[15] There is an excellent dissertation, by M. de Guegnes, upon the commerce of the French in the Levant before the Crusades, in the 37th vol. of the “Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions.”
[16] Mohamed.
[17] Lebeau, in his “History of the Lower Empire,” relates, after contemporary historians, an incident which plainly shows what was the spirit of the Greeks at that time. “A small town of Silicia being invaded by the Saracens, the curé of the place, named Themal, was saying mass at the time. At the noise which he hears he descends briskly from the altar, without taking off his pontificals, arms himself with a hammer which served for a bell in many eastern churches, goes straight to meet the enemy, wounds, knocks down, crushes all that he meets, and puts the rest to flight. Although he had delivered his town from an invasion of the Saracens, the curé Themal was censured and suspended by his bishop. He was so ill treated that he sought refuge with the Saracens, and embraced the religion of Mahomet.”
[18] We owe a great portion of these details to an ancient Armenian manuscript, composed in the twelfth century by Matthew of Edessa, several fragments of which have been translated into French by Messrs. Martin and Chahan de Cirbier. These fragments were printed under the title, “Historical Details of the First Expedition of the Christians into Palestine, under the Emperor Zimisces.” In the Appendix of this history is an interesting letter from Zimisces to the king of Armenia.
[19] The second memoir of the Abbé Guenée upon Palestine may be read here. This estimable scholar speaks of the different dynasties which, at this period, had by turns conquered Jerusalem. We have felt that all these details, though quite in their place in a memoir, would only interrupt the course of our narration, without furnishing the reader with any useful information.
[20] Whilst reading the letter of Zimisces, which gives an account of these events, we feel astonished that he does not show more eagerness to see Jerusalem; but such was the character of the Greeks, that they set more value on the acquisition of relics, which were borne in triumph to Constantinople, than in delivering the holy city and the tomb of Christ. It is thence apparent that this expedition was not at all directed by the same spirit as the crusades.
[21] Et ita pro fratribus animam ponens, cum pietate dormitionum accepit optimam, habens positam gratiam.—William of Tyre. The translator of the Latin historian Du Préau thus renders the thought of the original: “Thus, giving up his life for his brothers, exchanged the misery of this world for a happy eternal repose, and received the high reward prepared for all lovers of perfect charity.”
[22] It was pretended that the thousand years of which the Scripture speaks, were about to be accomplished, and that the end of the world was approaching. In an act of donation made by St. Géraud, Baron d’Aurillac, are these words, “Appropinquante mundi termino.”
[23] These and the following details have been drawn from the accounts of several pilgrimages, in Mabillon, in the “Recueil des Bollandistes,” and the chronicles of the times.
[24] These mountains, called Monts de Joux ’Montes Jovis), now bear the names of the Great and Little St. Bernard. When St. Bernard founded these two hospitals, the inhabitants of the Alps were still idolaters, and the Saracens had penetrated into Le Valais, where they constantly annoyed the march of the pilgrims.