“Mais entre tant de cerémonies qui se sont obseruées pour contracter vne fraternite, celle qui a esté pratiquée par les peuples Chrétiens, est la plus plausible et la plus raisonnable: car pour abolir et pour éteindre entierement les superstitions qui les accompagnoient, et qui tenoient du paganisme, ils en ont introduit vne autre plus sainte et plus pieuse en la contractant dans l’Eglise, deuant le Prétre, et en faisant reciter quelques prieres ou oraisons, nous en auons la formule dans l’Euchologium.”
NOTE V.—CHAP. III.
The fear of Robert Guiscard was no chimera; for, after having raised himself from indigence to power and authority, he opposed successfully the whole force of two great monarchies, and defeated alternately the emperors of the east and the west.
One of the most pointed accounts of this extraordinary freebooter which I have met with I subjoin, from the Melanges Curieux.
“Robertus Wischardi de Normania exiens, vir pauper, miles tamen, ingenio et probitate suâ Apuliam, Calabriam suæ ditioni submisit, et Insulam Siciliam de manu Ismaelitarum liberavit, Rotgeriumque fratrem suum ejusdem Insulæ Comitem appellavit. Demum mare transiens, Durachium urbem nobilem cepit, Dalmatiamque et Bulgariam super Alexium Imperatorem acquisivit: insuper eum ter bello fugavit, et Romanum, Henricum semel ab urbe fugere compulit, Pontificemque Romanum, quem ceperat, ab eo liberavit. Qui cum innumerabilia penè fecisset probitatis indicia, hoc de illo constans habetur, quod nisi morte præoccupatus fuisset, filium suum Boamundum Imperatorem faceret, se verò Regem Persarum, ut sæpè dicebat, constitueret, viamque Hieroso, lymorum destructâ paganitate Francis aperiret. Nunquam victus est quanquam sæpè pugnaverit. Venetos, qui contra eum omni virtute sua convenerant cum stolo suo ita profligavit, ut nec fuga, nec pelagus illis esset auxilio. Nec fuit terrarum locus ita remotus, in quo rumor, fama, timor Wischardi per omnium ferê ora non volitaret. Et ut verius de ec dici potest, nulli Regum aut Imperatorum Wischardus secundus extitit.”—Pere l’Abbe.
NOTE VI.—CHAP. III.
This cry was not the only cry of arms which the crusaders used in the Holy Land. Though it was the general battle-cry of the whole army, and each leader made use of it occasionally when he wanted to animate the whole host, by rousing up their old enthusiasm; yet when he sought to bring round him his own vassals, he used the appropriate shout of his family. Thus we find, by Raimond d’Agiles, that the battle-cry of Raimond de St. Giles was “Toulouse!”