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THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, from the birth of Christ to the 18th Century: including the very interesting account of the Waldenses and Albigenses
By William Jones

First Edition 1812
Fourth Edition 1819
Fifth Edition 1826
London: Printed for the Author by W. Myers, 7, Took’s Court, Castle Street, Holborn

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[Table of Contents for "A History of the Christian Church" by William Jones]

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES TO ASIA, FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE HOLY LAND AND THE CITY OF JERUSALEM FROM THE TURKS

A.D. 1096-1270

It has been remarked by a late eminent historian, that "there is no event in the history of mankind more singular than that of THE CRUSADES." [Robertson’s History of Charles V. vol. 1. Appendix, Note 13. Mr. Hume terms them "the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation," Hist. of England, vol. 1, ch. 5.] The subject is indeed very remotely, if at all, connected with the kingdom of Christ; but as it forms a prominent feature in the history of the Antichristian apostasy; and as these extravagant enterprises took place towards the end of the eleventh, and during a considerable part of the twelfth century, and especially as the relation of them throws a portion of light upon the history of Europe during this benighted period, it may not be without its use here to give a concise account of them. I have purposely reserved the article for a separate section, to prevent its being mingled with what regards the Waldenses and Albigenses, who had nothing to do with these frantic expeditions, except to condemn them.

Pope Gregory VII, among his other vast ideas, had formed the project of uniting the Christians of the Western empire against the Mahometans, and of recovering Palestine from the hands of those infidels: but his quarrels with the emperor Henry IV prevented the enterprise from being achieved during his pontificate. The work, however, was reserved for a meaner instrument; for a man, whose condition could excite no jealousy; and whose hand was as weak as his imagination was warm. But previous to entering upon his history, it will be proper to describe the state of the East at that time, and of the passion for pilgrimages which then prevailed in Europe.

The veneration and delight with which we view those places that have been the residence of any illustrious personage, or the theater of any great event, has been frequently remarked by philosophers and moralists. Hence the enthusiasm with which the learned still visit the ruins of Athens and Rome; and from this source also flowed the superstitious devotion with which Christians from the earliest time were accustomed to visit that country whence their religion originated, and that city in particular in which the Savior died for the redemption of sinners. Pilgrimages to the shrines of saints and martyrs were also common; and in proportion to the difficulty with which they were performed to distant countries, was their merit appreciated, till they came at length to be considered as an expiation for almost every crime. Moreover, an opinion began to prevail over Europe towards the close of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century, that the thousand years mentioned by the writer of the book of the Revelation, ch. 20:2-4, were nearly accomplished, and the end of the world at hand -- a persuasion which greatly augmented the number and ardor of the credulous devotees who undertook this tedious journey. A general consternation seized the minds of men; numbers relinquished their possessions, forsook their families and friends, and hastened to the Holy Land, where they imagined Christ would suddenly appear to judge the living and the dead.

But in these pious journeys, the pilgrims had the mortification to find the holy sepulcher, and the other places which had been rendered sacred by the Savior’s presence, fallen into the hands of infidels. The Mahometans had made themselves masters of Palestine, soon after the death of their prophet; but they gave little disturbance to the zealous pilgrims who daily flocked to Jerusalem; and they allowed every person, on payment of a moderate tribute, to visit the holy sepulcher, to perform his religious duties, and to return in peace. But, about the middle of the eleventh century, the Turks, who had also embraced Mahometanism, wrested Syria from the Saracens who had now been in possession of it for several centuries, and making themselves masters of Jerusalem, the pilgrims became exposed to outrages of every kind from those fierce barbarians. Every person who returned from Palestine related the dangers that he had encountered in visiting the holy city, and described the cruelty and vexation of the Turks, who, to use the language of the pilgrims, not only profaned the sepulcher of the Lord by their presence, but derided the sacred mysteries in the vary place of their completion, and where the Son of God was expected immediately to judge the world.

While the minds of men were thus roused, a fanatical monk, commonly known by the name of Peter the Hermit, a Frenchman, born at Amiens in Picardy, conceived the project of leading all the forces of Christendom against the infidels, and driving them out of the Holy Land. He had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was so deeply affected with the danger to which his fellow pilgrims were now exposed, that, on his return, he ran from province to province, with a crucifix in his hand, exciting princes and people to undertake this holy warfare; and he succeeded in everywhere kindling the same enthusiastic ardor for it with which he himself was animated. "When he painted the suffering of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted to compassion; every breast glowed with indignation when he challenged the warriors of the age to defend their brethren and rescue their Savior" [Gibbon’s Rome, vol. 6, p. 3].

Pope Urban II, who at first hesitated about the success of such a project, at length entered into Peter’s views, and summoned a council at Placentia, at which, so immense was the multitude of attendants, that it was found necessary to hold it in the open fields. It consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics and thirty thousand of the laity, who all declared for the war against the Infidels, though but few of them discovered any alacrity to engage personally in the enterprise. The Pope, therefore, was under the necessity of calling another council, during the same year, at Clermont in Auvergne, which was attended by prelates, nobles, and princes of the first distinction. On this occasion the pontiff and the hermit exerted all their eloquence, by the most pathetic exhortations, to stimulate the audience to embark in this pious cause; at the conclusion of which the whole assembly, as if impelled by an immediate inspiration, exclaimed with one voice, "It is the will of God! It is the will of God!" "It is indeed the will of God," replied the pope; "and let this memorable saying, the inspiration surely of the Holy Spirit, be for ever adopted as your cry of battle to animate the devotion and courage of the champions of Christ. His cross is the symbol of your salvation; wear it: a red, a bloody cross, as an external mark on your breast or shoulders; as a pledge of your sacred and irrevocable engagement." The words were accordingly adopted as the motto for the sacred standard, and as the signal of rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of the champions of the Cross; the symbol chosen by the devout combatants, as the badge of union; and it was affixed to their right shoulder; whence their expedition obtained the name of a Crusade.

Persons of all ranks now flew to arms with the utmost ardor; not only the gallant nobles of that age and their martial followers, whom the boldness of a romantic enterprise might be supposed to allure, but persons in the more humble and pacific stations of life, ecclesiastics of every order, and even females concealing their sex beneath the disguise of armor, engaged with emulation in a cause which was deemed so sacred and meritorious. The greatest criminals entered with alacrity into a service which they regarded as a propitiation for all their offenses: if they succeeded, they flattered themselves with the hope of making their fortunes in this world; and if they died, they were promised a crown of glory in the world to come. Devotion, passion, prejudice, and habit, all contributed to the same common end, and the combination of so many causes produced that wonderful emigration which induced the daughter of Alexis Comnenus, the emperor of Constantinople, to say, that "Europe loosened from its foundations, and impelled by its moving principle, seemed in one united body to precipitate itself upon Asia."

The number of adventurers soon became so great, that their more experienced leaders were apprehensive the greatness of the armament would defeat its own purpose. They therefore wisely permitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at three hundred thousand men, to go before them, under the command of Peter the Hermit, Walter the Moneyless, and other wild fanatics.

Peter, at the head of his army, with sandals on his feet and a rope about his waist, marched through Hungary and Bulgaria towards Constantinople. A German priest of the name of Godescaldus, followed by a numerous banditti, took the same route; and trusting to heaven for a miraculous supply of all their wants, they made no provision for subsistence on their march. They were not long, however, in finding themselves reduced to the necessity of obtaining by plunder what they presumptuously expected from miracles. The Jews were the first victims of their plunder. Considering themselves as enlisted in the service of Christ, they concluded that they were fully warranted to take vengeance on his murderers, and they, therefore, put to the sword without mercy such as refused to be baptized, seizing their property without the smallest regard to the rights of justice. In Bavaria alone twelve thousand Jews were massacred, and many thousands more in the other provinces of Germany. But Jews were not to be found everywhere: these pious robbers, having tasted the sweets of plunder, and being subject to no military regulations, began of course to pillage without distinction, till the inhabitants of the countries through which they passed rose in defense of themselves and families, and nearly destroyed them all. Peter, however, with the remnant of his army, consisting of about twenty thousand starving wretches, at length reached Constantinople, where he was reinforced by a multitude of the rabble from Germany and Italy, who, by pillaging the churches, and practicing the greatest disorders, had contrived so far to follow their leader.

Alexis Comnenus, the Greek emperor, was astonished to see his dominions deluged with an inundation of licentious barbarians, strangers alike to order and discipline; and especially on being told of the multitudes that were following under different leaders. Thus circumstanced, however, he very wisely considered that the most prudent step he could take, was to get rid of such troublesome guests as soon as possible, by furnishing them with vessels to transport themselves to the other side of the Bosphorus; and Peter, the general of the Crusade, soon found himself in the plains of Asia, at the head of a Christian army, ready to give battle to the Infidels. Their first engagement was with Soliman, Sultan of Nice, who fell upon the disorderly crowd, and slaughtered them almost without resistance. Walter the Moneyless, and many other leaders of equal celebrity, were slain; but Peter the Hermit found his way back to Constantinople, where he was regarded as a maniac who had enlisted a multitude of infatuated people to follow him.

ASIA was then divided into a number of petty states, comprehended under the great ones. The princes of the lesser states paid homage to the Caliphs, though they were in effect their masters: and the Sultans, who were very numerous, still further enfeebled the Mahometan empire by continual wars with each other, the certain consequence of divided sway. The crusaders, therefore, who, when mustered on the banks of the Bosphorus, amounted to the incredible number of one hundred thousand horsemen and six hundred thousand foot, were sufficient to have conquered all Asia, had they been properly disciplined, united under one head, or commanded by leaders who acted in concert; but they were conducted by men of the most independent, intractable spirits, unacquainted with discipline, and enemies to civil and military subordination. Their zeal, however, their courage, and their irresistible force, still carried them forward, and advanced them to the object of their expedition in defiance of every obstacle. After an obstinate siege, they took Nice, the seat of old Soliman, Sultan of Syria; they also made themselves masters of Antioch, the seat of another Sultan, and entirely broke the strength of the Turks, who had for a long time tyrannized over the Arabs.

On the fall of the Turkish power, the Caliph of Egypt, whose alliance the crusaders had hitherto courted, recovered the authority of the Caliphs of Jerusalem. He therefore sent ambassadors to the leaders of the Crusades, informing them, that if they would throw away their arms they might now perform without molestation or inconvenience their religious vows in the holy city, and that all pilgrims, who should from that time visit the holy sepulcher, might expect the same good treatment which they had ever received from their predecessors. His offer was, however, rejected: he was required to yield up the city to the Christians; and on his refusal, Jerusalem was besieged, the possession of which was the great object of their armament, and the consummation of their labors.

The army of the Crusaders was now greatly reduced in number, partly by disasters, and partly by the detachments they had been obliged to make in order to keep possession of the places they had conquered, insomuch, that, according to the testimony of historians, they scarcely exceeded twenty thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, while the garrison of Jerusalem consisted of forty thousand men. Yet, notwithstanding this diminution of force, after a siege of five weeks, they took the city by assault, and put the garrison and inhabitants to the sword without distinction. The brave were not protected by arms, nor the timid by submission; neither age nor sex were spared; infants perished by the same sword that pierced the supplicating mother. The streets of Jerusalem were covered with heaps of slain; and the shrieks of agony or despair resounded from every house, when these triumphant warriors, glutted with slaughter, threw aside their arms, still streaming with blood, and advanced, with naked feet and bended knees to the sepulcher of the Prince of Peace! sung anthems to that Redeemer who had purchased their salvation by his death, and while deaf to the cries of distress from their fellow-creatures, dissolved in tears for the sufferings of the Messiah! So inconsistent is human nature with itself; and so easily does the most degrading superstition associate both with the most heroic courage and with the fiercest barbarity.

This important event, the conquest of Jerusalem, was achieved in 1099, the last year of the eleventh century; but towards the middle of the twelfth, the power of the crusaders began to decline, and was growing weaker every day in those countries which they had conquered. The small kingdom of Edessa, had been retaken by the Turks, and Jerusalem itself was threatened. Europe was solicited for a new armament; and, as the French had taken the lead in the former armament, they were on the present occasion honored with the first application for a renewal. The papal chair was at that time filled by Eugenius III, to whom the deputies of the East had been sent; and he wisely pitched upon the celebrated Bernard, as the instrument of this pious warfare. A more suitable character could scarcely have been found. Bernard was learned for the times in which he lived; he was naturally eloquent, austere in his life, irreproachable in morals, enthusiastically zealous, and inflexible in his purpose. He had long held the reputation of a saint, was regarded as an oracle, and revered as a prophet; no wonder then that he found means to persuade the young king of France, Lewis VII, to engage in THIS FRESH CRUSADE. The French monarch, who had but recently ascended the throne, found himself at the commencement of his reign engaged in one of those civil wars which the feudal governments rendered almost unavoidable;. and having in an expedition into Champagne, made himself master of Vitry, he caused the church to be set on fire, by which means thirteen hundred persons, who had taken refuge in it, all perished in the flames -- a piece of cruelty which, on reflection, sunk deep into the king’s mind, and filled him with dreadful remorse. Bernard availed himself of this penitentiary state, and persuaded the king of France, that to expiate his guilt, it was his indispensable duty to make an expedition to the Holy Land.

At Vezelar, a city in the province of Burgundy, a scaffold was erected in the market place, on which Bernard appeared by the side of Lewis VII. The saint first harangued the multitude, and was then seconded by the king, after receiving the cross from his hands. The queen who was present, also took the cross; and the example of the royal pair was followed by all the company, among whom were many of the nobility. In vain did Suger, who was prime minister to the king, labor to dissuade his royal master from abandoning his dominions, by assuring him that he might make a much more suitable atonement for his sins by remaining at home, and governing his dominions in a wise and prudent manner; the eloquence of Bernard, and the frenzy of the times prevailed. The minister, however, retained his opinion; and made no scruple to predict the inconveniences that would attend an expedition to Palestine, whilst the monk pledged himself for its success, and extolled it with an enthusiasm that passed for inspiration.

From France, Bernard proceeded to preach the Crusade in Germany; where through the force of his irresistible eloquence, he prevailed on the emperor Conrad III, as well as on Frederic Barbarossa, who was afterwards emperor, and an immense number of persons of all ranks, to take the cross, promising them in the name of the Most High, complete victory over the Infidels. He ran from city to city, every where communicating his enthusiasm; and, if we may credit the historians of those times, working miracles. It is not indeed pretended that he restored the dead to life; but it is affirmed that the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the sick were healed, and to these bold assertions we may add a fact no less incredible, that while St. Bernard’s eloquence operated so powerfully on the minds of the Germans, he always preached to them in French, a language which they did not understand!

The confident hopes of success in this new enterprise, induced the greatest part of the knights in their respective dominions to enroll themselves under the banners of the emperor, and king of France; and it is said, that in each army there were seventy thousand men in complete armor, with a prodigious number of light horse, besides the infantry, making this second emigration at least equal to the number of three hundred thousand men; which added to thirteen hundred thousand sent on the former occasion, makes a sum total of one million six hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Europe transplanted to Asia on these crusading expeditions. The Germans advanced first, the French followed them; and the same excesses that had been committed by the soldiers of the first Crusade were repeated by those of the second.

When the emperor Conrad had passed the Bosphorus, he acted with that imprudence which is very characteristic of such expeditions. Instead of joining those Christians who remained in Syria, and there waiting the arrival of the king of France, jealous of all competitors, he marched his army into the heart of Asia Minor, where the Sultan of Iconium, a more experienced general than himself, drew his heavy German cavalry among the rocks and cut his army in pieces. He fled to Antioch, and from thence proceeded to Jerusalem as a pilgrim, instead of appearing as the leader of an army, and at last returned to Europe with an handful of men, A.D. 1148. The king of France was not more successful in his enterprise. He fell into the same snare that had entrapped the emperor; and being surprised among the rocks near Laodicea, was defeated as Conrad had been, and the conclusion of the whole expedition was, that Lewis, like Conrad, returned to Europe with the wreck of a great army, A.D. 1149, after visiting the holy sepulcher. A thousand ruined families in vain exclaimed against Bernard for his prophecies: he excused himself upon the example of Moses, who he said, had like himself promised the children of Israel to conduct them into a happy country, and yet saw the first generation perish in the deserts.

The failure of this second Crusade reduced the affairs of the Oriental Christians to a state of great distress, which was still further augmented by the bold and enterprising conduct of Saladin the Great, a prince of Persian extraction, who, having by his bravery fixed himself on the throne of Egypt, began to extend his conquests over all the East, but finding the settlement of the Christians in Palestine an obstacle to the progress of his arms, he bent the whole force of his policy and valor to subdue that small though important territory. Taking advantage of the dissensions that prevailed among the champions of the cross, and having secretly gained over to his interest the Count of Tripoli, who commanded their armies, he invaded Palestine with a mighty force, and obtained a complete victory over them, utterly annihilating the rigor of the already languishing kingdom of Jerusalem. The holy city itself fell into his hands in the year 1187, after a feeble resistance; the kingdom of Antioch was almost entirely subdued; and, excepting some maritime towns, nothing of importance remained of those boasted conquests, which, nearly a century before, had cost the efforts of all Europe to acquire.

The papal chair was then filled by Clement III, who no sooner received the melancholy tidings, than he ordered a Crusade to be preached throughout all the countries of Christendom. Europe was filled with grief and consternation. The emperor of Germany, Frederic Barbarossa, assembled a diet at Mentz in 1188, in order to deliberate with the states of the empire on this unhappy event. To encourage his subjects, he himself took the cross; his son Frederic, duke of Suabia, followed his father’s example, as did also sixty-eight of the first German nobles, ecclesiastics as well as laymen. Ratisbon was appointed the place of rendezvous; and to prevent the inconvenience arising from too great a multitude, Frederic decreed that no person should take the cross, who could not afford to expend three marks of silver. Yet, notwithstanding this regulation, so great was the zeal of the Germans, that an army was formed, consisting of a hundred and fifty thousand military adventurers, well armed, and provided with necessaries for undertaking THE THIRD CRUSADE.

The emperor in person marched at the head of thirty thousand men, by way of Vienna to Presburg, where he was joined by the rest of his army. He thence proceeded through Hungary, into the territories of the Greek emperor, who, notwithstanding his professions of friendship, had been detached by Saladin’s promises and insinuations, to give up the interests of Frederic, in consequence of which he took every opportunity of harassing the Germans in their march. Enraged at his perfidy, Frederic laid the country under contribution; captured and plundered Philipopolis; defeated a body of Greek troops that attacked him by surprise, and compelled the emperor of Constantinople to sue for peace. He wintered at Adrianople; crossed the Hellespont in the spring; refreshed his troops a short time at Laodicea; defeated the Turks in several battles; took and pillaged the city of Iconium, and crossed Mount Taurus, so that all Asia was filled with the terror of his name. Among the crusaders, Frederic was as renowned as Saladin among the Turks. The Christians in Syria and Palestine flattered themselves that, from his assistance, they should obtain effectual relief, but their hopes were suddenly blasted. This great prince who was an expert swimmer, one day plunged into the cold river Cydnus, to refresh himself from the sultry heat of summer, which brought on a fatal illness that at once put a period to his life and heroic exploits.

The kings of England and France had entered with considerable ardor into the third Crusade. Philip Augustus reigned at that time over France; and in our own country the throne was filled by the first Richard. Both of these monarchs considered the recovery of the Holy Land as the ultimate purpose of their government; yet neither of them was so much impelled to the pious enterprise by superstition, as by the love of military glory. Richard, in particular, had so little regard to sanctity in his external deportment, that when a zealous preacher of the Crusade advised him to rid himself of his pride, avarice, and voluptuousness, which the priest called his majesty’s three favorite daughters, Richard replied, "You counsel well; and I hereby dispose of the first to the Templars, the second to the Benedictines, and the third to my Bishops!"

Resolving to profit by the disasters that had attended the former crusading expeditions, the kings of France and England determined to make trial of another road to the Holy Land, which was to conduct their armies thither by sea; to carry provisions along with them; and by means of their naval power, to maintain an open communication with their own states, and with the western parts of Europe. Their first place of rendezvous was the plain of Vezelai, on the borders of Burgundy, where Philip and Richard found their armies amount to one hundred thousand men. Here they pledged each other in promises of mutual friendship, and engaged not to invade each other’s dominions during the Crusade; their barons and prelates exchanged oaths to the same effect; after which they separated. Philip took the road to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, with a view of meeting their fleets, which were severally appointed to assemble in those harbors. They put to sea at the same time, and both were compelled by stress of weather to take shelter in the harbor of Messina, where they were detained during the whole winter.

In the spring of the year 1191, both fleets arrived in Asia, where, the troops being embarked, they laid siege to Ptolemais, which had been attacked about two years before, by the combined force of all the Christians in Palestine, and defended by the utmost efforts of Saladin and the Saracens. Before this place, Frederic, duke of Suabia, son of the emperor Barbarossa, had perished; and along with him the remains of the German army. But the arrival of the armies of England and France, with Richard and Philip at their head, infused fresh rigor into the besiegers, and the emulation that prevailed between these rival kings and rival nations, produced extraordinary feats of valor. Richard, in particular, drew upon himself the attention of the world, and acquired a great and splendid reputation. Ptolemais was taken; the Saracen garrison reduced to the last extremity, surrendered themselves prisoners of war, and the wood of the true cross was restored! And thus this famous siege, which had engaged the attention of all Europe and Asia, was at last achieved -- with the loss of three hundred thousand men.

The French monarch, instead of pursuing his conquests further, and redeeming the holy city from slavery, declared his resolution of returning into France, disgusted, as it is said, by the ascendancy which the king of England had acquired by his more precipitate courage, and romantic spirit; pleading the ill state of his health, however, as the reason of his deserting the common cause. The heroic actions of Richard, while in Palestine, were the best apology for his conduct. On opening the campaign of 1192, he determined to attempt the siege of Ascalon, the conquest of which fortress was a necessary step to prepare the way for that of Jerusalem; and leaving Ptolemais, he marched with the army under his command along the sea coast with that intention. Saladin determined to intercept their passage, and placed himself upon the road with an army of three hundred thousand men. On this occasion was fought one of the most formidable battles of that age, and the most celebrated for the military genius of the commanders; for the number and valor of the troops, and for the variety of events which attended it. The right wing of the Christian army, commanded by D’Avesnes, and the left under that of the duke of Burgundy, were, in the former part of the day, broken and defeated; when Richard, who led on the main body, restored the fortunes of the day. He attacked the enemy with the greatest intrepidity and valor; with all the skill of a consummate general and gallant soldier; and not only gave his two wings the opportunity of recovering from their confusion, but obtained a complete victory over the Saracens; forty thousand of whom, it is said, were left dead upon the field. Ascalon surrendered to the crusaders; other sieges were carried on with success. Richard advanced within sight of Jerusalem, when he had the mortification to find that he must abandon all hopes of present success, and put a stop to his career of victory.

The zeal and ardor with which the crusaders were animated for some time carried them forward in the prosecution of their romantic expedition, regardless of all the rules of prudence or safety; and, confident of the approbation of heaven, they set nothing before them but fame and victory in this world, and a crown of glory in the next: but long absence from home, famine, fatigue, and disease, added to the varieties of fortune which naturally attend war, had greatly abated that fury which nothing was able directly to withstand. All, but the king of England, expressed a desire to return to Europe; so that there appeared an imperious necessity of abandoning for the present all future conquests, and of securing their present acquisitions by a treaty of peace with Saladin. Richard, therefore, concluded a truce with that monarch: and stipulated that Ptolemais, Joppa, and other seaport towns of Palestine, should remain in the hands of the Christians, and that every one of that religion should enjoy the privilege of performing his pilgrimage unmolested. This truce was ratified A.D. 1192, and was to remain in force for three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours; a magical number, suggested by a superstition well suited to the object of the war.

Saladin died at Damascus soon after the ratification of this truce with the leaders of the Crusade. He was a prince of great valor, and of generous sentiments; and it is memorable, that during his last illness, he gave orders for his winding sheet to be carried as a standard through every street of the city, while a cryer preceded it proclaiming with a loud voice, "This is all that remains to the mighty Saladin, the conqueror of the East." His last will is also remarkable: he ordered alms to be distributed to the poor without regard to distinction of Jew, Mahometan, or Christian; thereby intimating that he considered all men as brethren, and as equally entitled to the exercise of our compassion when in distress -- a lesson, though coming from a Mussulman, which deserves the imitation of Christians. But the advantages of science, of moderation, and of humanity, were indeed at that time wholly on the side of the former.

Richard, having no further business in Palestine, took shipping for Europe, but was unfortunately wrecked in the Adriatic; and, reaching land, he disguised himself in the habit of a pilgrim, hoping by that means to pass safely through Germany. But being betrayed by his liberalities and expenses, he was arrested by Leopold, duke of Austria, whom he had offended at the siege of Ptolemais, who to gratify his revenge threw him into prison, and then sold him to the emperor Henry VI. The latter had also taken offense at some part of Richard’s conduct, and was therefore glad to have him in his power. Thus the gallant king of England, who had filled the world with his renown, was confined to a dungeon in the heart of Germany, loaded with chains, and entirely at the mercy of his enemy, one of the basest and most sordid of mankind! Richard, however, in a little time succeeded in bringing his case before a diet of the empire, at which he personally attended; and by his eloquence and spirit, made such an impression on the German princes, that they exclaimed loudly against the conduct of the emperor, whom the pope also threatened with excommunication. In the issue, Henry concluded a treaty with Richard for his ransom, and agreed to liberate him for the sum of about three hundred thousand pounds of our present money -- an enormous sum in those days.

But notwithstanding the reiterated disasters and ill-success that attended the frantic expeditions to the Holy Land, so resolutely was the court of Rome bent on the achievement of its grand object, that the popes were continually urging the princes of Europe to renew their efforts. Their power and influence were, by this time, become so predominant, that it was at the peril of the latter they declined compliance with their sovereign will. The papal chair was at this time filled by Celestine III, by whom Henry VI was crowned emperor of Germany. He was then a very old man, being in his eighty-sixth year; the ceremony of coronation was performed on Easter Monday; the pope placed his crown on the head of Henry, which he had no sooner done, than he kicked it off again, as a testimony of the power residing in their sovereign pontiffs to make and unmake emperors at their pleasure!

In the year 1196, Henry was solicited by the pope to engage in A NEW CRUSADE for the relief of the Christians in Palestine; and the emperor consented, though he had prudence enough to study his own interest in the compliance. He convoked a general diet at Worms, at which he avowed his determination to employ all his resources, and even to risk his own life for the accomplishment of so holy an enterprise; and so eloquently did he expatiate upon the subject, that nearly the whole assembly took the cross. Their example prevailed throughout the empire, and so great was the number who enlisted themselves, that Henry divided them into three large armies: the first, under the command of the bishop of Mentz, took the rout of Hungary, where it was joined by Margaret, queen of that country, who herself entered as a volunteer on this pious expedition, and actually ended her days in Palestine: the second was assembled in Lower Saxony, and embarked in a fleet furnished by the inhabitants of Lubec, Hamburgh, Holstein, and Friesland; while the emperor in person, conducted the third into Italy, to avenge himself of the Normans in Naples and Sicily, who had revolted from their allegiance to him.

The state of Europe was at this time full of perplexity and confusion. Innocent III succeeded Celestine in the papal chair, an able and ambitious pontiff, whose ruling passion was the aggrandizement of the holy see. He quarreled with Philip, duke of Suabia, who had recently been elected king of the Romans, excommunicating him and all his adherents; and labored with all his might to detach the princes and prelates from his cause, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the king of France, to whom he proudly replied, "Either Philip must lose the empire, or I the papacy."

But all these dissensions and troubles in Europe did not prevent the formation of another Crusade to Asia. Those who enrolled themselves were principally French and Germans. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was their commander; and the Venetians, as greedy of wealth and power as the Carthaginians of old, furnished them with ships, for which they took care to be amply repaid both in money and territory. The city of Zara, in Dalmatia, had recently withdrawn itself from the government of the republic of Venice; the crusaders undertook to reduce it to obedience; and they besieged and took it, notwithstanding the pope threatened to excommunicate them -- a striking proof of the reigning spirit of those fanatical adventurers.

The army of the cross, as they called themselves, next fell upon Constantinople, under the pretext of avenging the cause of Isaac Angelus, the Greek emperor, who had been dethroned and deprived of his sight in 1195, by his own brother Alexis. Baldwin and his followers, eagerly embraced this as an apology for their violence; and under the pretext of adjusting the quarrel between the two brothers, they made themselves masters of Constantinople. They entered the city without much resistance, putting every one to the sword who opposed them, and gave themselves up to all the excesses of avarice and fury. The booty of the French lords alone, was valued at four hundred thousand marks of silver: the very churches were pillaged; and what strongly marks the character of that volatile and giddy nation, it is related that the French officers danced with the ladies of Constantinople in the church of St. Sophia, after having robbed the altar and drenched the city in blood! Thus was this noble city, in that age the most flourishing in the Christian world, for the first time taken and sacked by Christians who had made a vow to fight only against Infidels. One consequence of this was, that the pope gained, for a time, the whole Eastern church; an acquisition of much greater consequence to him than that of Palestine. Of this indeed the conquerors seemed fully sensible; for, notwithstanding the vow they had taken to go and succor Jerusalem, it was only a very inconsiderable part of the crusaders that proceeded into Syria, and those were such as could obtain no share in the plunder of Constantinople.

In 1215, Frederic II was crowned emperor of Germany with great magnificence at Aix-la-Chapelle; and to secure the favor of the pope to the other solemnities of his coronation, he added a vow to make an expedition to the Holy Land. Pope Innocent died the following year, and was succeeded by Honorius III, who expressed great eagerness to have the Crusade carried into effect. He therefore ordered it to be preached up through all the provinces of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Bohemia, and Hungary, and his exertions were crowned with extraordinary success. The emperor himself declined the performance of his vow until he should have regulated the affairs of Italy, and most of the other princes of Europe were detained at home by domestic disturbances. But an infinite number of private noblemen and their vassals took the cross, ranging themselves under the dukes of Austria and Bavaria, the archbishop of Mentz, and the bishops of Munster and Utretch; and the king of Hungary, who brought with him a body of fine troops, was declared generalissimo of the Crusade. The fate of this expedition pretty nearly resembled those of the preceding. The army was embarked in three hundred sail of transports, equipped in the ports of Lower Saxony, which joining a squadron that was fitted out by the Frieslanders, Flemings, and people of Brabant, proceeded for the Straits of Gibraltar in their way to Ptolemais. On their arrival at that port, a council of war was held, at which it was resolved to besiege Damietta, in Egypt, which was accordingly invested by sea and land, and taken, after a tedious siege of eighteen months, in the year 1219. Their possession of this place, however, was of no great duration. A dispute arose among the chiefs of the crusaders about precedency, which it was found impossible to adjust without consulting his holiness, who, in his great wisdom, at length directed that the supreme command should be vested in a cardinal of the church of Rome. This monkish general brought the army of the cross between two branches of the river Nile, just at the time when that river, which fertilizes and defends Egypt, began its periodical inundation. The Sultan, informed of their situation, opened the sluices, and overflowed the camp of the crusaders; and while he burnt their ships on one side, the Nile increasing on the other, threatened the hourly destruction of the whole army. The pope’s legate finding himself and his troops reduced to the last extremity, restored Damietta, and was glad to conclude with the Sultan a dishonorable treaty, by which he bound himself and his army not to serve against the former for eight years.

When the leaders of the crusading army arrived in Europe, the pope was extremely incensed at the loss of Damietta, and wrote a severe letter to the emperor, accusing him of having sacrificed the interests of Christianity by so long delaying the performance of his vow, and threatening him with immediate excommunication, if he did not instantly depart with an army into Asia. Frederic, exasperated at these reproaches, renounced all correspondence with the court of Rome, filled up vacant sees and benefices, and even expelled some bishops, who were creatures of the pope, on pretense of their being concerned in practices against the state. The pontiff at first attempted to repel force by force, threatening the emperor with the thunder of the church, for presuming to lift his hand against the sanctuary; but finding that Frederic was not to be intimidated, he became sensible of his own imprudence, in wantonly incurring the resentment of so powerful a prince, whose temper he now thought proper to soothe by submissive apologies and gentle exhortations. A reconciliation accordingly took place; and the emperor, as a proof of his sincere attachment to the church, published four severe edicts against the Paterines, Waldenses, and others to which we shall have occasion afterwards to advert, and which tended greatly to promote the establishment of the Inquisition.

Not long after this a solemn assembly was held at Ferentino, at which both the emperor and pope attended, together with John de Brienne, the titular king of Jerusalem, who had come to Europe to demand succors against the Sultan of Egypt. This monarch had an only daughter whom he offered in marriage to the emperor, with the kingdom of Jerusalem as her dowry, on condition that he, within two years performed the vow he had made of leading an army to the Holy Land. Frederic married her on these terms, because he chose to please the pope; and since that time, the kings of Sicily have taken the title of king of Jerusalem. But Frederic evinced no impatience to go and conquer his wife’s portion, having business at home of more importance that required his attendance. The principal cities of Lombardy had entered into a league to renounce his authority; to counteract which, he convoked a diet at Cremona, A.D. 1227, where all the princes and nobles of Germany and Italy were summoned to attend. The interference of the pope produced an accommodation, and it was agreed that the emperor should lay aside his resentment against the confederate towns, and that those towns should furnish and maintain four hundred knights for the relief of the Holy Land. Peace being thus concluded, his holiness reminded the emperor of his vow; Frederic promised compliance, but the pope died before the execution of a project which he seemed to have so much at heart. He was succeeded by Gregory IX, who, pursuing the same line of policy, urged the departure of Frederic for the Holy Land, and finding him still backward, declared him incapable of holding the imperial dignity, as having incurred the sentence of excommunication. Frederic, incensed at such insolence, ravaged the patrimony of St. Peter, and was excommunicated. Wearied, however, at length with increasing contentions, and desirous of gratifying the prejudices of a superstitious age, Frederic resolved to perform his vow, and accordingly embarked for the Holy Land. The pope now prohibited his departure until he was absolved from all the censures of the church; but the emperor proceeded in contempt of the pope’s threatening, and with better success than his predecessors. He did not indeed desolate Asia, and gratify the barbarous zeal of the times, by shedding the blood of infidels; but he concluded a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, by which the end of his expedition was fully answered. The Sultan ceded to him Jerusalem and its territory as far as Joppa, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, and all the country between Jerusalem and Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon, and the neighboring districts: and in return for these concessions, the emperor granted him a truce for ten years. A.D. 1229.

About twenty years after this, the Sultan of Egypt having regained his authority in the Holy Land, these frantic expeditions were resumed by LOUIS IX, king of France, commonly called Saint Louis. This prince no sooner came of age than he was universally acknowledged one of the greatest potentates in Europe; and his character is perhaps one of the most singular in the annals of history. To the abject superstition of a monk, he united all the magnanimity of a hero; but what may be deemed still more wonderful, the justice and integrity of the sincere patriot, and where religion was not concerned, the mildness and humanity of the true philosopher. But Louis had his foibles. Persuaded that heretics, or those who dissented from the Roman church, deserved the punishment of death, he favored the tribunal of the Inquisition; and the same turn of thinking led him to ascribe merit to a war against Infidels. His humane heart became a prey to the barbarous superstition of the times. When a dangerous illness deprived him of his senses, and almost of his life, his heated imagination took fire, and he thought he heard a voice commanding him to shed the blood of Infidels. He accordingly made a vow that, as soon as he recovered, he would engage in a new Crusade, and he immediately took the cross. Nor could any remonstrances induce him to forego his purpose; he considered his vow as a sacred and indissoluble obligation. A.D. 1244. But though not to be dissuaded from his Eastern expedition, Louis was in no haste to depart. Four years were spent in making preparations and settling the government of his kingdom, which he committed to the care of his mother; and at length, in 1248, he set sail for Cyprus, accompanied by his queen, his three brothers, and almost all the knights of France. Arriving at Cyprus, it was resolved to make a descent upon Egypt, as it was supposed that Jerusalem and the Holy Land could not be preserved while that country remained in the hands of the Infidels. Louis and his army therefore landed on the Egyptian coast, near to the city of Damietta; which, contrary to all expectation, was abandoned to them. Here he received fresh succors from France and found himself in the plains of Egypt at the head of sixty thousand men, the flower of his kingdom, by whom he was both obeyed and loved. Yet this Crusade, like all the rest, ended only in sorrow and disappointment. One-half of these fine troops fell a prey to sickness and debauchery; the other part was defeated by the Sultan, at Massoura, where Louis beheld his brother Robert, Count of Artois, killed by his side, and himself taken prisoner, with his two other brothers, the Counts of Anjou and Poictiers, and all his nobility, A.D. 1250.

During the king’s captivity, the queen mother granted permission to a fanatical monk to preach a new Crusade for her son’s release; and this man, availing himself of the pastoral circumstances attending our Lord’s nativity, assembled nearly a hundred thousand of the rabble, whom he denominated "shepherds." It soon appeared, however, that their more appropriate title would have been that of wolves; for, wherever they came, they robbed and pillaged without either regard to justice or mercy; so that it was at length found necessary to disperse them by force of arms; and even that was not effected without some difficulty. The death of the queen mother in the meantime, made it necessary for Louis to return to France; and to effect this, after a captivity of more than three years, he purchased his ransom, and that of his nobles, for a thousand pieces of gold; but he returned only to prepare for a new Crusade, so strongly had this mania infected his mind! A.D. 1254.

But it is needless to prosecute this subject further in detail. Enough, and more than enough, has been said to convince the reader of the deplorable state of darkness and superstition which reigned throughout Europe, to say nothing of Asia and Africa, during this period. Yet these romantic expeditions, though barbarous and destructive in themselves, were not without some beneficial results to the state of society: they were rendered subservient to the welfare of the community and of individuals. The Crusades being conducted under the immediate protection of the Roman church, and its heaviest anathemas being denounced against all who should molest their persons or their property, private hostilities were for a time suspended or extinguished; the feudal sovereigns became more powerful, and their vassals less turbulent; a more steady administration of justice was introduced, and some advances were made towards regular government. Nor were the commercial effects of the Crusades less considerable than their political influence. Many ships were necessary to transport the prodigious armies which Europe poured forth, as well as to supply them with provisions. Those ships were principally furnished by the Venetians and Genoese, who thereby acquired immense sums of money, and at the same time opened to themselves a new source of wealth, by importing into Europe the commodities of Asia. The cities of Italy grew rich and powerful, and obtained extensive privileges; and some of them erected themselves into independent states, or communities, the establishment of which may be considered as the first grand step towards civilization in modern Europe. [Hume’s History of England, vol. 1, ch. 5. Robertson’s Charles V. vol. 1, APPENDIX. Russel’s History of Modern Europe, vol. 1, LETT. 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34.]