volume one

4i niSTOHT or the CErsADZS. •
Heaven, at length, touched br the prayers and affliction
of the Christians, blessed the anns of Heraclius. who,
after ten years of reverses, triumphed over the enemies of
Christianity and the empii^e, and brought back to Jerusalem
the Christians whose chains he had broken. Then was
to be seen an emperor of the East, walking barefooted in
the streets of the holv citv, carrvinsr on his shoulders to the
summit of Calvary, the wood of the true cross, which he
considered the most glorious trophy of his victories. This
imposing ceremony was a festival for the people of Jerusalem
and the Christian church, which, latter stiQ, every year
celebrates the memorv of it.* AVhen Heraclius re-entered
Constantinople, he was received as the liberator of the
Christians, and the kings of the West sent ambassadors to
congratulate him.
But the joy of the faithful was not of long duration.
Towards the befrinning: of the seventh centurv there had
arisen, in an obscure comer of Asia, a new religion, opposed
to all others, which preached dominion and war. Mahomet
had promised the conquest of the world to his disciples, who
had issued almost naked from the deserts of Arabia.
By his passionate
...
doctrine he was able to inflame the
imaofination o of the Arabs, and on the field of battle knew how
to inspire them with his own impetuous courage. His first
successes, which must have greatly exceeded his hopes, were
like so many miracles, increasing the confidence of his partisans,
and carr^'inc: con\"iction to the minds of the weak
and wavering. The political state ot the East seemed to
ofier no obstacle to the progress of a sect, which, from its
birth, showed itself everywhere with fire and sword. The
worship of the Magi was sinking into contempt ; the Jews
scattered throughout Asia were opposed to the Sabeans, and
divided amongst themselves ;
and the Christians, under the
names of Eutychians, Xestorians, Maronites, and Jacobites,
were engaged in heaping, reciprocally, anathemas upon one
another. The empire of Persia, torn by intestine wars, and
attacked bv the barbarous races of Tartarv, had lost both
its power and splendour; that of the Greeks, weakened
* This festival is known under the name of the Exaltation of the Holj
Cross, and is celebrated on the 14th of September.