Thirteenth Century Crusader
At the appointed time Jean de Brienne arrived at Acre; the next day he received the hand of Mary, and shortly afterward was crowned, and received the oaths of allegiance of the barons. Only three hundred knights had participated in his hopes of restoring the fortunes of the Holy Land, for the enthusiasm and love of glory of the western chivalry were diverted into new channels. England and Germany were torn by internal disturbances, the court of France was watching the turn of events, and Pope Innocent employed the penitents in putting an end to the heresy of the Albigenses. The destroyers of heretics and of infidels were alike praiseworthy; and a crusade into the south of France was less dangerous than a voyage to Syria. From these various causes the Mussulmans in Asia were forgotten or disregarded.[69] As peace had been refused, Saphedin marched an army to the country round Tripolis. The king displayed his valour in many a fierce encounter; and though he never conquered his foes, yet he broke the impression of the enemy, and saved his states from utter annihilation. He foresaw the approaching ruin of the holy cause; every day the Saracens made some acquisition; and the Latin barons, by every opportunity, and for every pretext, returned to Europe. He wrote, therefore, to the pope that the kingdom of Jerusalem consisted only of two or three towns, and that the civil wars between the sons of Saladin alone suspended its fate.
[1215-1217 A.D.]
Every project of ambition which the daring genius of Gregory VII had formed was embraced by the ardent spirit of Innocent III. In raising a fabric of ecclesiastical policy on the ruins of gospel liberty, the importance of guiding the military arm of Europe was not lost sight of. The commands of the Vatican were hurled upon every part of Europe, calling men to exterminate infidelity. The protection of St. Peter was promised to the families and fortunes of the pilgrims. They who had bound themselves to pay usury were released from their oaths; and secular power should compel the Jews to remit their claims. The indulgences were revoked which had been granted to those who quitted their homes in order to exterminate heresy in Provence, and infidelity in Spain.
Among those who most loudly and successfully pleaded the cause of religion was Robert de Courçon; a man inferior in talents and consideration to St. Bernard, but whose fanaticism was as fervent as that of Peter and Fulk. By parentage and birth he was an Englishman; but he had been educated in the university of Paris, and in that famous seat of learning had lived as a friend with a fellow student, who afterwards sat in the papal chair, under the title of Pope Innocent III. The associate of his holiness was promoted to various dignities in the church; his talents for business were employed by Innocent in clerical embassies, and his abilities as a public orator were matured under the care of Fulk de Neuilly. He was the papal legate in France, and after having appeased the foreign and internal distractions of that kingdom, he quitted Paris in 1215, descended by the way of Burgundy to the southern provinces, left no quarter of the south unvisited; and then, after having traversed with speed and success the western provinces, the saint-errant returned to the capital. Twenty years before he had preached the same theme to the same people, as the humble assistant of Fulk. Clad in the Roman purple, and armed with the authority of the vicar of Jesus Christ, the cardinal gave every possible dignity to the office of missionary. But his prudence kept not pace with his zeal, for, like Peter the Hermit, he admitted everyone to take the cross. Women, children, the old, the blind, the lame, the lepers, all were enrolled in the sacred militia. The multitude of the crusaders was innumerable, and the voluntary offerings of money which was put into the charitable boxes in the churches were immense. Philip Augustus contributed the fortieth part of his revenues; and it is singular that this money was to be employed for purposes of the holy war, agreeably to the directions of the kings and barons of France and England. But the alms of the people of France were not applied exclusively to sacred purposes. Robert de Courçon was openly convicted of peculation, and his papal friend was obliged to remit his own dignity, and intercede with the French prelates, in order to save the legate from punishment.
The pope, treading in the steps of his predecessors, convoked a general council for the purpose of chastising vice, condemning heresy, and of inducing the princes and people to undertake the sacred expedition. In the month of November, 1215, the religious and political authorities assembled in the church of the Lateran, and the greatness of their number, and their exalted rank, testify the zealous preaching of the pope’s legates. All the clergy (except those who were crusaders) were for three years to contribute the twentieth part of their ecclesiastical revenues; tournaments during the three years of the crusade were forbidden, lest the representation of war should draw men’s attention from war itself. Civil dissensions were to be suspended, and peace was to reign in the Christian world during all the time of the holy contest.
The necessity of extirpating heresy, and quelling rebellion in the south of France, was the pretence of the French king for not embracing the crusade. The emperor Frederick II remained to establish his authority in Apulia and Sicily, and to advance the favourite project of himself and family, and of making Italy the seat of the empire of the West.[70] The Hungarians who had been the scourge of the first crusaders, took the lead on this occasion. Their king, Andrew, incited by the example of his mother Margaret, the wish of his father, and certain political considerations, made a vow to march to Jerusalem. The dukes of Austria and Bavaria, and indeed all the ecclesiastical and secular potentates of lower Germany, joined their forces to those of the monarch. The united army marched to Spalato. The ships of Venice, and other ports of the Adriatic, transported them to Cyprus; and after having enjoyed for a while the pleasures of an island consecrated to Venus, the holy warriors sailed for and arrived at Acre, in company with fresh crowds of crusaders from Marseilles, Genoa, and Brundusium. The Mussulman powers were astonished at, and unprovided for this sudden and large reinforcement of the Latins. The sons of Saphedin were the lords of Syria, while Saphedin himself, retired from the constant toils of royalty, was contented with the respect of the army and people in times of difficulty and danger. The Saracens pressed to the country about Nablus, but not in sufficient numbers to meet the new crusaders, who ravaged the country and slew thousands of their foes. But they did not confine their cruelties to the infidels. The soil of Palestine, in the year in which the present crusaders landed, had been less productive than in most seasons; the soldiers had carried thither no provisions, and when not engaged in distant excursions into the enemy’s territories, they took the shorter course of robbing the private and religious houses of the Latins and Syrians.
A Knight’s Esquire, Thirteenth Century