[55] This fact is likewise attested by the chronicle of Herman Cornarius, which we have already quoted.
[56] A German chronicle of Thomas Ebendorft relates the miraculous stories that were circulated among the Saracens. According to this chronicle, when a Christian expired, another issued from his mouth, ex ore. There were two souls in every body; in uno corpore duo fuerunt hominis.
[57] The Arabian chronicles speak of the sieur de Télema or Barthélemi, who never ceased to provoke the fury of the Saracens. The Western chronicles say nothing of him; one of them merely says that a Frank, banished from Ptolemaïs on account of murder, took refuge with the sultan of Egypt, and pointed out to him the means of taking the city.
[58] Wadin, the author of a chronicle entitled Annales Minorum, tom. ii. p. 585, quotes a circumstance which St. Antonine relates in the third part of his Somme Historique. After having said that the greater part of the French Cordeliers were killed by the Saracens, he adds these words: “But not one of the virgins of St. Claire escaped.” The abbess of this order, who possessed a masculine spirit, having learnt that the enemy had entered the city, called all her sisters together by the sound of the bell, and by the force of her words persuaded them to hold the promise they had made to Jesus Christ, their spouse, to preserve their chastity: “My dear daughters, my excellent sisters,” said she, “we must, in this certain danger of life and modesty, show ourselves above our sex. The enemies are near to us; not so much to our bodies as to our souls; these barbarians, who, after having satisfied their brutal lusts upon all they meet, slay them with their swords. In this crisis we cannot hope to escape their fury by flight, but we can by a resolution, painful it is true, but sure. Most men are seduced by the beauty of women; let us deprive ourselves of this attraction, let us seek a preservative for our modesty in that which serves as a cause for its violation. Let us destroy our beauty to preserve our virginity pure. I will set you the example; let those who desire to meet their heavenly spouse imitate their mistress.” At these words she cut her nose off with a razor; the others did the same, and boldly disfigured themselves, to present themselves more beautiful before Jesus Christ. By these means they preserved their purity, for the Saracens, on beholding their bleeding faces, conceived a disgust for them, and killed them all, without sparing one.
[59] Quand il fut revenu au milieu de la cité, son dextrier fut molt las, et lui-même aussi; le dextrier resista en contre les espérons, et s’arresta dans la rue comme qui n’en peut plus. Les Sarrasins, à coups de flèches, ruèrent à terre frère Guillaume; ainsi ce loyal champion de Jesus-Christ rendit l’âme à son Créateur.
[60] Among the marvellous accounts to which the destruction of the Christian colonies in Syria gave birth, history has preserved the following:—“In the year 1291, the house of the holy Virgin at Nazareth, in which she conceived the Son of God, was transported by angels to the top of a little mountain in Dalmatia, on the shore of the Adriatic Sea: three years afterwards it was transported to another shore of the same sea, in a wood which belonged to a widow named Loretto. There have been since built upon this spot a small city and a magnificent church, which still preserve the name of this widow.”
[61] We are not able to add anything to the learned researches of M. Raynouard upon the condemnation of the Templars. We refer our readers to his work, and to our Appendix.
[62] This article of the will of Charles-le-Bel is related by Ducange. It has been remarked that it is dated the 24th of October, 1324, and that Charles died in 1327: we may suppose that the date is incorrect, or that Charles-le-Bel did not perform his vow.
[63] We have before us a will made at this period, in which a gentleman of the name of Castellen, already illustrious in the times of the crusades, gives a sum for the expenses of the holy war. We regret we are not able to publish the text of this document, which has been communicated to us by the family of the testator.
[64] A memoir on the part which the Spaniards took in the crusades, read at the Academy of Madrid, describes the labours, the adventures, and wanderings of Raymond Lulli. The Histoire Ecclesiastique of Fleury may likewise be consulted.