Henry Hart Milman: History of Latin Christianity; London, Murray, 1854-55, 6 vols.; 4th ed., 1867, 9 vols.; reprinted, New York, Armstrong, 8 vols.
William Robertson: The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V., with a View of the Progress of Society in Europe from the Subversion of the Roman Empire to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century; London, 1769; reprinted, Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1857, 3 vols.; later editions.
V. POETICAL TREATMENT OF THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE.
Torquato Tasso: Gerusalemme Liberata; Venice, 1580. English translation, Jerusalem Delivered; New York, Appleton.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY—OUTLINE OF STUDY.
After the lapse of eight hundred years the story of the crusades still furnishes the most fascinating, if not the most instructive, pages of Christian history. Romance has entertained the generations from the days of the Italian Tasso to those of Walter Scott with the rude yet chivalric characters of those mediæval times. Ponderous knights and dashing emirs, fair women and saintly apparitions, continue to move over the mimic stage of the imagination. Poetry, in all the tongues of modern Europe, draws its imagery from scenes that were enacted while these languages were being formed from their classic or barbaric originals. The hymnology of the church is enriched by the songs of those who caught their rhythm from the march of the crusading host. Bernard of Clugny watched the salvation armies of the olden time as they sauntered by his cloister window. Now catching their spirit, and anon oppressed with their failure to express the truest prowess of the believer’s soul, he tried to lift men’s faith to the Jerusalem above:
“O happy band of pilgrims,
If onward ye will tread
With Jesus as your fellow
To Jesus as your head!