volume one

HISTORY OF THE CEUSAHES. 33
and their country to ^dsit the tomb of Christ, lost their lives
before they were able to enjoy the felicity of saluting the
holy city ; and they who arrived at Jerusalem after having
escaped a thousand dangers, found themselves exposed to
the insults and cruelties of the new masters of Judea. The
pilgrims of the Latin Church who returned into Europe,
related all that they had suffered in their voyage, and told,
with groans, of the outrages committed upon the religion of
Christ. They had seen tlie holy sepulchre profaned, and
the ceremonies of the Christians become the sport of the
infidels ; they had seen the patriarchs of Jerusalem and the
venerable guardians of the holy places dragged from their
sanctuary and cast ignominiously into dungeons. These
recitals, exaggerated by repetition, flew from mouth to
mouth, and drew tears from the eyes of the faithful.
Whilst the Turks, under the command of Toutousch and
Ortock, were desolating Syria and Palestine, other tribes of
that nation, led by Soliman, nephew of Malek-Scha, had
penetrated into Asia Minor. They took possession of all
the pro\'inces through which pilgrims were accustomed to
pass on their way to Jerusalem. These countries, in which
the Christian religion had first shone forth, and the greater
part of the Greek cities whose names were conspicuous in
the annals of the primitive chm^ch, sunk under the yoke of
the infidels. The standard of the prophet floated over the
walls of Edessa, Iconium, Tarsus, and Antioch. Nicea had
become the seat of a Mussulman empire, and the divinity of
Christ was insulted in that city wherein the first oecumenic
council had declared it to be an article of faith. The
modesty of the vu'gins had been sacrificed to the brutal lust
of the conquerors. Thousands of children had been circumcised.*
Everywhere the laws of the Koran took place of
those of the Evangelists and of Greece. The black or white
tents of the Turks covered the plains and the mountains of
* A picture of the excesses and shameless debaucheries committed by
the Turks after the conquest of Asia Minor, may be found in a letter of
Alexis, quoted by the Abbe Guibert, lib. i., cap. 4 :— " Dicit eos quemdam
abusione sodomitica intervenisse episcopum ; matres correptse in
conspectu filiarum multipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus vexabantur.
Filiee existentise terminum prcecinere saltando cogebantur,—mox eadem
passio ad filias," &c.