Latest / Popular History of France from the Earliest Times / 31 - Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Section thirty one of Volume one of A Popular History
- 0:03Speaker 1: of France from the Earliest Times. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 0:07Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 0:11Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Volume
- 0:15Speaker 1: one of A Popular History of France from the Earliest
- 0:18Speaker 1: Times by Francois Guiseau, translated by Robert Black, Chapter sixteen.
- 0:24Speaker 1: The Crusades, their Origin and their success, part one amongst
- 0:28Speaker 1: the great events of European history. None was, for a
- 0:31Speaker 1: longer time in preparation, or more naturally brought about than
- 0:34Speaker 1: the Crusades. Christianity from her earliest days had seen in
- 0:39Speaker 1: Jerusalem her sacred cradle. It had been in times past
- 0:43Speaker 1: the home of her ancestors, the Jews, and the center
- 0:46Speaker 1: of their history, and afterwards the scene of the life, death,
- 0:50Speaker 1: and resurrection of her divine founder. Jerusalem became more and
- 0:54Speaker 1: more the holy city. To go to Jerusalem, to visit
- 0:57Speaker 1: the Mount of Olive's cavalry and in the tomb of
- 1:00Speaker 1: Jesus was, in their most evil days and in the
- 1:03Speaker 1: midst of their obscurity and their martyrdoms, a pious passion
- 1:06Speaker 1: of the early Christians, when Under Constantine, Christianity had ascended
- 1:11Speaker 1: from the cross to the throne. Jerusalem had fresh attractions
- 1:15Speaker 1: for Christian faith and Christian curiosity. Temples covered and surrounded
- 1:19Speaker 1: the Holy Sepulcher, and at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Mount Tabor, and
- 1:24Speaker 1: nearly all the places which Jesus had consecrated by his
- 1:27Speaker 1: presence and his miracles were seen to rise up churches, chapels,
- 1:31Speaker 1: and monuments dedicated to the memory of them. The Emperor
- 1:34Speaker 1: Constantine's mother, Saint Helena, was, at seventy eight years of age,
- 1:38Speaker 1: the first royal pilgrim to the holy places. After the
- 1:42Speaker 1: Pagan Revival, vainly attempted by the Emperor Julian, the number
- 1:46Speaker 1: and zeal of the Christian visitors to Jerusalem were redoubled.
- 1:50Speaker 1: At the beginning of the fifth century. Saint Jerome wrote
- 1:52Speaker 1: from his retreat at Bethlehem that Judea overflowed with pilgrims,
- 1:56Speaker 1: and that round about the Holy Sepulcher were heard sung
- 1:59Speaker 1: in dieby tongues the praises of the Lord. He however,
- 2:03Speaker 1: gave but scant encouragement to his friends to make the
- 2:06Speaker 1: trip the Court of Heaven. He wrote to Saint Paulinus
- 2:09Speaker 1: is as open in Britain as at Jerusalem, and the
- 2:12Speaker 1: disorder which sometimes accompanied the numerous assemblages of pilgrims became
- 2:16Speaker 1: such that several of the most illustrious fathers of the Church,
- 2:19Speaker 1: and amongst others, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory of Nissa,
- 2:23Speaker 1: asserted themselves to dissuade the faithful. Take no thought, said Augustine,
- 2:27Speaker 1: for long voyages go where your faith is. It is
- 2:30Speaker 1: not by ship, but by love that would go to
- 2:33Speaker 1: him who is everywhere. Events soon rendered the pilgrimage to
- 2:37Speaker 1: Jerusalem difficult and for some time impossible. At the commencement
- 2:41Speaker 1: of the seventh century, the Greek Empire was at war
- 2:43Speaker 1: with the sovereigns of Persia, successors of Cyrus and chiefs
- 2:47Speaker 1: of the religion of Zoroaster, one of them Coosros the
- 2:51Speaker 1: second invaded Judea, took Jerusalem, led away captive the inhabitants,
- 2:56Speaker 1: together with their patriarch Zacharias, and even carried off to
- 2:59Speaker 1: purer Persia the precious relic, which was regarded as the
- 3:02Speaker 1: wood of the True Cross, and which had been discovered
- 3:05Speaker 1: nearly three centuries before by the Empress Helena. Whilst excavations
- 3:10Speaker 1: were making on Calvary for the erection of the Church
- 3:12Speaker 1: of the Holy Sepulcher. But fourteen years later, after several
- 3:16Speaker 1: victories over the Persians, the Greek emperor Heraclius retook Jerusalem
- 3:21Speaker 1: and re entered Constantinople in triumph with the coffer containing
- 3:25Speaker 1: the sacred Relic. He next year, in six twenty nine,
- 3:29Speaker 1: carried it back to Jerusalem and bore it upon his
- 3:32Speaker 1: own shoulders to the top of cavalry, and on this
- 3:35Speaker 1: occasion was instituted the Feast of the Exultation of the
- 3:37Speaker 1: Holy Cross. Great was the joy in Christendom, and the
- 3:41Speaker 1: pilgrimages to Jerusalem resumed their course. But precisely at this
- 3:45Speaker 1: epoch there appeared an enemy far more formidable for the
- 3:48Speaker 1: Christians than the secretaries of Zoroast. In six twenty two,
- 3:53Speaker 1: Mohammed founded Islam, and some years after his death in
- 3:56Speaker 1: six thirty eight, the second of the Caliphs, his successors, Omar,
- 4:01Speaker 1: sent two of his generals, Khalid and Abu Obada, to
- 4:04Speaker 1: take Jerusalem, for to the Mussulmans also, Jerusalem was a
- 4:09Speaker 1: holy city. Mahammed, it was said, had been thither. It
- 4:13Speaker 1: was thence indeed that he had started on his nocturnal
- 4:15Speaker 1: assent to Heaven. On approaching the walls, the Arabs repeated
- 4:19Speaker 1: these words from the Koran, enter we the holy land
- 4:22Speaker 1: which God hath promised us. The siege lasted four months.
- 4:27Speaker 1: The Christians at last surrendered, but only to Omar in person,
- 4:30Speaker 1: who came from Medina to receive their submission. A capitulation
- 4:34Speaker 1: concluded with their patriarch, Sophronius, guaranteed them their lives, their property,
- 4:39Speaker 1: and their churches. When the draft of the treaty was completed,
- 4:43Speaker 1: Omar said to the patriarch, conduct me to the Temple
- 4:46Speaker 1: of David. Omar entered Jerusalem, preceded by the patriarch, and
- 4:50Speaker 1: followed by four thousand warriors followers of the prophet, wearing
- 4:54Speaker 1: no other arms but their swords. Sophronius took him first
- 4:58Speaker 1: of all to the Church of the Resurrection. Behold, said he,
- 5:01Speaker 1: the Temple of David. Thou sayest not true, said Omar.
- 5:04Speaker 1: After a few moments reflection, the prophet gave me a
- 5:07Speaker 1: description of the Temple of David, and it talieth not
- 5:10Speaker 1: with the building I now see. The patriarch then conducted
- 5:14Speaker 1: him to the Church of Sayan. Here he said, is
- 5:16Speaker 1: the temple of David. It is a lie. Rejoined Omar
- 5:19Speaker 1: and went his way, directing his step toward the gate
- 5:22Speaker 1: named Bob Mohammed. The spot on which now stands the
- 5:25Speaker 1: Mosque of Omar was so encumbered with filth that the
- 5:28Speaker 1: steps leading to the street were covered with it, and
- 5:31Speaker 1: that the rubbish reached almost to the top of the vault.
- 5:34Speaker 1: You can only get in here by crawling, said the patriarch.
- 5:37Speaker 1: Be it so answered Omar. The patriarch went first. Omar
- 5:41Speaker 1: with his people followed, and they arrived at the space
- 5:44Speaker 1: which at this day forms the forecourt of the mosque.
- 5:47Speaker 1: There every one could stand upright. After having turned his
- 5:51Speaker 1: eyes to left and right and attentively examined the place,
- 5:54Speaker 1: Allah Akhbar cried, Omar, here is the temple of David
- 5:58Speaker 1: described to me by the Prophet. He found the sacra,
- 6:02Speaker 1: the rock which forms the summit of Mount Mariah, and
- 6:05Speaker 1: which left alone after the different destructions of the different temples,
- 6:08Speaker 1: became the theme of a multitude of traditions and legends,
- 6:12Speaker 1: Jewish and Mussulman, covered with filth heaped up there by
- 6:15Speaker 1: the Christians. Through hatred of the Jews, Omar spread his
- 6:19Speaker 1: cloak over the rock and began to sweep it, and
- 6:22Speaker 1: all the Musulmans in his train followed his example. The
- 6:25Speaker 1: mosque of Omar rose up on the side of Solomon's temple.
- 6:29Speaker 1: The Christians retained the practice of their religion in their churches,
- 6:32Speaker 1: but they were obliged to conceal their crosses and their
- 6:35Speaker 1: sacred books. The bell no longer summoned the faithful to prayer,
- 6:39Speaker 1: and the pomp of ceremonies was forbidden them. It was
- 6:43Speaker 1: far worse when Omar, the most moderate of Mussulman fanatics,
- 6:46Speaker 1: had left Jerusalem. The faithful were driven from their houses
- 6:49Speaker 1: and insulted in their churches. Additions were made to the
- 6:52Speaker 1: tribute they had to pay to the new masters of Palestine.
- 6:56Speaker 1: They were prohibited from carrying arms and riding on horseback.
- 6:59Speaker 1: A girl myerdle of leather, which they might not lay aside,
- 7:02Speaker 1: was their badge of servitude. Their conquerors brooked not even
- 7:06Speaker 1: that the Christians should speak the Arab tongue reserved for
- 7:09Speaker 1: disciples of the Quran, and the Christian people of Jerusalem
- 7:12Speaker 1: had not the right of nominating their own patriarch without
- 7:16Speaker 1: the intervention of the Saracens. From the seventh to the
- 7:19Speaker 1: eleventh century, the situation remained very much the same. The
- 7:23Speaker 1: Mussulmans caliphs of Egypt or Persia continued in possession of Jerusalem,
- 7:28Speaker 1: and the Christians, native inhabitants or foreign visitors continued to
- 7:32Speaker 1: be oppressed, harassed, and humiliated there. At two periods, their
- 7:36Speaker 1: condition was temporarily better. At the commencement of the ninth century.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Charlemagne reached even there with greatness of his mind and
- 7:43Speaker 1: of his power. It was not only in his own land,
- 7:46Speaker 1: in his own kingdom, says Egenhard, that he scattered those
- 7:49Speaker 1: gratuitous largesses which the Greeks call alms, but beyond the seas,
- 7:54Speaker 1: in Syria, in Egypt, in Africa, at Jerusalem, at Alexandria,
- 7:59Speaker 1: at Carthae, wherever he knew that there were Christians living
- 8:02Speaker 1: in poverty. He had compassion on their misery, and he
- 8:06Speaker 1: delighted to send them money. In one of his capitularies
- 8:09Speaker 1: of the year eight ten, we find this paragraph alms
- 8:12Speaker 1: to be sent to Jerusalem to repair the churches of God.
- 8:16Speaker 1: If Charlemagne was so careful to seek the friendship of
- 8:18Speaker 1: the kings beyond the seas, it was above all in
- 8:21Speaker 1: order to obtain for the Christians living under their rule
- 8:24Speaker 1: help and relief. He kept up so close a friendship
- 8:27Speaker 1: with Haroun al Rashid, King of Persia, that this prince
- 8:31Speaker 1: preferred his good graces to the alliance of the sovereigns
- 8:33Speaker 1: of the earth. Accordingly, when the ambassadors whom Charles had
- 8:37Speaker 1: sent with presents to visit the sacred tomb of our
- 8:40Speaker 1: Divine Savior and the sight of the Resurrection, presented themselves
- 8:44Speaker 1: before him and expounded to him their master's wish, Haroun
- 8:48Speaker 1: did not content himself with entertaining Charles's request. He wished besides,
- 8:53Speaker 1: to give up to him the complete proprietorship of those
- 8:55Speaker 1: places hallowed by the certification of our redemption. And he
- 8:59Speaker 1: sent him with the most magnificent presence, the keys of
- 9:02Speaker 1: the Holy Sepulcher. At the end of the same century,
- 9:06Speaker 1: another Christian sovereign, far less powerful and less famous, John Zimisses,
- 9:11Speaker 1: Emperor of Constantinople, in a war against the Mussulmans of Asia,
- 9:15Speaker 1: penetrated into Galilee, made himself master of Tiberius, Nazareth, and
- 9:20Speaker 1: Mount Tabor, and received a deputation which brought him the
- 9:23Speaker 1: keys of Jerusalem and we have placed, he says himself,
- 9:27Speaker 1: garrisons in all the district lately subjected to our rule.
- 9:31Speaker 1: These were but strokes of foreign intervention, giving the Christians
- 9:34Speaker 1: of Jerusalem gleams of hope, rather than lasting diminutions of
- 9:38Speaker 1: their miseries. However, it is certain that during this epoch
- 9:42Speaker 1: pilgrimages multiplied and were often accomplished without obstacle. It was
- 9:47Speaker 1: from France, England and Italy that most of the pilgrims went,
- 9:51Speaker 1: and some of them wrote or caused to be written
- 9:53Speaker 1: an account of their trip. Amongst others, the Italian Saint Valentine,
- 9:57Speaker 1: the English Saint Wulabad, and the French bishop Saint Auculfe,
- 10:01Speaker 1: who had as companion a Burgundian hermit named Peter, a
- 10:05Speaker 1: singular resemblance in quality and name to the zealous Apostle
- 10:08Speaker 1: of the Crusade three centuries later. The most curious of
- 10:12Speaker 1: these narratives is that of a French monk, Bernard, a
- 10:15Speaker 1: pilgrim of about the year eight seventy. There is at Jerusalem,
- 10:19Speaker 1: says he, a hospice where admittance is given to all
- 10:22Speaker 1: who come to visit the place for devotion's sake, and
- 10:25Speaker 1: who speak the Roman tongue. A church dedicated to Saint
- 10:28Speaker 1: Mary is hard by the hospice and possesses a very
- 10:32Speaker 1: noble library, which it oweth to the zeal of the
- 10:35Speaker 1: Emperor Charles the Great. This pious establishment had attached to
- 10:39Speaker 1: it fields, vineyards and a garden situated in the valley
- 10:42Speaker 1: of Jehosephat. But whilst there were a few isolated cases
- 10:46Speaker 1: of Christians thus going to satisfy in the east their
- 10:49Speaker 1: pious and inquisitive zeal, the Mussulmans, equally ardent as believers
- 10:54Speaker 1: and as warriors, carried westward their creed and their arms,
- 10:58Speaker 1: established themselves in Spain, penetrated to the very heart of France,
- 11:02Speaker 1: and brought on between Islamism and Christianity that grand struggle
- 11:06Speaker 1: in which Charles Martel gained at Portier the victory for
- 11:09Speaker 1: the Cross. It was really a definitive victory, and yet
- 11:13Speaker 1: it did not end the struggle. The Mussulmans remained masters
- 11:16Speaker 1: in Spain and continued to infest southern France, Italy and sicily,
- 11:21Speaker 1: preserving even at certain points posts which they used as
- 11:24Speaker 1: starting points for distant ravages. Far then from calming down
- 11:28Speaker 1: and resulting in Pacific relations the hostility between the two
- 11:31Speaker 1: races became more and more active and determined. Everywhere they opposed,
- 11:35Speaker 1: fought and oppressed one another, inflamed one against the other
- 11:39Speaker 1: by the double feelings of faith and ambition, hatred and fear.
- 11:44Speaker 1: To this general state of affairs came to be added
- 11:46Speaker 1: about the end of the tenth and beginning of the
- 11:48Speaker 1: eleventh century, incidents best calculated to aggravate. The evil Hakim,
- 11:53Speaker 1: Caliph of Egypt from nine sixty six to ten twenty one,
- 11:57Speaker 1: persecuted the Christians, especially at Jerusalem, with all the violence
- 12:01Speaker 1: of a fanatic and all the capriciousness of a despot.
- 12:04Speaker 1: He ordered them to wear upon their necks a wooden
- 12:07Speaker 1: cross five pounds in weight. He forbade them to ride
- 12:10Speaker 1: on any animal but mules or asses, and without assigning
- 12:13Speaker 1: any motive for his acts, confiscated their goods and carried
- 12:16Speaker 1: off their children. It was told to him one day
- 12:19Speaker 1: that when the Christians assembled in the Temple at Jerusalem
- 12:22Speaker 1: to celebrate Easter, the priests of the church rubbed balsam
- 12:25Speaker 1: oil upon the iron chain which held up the lamp
- 12:27Speaker 1: over the tomb of Christ, and afterwards set fire from
- 12:31Speaker 1: the roof to the end of the chain, the fire
- 12:33Speaker 1: stole down to the wick of the lamp and lighted it.
- 12:36Speaker 1: Then they shouted with admiration, as if fire from heaven
- 12:39Speaker 1: had come down upon the tomb, and they glorified their faith.
- 12:43Speaker 1: Hakim ordered the instant demolition of the Church of the
- 12:45Speaker 1: Holy Sepulcher, and it was accordingly demolished. Another time, a
- 12:49Speaker 1: dead dog had been laid at the door of a mosque,
- 12:52Speaker 1: and the multitude accused the Christians of this insult. Hakim
- 12:55Speaker 1: ordered them all to be put to death. The soldiers
- 12:58Speaker 1: were preparing to execute the use order when a young
- 13:00Speaker 1: Christian said to his friends, it were too grievous that
- 13:03Speaker 1: the whole church should perish. It were better that one
- 13:06Speaker 1: should die, for all only promised to bless my memory
- 13:09Speaker 1: year by year. He proclaimed himself alone to blame for
- 13:12Speaker 1: the insult, and was accordingly alone put to death. It
- 13:16Speaker 1: is from this story of the historian William of Tire
- 13:18Speaker 1: that Tazzo, in his Jerusalem Delivered, has drawn the admirable
- 13:22Speaker 1: episode of Olindo and Sophronia, a fine example and not
- 13:26Speaker 1: the only one, of an act of tyranny and an
- 13:28Speaker 1: act of virtue inspiring a great poet with the idea
- 13:31Speaker 1: of a masterpiece. All the deeds of Hakim were without motive,
- 13:35Speaker 1: says the Arab historian Macrisi, and the dreams suggested to
- 13:39Speaker 1: him by his frenzy are incapable of reasonable interpretation. These
- 13:44Speaker 1: and many other similar stories reached the West, spread amongst
- 13:47Speaker 1: the Christian people, and roused them to pity for their
- 13:49Speaker 1: brethren in the East and to wrath against the oppressors.
- 13:53Speaker 1: And it was at a critical period, in the midst
- 13:55Speaker 1: of the pious alarms and desires of atonement excited by
- 13:58Speaker 1: the expectation of the ends of the world a thousand
- 14:01Speaker 1: years after the coming of the Lord, that the Christian
- 14:04Speaker 1: population saw this way opened for purchasing a remission of
- 14:07Speaker 1: their sins, by delivering other Christians from suffering, and by
- 14:11Speaker 1: avenging the wrongs of their creed. On all sides arose
- 14:15Speaker 1: challenges and appeals to the warlike ardor of the faithful.
- 14:19Speaker 1: The greatest mind of the age, Gerbert, who had become
- 14:21Speaker 1: Pope sylvest the Second, constituted himself interpreter of the popular feeling.
- 14:26Speaker 1: He wrote, in the name of the Church of Jerusalem,
- 14:29Speaker 1: a letter addressed to the Universal Church to work then
- 14:32Speaker 1: soldier of Christ, be our standard barrier and our champion.
- 14:37Speaker 1: And if with arms thou canst not do so, aid
- 14:40Speaker 1: us with thy words thy wealth. What is it pray
- 14:43Speaker 1: that thou givest, and to whom pray dost thou give
- 14:46Speaker 1: of thine abundance. Thou givest a small matter, And thou
- 14:49Speaker 1: givest to him who hath freely given thee all thou possessest.
- 14:53Speaker 1: But he will not accept freely that which thou shalt give,
- 14:57Speaker 1: for he will multiply thine offering and will pay it
- 14:59Speaker 1: back to thee. Hereing some years after Gerbert, another great mind,
- 15:04Speaker 1: the greatest among the popes of the Middle Ages, Gregory
- 15:07Speaker 1: the seventh, proclaimed an expedition at the head of which
- 15:09Speaker 1: he would place himself to go and deliver Jerusalem and
- 15:12Speaker 1: the Christians of the East from the insuls and the
- 15:14Speaker 1: tyranny of the infidels. Such being the condition of facts
- 15:19Speaker 1: and minds, pilgrimages to Jerusalem became from the ninth to
- 15:22Speaker 1: the eleventh century more and more numerous and considerable. It
- 15:26Speaker 1: would never have been believed, says the contemporary chronicler Raoul Glambour,
- 15:31Speaker 1: that the Holy Sepulcher could attract so prodigious an influence.
- 15:34Speaker 1: First the lower classes, then the middle, and afterwards the
- 15:38Speaker 1: most potent kings, the counts, the marquises, the prelates, and
- 15:42Speaker 1: lastly what had never heretofore been seen. Many women, noble
- 15:46Speaker 1: or humble, undertook the pilgrimage. In ten twenty six William Treelfair,
- 15:51Speaker 1: Count of Ongoloom, in ten twenty eight, ten thirty five
- 15:55Speaker 1: and ten thirty nine Fluked, the Black, Count of Anjou.
- 15:58Speaker 1: In ten thirty five, Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy,
- 16:02Speaker 1: father of William the Conqueror. In ten eighty six, Robert
- 16:06Speaker 1: the Frissont, Count of Flanders, and many other great feudal
- 16:10Speaker 1: lords quitted their estates, or rather their estates, to go
- 16:14Speaker 1: and not deliver, not conquer, but simply visit the Holy Land.
- 16:19Speaker 1: It was not long before great numbers were joined to
- 16:21Speaker 1: great names. In ten fifty four, Liedbert, Bishop of Cambray,
- 16:26Speaker 1: started for Jerusalem with a following of three thousand Picard
- 16:29Speaker 1: or Flemish pilgrims, and in ten sixty four the Archbishop
- 16:33Speaker 1: of Mayence and the bishops of Spire Colonna, Bamberg and
- 16:37Speaker 1: Utrecht set out on their way from the borders of
- 16:39Speaker 1: the Rhine, with more than ten thousand Christians behind them.
- 16:43Speaker 1: After having passed through Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Thrace, Constantinople, Asia
- 16:49Speaker 1: Minor and Syria, they were attacked in Palestine by hordes
- 16:52Speaker 1: of Arabs, were forced to take refuge in the ruins
- 16:55Speaker 1: of an old castle, and were reduced to capitulation. And
- 16:59Speaker 1: when at last preceded by the rumors of their battles
- 17:01Speaker 1: and their perils, they arrived at Jerusalem. They were received
- 17:05Speaker 1: in triumph by the Patriarch and were conducted to the
- 17:08Speaker 1: sounds of timbrels, and with the flare of torches, to
- 17:10Speaker 1: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The misery they had
- 17:14Speaker 1: fallen into excited the pity of the Christians of Asia,
- 17:17Speaker 1: and after having lost more than three thousand of their comrades,
- 17:20Speaker 1: they returned to Europe to relate their tragic adventures and
- 17:23Speaker 1: the dangers of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Amidst
- 17:27Speaker 1: this agitation of Western Christendom, in ten seventy six, two
- 17:31Speaker 1: years after Pope Gregory the seventh had proclaimed his approaching
- 17:34Speaker 1: expedition to the Holy Land, news arrived in Europe to
- 17:37Speaker 1: the effect that the most barbarous of Asiatics and of Mussulmans,
- 17:41Speaker 1: the Turks, after having first served and then ruled the
- 17:44Speaker 1: caliphs of Persia, and afterwards conquered the greater part of
- 17:47Speaker 1: the Persian Empire, had hurled themselves upon the Greek Empire,
- 17:51Speaker 1: invaded Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, and lately taken Jerusalem,
- 17:56Speaker 1: where they practiced against the Christians, old inhabitants or foreign visitors,
- 18:01Speaker 1: priests and worshipers, dreadful cruelties and intolerable exactions worse than
- 18:06Speaker 1: those of the Persian or Egyptian caliphs. It often happens
- 18:10Speaker 1: that popular emotions, however profound in general, remain barren, just
- 18:14Speaker 1: as in the vegetable world, many sprouts appear at the
- 18:16Speaker 1: surface of the soil and die without having grown and fructified.
- 18:20Speaker 1: It is not sufficient for the bringing about of great
- 18:23Speaker 1: events and practical results that popular aspirations should be merely manifested.
- 18:28Speaker 1: It is necessary further that some great soul, some powerful will,
- 18:32Speaker 1: should make itself the organ and agent of the public sentiment,
- 18:35Speaker 1: and bring it to fecundity by becoming its personification. The
- 18:40Speaker 1: Christian passion in the eleventh century for the deliverance of
- 18:43Speaker 1: Jerusalem and the triumph of the Cross was fortunate in
- 18:46Speaker 1: this respect. An obscure pilgrim, at first a soldier, then
- 18:50Speaker 1: a married man and father of several children, then a monk,
- 18:53Speaker 1: and a vowed recluse. Peter the hermit, who was born
- 18:56Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of Amien about ten thirty, had gone,
- 19:00Speaker 1: as so many others had, to Jerusalem to say his prayers. There,
- 19:04Speaker 1: Struck disconsolate at the sight of the sufferings and insults
- 19:07Speaker 1: undergone by the Christians, he had an interview with Simeon,
- 19:10Speaker 1: Patriarch of Jerusalem, who, recognizing in him a man of
- 19:14Speaker 1: discretion and full of experience and affairs of the world,
- 19:17Speaker 1: set before him in detail all the evils with which
- 19:20Speaker 1: the people of God in the Holy City were afflicted.
- 19:24Speaker 1: Holy Father, said Peter to him, if the Roman Church
- 19:27Speaker 1: and the princes of the West were informed by a
- 19:29Speaker 1: man of energy and worthy of belief of all your calamities,
- 19:32Speaker 1: of a surety, they would essay to apply some remedy
- 19:35Speaker 1: there too by word. Indeed, write then to our Lord
- 19:38Speaker 1: the Pope, and to the Roman Church, and to the
- 19:41Speaker 1: kings and princes of the West, and strengthen your written
- 19:44Speaker 1: testimony by the authority of your seal. As for me,
- 19:47Speaker 1: I shrink not from taking upon me a task for
- 19:50Speaker 1: the salvation of my soul. And with the help of
- 19:52Speaker 1: the Lord, I am ready to go and seek out
- 19:54Speaker 1: all of them, solicit them, show unto them the immensity
- 19:58Speaker 1: of your troubles, and pray them all to hasten on
- 20:01Speaker 1: the day of your relief. The Patriarch eagerly accepted the
- 20:04Speaker 1: Pilgrim's offer, and Peter set out, going first of all
- 20:08Speaker 1: to Rome, where he handed to Pope Urban the second
- 20:10Speaker 1: the Patriarch's letters and commenced in that quarter his mission
- 20:14Speaker 1: of zeal. The Pope promised him not only support but
- 20:17Speaker 1: active cooperation. When the propitious moment for it should arrive.
- 20:21Speaker 1: Peter set to work, being still the Pilgrim everywhere in Europe,
- 20:25Speaker 1: as well as at Jerusalem. He was a man of
- 20:28Speaker 1: very small stature, and had outside made but a very
- 20:31Speaker 1: poor appearance. Yet superior powers swayed this miserable body. He
- 20:35Speaker 1: had a quick intellect and a penetrating eye, and he
- 20:38Speaker 1: spoke with ease and fluency we saw him at that time,
- 20:41Speaker 1: says his contemporary Jubert de nogent, scouring city in town,
- 20:46Speaker 1: and preaching everywhere. The people crowded round him. Heaped presents
- 20:50Speaker 1: upon him, and celebrated his sanctity by such great praises
- 20:53Speaker 1: that I remember not that like honor was ever rendered
- 20:56Speaker 1: to any other person. He displayed great generosity in the
- 21:00Speaker 1: disposal of all things that were given him. He restored
- 21:03Speaker 1: wives to their husbands, not without the addition of gifts
- 21:06Speaker 1: from himself. And he re established with marvelous authority, peace
- 21:10Speaker 1: and good understanding between those who had been at variance.
- 21:13Speaker 1: In all that he said or did, he seemed to
- 21:15Speaker 1: have in him something divine, insomuch that people went so
- 21:18Speaker 1: far as to pluck hairs from his mule. To keep
- 21:20Speaker 1: his relics in the open air. He wore woolen tunic,
- 21:24Speaker 1: and over it a serge cloak, which came down to
- 21:26Speaker 1: his heels. He had his arms and feet bare. He
- 21:29Speaker 1: ate little or no bread, and lived chiefly on wine
- 21:32Speaker 1: and fish. End of Chapter sixteen, Part one