volume one

HISTOEY OF TRE CEUSADES. 473
humblest of the faitlifiil. Some time after this whimsical
ceremony, his mind* being naturall}^ inclined to superstition,
he took a fancy to hear Abbot Joachim, \Yho lived in retirement
in the mountains of Calabria, and passed for a
prophet.
In a voyage to Jerusalem, this solitary had, it was said,
received from Jesus Christ the faculty of explaining the
Apocalypse, and to read in it, as in a faithful history, all that
was to take place on earth. On the invitation of the king
of England, he quitted his retreat, and repaired to Messina,
preceded by the fame of his visions and miracles. The
austerity of his morals, the singularity of his behaviour, with
the mystical obscurity of his discourses, at once procured
him the confidence and veneration of the Crusaders. He
was questioned upon the issue of the war they were about
to make in Palestine ; and he predicted that Jerusalem
would be delivered seven years after its conquest by Saladin.
"Why, then," said Bichard, "are we come so soon?"
" Tour arrival," replied Joachim, "is very necessary; Grod
will give you the victory over his enemies, and will render
your name celebrated above all the princes of the earth."
This speech, which did not at all flatter the passions or
impatience of the Crusaders, could only minister to the self-
love of Eichard. Philip was very little aflected by a prediction
which was afterwards also falsified by the event ; and
was only the more anxious to encounter Saladin, the redoubtable
conqueror, in whom Joachim saw one of the seven
heads of the Apocalypse. As soon as spring rendered the
sea navigable, Philip embarked for Palestine. He was
received there as an angel of the Lord, and his presence
reanimated the valour and hopes of the Christians, who had
during two years unsuccessfully besieged Ptolemais. The
French fixed their quarters within bow-shot of the enemy,
and, as soon as they had pitched their tents, proceeded to the
assault. Thev might have rendered themselves masters of
the city ; but Philip, inspired by a cliivalric spirit, rather
than by a wise policy, was desirous that Ilichard should be
* Fleury relates this fact in his Ecclesiastical History, after the English
historian Roger Hoveden. The same Roger speaks of the predictions
and visions of Abbot Joachim, who finished by incurring the censore of
the Holy See.