1

fidence, and the inspiring eloquence of Peter the Hermit. Persuaded that he had a call from Heaven to avenge the insults heaped upon Christians and the Christian faith by the Saracens, he went through the West, describing, with the terrible energy of his sweeping eloquence, the sufferings of his brethren in the Holy Land and the profanation of holy places and holy things, and calling upon Europe to rise and go forth to deliver the Holy Sepulchre. Peter the IIermit and Pope Urban II. met at the council of Clermont. The Pope, moved to tears by the recital of Peter, made a stirring and eloquent appeal to the assembled multitude.2 "That land," said he, "in which the light of truth first shone; where the Son of God, in human guise, deigned to walk as man among men; where the Lord taught and suffered, died, and rose again; where the work of man's redemption was consummatedthis land, consecrated by so many holy memories, has passed into the hands of the impious. The temple of God has been profaned, His saints slain, and their bodies cast out upon the plains for the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field to feed upon. The blood of Christians flows like water in and about Jerusalem, and there is none to do the poor service of giving burial to their remains. Strong in our trust in the Divine Mercy, and by virtue of the authority of SS. Peter and Paul, of whose fullness we are the depositary, we hereby grant full remission of any canonical penalties whatever to all the faithful of Christ who from motives of earnest and sincere

! His influence in preparing the masses for undertaking the first crusade, however, is asserted only by later authorities.

2 The discourse in Willelm. Tyr., Hist. belli sacrì, lib. I., c. 14 (Bongars., T. I. p. 640). Another recension of this discourse in Baron, ad an. 1095, nros. 35 sq. See Hefele, Hist. of Counc., Vol. V., p. 205 sq.

Can. 2: Quicunque pro sola devotione, non pro honoris vel pecuniae adeptione ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem profectus fuerit, iter illud pro omni poenitentia reputetur. (Mansi, T. XX., p. 816; Harduin, T. VI., Pt. II., p. 1718.) In Urban's discourse, given in Willelm. Tyr., it is said besides: Nos autem de misericordia Domini et beat. Petri et Pauli apostolorum auctoritate confisi, fidelibus Christianis, qui contra eos arma susceperint, et onus sibi hujus peregrinationis assumserint, injunctas sibi pro suis delictis poenitentias relaxamus. Qui autem ibi in vera poenitentia decesserint, et peccatorum indulgentiam et fructum aeternae mercedis se non dubitent habituros. (Bongars., T. I., p.

devotion shall take up arms against the infidel. Should any one die while engaged in this holy pilgrimage, let him be assured that, if he be truly penitent, he shall havé his sins fully remitted to him, and pass to the joys of life eternal."

It is

At the close of Urban's address, the multitude rose to their feet, and in one voice cried out: "It is the will of God! the will of God."

The Pope then showing them the sign of their redemption, said: "Wear it upon your shoulders and upon your breasts; let it shine upon your arms and upon your standards; it will be to you the surety of victory or the palm of martyrdom; it will unceasingly remind you that Christ died for you, and that it is your duty to die for him."

Many immedia'ely marked their right shoulders with the sign of the Cross,' which became, from that hour, the special distinction of those engaged in the expedition, and indicated that those who bore it were ready to become soldiers of Christ, to take up their cross and follow Him. This sign, constantly before the eyes of the Crusaders, reminded them that the sentiments and aspirations of each should be the sentiments and aspirations of all; that in this holy warfare feelings of enmity should be put aside; and that, under the lead of the gallant knights, they should march as friends and brothers to the deliverance of the Holy Land. As Christ was the Great Leader of all, each knight sang with joyous enthusiasm the triumphant strains of the anthem: "Media vita in morte sumus;" "Quem quaerimus adjutorem nisi Te Domine," etc., “Kyrie eleison.'

Such was the great idea, such the inspiring motives of the Crusades. It is, of course, not pretended that human passion and worldly ambition may not have had a share in the motives of some; but when this is conceded, it must, on the other hand, be admitted that nothing short of a heavenly influence could have sustained and energized the nations of Europe in the conduct of this war during the lapse of two

1Cf. the account of the eye-witness, Balderici, Hist. Jerosolymitana (Bongars., T. I., p. 83).

2 See above, p. 421.

centuries. "Never since the creation of the world," says the monk Robert, "never since the consummation of the mystery of the Cross, has any expedition at all comparable to this been set on foot; and for this reason, because it was the work of God and not of man."

These popular expeditions were as profitable to the faith as they were creditable to the honor of Christians. They rebuked the rising rationalism of that age, and proclaimed the victory of faith. As, in the early days of the Church, the foolishness of the Cross was the confusion of the wisdom of Paganism, so now the same faith triumphed over Christian rationalism.

The warlike but undisciplined host that set out in the first expedition for the Holy Land, under the leadership of Peter the IIermit, had melted tɔ half their original number before they reached Bulgaria, where the Turks completely annihilated the remainder. A second army of gallant knights, also under the lead of Peter the IIermit, but superior in organization and discipline to the first, crossed over to Constantinople and Antioch, and, after having endured countless hardships and faced dangers the most appalling, finally triumphed over the Saracens and took Jerusalem, July 15, A. D. 1099. They proclaimed Godfrey de Bouillon its first king; but the pious Christian hero, refusing to wear the crown of royalty where the Son of God had worn a crown of thorns, styled himself simply Protector of the IIoly Sepulchre. The patriarchate of Jerusalem was again restored. Baldwin, the brother of Godfrey, remained in the county of Edessa, established in 1098, to defend Jerusalem from the East, while Bohemund, the prudent prince of Tarentum, was stationed at Antioch.

The dissensions of the Crusaders prevented the capture of the strong garrison of Ascalon, which, had it been taken, would have formed a most important defense on the side of Egypt.

Urban II., who had been chiefly instrumental in setting this crusade on foot and insuring its success, did not live to hear of the triumph of the Christian arms and the capture

of Jerusalem. Before the tidings of their successes reached the West he had passed to his reward, July 29, A. D. 1099.

§ 217. Paschal II. (A. D. 1099-1118)-Gelasius II. (A. D. 1119)— Calixtus II. (A. D. 1119–1124.)

Paschal. Vita et Epp. (Mansi, T. XX., p. 977 sq.; Harduin, T. VI., Pt. II., p. 1763 sq.) Udalrici Cod. Epistol., in Muratori, T. III., Pt. I. Gelasii et Calixti II. Vita et Epp. (Mansi, T. XXI., in Harduin, T. VI., Pt. II., p. 1941 sq.) Watterich, T. II., p. 1-153 (from Paschal II. to Calixtus II.) Gervais, Political Hist. of Germ. under Henry V., Lps. 1841. Giesebrecht, 1. c., Vol. III., Ft. 3.

While the people of the Western world were pushing on to the East, and seemed wholly taken up with the prosecution of the enterprise, the contest on investitures went on all the same. The discussion was no longer confined to the transference of the symbols used in the ceremony of investiture. It was now chiefly devoted to securing the freedom of canonical elections, which were impossible under the system of lay investiture; to the abrogation of the homagium, or oath made by ecclesiastics to their feudal lords; and, finally, to removing the disgraceful vice of simony, which was essentially connected with the practice of lay investiture.

Alter the death of the antipope, Clement III. (A. D. 1100), his partisans continued to appoint successors to him. There were three of them within a short interval. Cardinal Rainer, formerly a monk of Clugny, but drawn from his retirement by Gregory VII., who saw in him the promise of distinction, was elected successor to Urban, but made a long resistance before he could be prevailed upon to accept the office. He took the name of Paschal II.

The new Pope pursued the same policy as Gregory VII., and was equally as energetic as his illustrious predecessor, but did not possess the same firmness of character or knowledge of the world. He was accustomed to say, that "when one wished to raise a fallen man, he should do so by reaching down for him as far as he could safely, without falling himself."

In a Lateran synod of the year 1101, he again renewed, in the most emphatic language, the prohibition of lay investi

ture;1 but in his relations to Philip, king of France, who had already been twice excommunicated for his licentious excesses, and whom, on his sworn promise to give up his connection with Bertrada, Paschal had freed from ecclesiastical censure (A. D. 1104), were not characterized by a similar display of energy. Philip disregarded his oath, and the Pope allowed the perjury to pass without rebuke.

Anselm of Canterbury was at this time also engaged in a violent contest, in the Pope's name, against Henry I., king of England, the object of which was to secure the canonical freedom of episcopal elections, and to abolish the practice of lay investiture, by the transference of the ring and crosier. The king granted freedom of election in the case of bishops and abbots, and gave up all claim to investiture; but required, contrary to the prohibition of Urban, that bishops and abbotselect should take the usual oath of fidelity to the king previously to their consecration. This brought the controversy to a close for the time being.

2

2

The censures of the Church against Henry IV. had been again renewed. After the death of his son, Conrad, in battle (A. D. 1101), Henry had the mortification of seeing his younger son, Henry V., whom he had but a short time before appointed his successor, rise in arms against him (1104). Pope Paschal, being assured by an embassy from the young king that their master was earnestly desirous of a reconciliation, and ready to give every assurance and pledge of his future obedience to the Church, commissioned Gebhard, Bishop of Constance, to free him from the ecclesiastical censures incurred by his participation in schism, and to crown him king of Germany (A. D. 1106).

IIenry IV., after many fruitless efforts to maintain himself, was finally obliged, at the diet of Ingelheim, to resign his kingdom in favor of his son. Ile managed to make his

1 Conc. Rom. a. 1101, in Mansi, T. XX., p. 1135; the same repeated at the Synod. Guastalens. (1106), Trecens. (1107), Benevent. (1108), Lateran. (1110). Cf. Mansi, T. XX., p. 1209–1231; T. XXI., p. 7.

2 Cf. on this quarrel, Möhler, Anselm of Canterbury (Complete Works, T. I., p. 97-121); Hasse, Anselm of Canterbury, Lps. 1843, Pt. I., p. 293-454; Remusat, Anselm de Cantorbery, Paris, 1854. Hefele, Hist. of the Counc., Vol. V., p. 248 sq.