volume one

HISTOKY OF THE CRTTSADES. 331
country desolated, and pointed to the Church despised and
trampled under foot. "I will fight for her," he said, "to
the death ; but instead of bucklers and swords, I will employ
the arms which become me my tears and my sprayers
to Gody At the voice of the holy abbot, Louis became
sensible of his error ; and the dread of the anger of Heaven
made such a lively impression upon his mind, that he sank
into a deep and alarming depression. He believed he saw
the hand of God ready to strike him; he renounced all
pleasures, and abandoned even the care of his authority, in
order to devote himself to grief and tears. The abbot of
Clairvaux, who had awakened his remorse, was obliged to
calm his spirits and reanimate his courage, by representing
to him the great mercy of Grod. The king of Prance recovered
from his remorseless dejection ; but as in the
opinion of his age great crimes could only be absolved by
a voyage to the Holy Land, his earnest desire to expiate
the tragical death of the inhabitants of Yitri made him form
the resolution of going to combat against the infidels.
Louis YII. convoked an assembly at Bourges, at which he
made his project known to the principal nobility and the
clergy. Grodfrey, bishop of Langres, applauded his zeal,
and in a pathetic discourse deplored the captivity of Edessa,
and the dangers and disasters of the Eastern Christians.
His eloquence moved his auditors-; but the oracle of the
assembly, he who held all hearts in his hand, had not yet
spoken. Whether that he was yet not convinced of the
utility of the crusade, or that he was desirous of giving it
more solemnity, St. Bernard advised the king of Erance to
consult the Holy See before he undertook anj^thing. This
advice was generally approved of. Louis sent ambassadors
to Rome, and resolved to convoke a new assembly as soon
as he should have received the answer of the sovereign
pontiff.
Eugenius III., who then filled the chair of St. Peter, had
already in several of his letters solicited the assistance of
the faithful against the Saracens. The Holy See had never
had stronger motives for the preaching of a crusade. A
spirit of sedition and heresy was beginning to insinuate
itself among the people, and even among the clergy of the
West, threatening at the same time the power of the popea
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