volume one

54 niSTOET OF THE CRUSADES.
had to combat the Saracens on its own territory. Such was
the ascendancy of the religion outraged by the infidels, such
"was the influence of the example given by the French, that
all Christian nations seemed to forget, at once, the objects of
their ambition or their fears, and furnished, for the crusade,
soldiers that they absolutely required to defend themselves.
The entire AVest resounded with these words: "^e wJio
will not take tcj) Jiis cross and come with me, is not icorthy
of me.^^
The devotion for pilgrimages, which had been increasing
during several centuries, became a passion and an imperative
want for most Christians ; every one was eager to march to
Jerusalem, and to take part in the crusade, which was, in all
respects, an armed pilgrimage. The situation in which
Europe was then placed, no doubt contributed to increase
the number of pilgrims :
'• all things were in such disorder,"
says William of T\Te, "that the world appeared to be
approaching to its end, and was ready to fall again into the
confusion of chaos." Everv^"here the people, as I have
already said, groaned under a horrible servitude ; a frightful
scarcity of provisions, which had, during several years, desolated
France and the greater part of the kingdoms of the
"West, had given birth to all sorts of brigandage and violence ;
and these proving the destruction of agriculture and commerce,
increased still further the horrors of the famine.
Villages, to^iis even, became void of inhabitants, and sank
into ruins. The people abandoned a land which no longei
nourished them, or could offer them either repose or security:
the standard of the cross appeared to them a certain asylum
against misery and oppression. According to the decrees of
the council of Clermont, the Crusaders were freed from all
imposts, and could not be pursued for debts during their
voyage. At the name of the cross, the very laws suspended
their menaces, tyranny could not seek its victims, nor justice
even the guilty, amidst those whom the Church adopted for
its defenders. The assiu-ance of impunity, the hope of a
better fate, the love of license, and a desire to shake off the
most sacred ties, actuated a vast proportion of the multitude
which flocked to the banners of the crusade.
Many nobles who had not at first taken the cross, and
who saw their vassals set out, without having the power to