volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 17
tliem. The god trembled for the authority of the prince,
and allowed all his anger to fall upon the Christians, whom
he gave up to the fury of their enemies. The places which
the Christians held in the administration, and the abuses introduced
into the mode of levying the imposts, with which
duty they were charged, had drawn upon them the hatred
of all the Mussulmans. "When the caliph Hakim had once
given the signal for persecution, he found himself at no loss
for executioners. At first, they who had abused their power
were the objects of pursuit ; the Christian religion became
the next crime, and the most pious among the faithful were
deemed the most guilty. The blood of the Christians flowed
in all the cities of Egypt and Syria, their courage in the
midst of torments only adding to the hatred of their per-
secutors. The complaints which escaped them in their
sufferings, the prayers, even, which they addressed to Jesus
Christ to put an end to their e^dls, were considered as a
revolt, and piuiished as the most guilty treasons.
It is probable that motives of policy joined with those of
fonaticism in the persecution of the Christians. Gerbert,
archbishop of Eavenna, who had become pope, under the
name of Sylvester II., had witnessed the ills to which the
faithful were subjected in their pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
On his return he excited the nations of the West to take
up arms against the Saracens. In his exhortations, he made
Jerusalem herself speak, made her deplore her misfortunes,
and conjure her Christian children to hasten and break her
chains. The people were deeply moved with the complaints
and groans of Sion. The Pisans, the Grenoese, with Boson,
king of Aries, undertook a maritime expedition against
the Saracens, and made an incursion upon the coasts of
Syria. These hostilities, and the number of the pilgrims,
which increased every da)", might well create distrust in the
masters of the East. The Saracens, alarmed by sinister
predictions, and b}^ the imprudent menaces of the Cliristians,
saw nothing but enemies in the disciples of Christ ; from
that time terror and death guarded the gates of Jerusalem.
It is impossible, says William of T}Te, to describe all the
species of persecutions to which the Christians were then
exposed. Among the instances of barbarity cited by the
historians, there is one which gave to Tasso the idea of his