[216] Tasso himself was of this opinion, as may be seen in an interesting letter addressed to us by M. Dureau Delamalle. The admiration which I entertain for the Poet of the Crusades, makes me exceedingly anxious that M. Baour Lormian should finish the undertaking he has begun, so worthy of his rare talent, a translation in verse of the Jerusalem Delivered.
[217] M. Guinguené, in his Histoire Littéraire d’Italie, has deigned to adopt, with some modification, several of these observations, which is the most worthy reward of my labours and researches.
[218] In our general conclusions, we shall often have to quote the works of M. Heeren and M. Choiseuil d’Aillecourt upon the influence of the crusades.
[219] The verse of this writer is much better than his prose, which is very incorrect, and sometimes unintelligible.
[220] We have obtained these details from a manuscript history of Béarn, which has been kindly communicated to us by one of our most distinguished magistrates, who consecrates his leisure to the cultivation of letters. This history, remarkable for a wise erudition and sound criticism, is likely to throw a great light upon the remote times of which we speak.
[221] All the ordinances of Gaston de Béarn are to be found in the decrees of the synod or council held in the diocese of Elne, in Roussillon, the 16th of May, 1027. These dispositions had for object the Truce of God. The council decreed that no unarmed clerk or monk should be attacked, nor any man who was going to church or coming from it, or was walking with women. At the council of Bourges in 1031, and in several others, these regulations were renewed; labourers, their cattle and mills, were placed under the safeguard of religion.—See the Collection of the Councils by le P. Labbe. It is not useless to remark that these regulations were at first received in Aquitaine. The council of Clermont caused them to be adopted throughout the greater part of Europe.
[222] I only here speak of the clergy with regard to its knowledge. The opinion I express is not only applicable to France, but to all the states of Europe.
[223] What a comment upon man’s assumption is the history of France since this was written!—Trans.
[224] An excellent dissertation on the Holy Land, by the Abbé Guénée, in Les Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, may be consulted with advantage.
[225] We have been guided principally in the history of Jerusalem, by the chronicle of Foulcher de Chartres, that of Albert d’Aix, the anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum expugnantium Hierusalem, and the history of William of Tyre. There is nothing in French upon the kingdom of Jerusalem. Being ignorant of the German language, we regret our inability to avail ourselves of the second volume of the History of the Crusades, by M. Walken, to the extent we could have wished. We may say the same of the history by M. Hacken, and several other German works upon the establishment of the Christians in the East.