volume one

56 HISTOUT OF THE CEUSA-DES.
mised to kniglits whose whole wealth consisted in their birth,
their valour, and their sword.*
AVe should nevertheless deceive ourselves if we did not
believe that religion was the principle which acted most
powerfullv upon the greater number of the Crusaders. In
ordinarv times men follow their natural inclinations, . and
onlv obev the voice of their own interest ; but in the times
of the Crusades, rehgious fever M'as a blind passion, which
spoke louder than all others. Eehgion permitted not any
other srlorv, anv other fehcitv to be seen bv its ardent
defenders, but those which she presented to their heated
imagination. Love of countrv, family ties, the most tender
affections of the heart, were all sacriticed to the ideas and
the opinions which then possessed the whole of Europe.
Moderation was cowardice, indifference treason, opposition
a sacrilegious interference. The power of the laws was
reckoned as notliinsr amon2:st men who believed thev were
fighting in the cause of Grod. Subjects scarcely acknowledged
the authority of princes or lords in anything which
concerned the holy war ; the master and the slave had no
other title than that of Christian, no other duty to perform
than that of defending his rehgion, sword in hand.
They whom age or condition appeared to detain in Europe,
and whom the council had exempted from the labours and
peiils of the crusade, caused the heaven which called them
to the holy war to speak aloud.f "Women and children imprinted
crosses upon their dehcate and weak hmbs, to show
the will of God.i Monks deserted the cloisters in which
they had sworn to die, beheving themselves led by a divine
* Robert le Frisin, second son of tlie count of Flanders, not being
allowed a share of the wealth of his house, said to his father, " Give me
men and vessels, and I will go and conquer a state among the Saracens of
Spain."
t The archbishop of Dol could not refrain from showing his surprise
Eicessit tamen medicina rnodum,
by words very remarkable for the time :
quia plus quam debuit in quibusdam eundi voluntas surrepsit.—Baldric,
Archiep. lib. i.
X The Abbe Guibert quotes the example of a monk who made a large
incision on his forehead in the form of a cross, and preserved it with prepared
juices. He took care to report that an angel had made this
incision, which procured for him, during both the voyage and the war,
all the help he could desire. He became archbishop of Csesarea. Foulque,