CHAP. LVIII. were excited by his own injuries and the oppreffion of the Chriftian name; he mingled his tears with those of the patriarch, and earnestly enquired, if no hopes of relief could be entertained from the Greek emperors of the Eaft. The patriarch expofed the vices and weakness of the fucceffors of Conftantine. "I will roufe," exclaimed the hermit," the martial nations of Europe in your cause;" and Europe was obedient to the call of the hermit. The aftonished patriarch difmiffed him with epiftles of credit and complaint, and no fooner did he land at Bari, than Peter hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. His ftature was finall, his appearance contemptible; but his eye was keen and lively; and he poffeffed that vehemence of speech, which feldom fails to impart the perfuafion of the foul. He was born of a gentleman's family (for we must now adopt a modern idiom), and his military service was under the neighbouring counts of Boulogne, the heroes of the firft crufade. But he foon relinquifhed the fword and the world; and if it be true, that his wife, however noble, was aged and ugly, he might withdraw, with the lefs reluctance, from her bed to a convent, and at length to an ན her 1200. It was an academical joke, an epithet first applied to the quarrelfome humour of thofe ftudents, in the univerfity of Paris, who came from the frontier of France and Flanders (Valefii Notitia Galliarum, p. 447. Longuerue, Defcription de la France, p. 54.). 2 William of Tyre (1. i. c. 11. p. 637, 638.) thus describes the hermit pufillus, perfona contemptibilis, vivacis ingenii, et occulum habens perfpicacem gratumque, et fponte fluens ei non dcerat eloquium. See Albert Aquenfis, p. 185. Guibert, P. 482. LVIII. hermitage. In this auftere folitude, his body CHAP. was emaciated, his fancy was inflamed; whatever he wished, he believed; whatever he believed, he faw in dreams and revelations. From Jerufalem, the pilgrim returned an accomplished fanatic; but as he excelled in the popular madness of the times, pope Urban the fecond received him as a prophet, applauded his glorious defign, promised to fupport it in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, his zealous miffionary traversed, with speed and fuccefs, the provinces of Italy and France. His diet was abftemious, his prayers long and fervent, and the alms which he received with one hand, he diftributed with the other: his head was bare, his feet naked, his meagre body was wrapt in a coarse garment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and the afs on which he rode, was fanctified in the public eye by the fervice of the man of God. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets, and the highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the palace and the cottage; and the people, for all was people, was impetuously moved by his call to repentance and arms. When he painted the fufferings of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted to compaffion; every breaft glowed with indignation, when he challenged the warriors of the age to defend their brethren and p. 482. Anna Comnena in Alexiad, 1. x. p. 284, &c. with Due cange's notes, p. 349.* LVIII. CHAP. rescue their Saviour: his ignorance of art and language was compensated/by fighs, aud tears, and ejaculations; and Peter fupplied the deficiency of reason by loud and frequent appeals to Christ and his Mother, to the faints and angels of paradife, with whom he had personally converfed. The most perfect orator of Athens might have envied the fuccefs of his eloquence: the rustic enthusiast infpired the paffions which he felt, and Chriftendom expected with impatience the counfels and decrees of the fupreme pontiff. Urban II. in the council of A. D. 1095, March. The magnanimous fpirit of Gregory the feventh had already embraced the defign of arming EuPlacentia, rope against Afia; the ardour of his zeal and ambition still breathes in his epiftles: from either fide of the Alps, fifty thoufand Catholics had enlifted under the banner of St. Peter 3; and his fucceffor reveals his intention of marching at their head against the impious fectaries of Mahomet. But the glory or reproach of executing, though not in perfon, this holy enterprise, was referved for Urban the fecond, the most faithful of his difciples. He undertook the conqueft of the Eaft, whilst the larger portion of Rome was poffeffed and fortified by his rival Guibert of Ravenna, who contended with Urban for the name and honours of the pontificate. He at 3 Ultra quinquaginta millia, fi me poffunt in expeditione pro duce et pontifice habere, armatâ manû volunt in inimicos Dei infurgere et ad fepulchrum Domini ipfo ducente pervenire (Gregor. vii. epift ii. 31. in tom. xii. P. 322. concil.). 4 See the original lives of Urban II. by Pandulphus Pifanus and Bernardus Guido, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. tom. iii. pars i. P. 352, 353. tempted tempted to unite the powers of the Weft, at a time when the princes were feparated from the church, and the people from their princes, by the excommunication which himself and his predeceffors had thundered against the emperor and the king of France. Philip the first, of France, fupported with patience the cenfures which he had provoked by his fcandalous life and adulterous marriage. Henry the fourth, of Germany, afferted the right of inveftitures, the prerogative of confirming his bishops by the delivery of the ring and crofier. But the emperor's party was crushed in Italy by the arms of the Normans and the countess Mathilda; and the long quarrel had been recently envenomed by the revolt of his fon Con-·rad and the fhame of his wife, who, in the fynods of Conftance and Placentia, confeffed the manifold prostitutions to which fhe had been expofed by an hufband regardless of her honour and his own", So popular was the cause of Urban, 5 She is known by the different names of Praxes, Eupræcia, Eufrafia, and Adelais; and was the daughter of a Ruffian prince, and the widow of a margrave of Brandenburgh. Struv. Corpus Hift. Germanicæ, p. 340. 6 Henricus odio eam cœpit habere: ideo incarceravit eam, et conceffit ut plerique vim ei inferrent; immo filium horans ut eam fubagitaret (Dodechin, Continuat. Marian. Scot. apud Baron. A. D. 1093, No 4.). In the fynod of Conftance, she is described by Bertholdus, rerum inspector: quæ fe tantas et tam in inauditas fornicationum fpurcitias, et a tantis paffam fuiffe conquesta eft, &c. and again at Placentia; fatis mifericorditer fufcepit, eo quòd ipfam tantas fpurcitias non tam commiffiffe quam invitam pertuliffe pro certo cognoverit papa cum fanctâ fynodo. Apud Baron, A. D. 1093, N° 4. 1094, No 3. A rare fubject for the infallible decifion of a pope and council. Thefe abominations are repugmant to every principle of human nature, which is not altered by С НАР. LVIII. LVIII. CHAP. Urban, fo weighty was his influence, that the council which he fummoned at Placentia 7 was compofed of two hundred bifhops 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 moft fpacious 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 diftrefs 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 fpeedy 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 should 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. 821, &c, |