————
No. 30.
Poetry of the Troubadours for the Crusades.
See how great is the folly of him who remains here! Does not Jesus command his apostles to follow him, and that he who should follow him should leave his friends and his wealthy abode? The time is come to obey this order: he who dies beyond the seas is more happy than if he lived; and he who lives on this side of them is more unfortunate than if he died. What is a cowardly, shameful life worth? Ah! he who dies generously triumphs over death itself, and lives again in felicity.
*******
Let him cease to boast of being brave, the knight who does not arm to succour both the cross and the sacred tomb! Yes, with rich equipments, with valour, with courtesy, and with all that is fair and irreproachable, we cannot obtain glory and happiness in paradise. What more could counts and kings require, if, by honourable deeds, they could redeem themselves from hell and from fire eternal, in which so many wretches would live tormented for ever?
Whoever is forced by old age or sickness to remain at home, let him give his money to those who are willing to take arms: it is a good deed to send another in your place; particularly when you are not kept back by cowardice. Ah! at the day of judgment, what will they answer who have remained at home? God will appear, and will say: “False men! men full of cowardice! for your sakes I died, for your sakes I was scourged.” Then, the just man himself, will he be without fear?—(Pons de Capducil: Er nos sia.)
I would that the king of France and the king of England were at peace! Certes, God would greatly honour him of the two who should consent the first, and would never forget his merits. Yes, that king would be crowned in heaven. Ah! why are the king of Apulia and the emperor not friends and brothers, until the holy tomb be recovered? Are they ignorant that the pardon they grant here, they themselves shall obtain at the day of the great judgment?—(Pons de Capducil: En honor.)
What mourning! what despair! what tears! when God shall say, “Go, wretches, go into hell, where you shall be tormented for ever in tortures, in agonies. This is your punishment for not having believed that I underwent a cruel passion: I died for you, and you have forgotten it.” But they who, in the crusade, shall meet with death, will be able to say, “And we, Lord, we died for thee.”—(Folquet de Romans: Quan lo dous.)
To-day will the brave, the gallant, and the courageous show themselves; it will be their audacity and their bravery that will distinguish them: this is the moment to display skill and valour. God calls, he himself calls, he chooses true knights, he who knows them, and he rejects the base who are wanting in courage and faith: it is the valiant alone whom his mercy will distinguish.—(Pierre d’Auvergne: Lo Senhor.)