Hist., IV 189 sqq., Engl. Trans.17 Mansi, XXXIV 111-120.18 Enchiridion militis christiani, Methuen’s ed. 1905, p. 8 sq.19 No appellation was too degrading to give to the enemies of the cross.The most common one was dogs. The biographers of Richard I have no compunction in relating in one-line gifts made by Saracens and in the next calling them dogs. See Itin. Ricardi, etc. So Walter Map says sepulchrum et crux Domini prœda sunt canum quorum fames in tantum lassata fuit et sanguine

80

XII. The Results of the Crusades

“ . . . The knights’ bones are dust And their good swords are rust; Their souls are with the saints, wetrust.”

—Coleridge.

f their direct and professed purposes the Crusades hadfailed. The Holy Land was not won. The advance of Islam wasnot permanently checked. The schism of the West from the

East was not healed. O

After two centuries of war, Jerusalem was in the hands ofthe ferocious Mamluks, and Christian pilgrims came fewer and morefearful than before. The Moslem powers, once tolerant ofreligious diversity, had been made intolerant by attack. ThePalestinian and Syrian ports that had been captured for Italiantrade were without exception lost. Moslem civilization hadproved itself superior to the Western European Christiancivilization in refinement, comfort, education, and war. Themagnificent effort of the popes to give Europe peace through acommon purpose had been shattered by nationalistic ambitions andthe “crusades” of popes against emperors.

Indeed, the Crusades were the cause of great evils in boththe East and the West. The vices of the Crusading camps were nodoubt disastrous for most of the Crusaders. They were attendedby all the usual demoralizing influences of war and the sojourn

martyrorum, etc.,, Wright’s ed., I 15, p. 229.

81

of armies in an enemy’s country. The vices of the Crusadingcamps were a source of deep shame in Europe. Popes lamentedthem. Bernard exposed them. Writers set forth the fatal mistakeof those who were eager to make conquest of the earthly Jerusalemand were forgetful of the heavenly city. “Many wended their wayto the holy city, unmindful that our Jerusalem is not here.” Sowrote the Englishman, Walter Map, after Saladin’s victories in1187.

The schism of the West from the East was widened by theinsolent action of the popes in establishing Latin patriarchatesin the East and their consent to the establishment of the LatinEmpire of Constantinople. To this very day, the memory of theindignities heaped upon Greek emperors and ecclesiastics has notyet been forgotten.

Another evil was the deepening of the contempt and hatred inthe minds of the Mohammedans for the doctrines of Christianity.The savagery of the Christian military, their unscrupuloustreatment of property, and the bitter deep-seated enmities andinveterate hatred in the Crusading camps were a disgracefulspectacle which could have but one effect upon the peoples of theEast. While the Crusades were still in progress, the objectionwas made in Western Europe that spiritual fruits did not followthem; rather, the Saracens were being converted to blasphemy.Being killed, they were sent to hell.1

Feudalism recovered with difficulty from its failure in theCrusades. Suited to individualistic adventure and heroism withina narrow range, it had not known how to adjust its methods toOriental climates and distant campaigns. It had bungledinexcusably the problem of supplies along a lengthening line ofcommunications. It had exhausted its equipment, and blunted itsspirit, by conquering not Moslem Jerusalem but ChristianByzantium. To finance their expeditions to the East, manyknights had sold or mortgaged their properties to lord,moneylender, church, or king; for a price they had resigned theirrights over many towns in their domains; to many peasants theyhad sold remission of future feudal dues. Serfs by the thousandshad used the crusader’s privilege to leave the land, andthousands had never returned to their manors. While feudal

1 So Humbert de Romanis (1274); Mansi, XXIV 116. A sixth objectionagainst the Crusades as stated and answered by him ran as follows: quodex ista pugna non sequitur fructus spiritualis quia Saraceni magis convertuntur ad blasphemiamquam ad fidem; occisi autem ad infernum mittuntur, etc.

82

wealth and arms were diverted to the East, the power and wealthof the French monarchy rose as one of the major results of theCrusades. At the same time both the Roman empires were weakened:the Western emperors lost prestige by their failures in the HolyLand, and by their conflicts with a papacy exalted by theCrusades; and the Eastern Empire, though reborn in 1261, neverregained its former power or repute. It may be that the Crusadeshad this measure of success that, without them, the Turks mighthave taken Constantinople long before 1453. For Islam, too, wasweakened by the Crusades, and fell more easily before the Mongolflood.

Some of the military orders suffered tragic fates. ThoseHospitalers who survived the massacre at Acre fled to Cyprus. In1310 they captured Rhodes from the Moslems, changed their name tothe Knights of Rhodes, and ruled the island till 1522; thenexpelled by the Turks, they removed to Malta, became the Knightsof Malta, and continued to exist there till their disbandment in1799. The Templars, driven from Asia, reorganized in France.Possessed of rich holdings throughout Europe, they settled downto enjoy their revenues. Free from taxation, they lent money atlower interest rates than the Lombards and the Jews, and reapedlush profits. Unlike the Hospitalers, they maintained nohospitals, established no schools, and succored no poor. At lasttheir hoarded wealth; their armed state within a state; theirinsubordination to the royal power; aroused the envy, fear, andwrath of King Philip IV the Fair. On October 12, 1310, by hisorder, and without warning, all Templars in France were arrested,and the royal seal was set on all their goods. Philip accusedthem of indulging homosexual lusts, of having lost theirChristian faith through long contact with Islam, of denyingChrist and spitting upon the Cross, of worshipping idols, ofbeing in secret league with the Moslems, and of having repeatedlybetrayed the Christian cause. A tribunal of prelates and monksloyal to the King examined the prisoners; they denied the royalcharges, and were put to the torture to induce them to confess.Some, suspended by the wrists, were repeatedly drawn up andsuddenly let down; some had their bare feet held over flames;some had sharp splinters driven under their fingernails; some hada tooth wrenched out day after day; some had heavy weight hungfrom their genitals; some were slowly starved. In many cases allthese devises were used, so that most of the prisoners, whenexamined again, were weak to the point of death. One showed thebones that had fallen from his roasted feet. Many of them

83

confessed to all the charges of the King; some told how life andliberty had been promised them, under the royal seal, if theywould admit the allegations of the government. Several of themdied in jail; some killed themselves; fifty-nine were burned atthe stake (1310), protesting their innocence to the end. DuMolay, the Grand Master of the order, confessed under torture;led to the stake, he withdrew his confession; and the inquisitorsproposed to try him again. Philip denounced the delay, andordered him to be burned at once; and the royal presence gracedthe execution. All the property of the Templars in France wasconfiscated by the state. Pope Clement V protested against theseprocedures; the French clergy supported the King; the Pope, avirtual prisoner at Avignon, ceased resistance, and abolished theorder at Philip’s behest (1312). Edward II, also needing money,confiscated the property of the Templars in England. Some of thewealth so appropriated by Philip and Edward was surrendered tothe Church; the kings granted some of it to favorites, who bythese means founded great manors, and supported the kings againstthe older feudal nobility.

Possibly some of the Crusaders had learned in the East a newtolerance for sexual perversions; this, and the reintroduction ofpublic baths and private latrines in the West may be includedamong the results of the Crusades. Probably through contact withthe Moslem east, the Europeans returned to the old Roman customof shaving the beard.2 A thousand Arabic words now came into theEuropean languages. Oriental romances flowed into Europe andfound new dress in the newly emerging vernaculars. Crusadersimpressed by the enameled glass of the Saracens may have broughtfrom the East the technical secrets that led to the improvedstained glass of the developed Gothic cathedrals.3 The compass,gunpowder, and printing were known in the East before theCrusades ended, and may have come to Europe in the backwash ofthat tidal wave. Apparently the Crusaders were too unlettered tocare for “Arabic” poetry, science, or philosophy; Mosleminfluences in such fields came rather through Spain and Sicilythan through the contacts of these wars. The West felt Greekcultural influences after the capture of Constantinople; so theFlemish Archbishop of Corinth, William of Moerbeke, furnishedThomas Aquinas with translations of Aristotle made directly fromthe original. The discovery by the Crusaders that the followers

2 Day, Clive, History of Commerce, 88. 3 Hitti, 346.

84

of another faith could be as civilized, humane, and trustworthyas themselves, if not more so, must have set some minds adrift,and contributed to the weakening of informed and excepted beliefof the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Historians likeWilliam, Archbishop of Tyre, spoke of Moslem civilization withrespect, and sometimes with an admiration that would have shockedthe rude warriors of the First Crusade.4

The power and prestige of the Latin Church were immenselyenhanced by the First Crusades, and progressively damaged by therest. The sight of diverse peoples, of lordly barons and proudknights, sometimes of emperors and kings, uniting in a religiouscause led by the Church raised the status of the papacy. Papallegates entered every country and diocese to stir recruiting andgather funds for the Crusades; their authority encroached uponand often superseded that of the hierarchy; and through them thefaithful became almost directly tributary to the pope. Thecollections so made became customary, and were soon applied tomany purposes besides the Crusades; the pope acquired, to theactive dissatisfaction of the kings, the power to tax theirsubjects, and divert to Rome great sums that might have gone toroyal coffers or local needs.

Disastrously for the already schematic West, the Crusadesgave occasion for the rapid development of the system of papalindulgences, which became a dogma of mediæval theologians. Thepractice, which was commenced by Urban II, was extended furtherand further until indulgence for sins were promised not only forthe warrior who took up arms against the Saracens in the East,but for those who were willing to fight against Christianheretics in Western Europe. Indulgences became a part of thevery heart of the Mystery of Confession and did incalculabledamage to the moral sense of Christendom. Added to this evilwere the exorbitant taxes levied by the popes and theiremissaries. Matthew Paris complained of this extortion for theexpenses of the Crusades as a stain upon that holy cause.5

The distribution of indulgences for forty days’ service inPalestine was seen as a legitimate application of militaryscience; the granting of similar indulgences to those who paidthe expenses of a Crusader seemed forgivable; the extension oflike indulgences to those who contributed to funds managed by thepopes, or who fought papal wars in Europe against Frederick,

4 Guizot, Civilization, I, 534.5 So Humbert de Romanis (1274); Mansi, II 338, etc.

85

Manfred, or Conrad, became an added source of irritation to thekings, and of humor to the satirists. In 1241 Gregory IXdirected his legate in Hungary to commute for a money payment thevows of persons pledged to a crusade, and used the proceeds tohelp finance his life-and-death struggle with Frederick II.6

Provençal troubadours criticized the Church for diverting aidfrom Palestine by offering equal indulgences for a crusadeagainst the Albigensian heretics in France.7 “The faithfulwondered,” says Matthew Paris, “that the same plenary remissionof sins was promised for shedding Christian, as for sheddinginfidel, blood.”8 Many landowners, to finance their crusade, soldor mortgaged their property to churches or monasteries to raiseliquid funds; some monasteries in this way acquired vast estates;while the failure of the Crusades refuted the claims of the popesto be God’s vicar or representative on earth. When, after 1250,monks solicited funds for further crusades, some of theirhearers, in humor or bitterness, summoned beggars and gave themalms in the name of Mohammed; for Mohammed, they said, had shownhimself stronger than Christ.9

With all the evil and the tragedies of the Crusades, it isnot possible to imagine that Providence did not have someimportant, immediate, and ultimate purpose for the advancement ofman through this long war, extending over two hundred years, andinvolving some of the best vital forces of two continents. Itmay not always be easy to distinguish between the effects of theCrusades and the effects of other forces active in this period,or to draw an even balance between them. But it may be regardedas certain that they made far-reaching contributions to the greatmoral, religious, and social change, which the institutions ofEurope underwent in the latter half of the Middle Ages.

The Crusades engaged the minds of men in the contemplationof a high and unselfish aim. The rescue of the Holy Sepulchrewas a religious passion, which drew attention away from the pettystruggles of ecclesiastics in the assertion of priestlyprerogatives, from the from the violent conflict of papacy andempire, and from the humdrum circular arguments of scholastic and

6 Lea, Auricular Confession, III, 152.7 Speculum, Oct. 1938, 391.8 In Gibbon, VI, I, 25n.9 Speculum, Oct. 1938, 403.

86

religious dispute.10 Even Gibbon11 admits that, “the controllingemotion with many, if not most, of the Crusaders was, beyondquestion, a lofty ideal of enthusiasm.”

Perhaps the most overriding legacy of the Crusades was theunfortunate way in which they turned peoples minds from thethings of God to the things of the world. Considering theireffects upon the papacy they offered it a unique opportunity forthe extension of its worldly, political authority. At the sametime, the Crusades aided in undermining the spiritual power ofthe rest of the hierarchy of the Latin Church by educating thelaity and developing their worldly interests.

No doubt the Crusades exerted a powerful influence upon theliterature and individual intelligence of Western Europe. Itbrought men of all classes, from the emperor to the poorest serf,into personal contact on the march and in the camp. They wereequals in a common cause, and learned that they possessed thetraits of a common humanity. The isolation of the baronial hallhad kept them ignorant of this fact.

Next to the weakening of Christian belief, the chief effectof the Crusades was to stimulate the secular life of Europe byacquaintance with Moslem commerce and industry. War does onegood—it teaches people geography. The Italian merchants whothrived on the Crusades learned to make good charts of theMediterranean; the monkish chroniclers who accompanied theknights received and transmitted a new conception of the vastnessand variety of Asia. The zest for exploration and travel wasstirred; and guides appeared to lead the pilgrims to and throughthe Holy Land. Christian physicians learned from Jewish andMoslem practitioners, and surgery profited from the Crusades.

The emancipating effects of travel, which, indeed, enlargesknowledge of human customs and geography, were deeply felt.12 Arespectable collection of historical works grew out of theexpeditions. The fountains of story and romance were struck, andto posterity were contributed the inspiring figures of soldierswho realized the ideal of Christian chivalry.

10 Archer, p. 447, well says: “They raised mankind above the ignoblesphere of petty ambitions to seek after an ideal that was neither sordidnor selfish. They called for all that was heroic in human nature, andfilled the world with the inspiration of noble thoughts and deeds.”11 Decline and Fall, LVIII.12 This is clearly apparent from the English and other mediævalchronicles, such as the Chronicles of M. Paris, Hovenden, etc.

87

As for commerce, it would be hazardous to say that theenterprise of the Italian ports would not, in time have developedby the usual incentives of eastern trade and the impulse ofmarine enterprise then astir. There is no doubt, however, thatthe Crusades gave commerce an immense impetus. The fleets ofMarseilles and the Italian ports were greatly enlarged to meetthe needs of the Crusaders.13

The spell of ignorance and narrowing prejudice were brokenin these various ways, and to the mind of Western Europe a newhorizon of worldly thought and acquisition was opened, and hiddenaway at the very edge of that horizon, lay the institutions andambitions of our modern civilization.

Trade followed the Cross, and perhaps trade guided theCross. The knights lost Palestine, but the Italian merchantfleets won control of the Mediterranean not only from Islam butfrom Byzantium as well. Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, Marseille,Barcelona had already traded with the Moslem East, the Bosporus,and the Black Sea; but this traffic was immensely enlarge by theCrusades. The Venetian conquest of Constantinople, the transportof pilgrims and warriors to Palestine, the shipping of suppliesto Christians and others in the East, the importation of Orientalproducts into Europe—all these supported a degree of commerce andmaritime transport unknown since the most flourishing days ofImperial Rome. Silks, sugar, spices—rare luxuries in eleventh-century Europe—came to it now in delightful abundance. Plants,crops, and trees already known to Europe from Moslem Spain werenow more widely transplanted directly from Orient to Occident.Damasks, muslins, satins, velvets, tapestries, rugs, dyes,powders, scent, and gems came from Islam to adorn or sweetenfeudal and bourgeois homes and flesh.14 Mirrors of glass plated13 The ships of the two great Military Orders alone carried greatquantities of pilgrims. In 1182 one of their ships was wrecked on theEgyptian coast with 1500 pilgrims. In 1180 several vessels met the samefate, 2500 pilgrims were drowned and 1500 sold into slavery. In 1246their ships carried 6000 pilgrims from the port of Marseilles alone.See Prutz in Essays, p. 54. This author, in showing the economicinfluences of the Crusades, says properly, that they ad only in part todo with religion, and particularly with the church,” p. 77. Arabicwords, such as damask, tariff, and bazaar, were introduced into thevocabularies of European nations, and products, such as saffron, maize(corn), melons, and little onions, were carried back by the Crusaders.The transfer of money made necessary the development of the system ofletters of credit.14 Arnold, Legacy of Islam, 60.

88

with metallic film now replaced those of polished bronze orsteel. Europe learned from the East to refine sugar, and make“Venetian” glass.

New markets in the East developed Italian and Flemishindustry, and promoted the growth of towns and the middle class.Better techniques of banking were introduced from Byzantium andIslam; new forms and instruments of credit appeared; more moneycirculated more ideas, more men. The Crusades had begun with anagricultural feudalism inspired by German barbarism crossed withreligious sentiment; they ended with the rise of industry, andthe expansion of commerce, in an economic revolution thatheralded and financed the Renaissance in the West.

After a lapse of seven centuries and more, the Crusadesstill have their stirring lessons of wisdom and warning.Misbegotten and shameful as they were, the Crusades wereresponsible for such an elevating spectacle of devotion to anunselfish aim as has seldom been repeated in the history ofreligion on so grand a scale. The inspiration that spectacleengendered continues to this day. The very word “crusade” issynonymous with a lofty moral or religious movement, as the word“gospel” has come to be used to signify every message of good.

The Crusades also furnish the perpetual reminder that not inlocalities and languages is the Church to seek its holiestsatisfaction and not by the sword is the Church to win its way;but by the message of peace, by appeals to the heart andconscience, and by teaching the love of prayer and devout,traditional worship, is she to accomplish her mission. Thecrusader kneeling in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre learned themeaning of the words, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? Heis not here, but is risen” (Luke 24:5-6). All succeedinggenerations that read this history shall know the meaning ofthese words better for his pilgrimage and his mistake.

This historical account of the crusades is based in large part, and is indeed lifted wholesale in some instances, from The Story of Civilization, subtitled The Age of Faith, Book V The Climax of Christianity, Chapter XXIII, by Will Durant, published by Simon and Schuster; and History of the Christian Church, Volume V The Middle Ages, Chapter VII, by David S. Schaff, D.D., published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. To these two gentlemen is due only praise for their great contributions to this historical account, while to this compiler and editor is due all the chastisement for any errors this account may contain.

89

Edited for LifeSigns by Father Lawrence, hieromonk

90