Superstition, joined with despair, created a belief in the most sinister prodigies. On the day Saladin entered into the holy city, says Rigord, the monks of Argenteuil saw the moon descend from heaven upon the earth, and then reascend to heaven. In many churches the crucifixes and images of the saints shed tears of blood in the presence of the faithful. A Christian knight had a dream, in which he saw an eagle flying over an army, holding in his claws seven javelins, and uttering in an intelligible voice, Evil be to Jerusalem.[313]
Every one accused himself of having brought down the vengeance of Heaven by his own offences; and all the faithful sought to appease by penitence a God whom they believed to be irritated. “The Lord,” said they among themselves, “has poured out the floods of his wrath, and the arrows of his anger are bathed in the blood of his servants. Let our whole life pass away in mourning, since we have heard a voice complaining on the mountain of Sion, and the children of the Lord are scattered.” The sacred orators addressed God himself, and made the churches resound with their invocations and prayers. “O powerful God!” cried they, “thy hand has armed itself for the triumph of thy justice. Filled with tears, we come to implore thy goodness, in order that thou mayest remember thy people, and that thy mercies may exceed our miseries; deliver not over thy heritage to shame; and let the angels of peace obtain the fruits of penitence for Jerusalem.”
The Christian world was for a moment changed. Whilst weeping for the loss of the tomb of Christ, people recalled the precepts of the holy Scriptures, and became all at once better. Luxury was banished from cities; injuries were forgotten, and alms were given abundantly. Christians slept upon ashes, clothed themselves in hair-cloth, and expiated their disorderly lives by fasting and mortification. The clergy set the example; the morals of the cloisters were reformed, and cardinals, condemning themselves to poverty, promised to repair to the Holy Land, supported on charity by the way.
These pious reformations did not last long; but men’s minds were not the less prepared for a new crusade by them, and all Europe was soon roused by the voice of Gregory VIII., who exhorted the faithful to assume the cross and take up arms. The first care of the sovereign pontiff was to re-establish peace among Christian nations; and with that view he repaired to Pisa, to endeavour to terminate the angry disputes that had arisen between the Pisans and the Genoese. Gregory died without finishing the work he had begun, and left the direction of the crusade to his successor, Clement III., who, immediately after his accession to the pontifical throne, ordered prayers for the peace of the West and the deliverance of the land of the pilgrims.
William,[314] archbishop of Tyre, had quitted the East to come into Europe to solicit the assistance of the Christian princes, and was charged by the pope to preach the holy war. William was more able and more eloquent than Heraclius, who had preceded him in this mission, and, further, more worthy by his virtues of being the interpreter of the Christians, and to speak in the name of Christ. After having awakened the zeal of the nations of Italy, he repaired to France, and was present at an assembly convoked near Gisors, by Henry II. of England, and Philip Augustus of France. On the arrival of William, these two kings, who were at war for the country of Vexin, laid down their arms. The bravest warriors of France and England, united by the dangers of their brothers of the East, came to the assembly whose object was the deliverance of the holy places. William was received with enthusiasm, and read with a loud voice, to the princes and knights, an account of the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin. After this reading, which drew tears from all the assembly, William exhorted the faithful to take the cross. “The mountain of Sion,” said he, “still resounds with the words of Ezekiel: O children of men, remember that day in which the king of Babylon triumphed over Jerusalem! In one single day all the evils that the prophets announced fell upon the city of David and Solomon. That city, filled by all Christian nations, remains now alone, or rather is only inhabited by a sacrilegious people. The queen of nations, the capital of so many provinces, has paid the tribute imposed upon slaves. All her gates have been broken, and her guardians exposed with cattle in the markets of infidel cities. The Christian states of the East, which caused the religion of the cross to flourish in Asia, and formed the bulwark of the West against the invasions of the Saracens, are reduced to the cities of Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli. We have seen, according to the expression of Isaiah, the Lord extending his hand and its inflictions from the Euphrates to the torrent of Egypt. The inhabitants of forty cities have been driven from their homes, despoiled of their wealth, and are now wandering with their weeping families among the nations of Asia, without finding a stone whereon to lay their heads.”
After having thus described the misfortunes of the Christians of the East, William reproached the warriors who listened to him, with not having come to the aid of their brethren, and with having allowed the heritage of Christ to be taken from them. He was astonished that they could entertain another thought, that they could seek any other glory than that of delivering the holy places; and addressing himself to the princes and knights: “To meet you here,” said he, “I have traversed fields of carnage; nay, within sight even of this assembly I have seen preparations for war: what blood is it you have shed, what blood is it you are about to shed again? Why are you armed with these swords? You are fighting here for the banks of a river, for the limits of a province, or for a transient renown, whilst infidels trample the banks of Siloë, whilst they invade the kingdom of God, and whilst the cross of Christ is dragged ignominiously through the streets of Bagdad. You shed torrents of blood for vain treaties, whilst the very Gospel, that solemn treaty between God and men, is being outraged. Have you forgotten the deeds of your fathers? A Christian kingdom was founded by them in the midst of Mussulman nations. A crowd of heroes, a crowd of princes born in your country, went to defend and govern it. If you have permitted their work to perish, come at least and deliver their tombs, which are in the power of the Saracens. Does your Europe no longer produce such warriors as Godfrey, Tancred, and their companions? The prophets and saints buried at Jerusalem, the churches transformed into mosques, the very stones of the sepulchres, all cry to you to avenge the glory of God and the death of your brethren. What! why, the blood of Naboth, the blood of Abel which arose towards heaven, found avengers, and shall the blood of Christ arise in vain against his enemies and his executioners?
“The East has beheld base Christians, whom avarice and fear have rendered the allies of Saladin; I do not suspect they will find imitators among you; but remember what Christ has said: ‘He who is not for me is against me.’ If you do not defend the cause of God, what cause will you dare defend? If the king of heaven and earth find you not beneath his colours, where are the powers whose standards you will follow? Why then are the enemies of God no longer the enemies of all Christians? What will be the joy of the Saracens amidst their impious triumphs, when they shall be told that the West has no more warriors faithful to Christ, and that the princes and kings of Europe have learnt with indifference the disasters and captivity of Jerusalem?”
These reproaches made in the name of religion affected the hearts of the princes and knights deeply. Henry II. and Philip Augustus, to that time implacable enemies, embraced each other in tears, and put themselves forward the first to receive the cross. Richard, duke of Guienne, son of Henry, Philip, count of Flanders, Hugh, duke of Burgundy, Henry, count of Champagne, Thibaut, count of Blois, Retrou, count of Perche, the counts of Nevers, de Bar, Vendôme, Soissons, the two brothers Josselin and Matthew de Montmorency, with a crowd of barons and knights, together with several bishops of France and England, all took the oath to deliver the Holy Land. The whole assembly shouted the words “the Cross! the Cross!” and this war-cry soon resounded through all the provinces. The spot on which the faithful met was afterwards called the sacred field, and a church was built upon it to preserve the remembrance of the pious devotion of the Christian knights. As money was wanting to carry out the holy enterprise, it was resolved in the council of the princes and bishops that all who did not take the cross should pay a tenth part of their revenues and of the value of their property of all kinds. The terror which the arms of Saladin had inspired, caused the name of the Saladin tithe to be given to this tax. Excommunications were published against all such as refused to pay a debt so sacred. In vain the clergy, of whom Peter of Blois undertook the defence, alleged the liberty and independence of the Church, and pretended they could not be called on to assist the Crusaders otherwise than by their prayers; the ecclesiastics were told that they ought to set the example, that the clergy was not the Church, and that the wealth of the Church belonged to Christ. The orders of the Chartreux, of Citeaux and Fontevrault, with the hospital for lepers, were all that were exempt from a tribute raised for a cause which was believed to be that of all Christians.[315]
In the two first crusades, the greater part of the villagers who had taken the cross, had done so to emancipate themselves from slavery. Some disorders naturally resulted from this; the country was deserted, the lands were uncultivated; in this crusade means were taken to set bounds to the too forward zeal of the labourers: all serfs who enrolled themselves for the holy war, without the permission of their lords, were condemned to pay the Saladin tithe, as if they had not taken the cross.[316]