was King of France the Duke of Burbant sailed over into Africa with a great armie there to fight against the Saracens The Saracen Prince sent an herald to know of him the cause of his coming The Duke answered it was to revenge the death of Christ the Sonne of God and true Prophet whom they had unjustly crucified The Saracens sent back their messenger again to demonstrate their innocencie how they were not Saracens but Jews which put Christ to death and therefore that the Christians if posteritie should be punished for their predecessours fault should rather revenge themselves on the Jews which lived amongst them Another relateth that in the yeare of our Lord 1453 the great Turk sent a letter to the Pope advertising him how he and his Turkish nation were not descended from the Jews but from the Trojans from whom also the Italians derive their pedegree and so would prove himself a-kinne to his Holinesse Moreover he added that it was both his and their dutie to repair the ruines of Troy and to revenge the death of their great grand-father Hector upon the Grecians to which end the Turk said he had already conquered a great part of Greece As for Christ he acknowledged him to have been a noble Prophet and to have been crucified of the Jews against whom the Christians might seek their remedie These two stories I thought good to insert because though of later date and since the Holy warre in Palestine was ended yet they have some reference thereunto because some make that our quarrel to the Turks But grant the Christians right to the Turks lands to be lawfull and the cause in it self enough deserving to ground a warre upon yet in the prosecuting and managing thereof many not onely veniall errours but unexcusable faults were committed no doubt the cause of the ill successe To omit the book called the Office of our Lady made at the beginning of this warre to procure her favourable assistance in it a little manual but full of blasphemies in folio thrusting her with importunate superstitions into Gods throne and forcing on her the glory of her Maker superstition not onely tainted the rind but rotted the core of this whole action Indeed most of the pottage of that age tasted of that wild gourd Yet farre be it from us to condemn all their works to be drosse because debased and allayed with superstitious intents No doubt there was a mixture of much good metall in them which God the good refiner knoweth how to sever and then will crown and reward But here we must distinguish betwixt those deeds which have some superstition in them and those which in their nature are wholly superstitious such as this Voyage of people to Palestine was For what opinion had they of themselves herein who thought that by dying in this warre they did make Christ amends for his death as one saith Which if but a rhetoricall flourish yet doth hyperbolize into blasphemie Yea it was their very judgement that hereby they did both merit and supererogate and by dying for the Crosse crosse the score of their own sinnes and score up God for their debtour But this flieth high and therefore we leave it for others to follow Let us look upon Pilgrimages in generall and we shall find Pilgrimes wandring not so farre from their own countrey as from the judgement of the ancient Fathers We will leave our armie at home and onely bring forth our champion Heare what Gregorie Nyssene saith who lived in the fourth Centurie in which time voluntary Pilgrimages first began though before there were necessarie Pilgrimes forced to wander from their countrey by persecution Where saith he our Lord pronounceth men blessed he reckoneth not going to Jerusalem to be amongst those good deeds which direct to happinesse And afterwards speaking of the going of single-women in those long travels A woman saith he cannot go such long journeys without a man to conduct her and then whatsoever we may suppose whether she hireth a stranger or hath a friend to wait on her on neither side can she escape reproof and keep the law of continencie Moreover If there were more Divine grace in the places of Jerusalem sinne would not be so frequent and customarie amongst those that live there Now there is no kind of uncleannesse which there they dare not commit malice adultery thefts idolatrie poysonings envies and slaughters But you will say unto me If it be not worth the pains why then did you go to Jerusalem Let them heare therefore how I defend my self I was appointed to go into Arabia to an holy Councel held for the reforming of that Church and Arabia being neare to Jerusalem I promised those that went with me that I would go to Jerusalem to discourse with them which were presidents of the churches there where matters were in a very troubled state and they wanted one to be a mediatour in their discords We knew that Christ was a man born of a Virgin before we saw Bethlehem we beleeved his resurrection from death before we saw his sepulchre we confessed his ascension into heaven before we saw mount Olivet But we got so much profit by our journey that by comparing them we found our own more holy then those outward things Wherefore you that fear God praise him in what place you are Change of place maketh not God nearer unto us wheresoever thou art God will come to thee if the Inne of thy soul be found such as the Lord may dwell and walk in thee c. A patrone of Pilgrimages not able to void the blow yet willing to break the stroke of so pregnant and plain a testimonie thus seeketh to ward it That indeed Pilgrimages are unfitting for women yet fitting for men But sure God never appointed such means to heighten devotion necessary thereunto whereof the half of mankind all women are by their very creation made uncapable Secondly he pleadeth That it is lawfull for secular and lay-men to go on Pilgrimages but not for Friars who lived recluse in their cells out of which they were not to come and against such saith he is Nyssens speech directed But then I pray what was Peter the leader of this long dance but an Hermite and if I mistake not his profession was the very dungeon of the Monasticall prison the strictest and severest of all other Orders And though there were not so many cowls as helmets in this warre yet alwayes was the Holy armie well stocked with such cattel So that on all sides it is confessed that the Pilgrimages of such persons were utterly unlawfull Chap. 10. Of superstition in miracles in the Holy warre ranked into foure sorts BEsides superstition inherent in this Holy warre there was also superstition appendant or annexed thereunto in that it was the fruitfull mother of many feigned miracles Hitherto we have refrained to scatter over our storie with them it will not be amisse now to shovel up some of
knew he did it onely to gain time to fetch new breath and if he yeelded to him his bounty had not been thanked but his fear upbraided as if he durst not denie him Yea in anger King Richard commanded all the Turkish captives which were in his hands seven thousand in number to be put to death except some choice persons on that day whereon the articles should have been but were not performed For which fact he suffered much in his repute branded with rashnesse and crueltie as the murderer of many Christians For Saladine in revenge put as many of our captives to death On the other side the moderation of the French King was much commended who reserving his prisoners alive exchanged them to ransome so many Christians Chap. 9. The unseasonable return of the King of France MEan time the Christians were rent a sunder with faction Philip the French King Odo Duke of Burgundie Leopold Duke of Austria most of the Dutch all the Genoans and Templars siding with King Conrade King Richard Henry Count of Champaigne the Hospitallers Venetians and Pisans taking part with King Guy But King Conrades side was much weakened with the sudden departure of the French King who eighteen dayes after the taking of Ptolemais returned home pretending want of necessaries indisposition of body distemper of the climate though the greatest distemper was in his own passions The true cause of his departure was partly envie because the sound of King Richards fame was of so deep a note that it drowned his partly covetousnesse to seise on the dominions of the Earl of Flanders lately dead Flanders lying fitly to make a stable for the fair palace of France If it be true what some report that Saladine bribed him to return let him for ever forfeit the surname of Augustus and the style of The most Christian Prince His own souldiers disswaded him from returning beseeching him not to stop in so glorious a race wherein he was newly started Saladine was already on his knees and would probably be brought on his face if pursued If he played the unthrift with this golden occasion let him not hope for another to play the good husband with If povertie forced his departure King Richard profered him the half of all his provisions All would not do Philip persisted in his old plea How the life of him absent would be more advantageous to the cause then the death of him present and by importunitie got leave to depart solemnly swearing not to molest the King of Englands dominions Thus the King of France returned in person but remained still behind in his instructions which he left with his armie to the Duke of Burgundie to whom he prescribed both his path and his pace where and how he should go And that Duke moved slowly having no desire to advance the work where King Richard would carrie all the honour For in those actions wherein severall undertakers are compounded together commonly the first figure for matter of credit maketh ciphres of all the rest As for King Philip being returned home such was the itch of his ambition he must be fingering of the King of Englands territories though his hands were bound by oath to the contrary Chap. 10. Conrade King of Ierusalem slain Guy exchangeth his Kingdome for the Island of Cyprus ABout the time of the King of France his departure Conrade King of Jerusalem was murdered in the market-place of Tyre and his death is variously reported Some charged our King Richard for procuring it And though the beams of his innocencie cleared his own heart yet could they not dispell the clouds of suspicions from other mens eyes Some say Humphred Prince of Thoron killed him for taking Isabella his wife away from him But the generall voice giveth it out that two Assasines stabbed him whose quarrel to him was onely this That he was a Christian. These murderers being instantly put to death gloried in the meritoriousnesse of their suffering and surely were it the punishment not the cause made martyrdome we should be best stored with Confessours from gaols and Martyrs from the gallows Conrade reigned five yeares and left one daughter Maria Iole on whom the Knight-Templars bestowed princely education And this may serve for his Epitaph The Crown I never did enjoy alone Of half a Kingdome I was half a King Scarce was I on when I was off the throne Slain by two slaves me basely murdering And thus the best mans life at mercie lies Of vilest varlets that their own despise His faction survived after his death affronting Guy the anti-King and striving to depose him They pleaded that the Crown was tied on Guy's head with a womans fillet which being broken by the death of his wife Queen Sibyll who deceased of the plague with her children at the siege of Ptolemais he had no longer right to the Kingdome they objected he was a worthlesse man and unfortunate On the other side it was alledged for him that to measure a mans worth by his successe is a square often false alwayes uncertain Besides the courtesie of the world would allow him this favour That a King should be semel semper once and ever Whilest Guy stood on these ticklish terms King Richard made a seasonable motion which well rellished to the palate of this hungrie Prince To exchange his Kingdome of Jerusalem for the Island of Cyprus which he had redeemed from the Templars to whom he had pawned it And this was done accordingly to the content of both sides And King Richard with some of his succeeding English Kings wore the title of Jerusalem in their style for many yeares after We then dismisse King Guy hearing him thus taking his farewell I steer'd a state warre-tost against my will Blame then the storm not th' Pilots want of skill That I the Kingdome lost whose emptie style I sold to Englands King for Cyprus Isle I pass'd away the land I could not hold Good ground I bought but onely aire I sold. Then as a happy Merchant may I sing Though I must sigh as an unhappy King Soon after Guy made a second change of this world for another But the family of the Lusignans have enjoyed Cyprus some hundred yeares and since by some transactions it fell to the state of Venice and lately by conquest to the Turks Chap. 11. Henry of Champaigne chosen King The noble atchievements and victories of King Richard COnrade being killed and Guy gone away Henry Earl of Champaigne was chosen King of Jerusalem by the especiall procuring of King Richard his uncle To corroborate his election by some right of succession he married Isabella the widow of King Conrade and daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem A Prince as writers report having a sufficient stock of valour in himself but little happie in expressing it whether for want of opportunitie or shortnesse of his reigne being most spent in a truce He more
pleased himself in the style of Prince of Tyre then King of Jerusalem as counting it more honour to be Prince of what he had then King of what he had not And now the Christians began every where to build The Templars fortified Gaza King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Porphyria Joppa and Askelon But alas this short prosperity like an Autumne-spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring any fruit to maturitie It was now determined they should march towards Jerusalem for all this while they had but hit the butt that Holy citie was the mark they shot at Richard led the vantguard of English Duke Odo commanded in the main battel over his French James of Avergne brought on the Flemings and Brabanters in the rere Saladine serpent-like biting the heel assaulted the rere not farre from Bethlehem when the French and English wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously Emulation formerly poyson was here a cordiall each Christian nation striving not onely to conquer their enemies but to overcome their friends in the honour of the conquest King Richard seeking to put his courage out of doubt brought his judgement into question being more prodigall of his person then beseemed a Generall One wound he received but by losing his bloud he found his spirits and laid about him like a mad-man The Christians got the victory without the losse of any of number or note save James of Avergne who here died in the bed of honour But more of the Turks wore slain then in any battel for fourtie yeares before Had the Christians presently gone to Jerusalem probably they might have surprised it whilest the Turks eyes were muffled and blindfolded in the amazement of this great overthrow But this opportunitie was lost by the backwardnesse and unwillingnesse of King Richard and the English say the French writers To crie quits with them our English authours impute it to the enviâ— of the French who would have so glorious an action rather left undone then done by the English They complain likewise ofâ— the treacherie of Odo Duke of Burgundie who more carefull of his credit then his conscience was choked with the shame of the sinne he had swallowed and died for grief when his intelligence with the Turks was made known This cannot be denied that Saladine sent term them bribes or presents both to our King and the French Duke and they received them no wonder then if neither of them herein had a good name when they traded with such familiars But most hold King Richard attempted not Jerusalem because as a wise architect he would build his victories so as they might stand securing the countrey as he went it being senselesse to besiege Jerusalem a straggling citie whilest the Turks as yet were in possession of all the sea-ports and strong forts thereabout About this time he intercepted many camels loaden with rich commoditie those Eastern wares containing much in a little And yet of all this and of all the treasures of England Sicilie and Cyprus which he brought hither King Richard carried home nothing but one gold-ring all the rest of his wealth melted away in this hot service He wintered in Askelon intending next spring to have at Jerusalem Chap. 12. The little-honourable peace King Richard made with Saladine Of the value of Reliques BUt bad news out of Europe shaked his steadiest resolutions hearing how William Bishop of Ely his Vice-roy in England used unsufferable insolencies over his subjects So hard it is for one of base parentage to personate a King without over-acting his part Also he heard how the King of France and John Earl of Morton his own brother invaded his dominions ambition the Pope in their belly dispensing with their oath to the contrary Besides he saw this warre was not a subject capable of valour to any purpose the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines being gone away with their fleets wisely shrinking themselves out of the collar when they found their necks wrung with the hard imployment Hereupon he was forced first to make the motion of in plain terms to begge peace of Saladine Let Saladine now alone to winne having all the game in his own hand Well knew he how to shoot at his own ends and to take aim by the exigencies wherein he knew King Richard was plunged For he had those cunning gypsies about him who could read in King Richards face what grieved his heart and by his intelligencers was certified of every note-worthy passage in the English armie Upon these terms therefore or none beggers of peace shall never be choosers of their conditions a truce for three some say five yeares might be concluded That the Christians should demolish all places they had walled since the taking of Ptolemais which was in effect to undo what with much charge they had done But such was the tyrannie of King Richards occasions forcing him to return that he was glad to embrace those conditions he hated at his heart Thus the voyage of these two Kings begun with as great confidence of the undertakers as expectation of the beholders continued with as much courage as interchangeablenesse of successe baned with mutuall discord emulation was ended with some honour to the undertakers no profit either to them or the Christian cause Some farre-fetched deare-bought honour they got especially King Richard who eternized his memory in Asia whom if men forget horses will remember the Turks using to say to their horses when they started for fear Dost thou think King Richard is here Profit they got none losing both of them the hair of their heads in an acute disease which was more saith one then both of them got by the voyage They left the Christians in Syria in worse case then they found them as he doeth the benighted traveller a discourtesie rather then a kindnesse who lendeth him a lantern to take it away leaving him more masked then he was before And now a little to solace my self and the reader with a merry digression after much sorrow and sad stories King Richard did one thing in Palestine which was worth all the cost and pains of his journey namely He redeemed from the Turks a chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as foure men could scarce carry any way And though some know no more then Esops cock how to prize these pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Romane jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made S. Augustine put in that wary parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum If so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were oh let no Christian be such an infidel as to stagger at the
their armie for the work was weighty they undertook and needed two shoulders the united strength of the Christians effectually to manage it His souldiers were weary and must be refreshed and it was madnesse to starve them to day in hope of a feast tomorrow That they were to march through a strange countrey and their best instructours were behind let them stay for their lantern and not go in the dark He minded him that he overvalued his victory not considering the enemies strength whose harvest was not spoiled by losing an handfull of men But the Earl full of the emptinesse of self-conceit allowed no counsel for currant but that of his own stamp He scorned to wait the leisure of another opportunity and opprobriously objected to the Templars the common fame That the Holy land long since had been wonne but for the collusion of the false Templars and Hospitallers with the Infidels Here the Earl of Sarisbury interposed himself to make peace and to perswade Robert to listen to the wholesome counsel that was given him But his good will was rewarded with Coward Dastard English-tail and such like contumelious terms Wherefore said our Earl Well Generall on in Gods name I beleeve this day you shall not dare to come nigh my horses tail And now the touchstone must tell what is gold what is brasse Marching on they assaulted the castle of Mauzar and were notably repulsed and Melechsala coming in with his whole strength hemmed them in on every side The Christians were but the third part of the armie and at the present they themselves were scarce the half of themselves being faint for want of refreshing Yet never shall one reade more valour in so little a volume They played their parts most stoutly As for the French Earl who went on like thunder he went out like smoke crying to the Earl of Sarisbury Flee flee for God fighteth against us To whom our Earl God forbid my fathers sonne should flee from the face of a Saracen The other seeking to save himself by the swiftnesse of his horse and crossing the river had there water enough to drown him but too little to wash from him the stain of rashnesse and cowardise Thus died the Earl of Artois who had in him the parts of a good Generall but inverted and in transposition bold in counsel fearfull in execution He was one of that princely quaternion of brothers which came hither at this voyage and exceeded each other in some quality Lewis the Holiest Alphonse the Subtillest Charles the Stoutest and this Robert the Proudest As for the Earl of Sarisbury he resolved to sell his life at such a rate that the buyer should little boast of his peny-worth slaying many a Turk and though unhorsed and wounded in his legs stood on his honour when he could not stand on his feet and refusing all quarter upon his knees laid about him like a desperate man The longer he fought the fewer wounds he had and there at last he breathed forth his soul in the midst of his enemies Of all the Christians there escaped no more then two Templars one Hospitaller and one common souldier the messengers of this heavy news The French writers because they can say little good say little of this battel and lessen the overthrow as much as may be which Authours of other nations have more fully reported Thus sometimes unfortunate gamesters flatter themselves belie their own purses and dissemble their losses whereof the standers by take more accurate notice P. Aemylius an Italian born at Verona but by long writing the French history his penne is made free denison of France though with his hand he doth hide the orifice of the wound yet it is too narrow to cover the whole sore round about So that it plainly appeareth that a great and grievous and most mortall blow was here given to the Christians Chap. 16. King Lewis almost in the same place hath the same wofull successe conquered and taken captive by Melechsala IT is easier to be conceived then expressed what generall grief this dolefull news brought to the French who followed not farre off and who before had cause enough to sorrow for themselves For the plague began to rage furiously amongst them and daily swept away thousands Mean time good King Lewis sent many of the weakest and impotentest people down the river to Damiata there to enjoy the benefit of privacie good attendance and physick Melechsala having intelligence hereof met them by the way and setting upon them having neither arm to fight nor legs to runne away either burned or drowned them all save one English man Alexander Giffard whose ancient and famous family flourisheth to this day at Chellington in Staffordshire who wounded in five places of his bodie escaped to the French and reported what had happened to the rest And by this time Melechsala understood of the correspondency betwixt King Lewis and the governour of Cairo for the betraying of the city Whereupon he caused him suddenly to be apprehended whereby the French King lost all hopes to obtain that place of importance Yea now full willingly would the Christians have accepted the terms formerly offered them and now their hungry stomachs would make dainties of those conditions which before when full of pride they threw away as fragments But the Turks now sleighted them as not worth the treating with and as knowing that these Frenchmen who at their first landing were more then men would at last be lesse then women Then began the French Lords to perswade King Lewis to provide for the safety of his own person and to return to Damiata They told him That if he stayed with them there was no hope grounded on probability and what was any other but a wilfull self-delusion of his escaping If he were killed his death would be a living shame to their religion if taken prisoner how would Mahomet insult over Christ The captivity of the most Christian of the most Christian Kings would be foundation enough for the Turks thereon to build tropheys of eternall triumph But Lewis would not leave them that they might not leave him but resolved to be a commoner with them in weal and wo disdaining to be such a niggard of his life as not to spend it in a good cause in so good company Forward they march and come to the fatall place where the last battel was fought There behold the mangled headlesse handlesse feetlesse corpses of their fellow-countreymen They knew in generall they were all their friends none knew his particular friend The cause of this unwonted cruelty to the dead was a proclamation which Melechsala made assigning a great summe of money to every one who would bring the head hand or foot of a Christian And this made many of his covetous cowards who carried their valour in their purses to be couragious Whilest the French were here bemoning their fellows Melechsala came upon them with an infinite multitude and put
in modico clauditur hoc tumulo Baldwine another Maccabee for might Hope help of State of Church and boths delight Cedar with Egypts Dan of him afraid Bloudy Damascus to him tribute paid Alas here in this tombe is laid Let him who pleaseth play the critick on the divers readings and whether by Dan be meant the Souldan or whether it relateth to the conceit that Antichrist shall come of the tribe of Dan. But perchance the text is not worth a comment Chap. 14. Baldwine the second chosen King Prince Eustace peaceably renounceth his right IT happened the same day King Baldwine was buried that Baldwine de Burgo his kinsman and Count of Edessa came casually into the city intending onely there to keep his Easter when behold the Christian Princes met together for the election of a new King The greater part did centre their suffrages on Prince Eustace brother to the two former Kings but then absent in France They alledged That it was not safe to break the chain of succession where the inversion of order bringeth all to confusion and That it was high ingratitude to the memories of Godfrey and Baldwine to exclude their brother from the crown especially he being fit in all points to be a King wanting nothing but that he wanted to be there That in the mean time some might be deputed to lock up all things safe and to keep the keyes of the State till he should arrive On the other side some objected the dangers of an interregnum how when a State is headlesse every malecontent would make head inconveniences in other countreys would be mischiefs here where they lived in the mouth of their enemies and therefore to stay for a King was the way to lose the Kingdome Then Joceline Prince of Tiberias a man of great authoritie offered himself a moderatour in this difference and counselled both sides to this effect To proceed to a present election and therein to be directed not confined by succession though they missed the next let them take one of Godfreys kindred As the case now stood he must be counted next in bloud that was next at hand and this was Baldwine Count of Edessa on whom he bestowed most superlative praises All were much affected with these his commendations for they knew that Joceline was his sworn adversary and concluded that it must needs be a mighty weight of worth in Baldwine which pressed out praise from the mouth of his enemy though indeed private ends prompted him to make this speech who hoped himself to get the Earldome of Edessa when Baldwine should be translated to Jerusalem However his words took effect and Baldwine hereupon was chosen King and crowned on Easter-day by Arnulphus the Patriarch Mean time some secretly were sent to Prince Eustace to come and challenge the crown But he hearing that another was already in possession though he was on his journey coming quietly went back again A large alms to give away a Kingdome out of his charity to the publick cause Baldwine was of a proper personage and able body born nigh Rhems in France sonne to Hugh Count of Rorster and Millisent his wife He was exceedingly charitable to the poore and pious towards God witnesse the brawn on his hands and knees made with continuall praying valiant also and excellently well seen in all martiall affairs We had almost forgotten what happened in this yeare the death of Alexius the Grecian Emperour that arch-hypocrite and grand enemy of this warre On whom we may bestow this Epitaph If he of men the best doth know to live Who best knows to dissemble justly then To thee Alexius we this praise must give That thou to live didst know the best of men And this was it at last did stop thy breath Thou knew'st not how to counterfeit with death His sonne Calo-Johannes succeeded him in his Empire of whom we shall have much cause to speak hereafter Chap. 15. The ecclesiasticall affairs in this Kings reigne ACcording to our wonted method let us first rid out of the way Church-matters in this Kings reigne that so we may have the more room to follow the affairs of the Common-wealth We left Arnulphus the last Patriarch of Jerusalem since which time the bad savour of his life came to the Popes nose who sent a Legate to depose him But Arnulphus hasted to Rome with much money and there bought himself to be innocent so that he enjoyed his place during his life Guarimund succeeded in his place a very religious man by whom God gave the Christians many victories He called a Councel at Neapolis or Sichem wherein many wholesome things were concluded for reformation of manners Betwixt him and William Archbishop of Tyre an English-man there arose a difference because this Archbishop would not receive his confirmation of him from whom by ancient right he should take it but from the Pope counting it the most honour to hold of the highest landlord And indeed the Pope for gain confirmed him though he should have sent him to the Patriarch But the court of Rome careth not though men steal their corn so be it they bring it to their mills to grind After Guarimunds death Stephen Abbot of S. John de Valia was chosen Patriarch once a cavalleer but afterward laying down the sword he took up the Word and entred into Orders He awaked the Patriarchs title to Jerusalem which had slept during his three predecessours and challenged it very imperiously of the King for he was a man of spirit and metall And indeed he had too much life to live long For the King fearing what flame this spark might kindle and finding him to be an active man gave him as it is suspected a little more active poison which cut him off in the midst of his age and beginning of his projects The King coming to him when he lay on his death-bed asked him how he did To whom he answered My Lord for the present I am as you would have me A cruel murder if true But it is strange that he whose hands as we have said were hardened with frequent prayer should soften them again in innocent bloud Wherefore we will not condemn the memory of a King on doubtfull evidence The Patriarchs place was filled with William Prior of the Sepulchre a Fleming a man better beloved then learned Chap. 16. Knights-Templars and Teutonicks instituted ABout this time the two great orders of Templars and Teutonicks appeared in the world The former under Hugh de Paganis and Ganfred of S. Omer their first founders They agreed in profession with the Hospitallers and performed it alike vowing Poverty Chastity and Obedience and to defend Pilgrimes coming to the Sepulchre It is falsely fathered on S. Bernard that he appointed them their rule who prescribeth not what they should do but onely describeth what they did namely How they were never idle mending their old clothes when wanting other
imployment never played at chesse or dice never hawked nor hunted beheld no stage-playes arming themselves with faith within with steel without aiming more at strength then state to be feared not admired to strike terrour with their valour not stirre covetousnesse with their wealth in the heart of their enemies Other sweet praises of them let him who pleaseth fetch from the mouth of this mellifluous Doctour Indeed at first they were very poore in token whereof they gave for their Seal Two men riding on one horse And hence it was that if the Turks took any of them prisoners their constant ransome was a Sword and a Belt it being conceived that their poore state could stretch to no higher price But after their order was confirmed by Pope Honorius by the intreatie of Stephen the Patriarch of Jerusalem who appointed them to wear a White garment to which Eugenius the third added a Red crosse on their breast they grew wonderfully rich by the bounty of severall Patrones Yea the King and Patriarch of Jerusalem dandled this infant-order so long in their laps till it brake their knees it grew so heavy at last and these ungratefull Templars did pluck out the feathers of those wings which hatched and brooded them From Alms-men they turned Lords and though very valiant at first for they were sworn rather to die then to flie afterwards lazinesse withered their arms and swelled their bellies They laughed at the rules of their first Institution as at the swaddling-clothes of their infancie neglecting the Patriarch and counting themselves too old to be whipped with the rod of his discipline till partly their vitiousnesse and partly their wealth caused their finall extirpation as God willing shall be shewed hereafter At the same time began the Teutonick order consisting onely of Dutch-men well descended living at Jerusalem in an house which one of that nation bequeathed to his countreymen that came thither on pilgrimage In the yeare 1190 their order was honoured with a great Master whereof the first was Henry a-Walpot and they had an habit assigned them to wear Black crosses on White robes They were to fight in the defense of Christianity against Pagans But we shall meet with them more largely in the following story Chap. 17. The Christians variety of successe Tyre taken by the assistance of the Venetians IT is worth the Readers marking how this Kings reigne was checquered with variety of fortune For first Roger Prince of Antioch or rather guardian in the minoritie of young Boemund went forth with greater courage then discretion whereunto his successe was answerable being conquered and killed by the Turks But Baldwine on the 14 of August following forced the Turks to a restitution of their victorie and with a small army gave them a great overthrow in spite of Gazi their boasting Generall To qualifie the Christians joy for this good successe Joceline unadvisedly fighting with Balak a petty King of the Turks was conquered and taken prisoner and King Baldwine coming to deliver him was also taken himself for which he might thank his own rashnesse For it had been his best work to have done nothing for a while till the Venetian succours which were not farre off had come to him and not presently to adventure all to the hazard of a battel Yet the Christians hands were not bound in the Kings captivity For Eustace Grenier chosen Vice-roy whilest the King was in durance stoutly defended the countrey and Count Joceline which had escaped out of prison fighting again with Balak at Hircapolis routed his army and killed him with his own hands But the main piece of service was the taking of Tyre which was done under the conduct of Guarimund the Patriarch of Jerusalem but chiefly by the help of the Venetian navy which Michael their Duke brought who for their pains were to have a third part of the city to themselves Tyre had in it store of men and munition but famine increasing against whose arrows there is no armour of proof it was yeelded on honourable terms And though perhaps hunger shortly would have made the Turks digest courser conditions yet the Christians were loth to anger their enemies valour into desperatenesse Next yeare the King returned home having been eighteen moneths a prisoner being to pay for his ransome an hundred thousand Michaelets and for security he left his daughter in pawn But he payed the Turks with their own money or which was as good coin with the money of the Saracens vanquishing Barsequen their Captain at Antiochia and not long after he conquered Doldequin another great Commander of them at Damascus To correct the ranknesse of the Christians pride for this good successe Damascus was afterward by them unfortunately besieged Heaven discharged against them thunder-ordinance arrows of lightning small-shot of hail whereby they being miserably wasted were forced to depart And this affliction was increased when Boemund the young Prince of Antioch one of great hope and much lamented was defeated and slain Authours impute these mishaps to the Christians pride and relying on their own strength which never is more untrusty then when most trusted True it was God often gave them great victories when they defended themselves in great straits Hereupon they turned their thankfulnesse into presumption grew at last from defending themselves to dare their enemies on disadvantages to their often overthrow for God will not unmake his miracles by making them common And may not this also be counted some cause of their ill successe That they alwayes imputed their victories to the materiall Crosse which was carried before them So that Christ his glory after his ascension suffered again on the Crosse by their superstition Chap. 18. The death of Baldwine the second KIng Baldwine a little before his death renounced the world and took on him a religious habit This was the fashion of many Princes in that age though they did it for divers ends Some thought to make amends for their disordered lives by entring into some holy order at their deaths Others having surfeted of the worlds vanitie fasted from it when they could eat no more because of the impotency of their bodies Others being crossed by the world by some misfortune sought to crosse the world again in renouncing of it These like furious gamesters threw up their cards not out of dislike of gaming but of their game and they were rather discontented to live then contented to die But we must beleeve that Baldwine did it out of true devotion to ripen himself for heaven because he was piously affected from his youth so that all his life was religiously tuned though it made the sweetest musick in the close He died not long after on the 22 of August in the 13 yeare of his reigne and was buried with his predecessours in the temple of the Sepulchre By Morphe a Grecian Lady his wife he had foure daughters whereof Millesent was the eldest the
wits school hath now and then an unhappy blow dealt him Some thought he descended beneath himself in too much familiarity to his subjects for he would commonly call and salute mean persons by their names But the vulgar sort in whose judgements the lowest starres are ever the greatest conceived him to surpasse all his predecessours because he was so fellow-like with them But whilest yet he was in minority his mother Millesent made up his want of age with her abundant care being governour of all A woman in sex but of a masculine spirit She continued a widow and as for childrens sake she married once so for her childrens sake she married no more S. Bernard and she spake often together by letters He extolled her single life How it was more honour to live a widow then to be a Queen This she had by birth that by Gods bounty This she was happily begotten that she had manfully gotten of her self Yet we find not that she made a vow never to marry again wherein she did the wiser For the chastest minds cannot conclude from the present calm that there will never after arise any lustfull storm in their souls Besides a Resolution is a free custody but a Vow is a kind of prison which restrained nature hath the more desire to break Chap. 25. Of Fulcher Patriarch of Ierusalem and the insolencie of the Hospitallers against him WIlliam who was last possessed of the Patriarchs chair in Jerusalem was none of the greatest clerks But whatsoever he was for edifying of the Church he was excellent at building of Castles one at Askelon another at Ramula a third called Blank-guard for the securing of Pilgrimes till at last having sat in his place fifteen yeares he was translated to heaven and on earth Fulcher Archbishop of Tyre succeeded him An honest old man whose weak age was much molested with the pride and rebellion of the Hospitallers who lately had procured from the Pope a plenary exemption from the Patriarch This his Holinesse did the more willingly grant because hereby he made himself absolute master of all orders pinning them on himself by an immediate dependance and so bringing water to his mill by a straighter and nearer stream But hereby the entirenesse of Episcopall jurisdiction was much maimed and mangled and every Covent was a castle of rebells armed with priviledges to fight against their lawfull Diocesan Now as these Hospitallers wronged the power of the Bishops so did they rob the profit of poore Priests refusing to pay any tithes of their Mannours which contained many parishes so that the Pastours who fed the flocks were starved themselves and having laboured all day in the vineyard were at night sent supperlesse to bed the Hospitallers pleading that the Pope had freed them from these duties as if an acquittance under the hand of his Holinesse was sufficient to discharge them from paying of tithes a debt due to God Other foul crimes they also were guilty of as outbraving the temple of the Sepulchre with their stately buildings giving the Sacraments to and receiving of excommunicate persons ringing their bells when their Patriarch preached that his voice might not be heard shooting arrows into the church to disturb him and the people in Divine service A bundle whereof were hung up as a monument of their impiety Fulcher the Patriarch crawled to Rome being 100 yeares old to complain of these misdemeanours carrying with him the Archbishop of Tyre and five other Bishops But he had sped better if in stead of every one of them he had carried a bag of gold For the Hospitallers prevented him and had formerly been effectually present with their large bribes so that the Patriarchs suit was very cold And no wonder seeing he did afford no feuel to heat it The Cardinals eyes in the court of Rome were old and dimme and therefore the glasse wherein they see any thing must be well-silvered Indeed two of them Octavian and John of S. Martin favoured Christs cause and his Ministers but all the rest followed gifts and the way of Balaam the sonne of Bosor But here Baronius who hitherto had leaned on Tyrius his authority now starteth from it And no wonder for his penne will seldome cast ink when he meeteth with the corruption of the Romish court But sure it was that the good Patriarch wearied with delayes returned back with his grievances unredressed Whereupon the Hospitallers grew more insolent and under pretense of being freed from fetters would wear no girdle denying not onely subjection but any filiall obedience to a superiour Chap. 26. Of Almericus Patriarch of Antioch his instituting of Carmelites Their differing from the pattern of Elias AFter the tragicall life and death of Rodolphus Patriarch of Antioch who was twelve yeares Patriarch counting his banishment Haymericus by the contrary faction and power of Prince Reimund succeeded him with little quiet and comfort of his place And here to our grief must we take our finall farewell of the distinct succession of the Patriarchs of Antioch with the yeares that they sat such is the obscurity and confusion in it Yet no doubt this Haymericus was the same with Almericus who about the yeare 1160 first instituted the order of Carmelites Indeed formerly they lived dispersed about the mountain of Carmel but he gathered them together into one house because solitarinesse is a trespasse against the nature of man and God when he had made all things good saw it was not good for man to be alone Surely from great antiquity in the Primitive Church many retired themselves to solitary places where they were alwayes alone and alwayes in the company of good thoughts chiefly to shade themselves from the heat of persecution Whose example was in after-ages imitated by others when there was no such necessity As here by these Carmelites whose order was afterwards perfected in the yeare 1216 by Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem with certain Canonicall observations imposed upon them And in this next age these bees which first bâ—â—d in the ground and hollow trees got them hives in gardens and leaving the deserts gained them princely houses in pleasant places They pretended indeed that they followed the pattern of Elias though farre enough from his example First for their habit they wore white coats guarded with red streaks but they have no colour in the Bible that Elias ever wore such a livery it suits rather with Joseph then with him Secondly by their order they were to ride on he-asses whereas we reade that Elias went on foot and rode but once in a chariot of fire Thirdly they by the constitution of Pope Nicolas the 5. had sisters of their company living neare unto them we find Elias to have no such feminine consorts Fourthly they lived in all lust and lazinesse as Nicolas Gallus their own Generall did complain that they were Sodomites and compareth them to the tail of the Dragon
if the tottering of his kingdome had rocked him fast asleep Nor was he moved with that which followed and more nearly concerned him For Syracon the Turkish Captain whom Sanar had gotten to come into Egypt would not be intreated to go home again but seized on the city of Belbis fortified it and there attended the arrivall of more Turks from Damascus for the conquest of Egypt Which afterwards they performed the land being never completely cleared of them till at last they conquered the whole kingdome partly under this Syracon and wholly under Saladine his nephew And here my discourse by the leave of the reader must a little sally forth to treat of the danger of entertaining mercenary souldiers They may perchance be called in with a whistle but scarce cast out with a whip If they be slugs they indanger a State by their slothfulnesse if spirited men by their activity Cesar Borgia Machiavells idol whose practice he maketh the pattern of policie saith That he had rather be conquered with his own men then be conquerour with an army of others because he counted that conquest to be none at all Yet good physick may be made of poyson well corrected They may sometimes be necessary evils yea good and serviceable to defend a land if thus qualified First if they have no command of castles or place neare about the Princes person for then they have a compendious way to treason if they intend it Secondly if they be not entertained in too great numbers but in such refracted degrees that the natives may still have the predominancie for a surfeit of forrein supplies is a disease incurable Thirdly if the Prince who imployeth them hath their wives children and estates in his own hands which will be both a caution and pawn for their fidelity and will also interest their affections more cordially in the cause Lastly if they be of the same religion with them and fight against the enemy of the religion of both for then they are not purely hirelings but parties in part and the cause doth at least mediately concern them I beleeve that it will scarcely be shown that the Protestants have turned tails and betrayed them they came to assist We may observe the Low-countreys have best thrived by setting this trade of journey-men-souldiers on work Let them thank God and the good English for if Francis Duke of Anjou with his Frenchmen had well succeeded no doubt he would have spread his bread with their butter Next them the Venetians have sped best for they have the trick when they find it equally dangerous to casheer their mercenary Generall or to entertain him any longer fairly to kill him as they served Carmignola England hath best thrived without them under Gods protection we stand on our own legs The last I find are an handfull of Almains used against Kett in Norfolk in the dayes of King Edward the sixth And let it be our prayers That as for those hirelings which are to be last tried and least trusted we never have want of their help and never have too much of it Chap. 36. Sanar imploreth the aid of King Almerick A solemn agreement made betwixt them and ratified by the magnificent Caliph SUltan Sanar perceiving himself pressed and overlayed by these Turks who with Syracon their Captain refused to return and of assistants turned invaders borrowed the help of Almerick King of Jerusalem to avoid them out of Egypt Whilest Almerick marched thither an unfortunate battel was fought betwixt Boemund the third of that name Prince of Antioch Reimund Count of Tripoli Calaman Grecian governour of Cilicia and Joceline the third the titular Count of Edessa on the one side and Noradine King of the Turks on the other The Turks got the victory and these foure Christian Princes were taken prisoners and their army lost so much good bloud that day that cast it into an irrecoverable consumption and hastened the ruine of this kingdome Noradine following his blow wonne Cesarea-Philippi Neverthelesse Almerick went on effectually in Egypt and for a time expulsed the Turks out of this land But Syracon would not so quickly quit the countrey but goeth to the Caliph of Babylon who was opposite to him of Egypt each of them claiming as heir to Mahomet that false prophet the soveraignty over all that were of the Saracen law offereth him his means for the exstirpation of this schismaticall Caliph and the reduction of all Egypt to the subjection of the Babylonian The motion was joyfully entertained and Syracon with a mighty power descendeth into Egypt Sanar affrighted hereat maketh new and larger proffers to King Almerick to stop this deluge of his enemies and proffereth him a pension of fourty thousand ducats yearly for his behooffull assistance But the King understanding that the Sultan how much soever he took upon him was subject to a higher Lord would make no such bargain with him but with the Caliph himself and therefore sent his Embassadours Hugh Earl of Cesarea and a Knight-Templar along with the Sultan to Caliph Elhadach then resident at Cairo Arriving at his palace they passed through dark passages well guarded with armed Ethiopians Hence they were conducted into goodly open courts of such beauty and riches that they could not retain the gravity of Embassadours but were enforced to admire the rarities they beheld The farther they went the greater the state till at last they were brought to the Caliphs own lodging Where entring the presence the Sultan thrice prostrated himself to the ground before the curtain behind which the Caliph sat Presently the traverse wrought with pearls was opened and the Caliph himself discovered sitting with great majesty on a throne of gold having few of his most inward eunuchs about him The Sultan humbly kissed his masters feet and briefly told him the cause of their coming the danger wherein the land stood the proffers he had made to King Almerick desiring him now to ratifie them and in demonstration thereof to give his hand to the Kings Embassadours The Caliph demurred hereat as counting such a gesture a diminution to his State and at no hand would give him his hand bare but gave it in his glove To whom the resolute Earl of Cesarea Sir said he Truth seeketh no holes to hide it self Princes that will hold covenant must deal openly and nakedly give us therefore your bare hand we will make no bargain with your glove He was loth to do it but necessity a more imperious Caliph then himself at this time commanded it and he did it at last dismissing the Christian Embassadours with such gifts as testified his greatnesse According to this agreement King Almerick cordially prosecuted his businesse improving his utmost might to expell Syracon with his Turks out of Egypt whom he bade battel and got the day though he lost all his baggage So that the conquest in a manner was divided the Turks gaining the wealth
the Papists do calling themselves Benedictines Dominicanes Franciscanes c. from the founders of their Order They had also nick-names called First Poore men of Lyons not because they chose to be poore but could not choose but be poore being stripped out of all their goods And why should the Friars glory be this peoples shame they mocking at poverty in others which they count meritorious in themselves Secondly Patarenians that is Sufferers whose backs were anvils for others to beat on Thirdly Turlupins that is Dwellers with wolves and yet might they be Gods sheep being forced to flee into woods Fourthly likewise they were called Sicars that is Cut-purses Fifthly Fraterculi that is Shifters Sixthly Insabbatha that is Observers of no sabbath Seventhly Pasagenes that is Wanderers As also Arians Manicheans Adamites how justly will appear afterwards Yea scarce was there an arrow in all the quiver of malice which was not shot at them Chap. 20. The Albingenses their answer confessing some denying most crimes laid to their charge Commendations their adversaries give them COme we now to the full and foul indictment wherewith these Albingenses are charged That they gave no reverence to holy places rejected the baptisme of infants held that temporall power was grounded in grace that it was a meritorious work to persecute the Priests of Rome and their subjects With the Adamites they went naked an affront to nature with the Manicheans they made two first causes God of good the devil of evil held community of all things even of wives amongst them were sorcerers and conjurers pretending to command the devil when they most obeyed him guilty of incest buggery and more unnaturall sinnes whereby men as it were runne backward to hell No whit affrighted with this terrible accusation many late writers dare be their advocates to defend them though confessing them guilty of some of these but not in so high and hainous a manner as they are accused True it is because most in that age ranne riot in adoring of Churches as if some inherent sanctity was cieled to their roof or plaistered to their walls yea such as might more ingratiate with God the persons and prayers of people there assembled the Waldenses out of that old errour not yet worn out That the best way to straighten what is crooked is to over-bow it denied Churches that relative holinesse and fit reverence due unto them Baptisme of infants they refused not though S. Bernard taking it rather from the rebound then first rise chargeth them therewith but onely deferred it till it might be administred by one of their own Ministers their tender consciences not digesting the Popish baptisme where clear water by Gods ordinance was by mans additions made a salve or plaister That dominion was founded in grace seemeth to be their very opinion Yea it hangeth as yet in the Schools on the file and is not taken off as a thing disputable finding many favourers But grant it a great errour for wicked men shall be arraigned before God not as usurpers but as tyrants not for not having right but not right using the creatures yet herein they proceeded not so farre as the Papists now-a-dayes to unthrone and depose excommunicated Princes So that they who do most have least cause to accuse them That they spoke too homely and coursely of the Romish Priests inveighing too bitterly and uncharitably against them condemning all for some may perchance be proved And no wonder if they spake ill of those from whom they felt ill But take their speeches herein as the words of men upon the rack forced from them by the extremitie of cruel usage In these errours the Albingenses hope to find favour if men consider First the ignorance of the age they lived in It is no news to stumble in the dark Secondly the frailty that squire of the body attending on mans nature yea he shall be immortall who liveth till he be stoned by one without fault Thirdly the errours themselves which are rather in the out-limbes then vitalls of religion And it may be conceived they might have been reclaimed if used with gentle means not catechized with fire and fagot it being a true rule That mens consciences are more moved with leading then dragging or drawing But the sting of the indictment is still behind in the tail or end thereof charging them with such hainous errours in doctrine and vices in life All which the patrones for the defendants deny and defie as coined out of the mint of their enemies malice It will be objected If denying the fact might serve the turn we should have no malefactours This therefore is but a poore plea barely to deny when that such clouds of witnesses are against them And grant they have a few straggling writers or some sleeping records which may seem to acquit them what are one or two men though suppose them giants against a whole army To this I find it answered for the Albingenses That it hath been the constant practice of the Romish writers alwayes to defame those that differ from them especially if they handle too roughly the Noli me tangere of the Popes supremacie In later times what aspersions as false as foul have Cochleus and Bolsecus laid on Luther and Calvine Now how fearlesse will they be to steal at midnight who dare thus rob men of their good name at noon-day When such Authours as these lie with a witnesse yea with many witnesses who could disprove them no wonder if they take liberty falsely to accuse the Albingenses conceiving themselves out of the reach of confutation writing in such an age when all the Counsel is on their own side being plaintiffs and none assigned for the defendants Secondly I find they produce the authenticall copies such as are above their enemies calumnies of the Catechismes Apologies Remonstrances of these Albingenses wherein the distilled doctrine of the Protestants is delivered free from Manicheisme or any other heresie fathered upon them Thirdly their enemies slanders plainly appear in some particulars which justly shaketh the credit of the whole accusation For whereas they are charged with the Adamites willingly to have gone naked we find them rather nudati then nudi forced thereunto by the Popes Legate Who being about to take the city of Carcassone in France where these people most swarmed he would not grant them their lives but on this condition That both males and females should go forth and passe by his army stark-naked Argued it not a very foul stomach in him who could feed his eyes with contentment on such a sight which otherwise would more deeply have wounded the modesty of the beholder then of the doers who did it by compulsion See now how justly these innocents are charged As well may the Israelites be blamed for cruelty to themselves in puting out their own eyes when they were commanded to do it by the mercilesse Ammonite Lastly they are cleared by the
rather watered then baptized affrighted with cruelty into Christianity deserve not to be accounted settled and well-grounded professours of their religion As for reconciliation betwixt the Grecians and Latines it is utterly improbable except the Greeks submit to the Popes Primacie which they will never do No hope then of their meeting together when neither party will stirre step towards other True it is some fourty yeares since anno 1594 the Bishops of little Russia a countrey following the Eastern Church but under the King of Poland on condition they would accept the Popes supremacie were dispensed with and permitted in other matters to adhere to the Greek Church and keep union with it the Pope manifesting herein that he aimeth not so much at the reduction of the Greeks to the truth as to his own obedience Besides the hatred they have against the Popes pride another great hindrance of the union is the small intercourse the Eastern Christians have or desire to have with the Western They live amongst the Turks and are grown to be contented slaves and having long since parted with their hopes now almost have lost their desire of liberty We must not forget how some fifty yeares ago solemn news was reported in Rome that the Patriarch of Alexandria with all the Greek Church in Africa by their Embassadours had submitted and reconciled themselves to the Pope and from him received Absolution and Benediction All which was a politick lie perchance therefore reported that it might make impression in the minds and raise and confirm the spirits of the vulgar who easily beleeve all that their betters tell them And though afterwards this report was controlled to be false yet mens spirits then being cold were not so sensible of it as before and the former news came to many mens eares who never heard afterwards of the check and confutation thereof Nor is there any State in the world that maketh such use and advantage as the Papall doth of false news To conclude As it is a maxime in Philosophy Ex quibus constamus ex iisdem nutrimur so a great part of their religion consisting of errours and falshoods it is suitable that accordingly it should be kept up and maintained with forgeries and deceits To return to Palestine This rent not in the seam but whole cloth betwixt these Churches was no mean hindrance to the Holy warre Formerly the Greeks in Syria were not so clearly cut asunder from the Latines but that they hung together by one great sinew in the common cause agreeing against the Turk the enemy to both But since this last breach the Greeks did in their desires propend and incline to the Turks being better contented they should conquer from whom they should have fair quarter free exercise of their religion and secure dwelling in any citie paying a set tribute then the Latines who they feared would force their consciences and bring their souls in subjection to the Popes supremacie Expect we then never hereafter that either their hearts or hands should afford any assistance to our Pilgrimes in their designes Some conceive that at this day if the Western Christians should stoutly invade Turkie with any likelihood to prevail the Greeks therein would runne to aid them But others are of a contrary judgement considering First the inveterate and inlaid hatred not to be washed off they bear the Latines Secondly the jealousie they have that they will never keep promise with them who have alwayes a warrant dormant from the Pope to break all contracts prejudiciall to the Romish Church Thirdly that custome and long continuance in slavery have so hardened and brawned their shoulders the yoke doth not wring them so much yea they had rather suffer the Turks being old full flies to suck them then to hazard their galled backs to new hungry ones finding by experience That they themselves live on better terms of servitude under the Turk lesse grated and grinded with exactions then some of their countrey-men do under the Latines for instance in Zante and Candie under the Venetians Chap. 7. Theobald King of Navarre maketh an unsuccessefull voyage into Palestine THe ten yeares truce by this time was expired which Frederick made with the Turks and Reinold Vice-roy of Palestine by instructions from him concluded another truce of the same term with them He saw that this young Christian Kingdome of Jerusalem like an infant would thrive best with sleeping with peace and quietnesse Nor was it any policie for him to move at all where there was more danger to hurt then hope to help their present estate But though this peace was honourable and profitable having no fault but that Frederick made it yet the Templars who did not relish the father must needs distast the child They complained that this peace was not used as a slumber to refresh the souldiers spirits but as a lethargie to benumme their valour and chiefly snarled at this indignity That the Turks had accesse to the temple of the Sepulchre and that Goats had free commonage in the Sheeps pasture Wherefore Pope Gregory to despite the Emperour Frederick caused the Dominicanes and Franciscanes his trumpeters to incite people to the Holy warre These were two twin-orders but the Dominicane the eldest which now were no sooner hatched in the world but presently chirped in the pulpits In that age Sermons were news and meat for Princes not common men Yea the Albingenses with their preaching had drowned the voices of secular Priests if these two Orders had not helped to out-noise those supposed hereticks These amplified with their rhetorick the calamity of the Christians tyrannie of the Turks merit of the cause probability of successe performing their parts with such gravity shew of devotion accents of passion not glued on for the present purpose but so naturall as from true affection that many were wooed to undertake the voyage Principally Theobald King of Navarre Almerick Earl of Montfort Henry of Champaigne Peter Earl of Bretaigne with many others of inferiour rank Ships they had none wherefore they were fain to shape their passage by land through Grecia where they were entertained with treachery famine and all the miseries which wait on distressed armies These came last that way I may say shut the doore For no Christian army ever after went that tedious journey by land Having passed the Bosporus they marched into Bithynia thence through Galatia they came unto the mountain Taurus where they were much damnified by the Turks who fell on and off upon them as they were advised by their own advantages The Christians desired no other gift but that a set battel might be given them which the Turks would not grant but played at distance and would never close But with much ado the Christians recovered to Antioch having scarce a third part of them left their horses all dead and themselves scarce mounted on their legs miserably weak as what the mercy of sword plague
and famine had pleased to spare Hence the Templars conducted them to Gaza where they fell on forraging the countrey of the Sultan assaulting no places which were of strength or honour to subdue but onely spoiled poore villages which counted themselves walled with the truce as yet in force Abundance of wealth they got and were now late returning home when after their plentifull supper a deare sharp reckoning was called for Behold the Turks in great numbers fell upon them neare unto Gaza and the Christians down with their bundles of spoil and out with their swords bravely defending themselves till such time as the night parted the fray Here they committed a great errour and as one may say a neglect in over-diligence for in stead of reposing themselves to rest and appointing a set watch they all lay in a manner Perdues no one slumbering all night but attending their enemies contrary to the rules of an armie which with Argus should never have all its eyes wake or sleep together Next morning when the Turks whose numbers were much increased set upon them alas they being but few to many faint to fresh were not able to make any forcible resistance Yet what they could not pay in present they pawned their lives for and their arms being too weak for their hearts they were rather killed then conquered Earl Henry was slain Almerick taken prisoner the King of Navarre escaped by the swiftnesse of his Spanish gennet which race for their winged speed the Poets feigned to be begot of the wind Mean time the other Christians looked on and saw their brethren slaughtered before their eyes and yet though they were able to help them were not able to help them their hands being tied with the truce and Reinoldus charging them no way to infringe the peace concluded with the Sultan Hereupon many cursed him as the Christians cut-throat he as fast condemned the King of Navarre and his army for breaking the truce And though the Papall faction pleaded that the former peace concluded not these late adventurers and that it was onely made with Frederick the Emperour yet he representing the whole body of Christianity all the bundle of their shifts could not piece out a satisfactory answer but that they were guilty of faith-breaking Home hastened the King of Navarre with a small retinue clouding himself in privatenesse as they actour who cometh off with the dislike of the spectatours stealeth as invisibly as he may into the tiring-house Expectation that friendly foe did him much wrong and his performance fell the lower because men heightened their looking for great matters from him Chap. 8. Richard Earl of Cornwall saileth to the Holy land His performance there and the censure thereof FIfteen dayes after the departure of Theobald Richard Earl of Cornwall brother to Henry the third then King of England landed at Ptolemais This Prince was our English Crassus or Croesus Cornwall was his Indies where he turned tinne into gold and silver So well-moneyed he was that for ten yeares together he might for every day expend an hundred marks So that England never since had together a poorer King and a richer Subject Before he began his voyage he craved a subsidie of prayers from the Monks of S. Albanes Yea scarce was there any Covent appearing for piety to whose devotions he recommended not himself counting that ship to sail the surest which is driven with the breath of godly mens prayers Theodoricus Lord Prior of the English Hospitallers with many other Barons and brave souldiers attending him passed through France and was there honourably entertained by King Lewis Being come to the Mediterranean sea the Popes Legate brought him a flat countermand that he must go no further but instantly return Richard at first was astonished hereat but quickly his anger got the mastery of his amazement and he fell on fuming Was this Christs Vicar Unlike was he to him who was thus unlike to himself who would say and unsay solemnly summon then suddenly cashier his Holy souldiers This was deluding of peoples devotions with false alarms to make them put their armour on to put it off again As for his own self he had vowed this voyage his honour and treasure was ingaged therein and the Pope should not blast his settled resolutions with a breath his ships were manned victualled and sailing forward and in such great actions the setting forth is more then half the journey All know his Holinesse to be too wary an archer to shoot away his arrows at nothing He had a mark herein a plot in this restraint but that too deep for others to fathom It could not be this To make this rich Earl a fish worth angling for to commute his voyage into money and to buy a dispensation of his Holinesse to stay at home as formerly he had served many meaner Pilgrimes Surely though the Popes covetousnesse might have prompted his wisdome would have disswaded him from a project spunne with so course a threed On saileth Earl Richard and safely arriveth at Ptolemais where he is well welcomed especially by the Clergie solemnly singing Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. He proclaimed No Christian should depart for want of pay for he would entertain any and give them good wages that would do work in this warre But he found the Christians there shivered into severall factions and the two great Orders Hospitallers and Templars two great confusions of the Holy cause Of these the Hospitallers were the seniors in standing their originall being dated eighteen yeares before the Templars and therefore challenged superiority But that which made the younger brother so brisk was that he was his fathers darling The Templars in all their broils had support from the Pope because the others were suspected to have a smack of the Imperiall faction This made them active daring offering of affronts And what countrey-men soever the Templars were they were alwayes Italians that is true to the Triple Crown These being madded with ambition were the more outragious for their â—igh fare their great revenues and deserved to be dieted with a poorer pittance except they would have used their strength better Our Earl knew to please one side would certainly displease the other and to please both would probably please neither Wherefore he managed his matters entirely to himself without relating to either of the parties taking no ground of their giving but bowling at the publick good by the aim of his own eye The Sultans in Syria for the Turkish power there was divided into severall Sultanies as those of Damascus Cracci Seisser but Babylon the chiefest hearing of Richards preparations profered peace unto him But whilest as yet the conditions were in suspense Richard fortified Askelon in all the bunch there was not a better key or harbour of more importance not onely to strength but state with marble pillars and statues though the silent ruines thereof at
with them joyntly to resist the Corasines seeking saith Frederick the Emperour to find fidem in perfidia trust in treachery Many suspected these auxiliary forces thinking though the forrest-wolves fell out with the mountain ones they would both agree against the sheep Robert Patriarch of Jerusalem was a most active commander over all S. Lukes day was the time agreed upon for the fatall battel neare Tiberias was the place As the Christians were ordering themselves in aray it was questioned in what part of their armie their new Turkish assistants should be disposed and concluded that they should be placed in the front where if they did no other good they would dull the appetite of their enemies sword This is thought to have been a notorious errour and cause of their overthrow For though those souldiers who mean to be false will never be made faithfull in what place soever they be bestowed yet may they be made lesse dangerous if cast into the body or main battel of the army whence they have no such scope to fling out and to take advantage of place to do mischief as they have either in the front or wings thereof Thus in Cesars time Crassus an experienced Generall under him being to bid the Gauls battel auxiliares copias quibus ad pugnam non multum confidebat in mediam aciem colloâ—â—vit that so being hemmed in before and behind they might be ingaged to fight manfully without starting away And to instance in later times our Richard the third who though he usurped the Crown had as none will deny a true title both to prowesse and martiall policie marching to Bosworth placed suspected persons whose bodies were with him and hearts with Earl Henry in the midst and those whom he most trusted before behind and on every side The battel being joyned the Turks ranne over to the other side though some braved them onely with cowardlinesse not treachery and that they fled from the battel but not fell to the enemies The Christians manfully stood to it and though over-powerd in number made a great slaughter of their enemies till at last they were quite overthrown Of the Teutonick Order escaped but three of three hundred Templars but eighteen of two hundred Hospitallers but nineteen The Patriarch to use his own words whom God reputed unworthy of martyrdome saved himself by flight with a few others And this great overthrow to omit lesse partner-partner-causes is chiefly imputed to the Templars former so often breaking the truce with the Sultan of Babylon Thus were the Christians conquered by the Corasines and beaten by a beaten nation Palestine being wonne by those who could not keep their own countrey Improving this victorie they left nothing to the Christians but Tyre Ptolemais and Antioch with some few forts Soon after these Corasines elated herewith fell out with the Sultan himself who in anger rooted out their nation so that none of their name remained Yea all writers are silent of them both before this time and ever after as if God at this very instant had created this people to punish Christians which service performed they were annihilated again Chap. 11. Lewis the ninth setteth forward against the Turks The occasion of his journey and his attendants SOme two yeares after Lewis the ninth of that name King of France came to assist the Christians The occasion of his voyage this He had been visited with a desperate sicknesse insomuch that all art cried craven as unable to help him and the Physicians resigned him to Divines to begin with him where they ended They also gave him over and for a while he lay in a trance not the least breath brought news of any life left in him Then Blanch the Queen-mother and Queen of mothers for her care of her sonne and his Kingdome applied a piece of the Crosse unto him Thereat whether thereby let others dispute he revived and recovered and thereupon was Croised and in thankfulnesse bound himself with a vow to sail to the Holy land But his Nobility disswaded him from that designe The dangers were certain the successe would be doubtfull of so long a journey his own Kingdome would be left desolate and many mischiefs unseen as yet would appear in his absence Besides his vow was made in his sicknesse whilest reason was scarce as yet in the peaceable possession of his mind because of the remnant-dregs of his disease It might also be dispensed with by the Pope yea his deserts did challenge so much from his Holinesse King Lewis as perswaded hereat laid down the Crosse to the great comfort and contentment of all the beholders But then altering his countenance he required the Crosse should be restored to him again and vowed to eat no bread untill he was recognized with the Pilgrimes badge And because his vow should suffer no diminution or abatement from his disease now no longer Lewis the sick but Lewis the sound undertook the Holy warre His Nobles seeing him too stiff to be unbent and counting it a kind of sacrilegious counsel to disswade him from so pious a work left him to his own resolutions There went along with him his two brothers Charles Earl of Anjou Robert Earl of Artois his own Queen and their Ladies O do the Popes Legate Hugh Duke of Burgundie William Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of St. Paul and William Longspath Earl of Sarisbury with a band of valiant English men who went without licence from Henry King of England For in those dayes this doctrine went currant That their Princes leave was rather of complement then essentiall to their voyage as if the band of this Holy warre was an acquittance from all others Our Henry displeased at this Earls departure for his disobedience deprived him of his Earldome and castle of Sarisbury not suffering that sheep to grase in his pasture which would not own him for his shepherd William also sonne to this Earl smarting for his fathers fault never enjoyed that honour And though King Henry himself being a Prince of more devotion then policie did most affectionately tender this Holy cause yet he used this necessary severity towards this Earl at this time first because it would weaken his land thus to be dispeopled of martiall men secondly his subjects forwardnesse might be interpreted a secret check of his own backwardnesse in that warre thirdly the sucking in of forrein aire did wean people from their naturall Prince and did insensibly usher into their hearts an alienation from their own Sovereigne and a dependence on the King of France lastly he had some thoughts on that voyage himself and reserved such prime Peers to attend on his own person thither The Pope gave to this King Lewis his charges the tenth of the Clergies revenues through France for three yeares and the King imployed the Popes collectours to gather it knowing those leaches were the best suckers Hereupon the states of the Clergie were
with perjury As it is observed of tyrants Where one goeth ten are sent to the grave so where one truce concluded with the Turks did naturally expire and determine many were violently broken off A sinne so repugnant to all morall honestie so injurious to the quiet peace of the world so odious in it self so scandalous to all men To dissolve a league when confirmed by Oath the strongest bond of conscience the end of particular strife the soulder of publick peace the sole assurance of amitie betwixt divers nations made here below but inrolled in his high court whose glorious name doth signe it a sinne I say so hainous that God cannot but most severely punish it David asketh Who shall rest upon thy holy hill and answereth himself He that sweareth to his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hindrance No wonder then though the Christians had no longer abidance in the Holy hill of Palestine though this I confesse is but the bark of the text driving that trade wherewith none ever thrived the breaking of promises Wherewith one may for a while fairly spread his train but he will moult his feathers soon after Chap. 12 Of the hindrances of the good successe in the Holy warre whereof the Popes and Emperours of Greece were the two principall SO much concerning those laesa principia in this Holy warre Superstition and Perjurie which struck at the root of it Come we now to consider many other hindrances which abated the good successe thereof Amongst these we will not be so hereticall as to denie the Popes Primacie but account him the first cause of their ill successe Such wounds as we find in his credit we will neither widen nor close up but even present them to the Reader as we found them In foure respects he baned the Christians good speed in this warre 1. He caused most of their truce-breaking with the Turks urging men thereunto Thus Pope Celestine drove on the Christians against the Turks whilest as yet the peace our Richard concluded with them was not expired and so many other times also For alas this was nothing with his Holinesse who sitting in the temple of God so farre advanceth himself above God as to dispense with oathes made sacred by the most holy and high name of God and professing himself the sole Umpire and Peace-maker of the world doth cut asunder those onely sinews which hold peace together 2. In that twice the Kingdome of Jerusalem was offered to the Christians and the Popes Legates would not suffer them to accept it No doubt by instructions from their Master this being to be presumed on That those his absolute creatures altered not a tittle but went according to the copie that was set them Once anno 1219 when Pelagius the Legate refused the free offer of Melechsala And the second time some thirtie yeares after when the same bountifull profer weas refused by Odo the Popes Legate For when the same Melechsala again offered the free resignation of the whole Kingdome of Jerusalem whereby the same day great quietnesse had entred into all Christendome with the end of much bloudshed and miserie the Legate frontosè contradicens would in no wise receive the conditions offered 3. Frederick the second Emperour was possessed of it when the Pope molested him and stirred up the Templars against him as so many needles to prick him when he was to sit down on the throne 4. By diverting the Pilgrimes and over-titling his own quarrels to be Gods cause nothing being more common with him then to employ those armies which were levied for the Holy warre in subduing the Albingenses and many others of his private enemies By all these it plainly appeareth That what fair shews soever his Holinesse made calling Councels appointing Legates providing preachers proclaiming pardons to advance this warre yet in very deed he neither intended nor desired that the Christians should make a finall conquest of Palestine but be imployed in continuall conquering it He would have this warre go on cum decente pausa fair and softly let the Christians now beat the Turks and then the Turks beat the Christians and so let them take their turns whilest his private profit went on For as we touched before to this warre the Pope condemned all dangerous persons especially the Emperours of Germanie to be there imployed As little children are often set to school not so much to learn as to keep them out of harms way at home so this carefull Father sent many of his children to the Holy warre not for any good he knew they would either do or get there but it would keep them from worse doing which otherwise would have been paddling in this puddle raking in that channel stirring up questions and controversies unsavourie in the nostrils of his Holinesse and perchance falling into the fire of discord and dissension against their own Father Indeed at last this warre ended it self in despite of the Pope Who no doubt would have driven this web weaving and unweaving it Penelope-like much longer if he could yet he digested more patiently the ending thereof because the net might be taken away when the fish was already caught and the warre spared now the Germane Emperours strength thereby was sufficiently abated in Italie Much also this warre increased the intrado of the Popes revenues Some say Purgatory-fire heateth his kitchin they may adde the Holy warre filled his pot if not paid for all his second course It is land enough to have the office of collecting the contributions of all Christendome given to this warre So much for his great receits hereby And as for what he expended not too farre in the point If the Pope saith their law thrusteth thousands of souls into Hell none may say to him Why doest thou so It is presumption then to make him answer for money who is not accountable for men With the Pope let the Emperours of Greece their Jealousie go as the second bane of the Christians successe in this warre These Emperours tormented themselves in seeking that they would have been loth to find the treacherie of the Latines and therefore to begin first used them with all treacherie Whereof largely formerly And surely though a cautious circumspection be commendable in Princes yet in such over-fear they were no lesse injurious to themselves then to the western Pilgrimes Yea generally suspiciousnesse is as great an enemy to wisdome as too much credulitie it doing oftentimes as hurtfull wrong to friends as the other doth receive wrongfull hurt from dissemblers Chap. 13. The third hindrance the Equalitie of the undertakers the fourth the Length of the journey THe next cause of their ill successe was the discord arising from the paritie of the Princes which undertook this voyage Many of them could abide no equall all no superiour so that they had no chief or rather were all chiefs The swarm wanted a master-Bee a supreme commander who