As for the Crusaders who survived so many calamities, and remained in Europe, with the exception of some old and infirm persons, the pope would not release them from their vows; they were obliged either to perform the pilgrimage at a maturer age, or to redeem it by alms.
Such was the issue of this crusade, so justly designated by two chronicles, expeditio nugatoria, expeditio derisoria.[160]
Two facts strike us as extraordinary in this account: the condition attached by the Old Man of the Mountain to the liberty of the clerk of whom Vincent of Beauvais speaks, and the trade in children carried on by the merchants of Marseilles.
Upon the first point we can offer nothing but the opinion received among the nations of the West. It was generally believed in the thirteenth century, that the Old Man of the Mountain kept up a connection with Christian Europe; several princes were even accused of having had recourse to the daggers of his assassins to get rid of their enemies. Frederick received ambassadors from him in Sicily.[161] Roger Bacon complains bitterly of the fascinations secretly employed by the Saracens to seduce the young servants of Christ;[162] the name of Assassins had already passed into the vulgar tongue in the thirteenth century, and was the object of general terror. In spite, then, of the opinion of some critics, a more extended examination than comes within the scope of this letter is necessary, before we reject the account of Vincent of Bauvais.
As to the trade in young boys, that is not at all a new fact; many traces of it are to be found much anterior to this period. The Greeks and Venetians practised it openly enough. Pope Zacharias repurchased, in 748, many Christian slaves, who had been taken away from Rome by Venetian merchants; the people of Verdun, as witnessed by Lilprand, were about to sell to the Arabs of Spain some young boys they had mutilated, and who were to serve as guards to the women of seraglios.[163] Besides, the fate of the young Crusaders who embarked at Marseilles, and found degradation and slavery instead of the sacred soil promised to their blind zeal, is attested by two contemporary writers, worthy of perfect confidence: these are the illustrious Thomas de Champré[164] and Roger Bacon.[165] I do not then perceive any reasonable doubt that can be raised against this fact, but I find in it a fresh example of human cupidity, which sacrifices, in order to satisfy its cravings, that which nature and religion hold most sacred.—Receive, Monsieur, &c. &c.
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No. 29.
A Letter from Pope Innocent III.[166]
Now that motives more pressing than ever call Christians to the assistance of the Holy Land, and that we have reason to expect, from the present aid, more fortunate results than have been hitherto obtained, we again raise our voice, and make you to hear our cries in the name of Him who, when dying, cried with a loud voice from the cross, and who carried obedience towards God, his father, so far as to die upon the cross, crying in order to drag us from the torments of an eternal death; who cried also by himself, and said: “If any one desires to come with me, let him entirely renounce himself, let him take up his cross, and follow me.” This is as if he said in a more manifest manner, Let him who desires to follow me to the crown, follow me also to the fight, which is now proposed to all to serve as a trial. There is no doubt that the Omnipotent God was able, if it had been his will, to prevent this land falling into the hands of the enemies; he is able even now, if it were his will, to wrest it from them easily; since nothing can resist his will. But as iniquity was carried almost to its height, and as the zeal of charity was chilled in most, to arouse his faithful servants from the sleep of death, and to recall to them the desire of life, he offers this conflict to them, in order to prove their faith, like gold in the crucible; offering to them in this, an opportunity, nay more, an assured pledge of obtaining salvation. For this, they who shall have fought valiantly for him, shall obtain of him a crown of happiness; but they who, in such a pressing necessity, shall have drawn back from the service they owed to the glory of the Lord, will deserve to hear, at the great day of judgment, their just condemnation pronounced. What happy effects will this holy enterprise produce! How many, turning towards penitence, will range themselves under the standard of the cross, and will merit, by their efforts, a crown of glory, who perhaps would have perished in their iniquity, after having passed a life entirely consecrated to carnal voluptuousness and to the frivolities of this world. This is an old artifice of Jesus Christ, which he has deigned to repeat in our days for the salvation of his faithful servants. In fact, if any earthly monarch were driven by his enemies from his states, would not, when he should have recovered them, such of his vassals be condemned as infidels, and destined to all the punishments which the greatly guilty deserve, as had not exposed for his sake, not only their lives but their persons? In the same manner the King of Kings, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given you a body and a soul, and all the other blessings you enjoy, will condemn you as guilty of black ingratitude, and of the crime of infidelity, if you fail to march to his succour at a time when he is in a manner driven from the kingdom he has acquired by his blood. Let whoever then shall refuse, in this pressing necessity, to hasten to the help of his Redeemer, know that he will exhibit a criminal hardness, and that he will be grievously guilty. If any one should be unjustly deprived of a portion, however small, of the heritage of his fathers, soon, according to the usages of the world, he would labour with all his strength to have this injustice repaired, and to repel this violence; and would spare neither his person nor his property, until he had succeeded in regaining all that he had lost. What excuse, then, can he bring who shall have declined some trifling labours to punish offences committed against his Redeemer, and avenge the outrages he has received; and who, by sparing his person and his goods, prevents the recovery of the places which witnessed the passion and the resurrection of our Lord, in which God, our king, deigned, some centuries ago, to operate, upon the earth, the salvation of men? How, also, according to the divine precept, can he love his neighbour as himself (as it is written), who knows that his brethren, Christians in belief and in name, are groaning in the prisons of the perfidious Saracens, and are suffering all the horrors of the hardest captivity, and shall refuse to labour in an effective manner for their deliverance, transgressing by this, this precept of the natural law, which God has made known in his Gospel: “Do unto other men that which you wish they should do unto you.” Are you ignorant, that among these people, many thousands of Christians groan in slavery and in chains, and are constantly subject to the most cruel tortures? All the provinces now in the power of the Saracens were inhabited by Christian nations till after the time of St. Gregory; but towards that period, there arose a child of perdition, a false prophet, named Mahomet, who, by the attractions of the joys of this world, and by the bait of carnal voluptuousness, found means to seduce a great number and turn them aside from the path of truth. Although his perfidy may have triumphed up to the present day, we place, nevertheless, our confidence in the Lord, who has hitherto so well inspired us, and we hope that we shall soon see the end of this beast, of which, according to the Apocalypse of St. John, “the number is included in six hundred and sixty-six.” He will soon end by the operation of the Holy Ghost, who will revive, with the fire of charity, the chilled hearts of the faithful; and of these years, nearly six hundred have already passed away. In addition to the other grave and considerable insults that the perfidious Saracens have inflicted on our Redeemer on account of our sins, lately, upon Mount Tabor, where he revealed to his disciples the image of future glory, these same perfidious Saracens have erected a fortress for the confusion of the Christian name. They hope, by means of this fortress, easily to obtain possession of the city of Acre, which is near to it, and afterwards invade, without the least obstacle, the rest of the Holy Land, almost entirely destitute of strength and means of defence. For this, then, my dear children in Christ, change into sentiments of peace and love your brotherly dissensions and discords, and let every one of you hasten to range himself under the standard of the cross, without hesitating to expose his person and his wealth for Him who offered up his soul for you, and shed his blood for you. March with security, upon this holy expedition, certain that if you are truly repentant, this short and transient labour will be for you a certain means of obtaining life eternal. For us, depositaries of the Divine mercy, and to whom has been transmitted the authority of the blessed St. Peter and St. Paul, according to the power which, although we were unworthy of it, God has given us to bind and unbind, we grant, to all who shall undertake in person and at their own expense this meritorious labour, the absolute pardon of their sins, after they shall heartily have repented of them, and shall have confessed them by word of mouth, and we give them the certain hope, by this means, of obtaining more easily life everlasting. As for those who, without assisting in person in the expedition, shall contribute to it by sending, according to their rank and their means, men fit for the purpose, in the same manner to those who shall go in person, although at the expense of others, we grant to all pardon for their sins. We grant the same pardon, in proportion with the extent of their sacrifices and the fervour of their devotion, to those who shall deprive themselves of a part of their worldly goods to provide for the expenses of the enterprise. We equally take under the protection of Saint Peter and of ourselves, the persons and the property of the faithful, from the moment they shall receive the sign of the cross; we place them under that of the archbishops and bishops, and all the prelates of the Church; and we declare that no infringement shall be made upon the possessions of the absent, until certain intelligence be obtained of their death or of their return. If any one shall make an attempt to do so, he shall be cited before the prelates of the Church, and shall be subjected to ecclesiastical censure. If it should happen, moreover, that any one of those who are disposed to set out for the Holy Land, should be obliged, by oath to pay any usurious amounts, we enjoin the prelates of the Church, to employ the same means to force their creditors to liberate them from their oath, and to desist from their usurious demands; and if it should happen that any one of these creditors should undertake to force his debtor to the payment of the usuries, let him incur the same censure, and be forced to make restitution. As for the Jews, we order that they be forced, by the secular power, to make remission of all usury to them who are going to the Holy Land; and, until they have made that remission, they shall be deprived, by means of excommunication, of all kinds of commerce with Christians. But in order that the succour furnished to the Holy Land should become less burdensome and more easy, from being levied upon a greater number, we beg all the faithful in general, and every one individually, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the only true, the only Eternal God, demanding in the name of Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ, of all archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors; of all chapters of churches, whether cathedral or conventual; of all clerks, as well as of all cities, towns, and villages, to furnish each, according to their faculties, the required number of warriors, with everything necessary for their support for three years. If, for this purpose, each individual contribution should appear insufficient, several should be joined together; for we entertain no doubt that enough persons will present themselves, if the means be not wanting. We particularly request kings, princes, counts, barons, and other wealthy men who do not assist in the expedition in person, to contribute their part according to their means. As to maritime cities, we require of them the assistance of vessels. And for fear that we should appear to impose heavy and serious burdens upon others, which we are unwilling to put our hand to ourselves, we declare in our conscience, and before God, that all which we require of others we will eagerly do ourselves. We have thought it our duty to state, with respect to the clerks who shall form part of the expedition, that, all contestation ceasing, they may, to that effect, pledge the revenues of their benefices for three years. But as the succour which the Holy Land requires may meet with many obstacles and delays, if, before conferring the cross upon every one, it were necessary to stop to examine if he were capable of performing personally all the obligations imposed by such a vow, we consent that, regulars excepted, all who desire it shall take the cross; and that, if reasons of a pressing necessity, or of an evident utility require it, their vow may be, in virtue of an apostolic mandatory letter, changed, redeemed, or deferred; and, for the same reason, we revoke the pardons and indulgences granted by us, up to this day, to those who offered to march against the Moors in Spain, or against the heretics of Provence; particularly as they were granted to them for a time which is now entirely passed away, and for reasons which, in a great degree, have ceased to exist. For, with the grace of God, these affairs have so progressed, that they no longer require active measures; and if, by chance, they should again require them, we should take care quickly to turn our attention towards them. We grant, however, that the Provençals and Spaniards should still enjoy these indulgences. Moreover, as corsairs and pirates greatly impede the measures taken for the succour of the Holy Land, by seizing and plundering those who are going thither, we excommunicate them, as well as their principal accomplices and abettors; forbidding under pain of anathema, any person, wittingly, to treat with them for any sale or any purchase, and enjoining the governors of cities and places which they inhabit, to reclaim them from this trade of iniquity, and put an end to their brigandages. Besides, as not being willing to trouble the wicked is nothing else but encouraging them; and as this is not foreign to the manœuvres of a secret society which neglects to oppose these manifest crimes, we cannot refrain from employing ecclesiastical severity against the persons and the property of those who shall be in this condition; because they would become no less dangerous to the Christian name than the Saracens themselves. Moreover, we renew the sentence of excommunication, passed in the Council of the Lateran, against those who supply the Saracens with armour and weapons, or serve as pilots to the corsairs of those nations; we declare also that they shall be deprived of all they possess, and shall remain in slavery, if they chance to fall into it. We order that this sentence be published in all maritime cities, every Sunday and festival. But as we have much more to look for from divine clemency than from human power, we must, in such a conjuncture, contend less with corporeal arms than with spiritual arms; therefore we order and decree, that once in every month there shall be made, separately, a general procession of men, and in the same manner separately, as much as possible, one of women, during which, with minds filled with the spirit of humility, all will ask, with fervent prayers, that it may please the divine mercy to remove from us opprobrium and confusion, by delivering from the hands of pagans, that land upon which all the mysteries of our redemption were effected, and by restoring it, for the glory of the Omnipotent, to the Christian people. Care must always be taken, in these processions, to make a fervent exhortation to the people, and to repeat to them the name of the sign of our salvation. To prayer must be added fasting and charity, in order that they may be like wings to prayer, and carry it more easily and more promptly to the pious ears of the Eternal, who will listen to us with kindness in his own good time. Every day, likewise, at the solemn mass, after the kiss of peace, at the moment in which the salutary host, offered for the sins of the world, is upon the point of being consumed, all present, men as well as women, shall prostrate themselves humbly to the earth, and the clerks shall sing with a loud voice, the psalm, Deus venerunt gentes in hæreditatem tuam; to which they shall add: Exurgat Deus et dissipentur inimici ejus; et fugiant à facie ejus qui oderunt eum. Then the officiating priest shall sing with a loud voice upon the altar, the prayer, Deus qui admirabile, &c. In churches in which the general procession shall assemble, care shall be taken to place a tronc, which shall be fastened with three keys, one of which shall remain in the hands of an honest priest, another in those of a devout layman, and the third in those of a monk, that they may be faithfully taken care of. It is in these troncs that clerks, laymen, men, and women shall deposit the alms destined for the aid of the Holy Land, according to the dispositions of those to whom these cares shall have been confided. As to the departure and the voyage, which should be made with modesty and order, we will, as yet, state nothing regarding them until the army of the Lord shall have taken the cross. But as all the circumstances are now prepared for, we will make all the arrangements which may appear necessary, aided by the counsels of wise and prudent men. To this effect, we have chosen our beloved son De Sales, the late abbots of Novo Castro, C. dean of Spire, and the guardian of the Augustines, all men of probity and known fidelity, who, after having associated themselves with other worthy and honest men, shall regulate and dispose, in our name, all that they shall deem necessary for the success of this enterprise, causing their orders to be faithfully and carefully executed by men fit for the business and specially appointed to it. This, therefore, is why we pray you all, we supplicate and conjure you, in the name of the Lord, command you by this present apostolic letters, and enjoin you by the authority of the Holy Ghost, to take care to prove, on every occasion, to these legates of Jesus Christ, by your eagerness to furnish them with all things necessary, that they will find, by you and in you, the means of attaining the so much desired end.