volume one

HISTOllY OF TKE CIIUSADES. 47
at first considered the reform of the clergj and ecclesiastical
discipline ; and it then occupied itself in placing a restraint
npon the license of wars among indi\'iduals. In these barbarous
times even simple knights never thought of redressing
their injuries by any other means than arms. It vras not
an uncommon thing to see families, for the slightest causes,
commence a war against each other that would last diu-ing
several generations ; Europe was distracted with troubles
occasioned by these hostilities. In the impotence of the
laws and the governments, the Church often exerted its
salutary influence to restore tranquiUity : several coimcils
had placed their interdict upon private wars during four
days of the week, and their decrees had invoked the vengeance
of Heaven against disturbers of the public peace. The
council of Clermont renewed the truce of Grod, and threatened
all who refused " to accept peace and justice'''' with the
tliunders of the Church. One of its decrees placed widows,
orphans, merchants, and labourers under the safeguard of
religion. They declared, as they had already done in other
councils, that the churches should be so many inviolable
sanctuaries, and that crosses, even, placed upon the high
roads should become points of refuge against violence.
Humanity and reason must applaud such salutary decrees ;
but the sovereign pontiff", although he presented himself as
the defender of the sanctity of marriage, did not merit the
same praises when he pronounced in this council an anathema
against Philip I. : but such was then the general infatuation,
that no one was astonished that a king of France should be
excommunicated in the very bosom of his own kingdom.
The sentence of Urban could not divert attention from an
object that seemed much more imposing, and the excommunication
of Philip scarcely holds a place in the history of
the comicil of Clermont. The faithful, gathered from all the
provinces, had but one single thought ; they spoke of nothmg
but the e\dls the Christians endured in Palestine, and saw
nothing but the war which was about to be declared against
the infidels. Enthusiasm and fanaticism, which always
increase in large assemblies, were carried to their full height.
Urban at length satisfied the impatience of the faithful,
impatience which he, perhaps, had adroitly excited, and
which was the surest guarantee of success.