Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/657

CRUSADES 623 still came and went practically without let or hindrance ; and even the attack of the Fatimite caliph Hakem, four cen turies later, 1010, scarcely changed things for the worse. The rule of his predecessors in Egypt had for the Christians been lighter than that of the Abbasside caliphs of Baghdad; but the object on which the mad Hakem had set his heart was nothing less than the destruction of the great Chris tian sanctuary. Such persecution as there was fell on the Jews only, and the tax imposed on each pilgrim and levied on his entering Jerusalem was probably not resented as a wrong. To the wealthier Christians it brought an opportunity for securing a higher degree of merit by pay ing the charge for their poorer brethren ; while the comple tion of the first Christian millennium removed a burden which had lain with increasing heaviness on the spirits and energies of men, arid gave a fresh impetus to the feeling of which carried the devout to the Holy Land. The end of x o 9 the 10th century, it was almost universally believed, would be the end of the world. The beginning of a new age relieved them of this mental incubus, and the stream of pilgrims became larger than ever. The path followed by these devotees was not always strewn with roses, Incle ment seasons, poverty, and sickness proved fatal to many ; but these disasters were not caused by the attack of open enemies, and the conversion of Hungary removed a formid able obstacle for those who had to traverse the heart of Europe in order to reach Palestine. its A few years later these fairer prospects were permanently clouded by the advance of the Seljukiari Turks, who in their inroads into the Eastern empire found themselves effectually aid ed by the subjects of the emperor. The causes of discontent were indeed many and deep. Extortion and tyranny, both secular and ecclesiastical, had alienated thousands, while the population was seriously lessened by the accumulation of land in the hands of a few owners. Before the close of the llth century, 1076, Jerusalem had opened her gates to the Seljukian Toucush ; and in place of a legal toll the pilgrims found themselves subjected henceforth to indefinite extortion, to wanton insult, and to massacre. The sanctuaries of the Christians were profaned, their worship was interrupted, their patriarchs were thrown into dungeons. The effect of these changes was felt not by the devout only. The supplying of their wants had called forth the energies of merchants; and the fleets of Genoa, Pisa, and Amain hurried to the ports of the Holy Land for the great Easter fair at Jerusalem. All these were now driven away, and there remained only the miserable train of pilgrims, who returned to Europe, if they returned at all, with tales of dire indignities done to men, women, and children alike. if The recital of these wrongs went far towards fanning md into flame the feelings which the popes had hitherto failed r to waken in sufficient strength. The idea of an armed host which should inflict summary vengeance on the oppressors of the Christians had already dawned on the mind of the great Hildebrand, Gregory VII. ; it had been vehemently urged by his successor Victor III. ; but neither had struck the right chord. Such enterprizes can never be set in motion, with any solid results, except when the flood tide of popular feeling gives its own weight to the sanction of religious authority, Nor was this result more satisfactory when, in 1081, Robert Guiscard set out from Brundusium (Brindisi) with a fleet of 150 ships and a force of 30,000 men. Guiscard himself besieged Dyr- rhachium (Durazzo) in vain ; under his son Bohemond his fleet was miserably defeated. Four years later Guiscard made another attempt, which was frustrated by his death at Cefalonia (Kephallenia). But Hildebrand had been dead only ten years when a vast throng of clerks and laymen was gathered to meet Urban II. at Piacenza (Placentia). In Italy, however, Urban felt that he conld not look for the enthusiasm which would justify him in making the final venture. From Piacenza he made hia way to his old home in the great abbey of Cluny, and in the autumn of 1095 appeared at Clermont, in the territories of the count of Auvergne. Here he found that there was no longer any need of holding back. To the north of the Alps the indignation of f J f er . ,i iiji T i r i , the Hermit the people had been roused to fever heat by the preaching of Peter the Hermit. With the stature and ungainliness of a dwarf, emaciated by the austerities of his self-imposed discipline, this man, who had forsaken his wife and abandoned his military standard under the counts of Boulogne, had returned from the Holy Land with his heart on fire, not so much from the memory of the hard ships which he had himself undergone as for the cruelties and tortures which he had seen inflicted on his fellow- Christians. Simeon, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to whom he first betook himself, could only bewail the weakness of the emperor and of his government. " The nations of the West shall take up arms in your cause," was the reply of the hermit, who soon afterwards, armed with the special blessing of Urban II., mounted his ass, and with bare head and feet, carrying a huge crucifix, traversed the Teutonic lands, rousing everywhere the uncontrollable indignation which devoured his own soul. His vehemence carried all before him, none the less, perhaps, because he bade them remember that no sins were too heinous to be washed away by the waters of the Jordan, no evil habits too deadly to be condoned for the one good work which should make them champions of the cross. Urban, however, and his counsellors, knew well that before the fatal die could be prudently cast a serious task lay before them. The system of feudalism substituted personal ascendency for the dominion of law ; and wherever the personal bond failed, the resort was inevitably to private war. The practice of such wars had become virtually an organized trade ; and if a large proportion of the population should be drawn away to fight against the infidel in Palestine, those who remained at home would be without defence. Such wars were therefore formally condemned ; the women and the clergy, merchants and husbandmen, were placed under the special protection of the church, and the Truce of God was solemnly confirmed. The nearer and more immediate Speech of dangers being thus guarded against, Urban from a lofty Popt Lrban scaffold addressed the assembled multitude, dwelling in the ci e , . mon t. first place, and perhaps not altogether prudently, on the cowardice of the Turks, and on the title to victory which birth in a temperate climate conferred on the Christians. They were thus sure of success, and sure, too, to win an infinitely higher blessing the remission of their sins. Sufferings and torments more excruciating than any which they could picture to themselves might indeed await them ; but the agonies of their bodies would redeem their souls. " Go then," he said, " on your errand of love which will put out of sight all the ties that bind you to the spots which you have called your homes. Your homes, in truth, they are not. For the Christian all the world is exile, and all the world is at the same time his country. If you leave a rich patrimony here, a better patrimony awaits you in the Holy Land. They who die will enter the mansions of heaven, while the living shall pay their vows before the sepulchre of their Lord. Blessed are they who, taking this vow upon them, shall obtain such a recompense ; happy they who are led to such a conflict, that they may share in such rewards." With the passionate outburst, " It is the will of God, it is the will of God," the vast throng broke in upon the Pontiff s words. " It is, indeed, His will," the Pope went on, " and let these words be your

war-cry when you find yourselves in presence of the enemy.