The description of William of Tyre is vague, though heavily charged; but there can be no doubt that the times were exceptionally evil. Crimes common enough in an age distinguished above all by absence of self-restraint and abandonment to unbridled rage, would be naturally magnified by a historian who saw in them a reason for the infidel’s persecution of pilgrims, and an argument for the taking of the Cross. Yet, making allowance for every kind of exaggeration, it is clear enough that Gregory had great mischiefs to contend with, and that the awakening of the world’s conscience by any means whatever could not but produce a salutary effect. The immediate effect of the Crusades was the substitution of higher for lower motives, the sudden cessation of war, the shaming of the clergy into something like purity of life, the absorption into the armies of the Cross of the “men of violence,” and some temporary alleviation to the sufferings of the poor.
The hour and the man were both at hand.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FIRST CRUSADE.
“The sound
As of the assault of an imperial city,
The shock of crags shot from strange engin’ry,
The clash of wheels, and clang of armed hoofs,
* * * and now more loud
The mingled battle cry. Ha! hear I not
Ἐν τόυτῳ νίκη. Allah-illah-Allah!”