volume one

3S0 HISTORY OF THE cnrsA.DES.
an enterprise alone in wluch two monarclis had failed.
Suger. at the age of seventy, resolved to raise an army, to
maintain it at his own expense, and to lead it himself into
Palestine. In accordance with the devotion of the time, he
went to Tours, to 'dsit the tomb of St. ]Martin, in order to
obtain the protection of Heaven, and already ten thousand
pilgrims had taken up arms, and were preparing to follow
him into Asia, when death came to prevent the execution of
his designs.
In his last moments Suger invoked the assistance and the
prayers of St. Bernard, who sustained his courage, and ex-
horted hioi not to tiu-n his thouc]rhts from the heavenly Jerusalem,
in which both of them hoped soon to meet ; but iu
spite of the exhortations of his friend, the abbot of St. Denis
regretted, when d^-ing, not ha\'ing been able to succour the
holy city. St. Bernard was not lonor before he followed
Suger to the tomb, bearing with hun a deep regret at having
preached an unfortunate war.
France lost in the same year two men who had greatly
illustrated her, the one by talents and qualities useful to his
country, the other by his eloquence and virtues dear to aU
Christians, At a time when general attention was given to
the defence of the pri^'ileges of the CTiurch. Suger defended
the interests of royalty and the people ; whilst eloquent
preachers were animating the public zeal for holy wars
which were always accompanied by disasters, the skilful
minister of Louis YII. Avas preparing France, at a future day,
to gather the salutary- fruits of these great events. He was
accused of having gone too deeply into the mundane affairs of
his age ; but politics never banished from his mind the precepts
of the gospel. According to the judgment of his contemporaries,
he lived at the court like a wise courtier, and
in his cloister like a pious monk.* If there is in the church
of France, wrote St. Bernard to Pope Eugenius, any vase of
price which would embellish the palace of the King of
* We have a life of Suger, written hy his secretary. We have in French
a Life of the abbot of St. Denis, in three volumes. L'Academie Fran^aise
in 1778 proposed the Eulogy of Suger as a subject for a prize ; the discourse
of M. Garrat, which was crowned, contains many very eloquent
passages. We have before us another discourse which was published in
1779, which presents an exaggerated, but very ingenious satire upon the
"'' "nd administration of Suger.