Peace was not for a moment disturbed but by the unjust pretensions of the pope and by the intrigues of Thibaut, count of Champagne, who took advantage of the ascendancy he had over the clergy to direct the thunders of the Church against his sovereign. Louis resisted the attempts of the Holy See with firmness, and was determined to punish a rebellious and dangerous vassal. Urged on by a spirit of blind revenge, he carried fire and sword through the states of Thibaut; he besieged Vitri; was himself first in the assault, and put to the sword every inhabitant to be met with in the city. A great number of persons of all ages had taken refuge in a church, hoping to find the altar a secure asylum against the anger of a Christian prince; but Louis set fire to the church, and thirteen hundred people perished in the flames. An action so barbarous spread terror among the nation whom Louis was appointed to render happy; when he returned from this expedition to his capital, the people received him in melancholy silence; his ministers allowed him to read their regret in the dejection of their countenances; and St. Bernard, like another Ambrosius, boldly compelled him to hear the complaints of religion and outraged humanity.
In an eloquent letter, he represented to the monarch the country desolated, and pointed to the Church despised and trampled under foot. “I will fight for her,” he said, “to the death; but instead of bucklers and swords, I will employ the arms which become me—my tears and my prayers to God.” At the voice of the holy abbot, Louis became sensible of his error; and the dread of the anger of Heaven made such a lively impression upon his mind, that he sank into a deep and alarming depression. He believed he saw the hand of God ready to strike him; he renounced all pleasures, and abandoned even the care of his authority, in order to devote himself to grief and tears. The abbot of Clairvaux, who had awakened his remorse, was obliged to calm his spirits and reanimate his courage, by representing to him the great mercy of God. The king of France recovered from his remorseless dejection; but as in the opinion of his age great crimes could only be absolved by a voyage to the Holy Land, his earnest desire to expiate the tragical death of the inhabitants of Vitri made him form the resolution of going to combat against the infidels.
Louis VII. convoked an assembly at Bourges, at which he made his project known to the principal nobility and the clergy. Godfrey, bishop of Langres, applauded his zeal, and in a pathetic discourse deplored the captivity of Edessa, and the dangers and disasters of the Eastern Christians. His eloquence moved his auditors; but the oracle of the assembly, he who held all hearts in his hand, had not yet spoken. Whether that he was yet not convinced of the utility of the crusade, or that he was desirous of giving it more solemnity, St. Bernard advised the king of France to consult the Holy See before he undertook anything. This advice was generally approved of. Louis sent ambassadors to Rome, and resolved to convoke a new assembly as soon as he should have received the answer of the sovereign pontiff.
Eugenius III., who then filled the chair of St. Peter, had already in several of his letters solicited the assistance of the faithful against the Saracens. The Holy See had never had stronger motives for the preaching of a crusade. A spirit of sedition and heresy was beginning to insinuate itself among the people, and even among the clergy of the West, threatening at the same time the power of the popes and the doctrines of the Church. Eugenius had to contend against the troubles excited by Arnold of Bressia; and nothing was talked of in the capital of the Christian world but rebuilding the Capitol, and substituting for the pontifical authority that of the consuls and tribunes of ancient Rome. In such a state of things, a great event like that of a crusade was likely to turn men’s minds from dangerous novelties, and make them rally round the sanctuary. The sovereign pontiff could not avoid seeing in a holy war the double advantage of defending Jerusalem against the enterprises of the Saracens, and the Church and himself against the attacks of heretics and innovators. Eugenius congratulated the king of France on his pious determination, and by his letters again exhorted all Christians to assume the cross and take up arms, promising them the same privileges and the same rewards that Urban II. had granted to the warriors of the first crusade. Detained in Italy, where he was engaged in appeasing the troubles of Rome, he regretted not being able, as Urban had done, to cross the Alps, and reanimate the zeal of the faithful by his presence and his discourses; but he confided to St. Bernard the honourable mission of preaching the crusade in France and Germany.
After having received the approbation of the Holy See, Louis convoked a new assembly at Vèzelai, a little city of Burgundy; and the reputation of St. Bernard and the letters addressed by the pope to all Christendom, drew to this assembly a great number of nobles, knights, prelates, and men of all conditions. On the Palm-Sunday, after having invoked the Holy Ghost, all who had come to hear the abbot of Clairvaux repaired to the side of a hill just without the gates of the city. A large tribune was erected, in which the king in his royal robes, and St. Bernard in the humble costume of a cenobite, were saluted by the acclamations of an immense multitude. The orator of the crusade first read the letters of the sovereign pontiff, and then spoke to his auditors of the taking of Edessa by the Saracens, and of the desolation of the holy places. He showed them the universe plunged in terror on learning that God had begun to desert his beloved land;[265] he represented to them the city of Sion as imploring their succour, Christ as ready to immolate himself a second time for them, and the heavenly Jerusalem opening all its gates to receive the glorious martyrs of the faith. “You cannot but know,” said he to them, “we live in a period of chastisement and ruin; the enemy of mankind has caused the breath of corruption to fly over all regions; we behold nothing but unpunished wickedness. The laws of men or the laws of religion have no longer sufficient power to check depravity of manners and the triumph of the wicked. The demon of heresy has taken possession of the chair of truth, and God has sent forth his malediction upon his sanctuary. Oh, ye who listen to me! hasten then to appease the anger of Heaven, but no longer implore his goodness by vain complaints; clothe not yourselves in sackcloth, but cover yourselves with your impenetrable bucklers; the din of arms, the dangers, the labours, the fatigues of war are the penances that God now imposes on you. Hasten then to expiate your sins by victories over the infidels, and let the deliverance of the holy places be the reward of your repentance.”
These words of the orator excited the greatest enthusiasm in the assembly of the faithful, and, like Urban at the council of Clermont, St. Bernard was interrupted by the repeated cries of “It is the will of God! It is the will of God!” Then raising his voice, as if he had been the interpreter of the will of Heaven, he promised them, in the name of God, success to their holy expedition, and thus continued his discourse:—
“If it were announced to you that the enemy had invaded your cities, your castles, and your lands, had ravished your wives and your daughters, and profaned your temples, which among you would not fly to arms? Well, then, all these calamities, and calamities still greater, have fallen upon your brethren, upon the family of Jesus Christ, which is yours. Why do you hesitate to repair so many evils—to revenge so many outrages? Will you allow the infidels to contemplate in peace the ravages they have committed on Christian people? Remember that their triumph will be a subject for grief to all ages, and an eternal opprobrium upon the generation that has endured it. Yes, the living God has charged me to announce to you that he will punish them who shall not have defended him against his enemies. Fly then to arms; let a holy rage animate you in the fight; and let the Christian world resound with these words of the prophet, ‘Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood!’ If the Lord calls you to the defence of his heritage, think not that his hand has lost its power.[266] Could he not send twelve legions of angels, or breathe one word, and all his enemies would crumble away into dust? But God has considered the sons of men, to open for them the road to his mercy. His goodness has caused to dawn for you a day of safety, by calling on you to avenge his glory and his name. Christian warriors, he who gave his life for you, to-day demands yours in return. These are combats worthy of you, combats in which it is glorious to conquer, and advantageous to die. Illustrious knights, generous defenders of the cross, remember the example of your fathers who conquered Jerusalem, and whose names are inscribed in heaven; abandon then the things that perish to gather eternal palms, and conquer a kingdom which has no end.”
All the barons and knights applauded the eloquence of St. Bernard, and were persuaded that he had but uttered the will of God. Louis VII., deeply moved by the words he had heard, cast himself, in the presence of all the people, at the feet of St. Bernard and demanded the Cross. Clothed with this revered sign, he himself addressed the assembly of the faithful, to exhort them to follow his example. In his discourse he showed them the impious Philistine casting opprobrium upon the house of David, and reminded them of the holy determination which God himself had inspired in him. He invoked, in the name of the Christians of the East, the aid of that generous nation of which he was the chief; of that nation which would not endure shame when directed at itself or its allies, and which always carried terror amidst the enemies of its worship or its glory. At this discourse the whole auditory was melted in tears. The touching piety of the monarch persuaded all who had not been convinced by the eloquence of St. Bernard. The hill upon which this vast multitude was assembled, resounded for a length of time with the cries of “It is the will of God! It is the will of God!” and “the Cross! the Cross!” Eleanor of Guienne, who accompanied Louis, received, as his wife, the sign of the cross from the hands of the abbot of Clairvaux. Alphonso, count of St. Gilles de Thoulouse, Henry, son of Thibaut, count of Champagne, Thieri, count of Flanders, William of Nevers, Renaud, count de Tenniere, Yves, count de Soissons, William, count de Panthien, William, count de Varennes, Archanbaud de Bourbon, Enguerard de Coucy, Hugh de Lusignan, the count de Dreux, brother of the king, his uncle the count de Maurinne, and a crowd of barons and knights followed the example of Louis and Eleanor. Several bishops, among whom history remarks Simon, bishop of Noyon, Godfrey, bishop of Langres, Alain, bishop of Arras, and Arnold, bishop of Lisieux, threw themselves at the feet of St. Bernard, taking the oath to fight against the infidels. The crosses which the abbot of Clairvaux had brought were not sufficient for the great number who claimed them. He tore his vestments to make more, and several of those who surrounded him, in their turns, tore their clothes into strips in order to satisfy the impatience of all the faithful whom he had inflamed with a desire for the holy war.
To preserve the memory of this day, Pons, abbot of Vèzelai, founded upon the hill where the knights and barons had assembled, a church, which he dedicated to the holy cross.[267] The tribune, from the top of which St. Bernard had preached the crusade, remained there a long time the object of the veneration of the faithful.
After the assembly of Vèzelai, the abbot of Clairvaux continued to preach the crusade in the cities and neighbouring countries. France soon resounded with the fame of the miracles by which God seemed to authorize and consecrate, in some sort, his mission. He was everywhere considered as the messenger of Heaven, as another Moses, who was to conduct the people of God. All the Christians were persuaded that the success of the enterprise depended upon St. Bernard, and in an assembly held at Chartres, in which were met several barons and princes, illustrious by their exploits, it was resolved by unanimous consent, to give him the command of the holy war. The Crusaders, they said, could never fail to be victorious under the laws of a leader to whom God appeared to have confided his omnipotence. The abbot of Clairvaux, who remembered the example of Peter the hermit, refused the perilous employment with which they desired to honour him; he was even so much terrified by the pressing entreaties of the barons and knights, that he addressed himself to the pope, and conjured the sovereign pontiff not to abandon him to the fantasies of men.