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7

CHAP. Urban, fo weighty was his influence, that the council which he fummoned at Placentia was compofed of two hundred bishops of Italy, France, Burgundy, Swabia, and Bavaria, Four thoufand of the clergy, and thirty thousand of the laity, attended this important meeting; and as the most spacious cathedral would have been inadequate to the multitude, the feffion of feven days was held in a plain adjacent to the city. The ambaffadors of the Greek emperor, Alexius Comnenus, were introduced to plead the distress of their fovereign and the danger of Conftantinople, which was divided only by a narrow fea from the victorious Turks, the common enemies of the Chriftian name. In their fuppliant address they flattered the pride of the Latin princes; and, appealing at once to their policy and religion, exhorted them to repel the Barbarians on the confines of Afia, rather than to expect them in the heart of Europe. At the fad tale of the mifery and perils of their Eastern brethren the affembly burst into tears: the moft eager champions declared their readiness to march; and the Greek ambaffadors were difmiffed with the affurance of a speedy and powerful fuccour. The relief of Conftantinople was included in the larger and moft diftant project of the deliverance of Jerufalem; but the prudent Urban adjourned the

a difpute about rings and crofiers. Yet it fhould feem, that the wretched woman was tempted by the priests to relate or fubfcribe fome infamous ftories of herfelf and her husband.

7 See the narrative and acts of the fynod of Placentia, Concil. tom. xii, p. 823, &c.

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final decifion to a fecond fynod, which he pro- CHAP. posed to celebrate in fome city of France in the autumn of the same year. The fhort delay would propagate the flame of enthusiasm; and his firmeft hope was in a nation of foldiers, ftill proud of the pre-eminence of their name, and ambitious to emulate their hero Charlemagne, who, in the popular romance of Turpin ", had atchieved the conquest of the Holy Land. A latent motive of affection or vanity might influence the choice of Urban; he was himself a native of France, a monk of Clugny, and the first of his countrymen who afcended the throne of St. Peter. The pope had illuftrated his family and province; nor is there perhaps a more exquifite gratification than to revifit, in a confpicuous dignity, the humble and laborious scenes of our youth.

...

* Guibert himself, a Frenchman, praises the piety and valour of the French nation, the author and example of the crufades: Gens nobilis, prudens, bellicofa, dapfilis et nitida Quos enim Britopes, Augles, Ligures, fi bonis eos moribus videamus, non illico Francos bomines appellemus ? (p. 478.). He owns, however, that the vivacity of the French degenerates into petulance among foreigners (p. 483.), and vain loquacioufnefs (p. 5oz.)

9 Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rex Francorum aptari fecit ufque C. P. (Gesta Francorum, p. 1. Robert. Monach. Hift. Hierof. 1.4. p. 33, &c.).

10 John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was archbishop of Rheims, A. D. 773. After the year 1000, this romance was compofed in his name, by a monk of the borders of France and Spain; and fuch was the idea of ecclefiaftical merit, that he defcribes himself as a fighting and drinking priest ! Yet the book of lies was pronounced authentic by pope Calixtus II. (A. D. 1122), and is respectfully quoted by the abbot Suger, in the great Chronicles of St. Denys (Fabric. Bibliot. Latin. medii Ævi, edit. Manfi, tom. iv. p. 161.),

CHAP. It may occafion fome furprise that the Roman LVIII. pontiff should erect, in the heart of France, the

A. D.

1095, Novem

ber.

Council of tribunal from whence he hurled his anathemas Clermont, against the king. But our furprise will vanish fo foon as we form a just estimate of a king of France of the eleventh century Philip the first was the great-grandfon of Hugh Capet the founder of the present race, who, in the decline of Charlemagne's pofterity, added the regal title to his patrimonial eftates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow compafs, he was poffeffed of wealth and jurisdiction; but in the reft of France, Hugh and his first defcendants were no more than the feudal lords of about fixty dukes and counts, of independent and hereditary power 12, who difdained the control of laws and legal affemblies, and whofe difregard of their fovereign was revenged by the difobedience of their inferior vaffals. At Clermont, in the territories of the count of Auvergne 3, the pope might brave with impunity the refentment of Philip; and the council which he convened in that city was not lefs numerous

11 See Etat de la France, by the Count de Boulainvilliers, ton. i. p. 180-182. and the fecond volume of the Obfervations fur l'Hiftoire de France, by the Abbé de Mably.

12 In the provinces to the fouth of the Loire, the first Capetians were fcarcely allowed a feudal fupremacy. On all fides, Normandy, Bretagne, Aquitain, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Flanders, contracted the name and limits of the proper France. See Hadrian Vales. Notitia Galliarum.

13 Thefe counts, a younger branch of the dukes of Aquitair, were at length defpoiled of the greatest part of their country by Philip Auguftus. The bishops of Clermont gradually became princes of the city. Melanges, tirés d'une grande Bibliotheque, tom. xxxvi. P. 288, &c.

or

or refpectable than the fynod of Placentia " Befides his court and council of Roman cardinals, he was fupported by thirteen archbishops and two hundred and twenty-five bishops; the number of mitred prelates was computed at four hundred; and the fathers of the church were bleffed by the faints, and enlightened by the doctors of the age. From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train of lords and knights of power and renown, attended the council", in high expectation of its refolves; and fuch was the ardour of zeal and curiofity, that the city was filled, and many thousands, in the month of November, erected their tents or huts in the open field. A feffion of eight days produced fome useful or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a fevere cenfure was pronounced against the licence of private war; the truce of God" was confirmed, a suspension of hoftilities during four days of the week; women and priests were placed under the fafeguard of the church; and a protection of three years was extended to hufbandmen and merchants, the defenceless victims of military rapine. But a law, however venerable

14 See the acts of the council of Clermont, Concil. tom. xii. p. 829, &c.

15 Confluxerunt ad concilium e multis regionibus, viri potentes et honorati, innumeri quamvis cingulo laicalis militiæ fuperbi (Baldric, an eye witness, p. 86—88. Robert. Mon. p. 31, 32. Will. Tyr. i. 14, 15. p. 639–641. Guibert, p. 478-480. Fulcher. Carnot. p. 382.).

16 The Truce of God (Treva, or Treuga Dei) was first invented in Aquitain, A. D. 1032; blamed by fome bishops as an occafion of perjury, and rejected by the Normans as contrary to their privileges (Ducange, Gloff. Latin. tom. vi. p. 682-685.).

be

CHAP.

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CHAP. be the fanction, cannot fuddenly transform the LVIII. temper of the times; and the benevolent efforts

of Urban deserve the lefs praife, fince he laboured to appease fome domeftic quarrels that he might fpread the flames of war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, From the fynod of Placentia, the rumour of his great defign had gone forth among the nations; the clergy on their return had preached in every diocese the merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy Land; and when the pope afcended a lofty scaffold in the market-place of Clermont, his eloquence was addreffed to a well prepared and impatient audience. His topics were obvious, his exhortation was vehement, his fuccefs inevitable. The orator was interrupted by the shout of thousands, who with one voice, and in their rustic idiom, exclaimed aloud, "God "wills it, God wills it "." "It is indeed the "will of God," replied the pope;" and let this "memorable word, the infpiration furely of the

Holy Spirit, be for ever adopted as your cry "of battle, to animate the devotion and courage of the champions of Chrift. His crofs is "the fymbol of your falvation; wear it, a red, "a bloody crofs, as an external mark on your

17 Deus vult, Deus vult! was the pure acclamation of the clergy who understood Latin (Robert. Mon. 1. i. p. 32.). By the illiterate laity, who spoke the Provincial or Limousin idiom, it was corrupted to Deus lo volt, or Diex el volt. See Chron. Cufinenfe,

1. iv. c. 11. p. 497. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iv. and Ducange (Differtat. xi. p. 207. fur Joinville, and Gloff. Latin. tom. ii. p. 690.), who, in his preface, produces a very difficult fpecimen of the dialect of Rovergue, A. D. 1100. very near, both in time and place, to the council of Clermont (p. 15, 16.).

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