empire engaged the attention and employed the arms of the chief military leaders. But when the Normans had completed the conquest of England and the two Sicilies, when the imperial power had sunk before the popes in Italy and the feudal princes in Germany, vast hordes of military adventurers who remained without employment, ready to embrace any cause that promised to gratify their love of glory and plunder. At this moment an enthusiastic monk, usually called Peter the Hermit, indignant at the oppression of the Christians, which he had witnessed in Palestine, began to preach the duty of expelling the infidels from the patrimony of Christ, and by his energetic labors, widely diffused his own fanaticism. Peter's zeal was vigorously seconded by Pope Urban II.; the pontiff went personally to France, and held a council at Clermont (A. D. 1095), where the war was sanctioned with great enthusiasm, and multitudes assumed the badge of the cross, as the symbol of their enlistment. The first hordes of crusaders were ignorant fanatics, guided by men of no note or experience. They marched without order or discipline, pillaging, burning, and plundering the countries that they traversed. So great was the delusion that whole families joined in these wild expeditions; farmers were seen driving carts containing their wives and children in the line of march, while boys bearing mimic implements of war, sported round, mistaking every stranger for a Turk, and every new town for Jerusalem. Most of these wretches perished by fatigue, famine, disease, or the swords of the people they had outraged, but not before their excesses had indelibly stigmatized the cause in which they were engaged. The Jews along the Rhine suffered most severely from these fanatics, who were persuaded that the sacrifice of this unfortunate. race would be the best propitiation for the success of their expedition. Myriads of the hapless Jews were massacred with every torture and indignity that malice could suggest; whole families committed suicide by mutual agreement; a few submitted to be baptized, and purchased safety by apostacy. The archbishop of Mayence exerted all the means in his power to protect the wretched victims, but had the mortification to witness the murder of those who sought refuge in his own palace. At length a regular army was organized, under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine, one of the most celebrated generals of the age. No sovereign joined his standard, but the leading nobility of Christendom were enrolled among his followers, among whom may be mentioned, Robert, duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror, Hugh, brother of the king of France, Bohemond, prince of Tarentum, and Raymond, count of Toulouse. When the divisions of this formidable army arrived near Constantinople, Alexis, who then ruled the Byzantine empire, was naturally terrified by the appearance of hosts too powerful to be received as auxiliaries, and too formidable to be rejected as enemies. The crafty Greek had recourse to treachery and dissimulation; after a disgusting train of fraudulent negotiations, the Latin warriors passed into Asia, leaving behind them. worse enemies in the Christians of the Byzantine empire, whom it was part of their object to protect, than the Turks they had come to assail. Their early career in Asia was glorious, but purchased at an enormous expenditure of life. Nicea, the capital of the sultany of Rúm, was taken; a great victory over the sultan Soleiman opened a passage into Syria; Antioch was captured after a seige of unparalleled difficulty, and finally, Jerusalem, which had been recently wrested from the Turks by the Egyptians, fell before the arms of the crusaders, and became the capital of a new kingdom (A. D. 1099). Jerusalem was obstinately defended by the Mussulmans; they hurled beams and stones on the heads of those who tried to scale the walls, and flung burning oil and sulphur on the moveable towers and bridges employed by the assailants. The crusaders displayed equal energy, but on the second day of assault, just as they were sinking under the united effects of weariness and a burning sun, Godfrey declared that he saw a celestial messenger on the Mount of Olives, cheering the Christians to the combat. The enthusiasm awakened by such a declaration bore down every obstacle; the crusaders made good their lodgement on the wall, and the Mohammedans fled into the city. Amid the most rapturous shouts of triumph the banner of the cross was planted on the towers of Jerusalem, and as it unfurled itself in the wind, many of the bravest warriors wept for joy. But the triumph was sullied by an indiscriminate and unsparing massacre; a helpless crowd sought shelter in the mosque of Omar, but the gates were speedily forced and the fugi tives butchered; the knights boasted that they rode in Saracen blood up to the knees of their horses. The massacre lasted all day, but when the shades of evening began to close around, the crusaders sud denly recollected that they were in the midst of those places which had been hallowed by the presence and sufferings of their Savior. As if by some common and supernatural impulse, the savage warriors were suddenly changed into devout pilgrims; each hasted to remove from his person the stains of slaughter; they laid aside their weapons, and in the guise of penitents, with bare heads and feet, streaming eyes and folded hands, they ascended the hill of Calvary and entered the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The services of religion were performed by the clergy of Jerusalem, who hailed their deliverers with enthusiastic gratitude. Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen sovereign of Palestine; he refused the title of king, declaring that Christ was the true monarch of the Holy Land, and declined to wear a crown of gold, where his Savior had borne a crown of thorns. Baldwin, his brother and successor, was less scrupulous; he assumed the royal ensigns and title, and transmitted the throne to his cousin, Baldwin du Bourg, whose posterity continued to reign in Palestine until the kingdom was overthrown by Saladin (a. D. 1187). Several minor states were established by the crusaders, of which the most remarkable were the county of Edessa, the principality of Antioch, the county of Tripoli, and, at a later period, the kingdom of Cyprus. None of these states had long duration; the Christians of the east, continually assailed by powerful enemies, could not be persuaded to unite cordially for mutual defence; victories were scarcely less calamitous to them than defeats, on account of the difficulty of obtaining reinforcements from Europe; and though the crusading enthusiasm endured for two centuries, its heat gradually abated, and nothing would have kept it alive but the privileges and grants made by the popes, and the principal European potentates, to those who joined in such expedi tions. Six principal crusades followed the first great movement; they were all either unsuccessful or productive of advantages as fleeting as they were trivial. Forty-eight years after Jerusalem had been taken by the Christians, the emperor, Conrad III., and Louis VII., king of France, undertook a second crusade to support the sinking fortunes of their brethren in Palestine (A. D. 1117). The Atta-beg Zenghi, who had, by his superior prowess, obtained the chief command over the Turkish tribes in Irak, attacked the Christian territories beyond the Euphrates, and made himself master of Edessa, justly regarded as the bulwark of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Conrad proceeded to Constantinople, without waiting for his ally. He had to encounter the treacherous hostility of the Byzantine emperor, which proved fatal to an army containing the flower of German chivalry, including a troop of noble ladies who served in the attitude and armor of men. Manuel, who then held the throne of Constantinople, gave the sultan secret intelligence of the German line of march, and furnished Conrad with treacherous guides. After a glorious but unsuccessful battle on the banks of the Mæander, Conrad was forced to retreat; he met the French advancing from the Bosphorus, and the contrast of his own condition with the pomp of Louis, led him to desert the cause. The French, undismayed and unwarned, pursued their march with inconsiderate speed; their rear-guard was surprised by the Turkish troops, while the van was at a considerable distance, and the greater part put to the sword. Louis brought the shattered remnant of his forces by sea to Antioch; the Christians of Palestine joined him in an unsuccessful siege of Damascus, after which the monarch returned to Europe, dishonored by a faithless wife, and deserted by ungrateful allies. This disgraceful termination of an expedition from which so much had been expected, diffused feelings of melancholy and surprise throughout Europe. St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, through whose influence the crusade was undertaken, had to encounter the storm of public indignation; he was stigmatized as a lying prophet, who, by pretended inspiration and false miracles, had lured myriads to a miserable doom. But Bernard was not daunted by these reproaches; he replied to those accusations by pointing out the true causes of the failure, the follies and vices of the crusaders themselves; he asserted that a new expedition, undertaken in a spirit of piety, would be crowned with success; and he urged the states of Christendom to combine in one great effort for securing the kingdom of Jerusalem. His efforts to revive the crusading spirit were, however, unavailing, and death surprised him in the midst of his exertions. Noureddín,* the son of Zenghi, destroyed the dynasty of the Fatimite khaliphs in Egypt. His favorite, Saladin,† usurped the government of Egypt, and, though a Kurd by descent, became the favorite hero both of the Turks and Arabs. On the death of his ancient master, Saladin invaded the Christian territories, and, after a brief siege, made himself master of Jerusalem (A. D. 1187). The loss of the holy city filled all Europe with sorrow; the emperor, Frederic I., the lion-hearted * Núr-ed-din signifies "the light of religion." Richard England, Philip Augustus of France, and several minor. princes, umed the cross, while the maritime states of Italy, by sending immediate reinforcements to the garrisons on the coasts of he Mediterranean, arrested the progress of Saladin. Frederic advanced through the Byzantine territories, harassed at every step by Greek fraud and treachery. Having wintered at Adrianople, he crossed the Hellespont, defeated the Turks in several engagements, and stormed the city of Iconium. But in the midst of his glorious career he was drowned in the river Cydnus (A. D. 1190). The army persevered, and joined the eastern Christians in the famous siege of Acre, While Acre was closely pressed by the Christians, the oesiegers were, in their turn, so strictly blockaded by Saladin, that they suffered more than the garrison. The kings of England and France, however, followed by the flower of their dominions, appeared together as companions in arms, and reached Palestine by sea. The siege of Acre was so vigorously prosecuted after the arrival of the English that the town was soon forced to surrender, and the Christians began to indulge the hope of recovering Jerusalem. Their expectations were frustrated by the jealousy which arose between the French and the English; Philip, unable to brook the superiority which Richard acquired by his military prowess, and perhaps, in some degree, by his wealth, returned home, leaving a part of his army under the command of the duke of Burgundy, for the defence of the Holy Land. But the animosity between the French and English parties was increased rather than abated by the departure of Philip; the envy of his companions rendered the valorous exertions of Richard unavailing; he entered into a treaty with Saladin, obtaining for the Christians free access to Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre, and then hasted home to defend his dominions from the attacks of his ancient rival (A. D. 1192). On his return, the English monarch was seized and imprisoned by the duke of Austria, whom he had grievously insulted in Palestine; he was subsequently resigned to the custody of the emperor of Germany, from whom he had to purchase his liberation by the payment of a large ransom. The illustrious Saladin did not long survive the departure of the royal crusader; he died at Damascus, and the disputes that arose respecting his inheritance, prevented the Mohammedans from completing the destruction of the Latin kingdom of Palestine. The fourth crusade was undertaken at the instigation of Innocent III. (A. D. 1202), aided by a fanatic preacher, Foulke of Neuilly. The fervor of enthusiasm was now abated; no great sovereign joined in the enterprise, but several of the most potent feudatories offered their services, and Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, was chosen commander-inchief. The crusaders obtained transports from the Venetians, by conquering Zara, in Dalmatia, for the republic of Venice, in spite of the threats and remonstrances of the pope, who was justly indignant at seeing their first efforts directed against a Christian city. But this departure from their original design was followed by a still more remarkable deviation; instead of proceeding to Palestine, they sailed against Constantinople, to dethrone the usurper, Alexius Angelus. The crusaders succeeded in restoring the lawful emperor, Isaac, to his empire; but the reward they claimed for their services was extravagant, and Isaac's efforts to comply with the stipulations provoked such resent ment, that he was deposed by his subjects, and put to death, together with his son. The crusaders instantly proclaimed war against the usurper, Mourzoufle, laid siege to Constantinople, took the city by storm, pillaged it with remorseless cruelty, and founded a new Latin empire on the ruins of the Byzantine (A. D. 1204). Baldwin, count of Flanders, was chosen sovereign of the new state, which, under five Latin emperors, lasted little more than half a century. Constantinople was recovered by the Greeks (A. D. 1261), and the hopes of uniting the eastern and western churches, which the possession of the Byzantine capital had inspired, were blighted for ever. The fifth crusade was conducted by the king of Hungary. Two hundred thousand Franks landed at the eastern mouth of the Nile, persuaded that the conquest of Egypt was a necessary preliminary to the recovery and safe possession of Palestine (A. D. 1218). After having obtained some important successes, their cause was ruined by the arrogance and presumption of the papal legate, who assumed the direction of the army. They purchased some trivial concessions, by evacuating all their conquests; and the pope, who at first proposed to come in person to their assistance, was too busily engaged in checking the progress of heresy, to venture on an expedition to Palestine. Frederic II., emperor of Germany, led a formidable army to Palestine, after having been excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. for delaying his expedition, a sentence which was renewed because he ventured to sail without waiting for the papal orders (A. D. 1228). This war exhibited the strange anomaly of a champion of the cross exposed to the bitterest hostility of the church. Frederic was everywhere victorious, but the papal legates and the priests harassed him by constant opposition; a crusade was preached against him in Italy, and efforts were made to weaken his authority in his own hereditary dominions. On receiving this intelligence, Frederic concluded an equitable treaty with the sultan Melek Kamel, crowned himself at Jerusalem, for no ecclesiastic would perform the ceremony, and returned to Europe, after having effected more for the Christians of Palestine than any of their former protectors. Gregory again hurled anathemas against a prince who had made a treaty with the infidels; but Frederic's vigorous exertions soon changed the aspect of affairs; he reduced those who had rebelled during his absence, dispersed the papal and Lombard troops, and won absolution by his victories. Tranquillity, which endured fifteen years, raised the Latins of Palestine to a prosperous condition; but a new and more formidable enemy, issuing from the deserts of Tartary, subverted the kingdom which had been founded at such an expense of blood and treasure. The Khorasmian Turks, driven from their native deserts by the Mongols, threw themselves upon Palestine, stormed Jerusalem, subverted the Latin principalities, and the small Turkish states in Syria. Jerusalem, and the greater part of Palestine, was subsequently annexed to the sultany of Egypt. Louis IX., of France, commonly called St. Louis, led the ninth crusade. Egypt was the scene of his operations; after obtaining some |