As the military strength of the state was evidently unequal to cope with Noureddin’s forces unassisted, the patriarch of Palestine and the king of Jerusalem decided on sending an envoy to Europe for the purpose of securing, if possible, an armed intervention from the Christian powers of the West. The bishop of Zabulon was selected for this duty, and he at once proceeded to Rome to lay the matter before Pope Eugene III. That dignitary entered warmly into the project, and he directed Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux, to preach a new Crusade throughout France and Germany. Bernard was a man held in the highest veneration, from the rigid austerity of his life. He had succeeded in introducing much needful reform into the discipline of the clergy, which had hitherto been disgracefully lax, and his influence with all classes was unbounded. He seconded the wishes of the Pope with all the strength of his fiery eloquence. Traversing the land from end to end he called upon all faithful Christians to come forward at this hour of the church’s need, to prevent the infidel from once more regaining those holy places which had been taken from them at the cost of so much blood.
Louis VII., the king of France, having in one of his numerous wars committed barbarities of more than usual atrocity, resolved upon atoning for the same by heading the new crusade. As a modern infidel writer has expressed it, he “proposed to slaughter some millions of Saracens as an expiation for the murder of four or five hundred Champagnois.”
holy image into her chamber, she prostrated herself in adoration before it. Whilst thus engaged she was favoured with a vision of the Virgin herself, who announced to her that she was appointed to release the knights from prison. At the same time she was directed to change her name and assume that of Mary. At break of day she proceeded to the prison, determined to obey the vision, when to her astonishment she found that the doors were all open. The knights followed her through the streets of Cairo without being discovered, and at length, after a weary day’s journey, they all laid down to rest. On awakening the next morning they found to their amazement that during the night they had been miraculously transported to Picardy, Ismeria still retaining possession of her image. Whilst on their further journey to their home the image fell from the hands of its bearer, and on this spot a church was afterwards built, dedicated to Our Lady of Liesse. Ismeria was baptized, receiving the name of Mary, and lived ever after with the mother of the knights. At her death her remains were deposited within the church which she had founded.
