LVIII. CHA P. prefsly given for the remedy of their foul. It is a maxim of the civil law, that whofoever cannot pay with his purse, muft pay with his body; and the practice of flagellation was adopted by the monks, a cheap, though painful, equivalent. By a fantastic arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three thoufand lafhes (25); and fuch was the fkill) and patience of a famous hermit, St. Dominic of the Iron Cuirafs (26), that in fix days he could difcharge an entire century, by a whipping of three hundred thousand stripes. His example was followed by many penitents of both fexes; and, as a vicarious facrifice was accepted, a sturdy difciplinarian might expiate on his own back the fins of his benefactors (27). Thefe compenfations of the purfe and the perfon introduced, in the eleventh century, a more honourable mode of fatisfaction. The merit of military fervice against the Saracens of Africa and Spain, had been allowed by the predeceffors of Urban the fecond. In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed a plenary indulgence to thofe who fhould enlist under the banner of the crofs; the abfolution of all their fins, and a full receipt for all that might be due of canonical penance (28). The cold philofophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impreffion that was made on a finful and fanatic world. At the voice of their paftor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their fouls, by repeating on the infidels the fame deeds which they had exercised against their Chriftian brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and denomination. None were pure; none were exempt (25) Each century of lashes was fanctified with the recital of a pfalm; and the whole Pfalter, with the accompaniment of 15,000 ftripes, was equiva lent to five years. (26) The Life and Atchievements of St. Dominic Loricatus, was com pofed by his friend and admirer, Peter Damianus. See Fleury, Hift. Ecclef. tom. xiii. p. 96-104. Baronius, A. D. 1056, N° 7, who obferves from Damianus, how fafhionable, even among ladies of quality (fublimis generis), this expiation (purgatorii genus) was grown. (27) At a quarter, or even half a rial a lafh, Sancho Panza was a cheaper, and poffibly not a more difhoneft, workman. I remember in Pére Labat (Voyages en Italie, tom. vii. p. 16-29.) a very lively picture of the dexterity of one of thefe artifts. (28) Quicunque pro folâ devotione, non pro honoris vel pecuniæ adeptione, ad liberandam ecclefiam Dei Jerufalem profectus fuerit, iter illud pro omni pœnitentiâ reputetur. Canon. Concil. Claromont. ii. p. 829. Guibert flyles it novum falutis genus (p. 471.), and is almost philofophical on the fubject. LVIII. exempt from the guilt and penalty of fin; and thofe who CHA P. were the leaft amenable to the juftice of God and the church, were the beft entitled to the temporal and eternal recompence of their pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom (29); and should they survive, they could expect without impatience the delay and encrease of their heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the Son of God, who had laid down his life for their falvation they took up the crofs, and entered with confidence into the way of the Lord. His providence would watch over their fafety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power would fmooth the difficulties of their holy enterprife. The cloud and pillar of Jehovah had marched before the Ifraelites into the promised land. Might not the Christians more reasonably hope that the rivers would open for their paffage; that the walls of the ftrongest cities would fall at the found of their trumpets; and that the fun would be arrested in his mid-career, to allow them time for the destruction of the infidels ? Of the chiefs and foldiers who marched to the holy fe- Temporal pulchre, I will dare to affirm, that all were prompted by and carnal the fpirit of enthufiafm; the belief of merit, the hope of motives. reward, and the affurance of divine aid. But I am equally perfuaded, that in many it was not the fole, that in fome it was not the leading principle of action. The use and abufe of religion are feeble to item, they are ftrong and irresistible to impel, the ftream of national manners. Against the private wars of the Barbarians, their bloody tournaments, licentious loves, judicial duels, the popes and fynods might ineffectually thunder. It is a more eafy task to provoke the metaphyfical difputes of the Greeks, to drive into the cloifter the victims of anarchy or defpotifm, to fanctify the patience of flaves and cowards, or to affume the merit of the humanity and benevolence of modern Christians. War and exercife were the reigning paffions of the Franks and Latins; they were enjoined, as a pemance, to gratify those paffions, to vifit diftant lands, and to (29) Such at leaft was the belief of the crufaders, and fuch is the uniform ftyle of the hiftorians (Efprit des Croifades, tom. iii. p. 477.); but the prayers for the repofe of their fouls, are inconfiftent, in orthodox theology, with the merits of martyrdom. LVIII. CHAP. to draw their fwords against the nations of the Eaft. Their victory, or even their attempt, would immortalife the names of the intrepid heroes of the crofs; and the pureft piety could not be infenfible to the most splendid profpect of military glory. In the petty quarrels of Europe, they fhed the blood of their friends and countrymen, for the acquifition perhaps of a castle or a village. They could march with alacrity against the diftant and hoftile nations who were devoted to their arms: their fancy already grafped the golden fceptres of Afia; and the conqueft of Apulia and Sicily by the Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the most private adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, must have yielded to the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and their natural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the tales of pilgrims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The vulgar, both the great and fmall, were taught to believe every wonder, of lands flowing with milk and honey, of mines and treasures, of gold and diamonds, of palaces of marble and jafper, and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincenfe. In this earthly paradife, each warrior depended on his fword to carve a plenteous and honourable establishment, which he measured only by the extent of his wishes (30). Their vaffals and foldiers trufted their fortunes to God and their master: the spoils of a Turkish emir might enrich the meaneft follower of the camp; and the flavour of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women (31), were temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profeffion, of the champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful incitement to the multitudes who were oppreffed by feudal or ecclefiaftical tyranny. Under this holy fign the peasants and burghers, who were attached to the fervitude of the glebe, might escape from an haughty lord, and transplant them felves (30) The fame hopes were displayed in the letters of the adventurers ad animandos qui in Francia refiderant. Hugh de Reitefte could boast, that his fhare amounted to one abbey and ten caftles, of the yearly value of 1500 marks, and that he should acquire an hundred caftles by the conquest of Aleppo (Guibert, p. 554, 555). (31) In his genuine or fictitious letter to the count of Flanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the relics of faints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum fœminarum voluptas (p. 476.); as if, fays the indignant Guibert, the Greek women were handfomer than those of France, LVII. felves and their families to a land of liberty. The monk CHA P. might release himself from the difcipline of his convent : the debtor might fufpend the accumulation of ufury, and the purfuit of his creditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every caft might contribute to brave the laws and elude Influence of the punishment of their crimes (32). example. These motives were potent and numerous: when we have fingly computed their weight on the mind of each individual, we must add the infinite feries, the multiplying powers of example and fashion. The firft profelytes became the warmest and most effectual miffionaries of the crofs among their friends and countrymen they preached the duty, the merit, and the recompence, of their holy vow; and the most reluctant hearers, were infenfibly drawn within the whirlpool of perfuafion and authority. The martial youths were fired by the reproach or fufpicion of cowardice; the opportunity of vifiting with an army the fepulchre of Chrift, was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and children, who confulted rather their zeal than their ftrength; and those who in the evening had derided the folly of their companions, were the moft eager, the enfuing day, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance which magnified the hopes, diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the Turkish conqueft, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs themfelves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and the state of their enemies; and fuch was the ftupidity of the people, that, at the fight of the firft city or caftle beyond the limits of their knowledge, they were ready to afk whether that was not the Jerufalem, the term and object of their labours. Yet the more prudent of the crufaders, who were not fure that they should be fed from heaven with a thower of quails or manna, provided themselves with thofe precious metals, which, in every country, are the reprefentatives of every commodity. To defray, according to their rank, the expences of the road, princes alienated their provinces, nobles their lands and castles, peafants their cattle and the inftruments of husbandry. The value of property was depreciated by the eager competition of (33) See the privileges of the Crutefignati, freedom from debt, ufury, injury, fecular juftice, &c. The pope was their perpetual guardian (Dur cange, tom. ii. p.-651, 652.). LVIII. CHA P. of multitudes; while the price of arms and horfes was raised to an exorbitant height by the wants and impatience of the buyers (33). Thofe who remained at home, with fenfe and money, were enriched by the epidemical disease: the fovereigns acquired at a cheap rate the domains of their vaffals; and the ecclefiaftical purchafers completed the payment by the affurance of their prayers. The cross, which was commonly fewed on the garment, in cloth or filk, was infcribed by fome zealots on their fkin: an hot iron, or indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark; and a crafty monk, who fhewed the miraculous impreffion, on his breast, was repaid with the popular veneration, and the richest benefices of Palestine (34). crufaders, March, Departure The fifteenth of Auguft had been fixed in the council of of the firft Clermont for the departure of the pilgrims: but the day was anticipated by the thoughtlefs and needy crowd of plebeians; and I fhall briefly dispatch the calamities which they inflicted and fuffered, before I enter on the more serious and fuccefsful enterprife of the chiefs. Early in the fpring, from the confines of France and Lorraine, above fixty thoufand of the populace of both fexes flocked round the first miffionary of the crufade, and preffed him with clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy fepulchre. The hermit, affuming the character, without the talents or authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the forward impulfe of his votaries along the banks of the Rhine and Danube. Their wants and numbers foon compelled them to feparate, and his lieutenant, Walter the Pennylefs, a valiant though needy foldier, conducted a vanguard of pilgrims, whofe condition may be determined from the proportion of eight horfemen to fifteen thousand foot. The example and footsteps of Peter were clofely pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godefcal, whofe fermons had fwept away fifteen or twenty thousand peafants from the villages of Germany. Their rear was again preffed by an herd of two hundred thousand, the moft ftupid and favage refufe of the people, who mingled with their devotion a brutal (33) Guibert (p. 481) paints in lively colours this general emotion. He was one of the few cotemporaries who had genius enough to feel the aftonifhing fcenes that were paffing before their eyes. Erat itaque videre miraculum caro omnes emere, atque vili vendere, &c. (34) Some inftances of thefe ftigmata are given in the Efprit des Croisades (tom. iii. p. 169, &c.), from authors whom I have not feen. |