volume one

50 HISTORY or THE CRUSADES.
were not now called upon to revenge the injuries of men,
but injuries offered to divinity ; it was now not the conquest
of a town or a castle that was offered to them as the reward
of their valour, but the riches of Asia, the possession of a
land in which, according to the promises of the Scriptures,
flowed streams of milk and honey.
The pontiff sought to awaken in their minds, by turns,
ambition, the love of glory, religious enthusiasm, and pity
for their Clu-istian brethren. "There scarcely exists," said
he, " a Christian family into which the Mussulmans have
not brought moumuig and despair. How many Christians
every year leave the West, to find in Asia nothing but
slavery or death ! Bishops have been delivered over to the
executioner ; the virgins of the Lord have been outraged
holy places have been despoiled of their ornaments ; the
offerings of piety have become the booty of the enemies of
God ;
the children of the faithful have forgotten in bondage
the faith of their fathers, and bear upon their bodies the
impression of their opprobrium. Witnesses of so many
calamities, the Christians of Jerusalem would long since
have left the holy city, if they had not imposed upon them-
selves the obhgation of succouring and consoling pilgrims,
if they had not feared to leave Avithout priests, \s-ithout altars,
without worshippers, a land where still
Jesus Christ.
smokes the blood of
" I will not seek to dry the tears which images so painful
for a Christian, for a minister of religion, for the common
father of the faithful, must draw from you. Let us weep,
my brethren, let us weep over the errors which have armed
the anger of Grod against us ; let us weep over the captivity
of the holy city ! But evil be to us, if, in. our sterile pity,
we lono:er leave the heritacce of the Lord in the hands of the
impious ! Why
should we taste here a moment's repose
whilst the children of Jesus Christ live in the midst of
torments, and the queen of cities groans in chains ?
" Christian warriors, who seek without end for vain pre-
texts for war, rejoice, for you have to-day found true ones.
Tou, who have been so often the terror of your fellow-
citizens, go and fight against the barbarians, go and fight for
the deliverance of the holy places you who sell for yile pay
;
the strength of your arms to the fury of others, armed with
;