CH. LVIII.

CARNAL MOTIVES.

411

be insensible to the most splendid prospect of military glory. In the petty quarrels of Europe they shed the blood of their friends and countrymen, for the acquisition perhaps of a castle or a village. They could march with alacrity against the distant and hostile nations who were devoted to their arms; their fancy already grasped the golden sceptres of Asia; and the conquest of Apulia and Sicily by the Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the most private adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, must have yielded to the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and their natural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the tales of pilgrims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The vulgar, both the great and small, were taught to believe every wonder, of lands flowing with milk and honey, of mines and treasures, of gold and diamonds, of palaces of marble and jasper, and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this earthly paradise, each warrior depended on his sword to carve a plenteous and honourable establishment, which he measured only by the extent of his wishes.* Their vassals and soldiers trusted their fortunes to God and their master; the spoils of a Turkish emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp; and the flavour of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women,† were temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession, of the champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful incitement to the multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and burghers, who were attached to the servitude of the glebe, might escape from a haughty lord, and transplant themselves and their families to a land of liberty. The monk might release himself from the discipline of his convent: the debtor might suspend the accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of his creditors; and outlaws

The same hopes were displayed in the letters of the adventurers ad animandos qui in Francia residerent. Hugh de Reiteste could boast, that his share amounted to one abbey and ten castles, of the yearly value of one thousand five hundred marks, and that he should acquire a hundred castles by the conquest of Aleppo. (Guibert, p. 554, 555.) In his genuine or fictitious letter to

the count of Flanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the relics of saints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum fœminarum voluptas (p. 476); as if, says the indignant Guibert, the Greek women were handsomer than those of France.

412

INFLUENCE OF EXAMPLE.

[CH. LVIII. and malefactors of every cast might continue to brave the laws and elude the punishment of their crimes.*

These motives were potent and numerous; when we have singly computed their weight on the mind of each individual, we must add the infinite series, the multiplying powers, of example and fashion. The first proselytes became the warmest and most effectual missionaries of the cross; among their friends and countrymen they preached the duty, the merit, and the recompense of their holy vow; and the most reluctant hearers were insensibly drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion and authority. The martial youths were fired by the reproach or suspicion of cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army the sepulchre of Christ, was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and children, who consulted rather their zeal than their strength; and those who in the evening had derided the folly of their companions, were the most eager, the ensuing day, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance which magnified the hopes, diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the Turkish conquest, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs themselves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and the state of their enemies; and such was the stupidity of the people, that, at the sight of the first city or castle beyond the limits of their knowledge, they were ready to ask whether that was not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labours. Yet the more prudent of the crusaders, who were not sure that they should be fed from heaven with a shower of quails or manna, provided themselves with those precious metals, which, in every country, are the representatives of every commodity. To defray, according to their rank, the expenses of the road, princes alienated their provinces, nobles their lands and castles, peasants their cattle and the instruments of husbandry. The value of property was depreciated by the eager competition of multitudes; while the price of

* See the privileges of the Crucesignati, freedom from debt, usury, injury, secular justice, &c. The pope was their perpetual guardian. (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651, 652.) [All the tempting inducements which swelled the ranks of the crusaders, prove that this was no spontaneous movement; and attest equally Urban's earnest desire to weaken the States of Europe, by turning their population adrift in Asia. Whether the thronging zealots perished or conquered, mattered not; his end would in either case be accomplished; at the same time he established precedents for new extensions of papal power, and disclosed the source

A..D. 1696.] DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST CRUSADERS.

413

arms and horses was raised to an exorbitant height, by the wants and impatience of the buyers.* Those who remained at home, with sense and money, were enriched by the epidemical disease; the sovereigns acquired at a cheap rate the domains of their vassals; and the ecclesiastical purchasers completed the payment by the assurance of their prayers. The cross, which was commonly sewed on the garment, in cloth or silk, was inscribed by some zealots on their skin; a hot iron, or indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark; and a crafty monk, who shewed the miraculous impression on his breast, was repaid with the popular veneration, and the richest benefices of Palestine.t

The 15th of August had been fixed in the council of Clermont for the departure of the pilgrims; but the day was anticipated by the thoughtless and needy crowd of plebeians; and I shall briefly dispatch the calamities which they inflicted and suffered, before I enter on the more serious and successful enterprise of the chiefs. Early in the spring, from the confines of France and Lorraine, above sixty thousand of the populace of both sexes flocked round the first missionary of the crusade, and pressed him with clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy sepulchre. The

of wealth, which was afterwards improved by the sale of indulgences. -ED.] * Guibert (p. 481) paints in lively colours this general emotion. He was one of the few contemporaries who had genius enough to feel the astonishing scenes that were passing before their eyes Erat itaque videre miraculum caro omnes emere, atque vili vendere, &c. + Some instances of these stigmata are given in the Esprit des Croisades (tom. iii. p. 169, &c.) from authors whom I have not seen. [Wilken (i. 59) cites, from Guibert Abbas, the instance of an abbot, who, having branded on his forehead the sign of the cross, pretended that it was stamped there by an angel. The credulous world believed, worshipped, and enriched the saint.-ED.]

[Urban understood the excitable character of his countrymen, and sagaciously directed his first machinations, as we have seen, against them, trusting that their example would operate to the same end in other lands. His plan was well conceived, and succeeded, perhaps, beyond his expectations. Wilken says (1. p. 74), "France exhibited through the whole of that winter a singular spectacle. Warlike preparations and martial trainings were seen everywhere; and the highways were crowded with armed men hastening to join the leader under whom they were to fight for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre." The Spaniards (Ib. p. 65), were too much engaged at home in extricating themselves from the dominion of the Moors, to take any part in distant expeditions. In Germany, both prince and people were

411

DEPARTURE OF THE

[CH. LVIII. hermit, assuming the character, without the talents or authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the forward impulse of his votaries along the banks of the Rhine and Danube. Their wants and numbers soon compelled them to separate, and his lieutenant, Walter the Pennyless, a valiant though needy soldier, conducted a vanguard of pilgrims, whose condition may be determined from the proportion of eight horsemen to fifteen thousand foot.* The example and footsteps of Peter were closely pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godescal, whose sermons had swept away fifteen or twenty thousand peasants from the villages of Germany. Their rear was again pressed by a herd of two hundred thousand, the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, who mingled with their devotion a brutal licence of rapine, prostitution, snd drunkenness. Some counts and gentlemen, at the head of three thousand

*

indisposed to concur in the projects of that power against which they had long been striving; instinctively they hung back from being accessories to their own undoing. To conquer their reluctance, other means were applied; more miracles were wrought, and more wonders heard of, in Germany, than in any other part of Europe. (Ib. p. 64. 76).-ED.] [This was an addition to Peter's host, brought by Walter de Pexejo, whose nephew, Walter the Penny less, is confounded with him by most writers. Their patience was worn out by the hermit's frequent stoppages to preach and recruit; and they separated from him at Cologne. This first division passed safely through Germany and Hungary, but was roughly treated, and almost dispersed, by the Bulgarians. De Pexejo died among that people, and his nephew, collecting the remnant of his forces, made his way to Constantinople. Being the first to arrive there, and his numbers not formidable, he was cordially welcomed by Alexius. Peter, who had mustered 40,000 men, followed and nearly reached the eastern confines of Hungary without meeting any impediment. At Semlin,

sixteen stragglers of the first division had been seized by the inhabitants. The men themselves escaped, and rejoined Walter, but they had been stripped of all, even of their clothes, which were suspended on poles along the ramparts, as trophies or as warnings. Peter's followers believing them to be impaled bodies of their brethren, stormed the place to avenge their supposed fate. This was the prelude to a series of disasters, in the course of which, the undisciplined troops were slaughtered or scattered in all directions, and lost all their stores and baggage-wagons. Ten thousand of the original number were thus destroyed. After some days, the remaining 30,000 were again collected. These joined Walter the Pennyless at Constantinople, and the united forces having crossed the Bosphorus, encamped at Kibotus near Helenopolis. This was the opening of the crusades as

A.D. 1096.]

FIRST CRUSADERS.

415

horse, attended the motions of the multitude to partake in the spoil; but their genuine leaders (may we credit such folly ?) were a goose and a goat, who were carried in the front, and to whom these worthy Christians ascribed an infusion of the divine Spirit.* Of these, and of other bands of enthusiasts, the first and most easy warfare was against the Jews, the murderers of the Son of God. In the trading cities of the Moselle and the Rhine their colonies were numerous and rich; and they enjoyed, under the protection of the emperor and the bishops, the free exercise of their religion.† At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands

related by Wilken (1. p. 78-89), and for which he cites the original authorities.-ED.] * Fuit et aliud scelus detestabile in hac congregatione pedestris populi stulti et vesanæ levitatis, anserem quendam divino spiritu asserebant afflatum, et capellam non minus eodem repletam, et has sibi duces secundæ viæ fecerant, &c. (Albert. Aquensis, 1. 1, c. 31, p. 196.) Had these peasants founded an empire, they might have introduced, as in Egypt, the worship of animals, which their philosophic descendants would have glossed over with some specious and subtle allegory. [Gibbon has not clearly distinguished the four bodies of crusaders, who did not proceed together or act in concert. The fortunes of the two first are seen in the last note. The third, consisting of about 15,000 horse and foot, was led by Gottschalk, a priest from the Rhine country, and completely annihilated by the Hungarians at Merseburg. The fourth was the horde of 200,000 lawless savages on foot, the very lowest and most brutal of the commonalty, and 3000 horsemen, the most depraved and licentious of a higher order. They had no regular leader; but the chief man among them was William the Carpenter, a so-called knight from the banks of the Seine, who had obtained his means of outfit by plundering his neighbours. These were the stupid fanatics, at whose head were borne the goose and goat, an absurdity unworthy of notice, but which has strangely been supposed to indicate the prevalence of Paulician doctrines among the multitude, as if such ignorant savages could have had any knowledge of "Egyptian symbols or Manichee standards." These too were the rapacious robbers and murderers of the unfortunate Jews. Pillage and violence marked their course through Germany. When they reached Hungary, they were encountered by the king and a numerous army, who denied them a passage. Endeavouring to force their way, they were either put to the sword or drowned in the neighbourhood of Merseburg. Some who escaped, returned to their homes, and others joined the forces that were assembling in Italy. (Wilken, 1. 94-100.)-ED.] P. Benjamin of Tudela describes the state of his Jewish brethren from Cologne along the Rhine: they were rich, generous, learned, hospitable, and lived in the eager hope of the Messiah. (Voyage, tom. i. p. 243-245, par Baratier.) In seventy years (he wrote about A.D. 1170) they had recovered from these