encourage them that they found in the church of S. Peter that lance wherewith our Saviours body was pierced They highly prized this military relique of Christ as if by wounding of him it had got virtue to wound his enemies and counted it a pawn of certain victory Whether this spear was truly found or whether it was but invented to cozen men with we will not dispute However it wrought much with these Pilgrimes for conceit oftentimes doth things above conceit especially when the imagination apprehendeth something founded in religion Marching forth in severall armies they manfully fell upon their enemies and being armed with despair to escape they sought to fell their lives at the dearest rate Valour doth swell when it is crushed betwixt extremities and then oftentimes goeth beyond her self in her atchievements This day by Gods blessing on their courage they got a noble conquest Some saw S. George in the aire with an army of white horses fighting for them but these no doubt did look through the spectacles of fansie And yet though we should reject this apparition we need not play the Origens with the story of S. George and change all the literall sense into an allegory of Christ and his Church for it is improbable that our English nation amongst so many Saints that were would choose one that was not to be their patrone especially seeing the world in that age had rather a glut then famine of Saints And here let me advertise the Reader once for all not to expect that I should set down those many miracles where with Authours who write this warre so lard their stories that it will choke the belief of any discreet man to swallow them As the intent of these writers was pious to gain credit and converts to the Christian faith so the prosecuting of their project must be condemned in thinking to grace the Gospel in reporting such absurd falsities But let us know that heaven hath a pillorie whereon Fraus pia her self shall be punished and rather let us leave religion to her native plainnesse then hang her ears with counterfeit pearls The pride of the Turks being abated in this battel and an 100000 of them being slain the Christians grew mightily insolent and forgot to return to God the honour of the victory Whereupon followed a great mortality and 50000 died in few dayes whether this proceeded from the climate the bodies of Europe not being friends with the aire of Asia till use by degrees reconcileth them or whether it was caused by their intemperance for after long fasting they would not measure their stomachs by the standard of physick and dieting themselves till nature by degrees could digest the meat but by surfeiting digged their graves with their own teeth And now we are come to the skirts and borders of Palestine Wherefore as Heralds use to blazon the field before they meddle with the charge so let us describe the land before we relate the actions done therein If in bowling they must needs throw wide which know not the green or alley whereon they play much more must they misse the truth in story who are unacquainted with that countrey whereon the discourse proceedeth Briefly therefore of the Holy land as not intending to make a large and wide description of so short and narrow a countrey Chap. 18. A Pisgah-sight or short survey of Palestine in generall and how it might maintain 1300000 men PAlestine is bounded on the North with mount Libanus West with the mid-land-sea South with the wildernesse of Paran parting it from Egypt and East with the mountains of Gilead and the river of Arnon To give it the most favourable dimensions From the foot of Libanus to Beersheba North and South may be allowed 210 miles and from Ramoth-gilead to Endor East and West seventy which is the constant breadth of the countrey In which compasse in Davids time were maintained thirteen hundred thousand men besides women children and impotent persons and yet the tribes of Benjamin and Levi were not reckoned True this must needs be for truth hath said it Yet is it wonderfull For though the united Provinces in the Low-countreys maintain as many people in as little a plot of ground yet they feed not on home-bred food but have Poland for their granary the British ocean for their fish-pond High-Germany for their wine-cellar and by the benefit of their harbours unlock the store-houses of all other countreys It fared not thus with the Jews whose own countrey fed them all And yet the seeming impossibility of so many kept in so small a land will be abated if we consider these particulars 1. People in those hot countreys had not so hot appetites for the quantity of the meat eaten nor gluttonous palates for the variety of it 2. The countrey rising and falling into hills and vales gained many acres of ground whereof no notice is taken in a map for therein all things presented are conceived to be in plano And so the land was farre roomthier then the scale of miles doth make it 3. They had pasturage to feed their cattel in in out-countreys beyond Palestine Thus the tribe of Reuben grased their cattel east-ward even to the river Euphrates 4. Lastly the soyl was transcendently fruitfull as appeareth by that great bunch of grapes carried by two men For though many a man hath not been able to bear wine it is much that one should be loaden with one cluster of grapes If any object against the fruitfulnesse of this countrey That there were many wildernesses therein as those of Maon Ziph Carmel Gibeon Judah and these must needs cut large thongs out of so narrow a hide it is answered That these wildernesses took up no great space as probably being no bigger then our least forrests in England As for the greater deserts we must not conceive them to lie wholly waste but that they were but thinly inhabited for we find fix cities with their villages in the wildernesse of Judah Principall commodities of this countrey were 1. Balm which wholly failed not long after our Saviours passion whether because the type was to cease when the truth was come or because that land was unworthy to have so sovereign bodily physick grow in her where the Physician of the soul was put to death 2. Honey and that either distilled by bees those little chymists and the pasture they fed on was never a whit the barer for their biting or else rained down from heaven as that which Jonathan tasted when his sweet meat had like to have had sowre sauce and to have cost him his life Besides these milk oyl nuts almonds dates figs olives So that we may boldly say no countrey had better sauce and better meat having fowl fish in sea lakes and rivers flesh of sheep goats bucks and kine Mines of gold and silver with pearls and precious stones Judea rather had not then wanted either because God
the plurality of voices The Christians got the conquest and in great triumph returned to Jerusalem This overthrow rather madded then daunted Saladine Who therefore to recover his credit some moneths after with his Mammalukes fell like a mighty tempest upon the Christians as they were parting the spoil of a band of Turks whom they had vanquished put many to the sword the rest to flight Otto grand Master of the Templars and Hugh sonne in law to the Count of Tripoli were taken prisoners and the King himself had much ado to escape And thus both sides being well wearied with warre they were glad to refresh themselves with a short slumber of a truce solemnly concluded and their troubled estates breathed almost for the space of two years Which truce Saladine the more willingly embraced because of a famine in the Kingdome of Damascus where it had scarce rained for five years together Chap. 41. The fatall jealousies betwixt the King and Reimund Earl of Tripoli BUt this so welcome a calm was troubled with domesticall discords For the Kings mother a woman of a turbulent spirit and her brother his steward accused Reimund Count of Tripoli governour of the Realm in the Kings minority as if he affected the Crown for himself which accusation this Earl could never wholly wipe off For slender and lean slanders quickly consume themselves but he that is branded with an hainous crime though false when the wound is cured his credit will be killed with the scarre Before we go further let us view this Earl Reimunds disposition and we shall find him marked to do mischief and to ruine this Realm He was sonne to Reimund grandchild to Pontius Earl of Tripoli by Cecilie the daughter of Philip King of France great-grandchild to Bertram first Earl of Tripoli great-great-grandchild to Reimund Earl of Tholose one of speciall note among the primitive adventurers in the Holy warre His mother was Hodiern third daughter to Baldwine the second King of Jerusalem A man whose stomach was as high as his birth and very serviceable to this State whilest the sharpnesse of his parts were used against the Turks which at last turned edge against the Christians Proud not able to digest the least wrong and though long in captivity amongst the Turks yet a very truant in the school of affliction who never learned the lesson of patience So revengefull that he would strike his enemy though it were through the sides of religion and the Christian cause For this present accusation of treason good authours seem to be his compurgatours for this at this time though afterwards he discovered his treacherous intents And because he could not rise by his service he made his service fall by him and undid what he had done for the publick good because thereby he could not attain his private ends He commanded over the 〈◊〉 of Tripoli which was a territory of large extent wherein he was absolute Lord. And by the way we may take notice of this as one of the banes of the Kingdome of Jerusalem That the principalities of Antioch Tripoli and Edessa whilest it was Christian were branches of this Kingdome but too big for the body For the Princes thereof on each petty distast would stand on their guard as if they had been subjects out of courtesie not conscience and though they confessed they owed the King allegeance yet they would pay no more then they thought fitting themselves To return to King Baldwine This suspicion of Earl Reimund though at first but a buzze soon got a sting in the Kings head and he violently apprehended it Whereupon Reimund coming to Jerusalem was by the way commanded to stay to his great disgrace But some of the Nobility foreseeing what danger this discord might bring reconciled them with much labour However Baldwine ever after looked on this Earl with a jealous eye Jealousie if it be fire in private persons is wild-fire in Princes who seldome rase out their names whom once they have written in their black bills And as the Italian proverb is Suspicion giveth a passe-port to faith to set it on packing so this Earl finding himself suspected was never after cordially loyall smothering his treachery in this Kings life which afterwards broke forth into an open flame Chap. 42. Saladine is conquered by King Baldwine and conquereth Mesopotamia Discords about the Protectourship of Ierusalem The death and praise of Baldwine the fourth THe Kingdome of Damascus being recovered of the famine Saladine having gotten his ends by the truce would now have the truce to end and breaking it as not standing with his haughty designes marched with a great army out of Egypt through Palestine to Damascus much spoiling the countrey And now having joyned the Egyptian with the Damascene forces re-entred the Holy land But young King Baldwine meeting him though but with seven hundred to twenty thousand at the village Frobolt overthrew him in a great battel and Saladine himself was glad with speedy flight to escape the danger and by long marches to get him again to Damascus Afterward he besieged Berytus both by sea and land but the vigilancie and valour of King Baldwine defeated his taking of it Saladine finding such tough resistance in the Holy land thought to make a better purchase by laying out his time in Mesopotamia Wherefore passing Euphrates he wonne Charran and divers other cities and then returning in Syria besieged Aleppo the strongest place the Christians had in that countrey so fortified by nature that he had little hope to force it But treason will runne up the steepest ascent where valour it self can scarce creep and Saladine with the battery of bribes made such a breach in the loyalty of the governour that he betrayed it unto him Thus he cometh again into the Holy land more formidable then ever before carrying an army of terrour in the mentioning of his name which drove the poore Christians all into their fensed cities As for King Baldwine the leprosie had arrested him prisoner and kept him at home Long had this Kings spirit endured this infirmity swallowing many a bitter pang with a smiling face and going upright with patient shoulders under the weight of his disease It made him put all his might to it because when he yielded to his sicknesse he must leave off the managing of the State and he was loth to put off his royall robes before he went to bed a Crown being too good a companion for one to part with willingly But at last he was made to stoop and retired himself to a private life appointing Baldwine his nephew a child of five years old his successour and Guy Earl of Joppa and Askelon this childs father in law to be Protectour of the Realm in his minority But soon after he revoked this latter act and designed Reimund Earl of Tripoli for the Protectour He displaced Guy because he found him of no over-weight worth scarce passable without favourable
there and such was the secrecie of the contrivance of the businesse that the storm fell upon them before they saw it and all the crannies were so closely stopped that none could steal a glimpse of the mischief intended against them In Germany they found some mercy and milder dealing for Hugh Wildgrave coming with twenty of his Order all in armour into a Council of Dutch Bishops who intended to execute the sentence of the Pope upon them there protested his innocencie and appealed to the next Pope who should succeed Clement as to his competent judge Hereupon their lives were spared onely they were forced to renounce the name of Templars and to enter themselves into other Orders chiefly of Hospitallers and Teutonicks on whom their lands were bestowed We will conclude all with that resolution of a brace of Spanish writers who make this epilogue to this wofull tragedie Concerning these Templars whether they were guiltie or not let us suspend our censure till the day of judgement and then and no sooner shall we certainly be informed therein Chap. 4. Of the Teutonick Order When they left Palestine and on what conditions they were entertained in Prussia Their Order at last dissolved FRequent mention hath been formerly made of the Teutonick Order or that of Dutch Knights who behaved themselves right valiantly clean through the holy Warre And which foundeth much to their honour they cannot be touched either for treason or faction but were both loyall and peaceable in the whole service But at last they perceived that by the course of the cards they must needs rise losers if they continued the warre in the Holy land and even resolved to abandon it It happened at the same time that Conrade Duke of Mazovia offered them most honourable conditions namely the enjoying of Prussia on condition they would defend it against the Infidels which annoyed it Indeed the fratres gladiferi or sword-bearing brothers brave slashing lads undertook that task but finding either their arms too weak or swords too blunt to strike through their enemies they imployed the aid of and conjoyned themselves to this Teutonick Order Hereupon in the yeare of our Lord 1239 Hermannus de Saltza fourth Master of these Dutch Knights came with most of his Order into Prussia yet so that he left a competent number of them still in Palestine which continued and did good service there even to the taking of Ptolemais But the greater number of the Dutch Knights in Prussia did knight-service against the Tartarians and were Christendomes best bank against the inundations of those barbarous people By their endeavours the Prussians which before were but heathen-Christians were wholly converted many a brave citie builded specially Marienburg where formerly a great oak stood who would think so many beautifull buildings would spring out of the root of one tree and those countreys of Prussia and Livonia which formerly were the course list are now become the rich fringe of Europe At last the Prussians grew weary of the tyrannous oppression of those Dutch knights as appeareth by the grievances they presented and applied themselves to Casimire King of Poland He took to task Lewis Erlinfuse the Master of their Order and so ordered him that whereas before he pleaded himself to be a free Prince of the Empire hereafter he should acknowledge the King of Poland for his Lord and Master The successours to this Lewis fretted against this agreement as prejudicial to them They could do no lesse then complain and could do little more for the King of Poland in spite of their resistance held them to their agreements Albert of the house of Brandenburg was the last grand Master of this Order and first Duke of Prussia He breake the vow of their Order losing his virginitie to keep his chastitie and married Dorothie daughter to the King of Denmark The other Teutonicks protested against him and chose Gualther Croneberg in his roome Yea Albert was proscribed in a Diet in Germanie and his goods confiscated but the proscription never executed the Emperour of Germanie being the same time employed in matters of greater moment which more nearly concerned himself And thus in this Albert for ought we can find to the contrarie the Teutonick Order had its end and was quite dissolved Chap. 5. The severall flittings of the Knights-Hospitallers from Cyprus by Rhodes Nice Syracuse to Malta WE must now wait on the Hospitallers to their lodgings and we have done We left them driven from Ptolemais and landed at Cyprus where King Henry courteously entertained them But a friends house is no home Hence therefore they were conveyed to their severall Alberges in Europe But such active spirits could not long be idle such running streams would not end in a standing pond Wherefore they used all their own strength and improved their interest with all their benefactours to furnish out a fleet Which done under Fulk de Villeret their grand Master they wonne the Island of Rhodes from the Turks eighteen yeares after Ptolemais was lost and there seated themselves Besides Rhodes they also enjoyed these five adjacent Islands saith my Authour Nicoria Episcopia Iolli Limonia and Sirana places so small that consulting with maps will not find them out enough almost to make us think with Tertullian of Delos that once there were such Islands which at this day are quite vanished away Two hundred and fourteen yeares to the terrour of the Turks comfort of the Christians and their own immortall fame they maintained this Island and secured the seas for the passage of Pilgrimes to Jerusalem till at last in the yeare 1523 after six moneths siege they surrendred the citie to their own honour and shame of other Christians who sent them no succour in season Yet changing their place they kept their resolution to be honourably imployed Hence they sailed to Nice in Piemont a city lying opposite to Africa from whence the Moores and Saracens much infested Christendome Wherefore Charles Duke of Savoy bestowed that citie upon them to defend it counting the courtesie rather done to him then by him that they would accept it Afterwards they perceived it was more needfull to stop the Turks invasions then their pillagings They had lately wonne Buda and as it was thought would quickly stride over the Adriatick sea and have at Italie Wherefore the Hospitallers left Nice and planted themselves at Syracuse in Sicilie Where they right valiantly behaved themselves in defending that countrey But Charles the fifth a politick Prince though he saw their help was usefull yet desired not much to have them live in his own countrey He liked their neighbourhood better then their presence to have them rather neare then in his Kingdome Wherefore he appointed them the Island of Malta to keep for themselves their grand Maister onely paying yearly to the King of Spain a Falcon in acknowledgement they held it from him Loth were the Hospitallers to leave Sicilie that Paradise of pleasure and
title against home-bred foes had no leisure to make any effectual resistance against forrein enemies Nor did the death of Cutlu-Muses their King any whit prejudicethe Tuâ—kish proceedings for Solyman his sonne succeeded him a Prince no lesse famous for his clemency then his conquests as victory to generous minds is onely an inducement to moderation In this case under the tyranny of the Turks stood Asia the lesse and though there were many Christians in every city yet these being disarmed had no other weapons then those of the Primitive Church tears and prayers But now these Western Pilgrimes arriving there besiege the city of Nice with an army as glorious as ever the sunne beheld This city was equally beholden to nature and art for her strength and was formerly famous for the first generall Council called there by Constantine against Arius wherein were assembled 318. Bishops The Pilgrimes had a Lombard for their engineer the neighbouring wood afforded them materials whereof they made many warlike instruments and hoped speedily to conquer the city But breathed deer are not so quickly caught The Turks within being experienced souldiers defeated their enterprises And here one might have seen art promising her self the victory and suddenly meeting with counter-art which mastered her The lake Ascanius whereon the city stood having an out-let into the sea much advantaged the besieged whereby they fetchâ— victualls from the countrey till at last that passage was locked up by the Grecian fleet Soon after the city was surrendred on composition that the inhabitants lives and goods should be untouched whereat the souldiers who hitherto hoped for the spoyl now seeing themselves spoiled of their hope shewed no small discontentment Solymans wife and young children were taken prisoners and the city according to the agreement was delivered to Tatinus the Grecian Admirall in behalf of Alexius his master From hence the Christians set forward to the vale of Dogorgan when behold Solyman with all his might fell upon them and there followed a cruel battel fought with much courage and variety of successe A cloud of arrows darkned the skie which was quickly dissolved into a showre of bloud The Christians had many disadvantages For their enemies were three to one valour it self may be pressed to death under the weight of multitude The season was unseasonable the scorching of the sunne much annoying these northern people whilest the Turks had bodies of proof against the heat Besides the Christians horses affrighted with the barbarous sounds of the Turkish drummes were altogether unserviceable However they bravely maintained their fight by the speciall valour and wisdome of their leaders amongst whom Boemund and Hugh brother to the King of France deserved high commendations till at last finding themselves overmatched they began to guard their heads with their heels and fairly ran away When in came Robert the Normane in the very opportunity of opportunity Much he encouraged them with his words more with his valour slaying three principall Turks with his own hands This sight so inspired the Christians that coming in on fresh they obtained a most glorious victory Two thousand on their side were slain whereof William the brother of Tancred Godfrey de Mont and Robert of Paris were of speciall note But farre greater was the slaughter of their enemies especially after that Godfrey of Bouillon who had been absent all the battel came in with his army yet they wanted a hammer to drive the victory home to the head having no horses to make the pursuit Solyman flying away burned all as he went and to prop up his credit gave it out that he had gotten the day pleasing himself to be a conquerour in report This great battel was fought July the first though some make it many dayes after Yea so great is the variety of Historians in their dates that every one may seem to have a severall clock of time which they set faster or slower at their own pleasure but as long as they agree in the main we need not be much moved with their petty dissensions Chap. 17. The siege and taking of Antiochia Corboran overcome in fight of Christs spear and of holy fraud FRom hence with invincible industry and patience they bored a passage through valleys up mountains over rivers taking as they went the famous cities Iconium Heraclea Tarsus and conquering all the countrey of Cilicia This good successe much puffed them up God therefore to cure them of the pleurisie of pride did let them bloud with the long and costly siege of Antiochia This city watered by the river Orontes and called Reblath of the Hebrews was built by Seleucus Nicanor and enlarged by Antiochus Compassed it was with a double wall one of square stone the other of brick strengthened with 460 towers and had a castle on the East rather to be admired then assaulted Here the professours of our faith were first named Christians and here S. Peter first sate Bishop whose fair Church was a Patriarchall seat for many hundred years after Before this city the Pilgrimes army incamped and strongly besieged it but the Turks within manfully defending themselves under Auxianus their captain frustrated their hopes of taking it by force The siege grew long and victuals short in the Christians camp and now Peter the Hermite being brought to the touch-stone discovered what base metall he was of ran away with some other of good note and were fetcht back again and bound with a new oath to prosecute the warre At last one within the city though Authours agree neither of his name nor religion some making him a Turk others a Christian Some calling him Pyrrhus some Hemirpherrus others Emipher in the dead of the night betrayed the city to Boemund The Christians issuing in and exasperated with the length of the fiege so remembred what they had suffered that they forgot what they had to do killing promiscuously Christian citizens with Turks Thus passions like heavie bodies down steep hills once in motion move themselves and know no ground but the bottom Antiochia thus taken was offered to Alexius the Emperour but he refused it suspecting some deceit in the tender as bad men measure other mens minds by the crooked rule of their own Hereupon it was bestowed on Boemund though this place dearly purchased was not long quietly possessed For Corboran the Turkish Generall came with a vast army of Persian forces and besieged the Christians in the City so that they were brought into a great strait betwixt death and death hunger within and their foes without Many secretly stole away whereat the rest were no whit discomfited counting the losse of cowards to be gain to an army At last they generally resolved rather to lose their lives by whole-sale on the point of the sword then to retail them out by famine which is the worst of tyrants and murdereth men in state whilest they die in not dying It did not a little
but cannot go to the cost to practice their own doctrine A table shewing the variety of places names in Palestine In the old Testament At Christs time In S. Hieromes time At this day 1 Azzah Gaza Constantia Gazra 2 Japho Joppa  Jaffa 3 Ramah Arimathea  Ramma 4 Shechem Sychar Neapolis Pelosa 5 Lydda Diospolis  6 Capharsalama Antipatris  Assur 7 Zarephath Sarepta  Saphet 8 Emmaus Nicopolis  9 Bethsan  Scythopolis  10 Tzor Tyrus  Sur. 11 Laish Dan. Leshem Cesarea-Philippi Paneas Belina 12 Jerusalem Hierosolyma Aelia Cuds 13 Samaria Samaria Sebaste  14 Cinnereth Tiberias  Saffet 15 Accho Ptolemais  Acre 16 Gath.  Dio-Cesarea Ybilin 17 Dammesek Damascus  Sham. 18 Arnon  Areopolis Petra 19 Rabbah Philadelphia   20 Waters of Merom Semochonite lake  Houle Chap. 24. The siege and taking of Ierusalem BY this time cold weather the best besome to sweep the chambers of the air had well cleared the Christians camp from infection and now their devotion moved the swifter being come near to the centre thereof the city of Jerusalem Forward they set and take the city of Marrha and employ themselves in securing the countrey about them that so they might clear the way as they went Neither did the discords betwixt Reimund and Boemund much delay their proceedings being in some measure seasonably compounded as was also the sea-battel betwixt the Pisans and Venetians For the Venetians seeing on the Pisans the cognizance of the Crosse the uncounterfeited pasport that they wear for the Holy Warre suffered them safely to go on though otherwise they were their deadly enemies yea and set five thousand of them at liberty whom they had taken captive The Pilgrimes kept their Easter at Tripolie Whitsuntide by Cesarea-Stratonis taking many places in their passage and at last came to Jerusalem Discovering the city afarre off it was a pretty sight to behold the harmony in the difference of expressing their joy how they clothed the same passion with diverse gestures some prostrate some kneeling some weeping all had much ado to manage so great a gladnesse Then began they the siege of the citie on the north being scarce assaultable on any other side by reason of steep and broken rocks and continued it with great valour On the fourth day after they had taken it but for want of scaling-ladders But a farre greater want was the defect of water the springs being either stopped up or poysoned by the Turks so that they fetcht water five miles off As for the brook Cedron it was dried up as having no subsistence of it self but meerly depending on the benevolence of winter-waters which mount Olivet bestoweth upon it Admirall Coligni was wont to say He that will well paint the beast Warre must first begin to shape the belly meaning that a good Generall must first provide victuals for an army Yea let him remember the bladder in the beasts belly as well as the guts and take order for moisture more especially then for meat it self thirst in northern bodies being more unsupportable then famine Quickly will their courage be cooled who have no moisture to cool their hearts As for the Christians want of ladders that was quickly supplied for the Genoans arriving with a fleet in Palestine brought most curious engineers who framed a wooden tower and all other artificiall instruments For we must not think that the world was at a losse for warre-tools before the brood of guns was hatched It had the battering ramme first found out by Epeus at the taking of Troy the balista to discharge great stones invented by the Phenicians the catapulta being a sling of mighty strength whereof the Syrians were authours and perchance King Uzziah first made it for we find him very dextrous and happy in devising such things And although these Bear-whelps were but rude and unshaped at the first yet art did lick them afterwards and they got more teeth and sharper nails by degrees so that every age set them forth in a new edition corrected and amended But these and many more voluminous engines for the ramme alone had an hundred men to manage it are now virtually epitomized in the cannon And though some may say that the finding of guns hath been the losing of many mens lives yet it will appear that battels now are fought with more expedition and victory standeth not so long a neuter before she expresse her self on one side or other But these gunnes have shot my discourse from the siege of Jerusalem To return thither again By this time in the space of a moneth the Genoans had finished their engines which they built seven miles off for nearer there grew no stick of bignesse I will not say that since our Saviour was hanged on a tree the land about that city hath been cursed with a barrennes of wood And now for a preparative that their courage might work the better they began with a fast and a solemn procession about mount Olivet Next day they gave a fierce assault yea women played the men and fought most valiantly in armour But they within being fourty thousand strong well victualled and appointed made stout resistance till the night accounted but a foe for her friendship umpired betwixt them and abruptly put an end to their fight in the midst of their courage When the first light brought news of a morning they on afresh the rather because they had intercepted a letter tied to the legs of a dove it being the fashion of that countrey both to write and send their letters with the wings of a fowl wherein the Persian Emperour promised present succours to the besieged The Turks cased the outside of their walls with bags of chaff straw and such like pliable matter which conquered the engines of the Christians by yielding unto them As for one sturdy engine whose force would not be tamed they brought two old witches on the walls to inchant it but the spirit thereof was too strong for their spells so that both of them were miserably slain in the place The day following Duke Godfrey fired much combustible matter the smoke whereof the light cause of an heavie effect driven with the wind blinded the Turks eyes and under the protection thereof the Christians entred the citie Godfrey himself first footing the walls and then his brother Eustace The Turks retired to Solomons temple so called because built in the same place there to take the farewell of their lives In a desperate conflict there the foremost of the Christians were miserably slain thrust upon the weapons of their enemies by their fellows that followed them The pavement so swam that none could go but either through a rivulet of bloud or over a bridge of dead bodies Valour was not wanting
of Ebremarus to be illegall and void and was himself chosen Patriarch in his place and the other in reverence of his piety made Archbishop of Cesarea And though Arnulphus the firebrand of this Church desired the Patriarchs place for himself yet was he better content with Gibellinus his election because he was a through-old man and hoped that candle would quickly go out that was in the socket To this Gibellinus King Baldwine granted that all places which he or his successours should winne should be subject to his jurisdiction and this also was confirmed by Pope Paschall the 2. But Bernard Patriarch of Antioch found himself much aggrieved hereat because many of these cities by the ancient canon of the Council of Nice were subject to his Church At last the Pope took the matter into his hand and stroked the angry Patriarch of Antioch into gentlenesse with good language He shewed how since the Council of Nice the countrey had got a new face ancient mountains were buried rivers drowned in oblivion and they new christened with other names Yea the deluge of the Saracens tyranny had washed away the bounds of the Churches jurisdictions that now they knew not their own severals where Mahometanisme so long had made all common and waste He desired him therefore to be contented with this new division of their jurisdictions especially because it was reasonable that the King of Jerusalem and his successours should dispose of those places which they should winne with their own swords Bernard perceiving hereby how his Holinesse stood affected in the businesse contented his conscience that he had set his title on foot and then quietly let it fall to the ground as counting it no policy to shew his teeth where he durst not bite Gibellinus never laid claim to the city of Jerusalem whether it was in thankfulnesse for this large ecclesiasticall power which King Baldwine had bestowed upon him or that his old age was too weak to strive with so strong an adversary He sate four years in his chair and Arnulphus thinking he went too slow to the grave is suspected to have given him something to have mended his pace and was himself substituted in his room by the especiall favour of K. Baldwine This Arnulphus was called mala corona as if all vices met in him to dance a round And no wonder if the King being himself wantonly disposed advanced such a man for generally loose Patrons cannot abide to be pinched and pent with over-strict Chaplains Besides it was policy in him to choose such a Patriarch as was liable to exceptions for his vitious life that so if he began to bark against the King his mouth might be quickly stopped Arnulphus was as quiet as a lamb and durst never challenge his interest in Jerusalem from Godfreys donation as fearing to wrastle with the King who had him on the hip and could out him at pleasure for his bad manners Amongst other vices he was a great church-robber who to make Emmelor his niece a Princesse and to marry Eustace Prince of Sidon gave her the city of Jericho for her dowrie and lands belonging to his See worth five thousand crowns yearly And though Papists may pretend that marriage causeth covetousnesse in the Clergy yet we shall find when the Prelacy were constrained to a single life that their nephews are more church-bread then now the children of married Ministers Yea some Popes not onely fed their bastards with church-milk but even cut off the churches breasts for their pompous and magnificent maintenance And thus having dispatched the story of the Church in this Kings reigne we come now to handle the businesse of the Common-wealth entirely by it self Chap. 9. A mountain-like army of new adventurers after long and hard travail delivered of a mouse Alexius his treachery THe fame of the good successe in Palestine summoned a new supply of other Pilgrimes out of Christendome Germany and other places which were sparing at the first voyage made now amends with double liberality The chief adventurers were Guelpho Duke of Bavaria who formerly had been a great champion of the Popes against Henry the Emperour and from him they of the Papall faction were denominated Guelphes in distinction from the Imperiall party which were called Gibellines Hugh brother to the King of France and Stephen Earl of Blois both which had much suffered in their reputation for deserting their fellows in the former expedition and therefore they sought to unstain their credits by going again Stephen Earl of Burgundy William Duke of Aquitain Frederick Count of Bogen Hugh brother to the Earl of Tholose besides many great Prelates Diemo Archbishop of Saltzburg the Bishops of Millain and Pavie which led 50000 out of Lombardy the totall summe amounting to 250000. All stood on the tiptoes of expectation to see what so great an army would atchieve men commonly measuring victories by the multitudes of the souldiers But they did nothing memorable save onely that so many went so farre to do nothing Their sufferings are more famous then their deeds being so consumed with plague famine and the sword that Conrade Abbot of Urspurg who went and wrote this voyage believeth that not a thousand of all these came into Palestine and those so poore that their bones would scarce hold together so that they were fitter to be sent into an hospitall then to march into the field having nothing about them wherewith to affright their enemies except it were the ghost-like ghastlinesse of their famished faces The army that came out of Lombardy were so eaten up by the swords of the Turks that no fragments of them were left nor news to be heard what was become of them And no wonder being led by Prelates unexperienced in martiall affairs which though perchance great Clerks were now to turn over a new leaf which they had no skill to reade Luther was wont to say that he would be unwilling to be a souldier in that army where Priests were Captains because the Church and not the Camp was their proper place whereas going to warre they willingly outed themselves of Gods protection being out of their vocation But the main matter which made this whole voyage miscarry in her travail was the treachery of the midwife through whose hands it was to passe For Alexius the Grecian Emperour feared lest betwixt the Latines in the East in Palestine and West in Europe as betwixt two milstones his Empire lying in the midst should be ground to powder Whereupon as these Pilgrims went through his countrey he did them all possible mischief still under pretence of kindnesse What hinderer to a false helper calling the chief Captains of the army his sonnes but they found it true The more courtesie the more craft Yea this deep disâ—embler would put off his vizard in private and professe to his friends that he delighted as much to see the Turks and these Christians in battel as to see
colour which nature doth die simple and therefore fittest for religion But Melexala King of Egypt who formerly was very bountifull to the Carmelites knew not his Alms-men in their new coats but changed his love as they their livery and persecuted them out of all Egypt It seemeth afterwards by the complaint of Mantuan that they wore some black again over their white For he playeth on them as if their bad manners had blacked and altered their clothes Now though Palestine was their mother England was their best nurse Ralph Fresburg about the year 1240 first brought them hither and they were first seated at Newenden in Kent An hundred and fourty English writers have been of this order And here they flourished in great pomp till at last King Henry the 8 as they came out of the wildernesse so turned their houses into a wildernesse not onely breaking the necks of all Abbeys in England but also scattering abroad their very bones past possibility of recounting them Chap. 27. Edessa lost The hopefull voyage of Conrade the Emperour and Lewis King of France to the Holy land blasted by the perfidiousnesse of Emmanuel the Grecian Emperour EMpires have their set bounds whither when they come they stand still go back fall down This we may see in the Kingdome of Jerusalem which under Godfrey and the two first Baldwines was a gainer under Fulk a saver under the succeeding Kings a constant loser till all was gone For now Sanguin Prince of the Turks as bloudy as his name wrested from the Christians the countrey and city of Edessa one of the four Tetrarchies of the Kingdome of Jerusalem And though Sanguin shortly after was stabbed at a feast yet Noradine his sonne succeeded and exceeded him in cruelty against the Christians The losse of Edessa wherein our religion had flourished ever since the Apostles time moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the 7. surnamed the Young King of France to undertake a voyage to the Holy-land Pope Eugenius the 3. bestirred himself in the matter and made S. Bernard his soliciter to advance the design For never could so much steel have been drawn into the east had not this good mans perswasion been the loadstone The Emperours army contained two hundred thousand foot besides fifty thousand horse Nor was the army of King Lewis much inferiour in number In France they sent a distaff and a spindle to all those able men that went not with them as upbraiding their effeminatenesse And no wonder when women themselves went in armour having a brave lasse like another Penthesilea for their leader so befringed with gold that they called her Golden-foot riding astride like men which I should count more strange but that I find all women in England in the same posture on their horses till Anna wife to King Richard the second some 200 years since taught them a more modest behaviour The Turks did quake hearing of these preparations which to them were reported farre greater then they were fame contrary to all other painters making those things the greatest which are presented the farthest off Conrade with his army took his way through Grecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his cities in the way as knowing there needed strong banks where such a stream of people was to passe And suspecting that if these Pilgrimes often made his Empire their high-way into Palestine little grasse would grow in so trodden a path and his countrey thereby be much endamaged he used them most treacherously giving them bad welcome that he might no more have such guests To increase their miseries as the Dutch encamped by the river Melas if that may be called a river which is all mud in summer all sea in winter deserving his name from this black and dismall accident it drowned many with its sudden overflowings as if it had conspired with the Grecians and learned treachery from them They that survived this sudden mishap were reserved for lingring misery For the Grecian Emperour did them all possible mischief by mingling lime with their meal by killing of stragglers by holding intelligence with the Turks their enemies by corrupting his coyn making his silver as base as himself so that the Dutch sold good wares for bad money and bought bad wares with good money by giving them false Conductours which trained them into danger so that there was more fear of the guides then of the way All which his unfaithfull dealings are recorded by that faithfull historian †Nicetas Choniates who though a Grecian born affirmeth these things the truth of his love to his countrey-men no whit prejudicing his love to the truth Chap. 28. The Turks conquered at Meander The Dutch and French arrive in Palestine SCarce had the Dutch escaped the treachery of the Greeks when they were encountred with the hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the other side of Meander The river was not fordable ship or bridge the Christians had none when behold Conrade the Emperour adventured on an action which because it was successefull shall be accounted valiant otherwise we should term it desperate After an exhortation to his army he commanded them all at once to flownce into the river Meander was plunged by their plunging into it his water stood amazed as unresolved whether to retreat to the fountain or proceed to the sea and in this extasie afforded them a dry passage over the stream An act which like that of Horatius Cocles his leaping into Tiber plus famae ad posteros habiturum quà m fidei will find more admirers then believers with posterity The affrighted Turks on the other side thinking there was no contending with them that did teach nature it self obedience offered their throats to the Christians swords and were killed in such number that whole piles of dead bones remain there for a monument like those heaps of the Cimbrians slain by Marius near Marseils where afterwards the inhabitants walled their vineyards with sculls and guarded their grapes with dead men Hence Conrade made forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the great losse of his army The King of France followed after with great multitudes and drank of the same cup at the Grecians hands though not so deeply till at last finding that those who marched through the continent met with an ocean of misery he thought better to trust the wind and sea then the Greeks and taking shipping safely arrived in Palestine where he was highly welcomed by Reimund Prince of Antioch Some weeks were spent in complying entertainments and visiting holy places till at last Elianor wife to the King of France who accompanied her husband made religion her pander and played bankrupt of her honour under pretence of pilgrimage keeping company with a base Saracen jester whom she preferred before a King Thus love may blindfold the eyes
the gamesters King Almerick having looked on the beauty of the Kingdome of Egypt he longed for it and sought no longer to drive out the relicks of the Turks but to get Egypt to himself And the next year against the solemn league with the Caliph invaded it with a great army He falsly pretended that the Caliph would make a private peace with Noradine King of the Turks and hence created his quarrel For he hath a barren brain who cannot fit himself with an occasion if he hath a desire to fall out But Gilbert master of the Hospitallers chiefly stirred up the King to this warre upon promise that the city and countrey of Pelusium if conquered should be given to his order The Templars were much against the design one of their order was Embassadour at the ratifying of the peace and with much zeal protested against it as undertaken against oath and fidelity An oath being the highest appeal perjury must needs be an hainous sinne whereby God is solemnly invited to be witnesse of his own dishonour And as bad is a God-mocking equivocation For he that surpriseth truth with an ambush is as bad an enemy as he that fighteth against her with a flat lie in open field I know what is pleaded for King Almerick namely That Christians are not bound to keep faith with idolaters the worshippers of a false god as the Egyptian Caliph was on the matter But open so wide a window and it will be in vain to shut any doores All contracts with Pagans may easily be avoided if this evasion be allowed But what saith S. Hierome It matters not to whom but by whom we swear And God to acquit himself knowing the Christians prosperity could not stand with his justice after their perjury frowned upon them And from hence authours date the constant ill successe of the Holy warre For though this expedition sped well at the first and Almerick wonne the city of Belbis or Pelusium yet see what a cloud of miseries ensued First Noradine in his absence wasted and wonne places near Antiochia at pleasure Secondly Meller Prince of Armenia a Christian made a covenant with Noradine and kept it most constantly to the inestimable disadvantage of the King of Jerusalem This act of Meller must be condemned but withall Gods justice admired Christians break their covenant with Saracens in Egypt whilest other Christians to punish them make and keep covenant with Turks in Asia Thirdly the Saracens grew good souldiers on a sudden who were naked at first and onely had bows but now learned from the Christians to use all offensive and defensive weapons Thus rude nations alwayes better themselves in fighting with a skilful enemy How good mark-men are the Irish now-a-dayes which some seventy years ago at the beginning of their rebellions had three men to discharge a hand-gun Fourthly Almericks hopes of conquering Egypt were frustrated for after some victories he was driven out and that whole Kingdome conquered by Saladine nephew to Syracon who killed the Caliph with his horse-mace as he came to do him reverence and made himself the absolutest Turkish King of Egypt And presently after the death of Noradine the Kingdome of the Turks at Damascus was by their consent bestowed upon him Indeed Noradine left a sonne Meleâ—ala who commanded in part of his fathers dominions but Saladine after his death got all for himself Thus rising men shall still meet with more stairs to raise them as those falling with stumbling-blocks to ruine them Mean time Jerusalem was a poor weather-beaten Kingdome bleak and open to the storm of enemies on all sides having no covert or shelter of any good friend near it lying in the lions mouth betwixt his upper and neather jaw Damascus on the North and Egypt on the South two potent Turkish Kingdoms united under a puissant Prince Saladine This made Almerick send for succours into Europe for now few voluntaries came to this service souldiers must be pressed with importunity Our Western Princes were prodigall of their pity but niggardly of their help The heat of the warre in Palestine had cooled their desires to go thither which made these Embassadours to return without supplies having gone farre to fetch home nothing but discomfort and despair Lastly King Almerick himself wearied with whole volleys of miseries ended his life of a bloudy flux having reigned eleven full years and was buried with his predecessours Leaving two children Baldwine and Sibyll by Agnes his first wife and by Mary his second wife daughter to John Proto-Sebastus a Grecian Prince one daughter Isabell married afterwards to Hemphred the third Prince of Thorone Chap. 38. Baldwine the fourth succeedeth His education under William the reverend Aâ—rchbishop of Tyre BAldwine his sonne the fourth of that name succeeded his father so like unto him that we report the reader to the character of King Almerick and will spare the repeating his description Onely he differed in the temper of his body being enclined to the leproâ—ie called Elephanâ—iasis noysome to the patient but not infectious to the company not like King Uzziahs but Naamans leprosie which had it been contagious no doubt the King of Assyria when he went into the house of Rimmon would have chosen another supporter Mean time the Kingdome was as sick as the King he of a leprosie that of an incurable consumption This Baldwine had the benefit of excellent education under William Archbishop of Tyre a pious man and excellent scholar skilled in all the learned Orientall tongues besides the Dutch and French his native language a moderate and faithfull writer For in the latter part of his history of the Holy warre his eye guided his hand till at last the taking of the city of Jerusalem so shook his hand that his penne fell out and he wrote no more Treasurer he was of all the money contributed to the Holy war Chancellour of this Kingdome imployed in severall Embassies in the West present at the Lateran Council the acts whereof he did record Cardinall he might have been but refused it In a word unhappy onely that he lived in that age though that age was happy he lived in it Chap. 39. The vitiousnesse of Heraclius the Patriarch of Ierusalem His Embassie to Henry the second King of England with the successe The Maronites reconciled to the Romane Church AFter the death of Almerick Patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius was by the Queen-mother Mary second wife to King Almerick for his handsomenesse preferred to be Patriarch William Archbishop of Tyre was violent against his election because of a prophesie That as Heraclius King of Persia wonne so an Heraclius should lose the Crosse. But others excepted that this exception was nothing worth For let God give the man and let the devil set the name As for those blind prophesies they misse the truth ofter then hit it so that no wise man will lean his belief on so slender a prop. But
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 years 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 believe 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 ears 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 years 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 spirit 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 Dominicans and Franciscans his trumpeters to incite people to the Holy warre These were two twin-orders but the Dominican 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 and I may say shut the door 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 dear and â—harp reckoning was called for Behold the Turks in great numbers fell upon them near 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
finally to expell the Christians out of Palestine whilest the Princes in Europe were in civil warres besieged and wonne Tripoli Sidon Berytus and Tyre beating them down to the ground but suffering the inhabitants on some conditions to depart Nothing now was left but Ptolemais which Alphir would not presently besiege lest he should draw the Christians in Europe upon him but concluded a peace for five yeares with the Venetians as not willing wholly to exasperate them by winning all from them at once and thinking this bitter potion would be better swallowed by them at two severall draughts Mean time Ptolemais was in a woful condition In it were some of all countreys so that he who had lost his nation might find it here Most of them had severall courts to decide their causes in and the plenty of Judges causeâ—â— the scarcity of justice malefactours appealing to a trial in the courts of their own countrey 〈◊〉 was sufficient innocencie for any offender in the Venetian court that he was a Venetian Personall acts were entituled nationall and made the cause of the countrie Outrages were every-where practised no-where punished as if to spare Divine revenge the pains of overtaking them they would go forth and meet it At the same time there were in fitters about prosecuting their titles to this citie no fewer then the Venetians Genoans Pisans Florentines the Kings of Cyprus and Sicily the Agents for the Kings of France and England the Princes of Tripoli and Antioch the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Masters of the Templars and Hospitallers and whom I should have named first the Legate of his Holinesse all at once with much violence contending about the right of right nothing the title to the Kingdome of Jerusalem and command of this citie like bees making the greatest humming and buzzing in the hive when now ready to leave it Chap. 33. Ptolemais besieged and taken by Sultan Serapha WIthin the city were many voluntaries lately come over five hundred whereof were of the Popes furnishing But belike he failed afterwards in his payment to them the golden tide flowing not so fast out as into his Holinesse coffers The souldiers being not payed according to their blunt manners would pay themselves and marching out pillaged the countrey contrary to the truce Sultan Serapha who succeeded Alphir demanding restitution is denied his Embassadours ill intreated Hereupon he sitteth down before the city with six hundred thousand men But we are not bound to believe that Alexanders souldiers were so big as their shields speak them which they left in India nor Asian armies so numerous as they are reported Allow the Turks dominions spacious and populous and that they rather drained then chose souldiers yet we had best credit the most niggardly writers which make them an hundred and fiftie thousand Serapha resolveth to take it conceiving so convenient a purchase could not be over-bought The place though not great yet was a mote in the eye of the Turkish Empire and therefore pained them Peter Belvise Master of the Templars a valiant Captain had the command of the citie assigned him by generall consent He encouraged the Christians to be valiant not like prodigall heirs to lose this city for nothing which cost their grandfathers so much bloud at least let them give one blaze of valour ere their candle went out How should they shew their friends their faces if they shewed their foes their backs Let them fight it out manfully that so if forced at last to surrender it they might rather be pitied for want of fortune then justly blamed for lack of valour And now Ptolemais being to wrastle her last fall stripped her self of all combersome clothes women children aged persons weak folks all such hindering help and mouths without arms were sent away and twelve thousand remained conceived competent to make good the place Serapha marcheth up furiously his men assault the city with open jaws ready to devoure it had not their mouths been stopped with the artilery the Christians shot at them Back they were beaten and many a Turk slain But Serapha was no whit sensible thereof who willingly would lose a thousand men in a morning for a breakfast double so many at a dinner and continue this costly ordinarie for some daies together yea in spite he would spend an ounce of Turkish bloud to draw a drop of Christian. In this conflict Peter Belvise was slain with a poisoned arrow A losse above grieving for Many were strong in desiring the honour who were weak to discharge the office But the worst mischief was the Christians were divided amongst themselves and neglected to defend the citie conceiving that though that was taken yet every particular nation could defend it self having their buildings severally fortified And this dangerous fansie took off their thoughts from the publick good and fixed them on their private ends Mean time the Patriarch of Jerusalem and others some name with them Henry King of Jerusalem and Cyprus more seeking their safetie then honour secretly fled with their bodies after their hearts out of the citie and some of them shunning a noble death fell on a base end being drowned in the sea Their cowardlinesse is imputed by some Authours to all the rest whereas it appeareth on the contrarie they most valiantly behaved themselves At last the Turks entred the citie by undermining the walls and conceived their work now done when it was new begun For they found Ptolemais not a citie but a heap of cities thrown together wherein the people of every countrey so fensed themselves in their severall sorts that they powdered the Turks with their shot when they entred the streets It is hardly to be paralleled in any siege that a taken citie was so long before it was taken for it held out fiftie daies and the Knights Hospitallers made good their castle for two whole moneths together But alas as the severall parts of Insecta being cut asunder may wriggle and stirre a while not live long so these divided limbes could not long subsist and at last most of them were slain Yet was it a bloudie victorie to the Turks most of them that entered the citie being either burned with fire or killed arrows or smothered with the fall of towres the very ruines as thirstie of revenge killing those that ruined them Serapha evened all to the ground and lest the Christians should ever after land here demolished all buildings the Turks holding this position That the best way to be rid of such vermine is to shave the hair clean off and to destroy all places wherein they may nestle themselves Some say he plowed the ground whereon the citie stood and sowed it with corn but an eye-witnesse affirmeth that still there remain magnificent ruines seeming rather wholy to consist of divers conjoyned castles then any way intermingled with private dwellings No fewer then an hundred thousand Latine Christians all that were left in Syria fled at this time
report the honour thereof through the whole world A Sultan of Damascus who had but one eye chanced to lose the other and so became stark-blinde when coming devoutly to this image though he was a Pagan having faith in God and confidence therein he perfectly was restored to his sight Infinite are the sholes of miracles done by Christs Crosse in Jerusalem insomuch that my Authour blamed the Bishop of Acon who carried the Crosse in that battel wherein it was lost to the Turks for wearing a corselet and therefore saith he he was justly slain because his weak faith relied on meanes not on the miraculous protection thereof When Conrade Landt-grave of Thuringia was inrolled in the Teutonick Order to goe to the Holy warre and received his benediction as the fushion was the Holy Ghost visibly descended upon him in the shape of fire The said Conrade received of God as a boon for his valour in this service the rare facultie That by looking on any man he could tell whether or no he had committed a mortall sinne yea at first fight descrie their secret sinnes But the last miracle of our Lady in Palestine is the Lady of all miracles which was this In the yeare 1291 when the Holy land was finally subdued by the Turks the chamber at Nazareth wherein the Angel Gabriel saluted her with joyfull tydings was wonderfully transported into Sclavonia That countrey being unworthy of her divine presence it was by the Angels carried over into Italie anno 1294. That place also being infested with thieves and pirates the Angels removed it to the little village of Loretto where this Pilgrime-Chappel resteth it selfe at this day and liketh her entertainment so well it will travel no further But enough for fools meat is unsavourie to the taste of the wise I have transgressed already two instances had been sufficient as Noah preserved but two of all unclean creatures the rest might be lost without losse and safely be drowned in oblivion How-ever we may observe these millions of miracles are reducible to one of these foure ranks 1. Falsely reported never so much as seemingly done Asia the theatre whereon they were acted is at a great distance and the miracles as farre from truth as the place from us And who knoweth not when a lie is once set on foot besides the first founders it meeteth with many benefactours who contribute their charitie thereunto 2. Falsely done insomuch as at this day they are sented amongst the Romanists Who would not laugh to see the picture of a Saint weep Where one devout Catholick lifteth up his eyes ten of their wiser sort wag their heads 3. Truly done but by the strength of nature Suppose one desperately sick a piece of the Crosse is applied to him he recovereth is this a miracle Nothing lesse how many thousands have made an escape after Death in a manner hath arrested them As therefore it is sacriledge to father Gods immediate works on naturall causes so it is superstition to intitle naturall events to be miraculous 4. Many miracles were ascribed to Saints which were done by Satan I know it will non-plus his power to worke a true miracle but I take the word at large and indeed vulgar not to say humane eyes are too dimme to discern betwixt things wonderfull and truly miraculous Now Satan the master-juggler needeth no wires or ginnes to worke with being all ginnes himselfe so transcendent is the activitie of a spirit Nay may not God give the Devil leave to goe beyond himself it being just with him that those who will not have Truth their king and willingly obey it should have Falshood their tyrant to whom their judgement should be captivated and inslaved Chap. 11. The second grand errour in prosecuting the Holy warre being the Christians notorious breaking their faith with Infidels NExt unto Superstition which was deeply inlayed in the Holy warre we may make the Christians Truce-breaking with the Infidels the second cause of their ill successe Yet never but once did they breake promise with the Turks which was as I may say a constant and continued faith-breaking never keeping their word To omit severall straining of the sinewes and unjoynting the bones of many a solemne peace we will onely instance where the neck thereof was clearly broken asunder 1. When Godfrey first won Jerusalem pardon was proclaimed to all the Turks which yielded themselves yet three dayes after in cold bloud they were all without difference of age or sex put to the sword 2. Almerick the First swore effectually to assist the Saracens in driving the Turks out of Egypt and soon after invaded Egypt and warred upon the Turks against his promise I know something he pretended herein to defend himself but of no validitie and such plausible and curious wittie evasions to avoid perjurie are but the tying of a most artificiall knot in the halter therewith to strangle ones own conscience 3. There was a peace concluded for some time betwixt King Guy and Saladine which non obstante Reinold of Castile robbed Saladines own mother Whereupon followed the miserable overthrow of the Christians and taking of Jerusalem 4. Our Richard at his departure from Palestine made a firm peace for five yeares with Saladine and it stood yet in force when Henry Duke of Saxonie coming with a great armie of new adventurers invaded the Turkish dominions 5. Frederick the Second Emperour made a truce of ten yeares with the Sultan of Babylon and yet in despite thereof Theobald King of Navarre forraged the countrey of Gaza to the just overthrow of him and his armie 6. Reinold Vice-roy of Palestine in the name of Frederick the Emperour and after him our Richard Earl of Cornwall drew up a firm peace with the said Sultan which was instantly disturbed and interrupted by the turbulent Templars 7. Lastly the Venetians in the name of all Christian Princes concluded a five yeares peace with Alphir the Mammaluke Prince of Egypt yet some voluntaries in Ptolemais pillaged and robbed many Saracen merchants about the citie But pardon them this last fault we will promise they shall never do so any more in Palestine hereupon losing all they had left there And how could Safetie it selfe save this people and blesse this project so blackly blasted 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 moral honestie so injurious to the quiet and peace of the world so odious in it selfe so scandalous to all men To dissolve a league when confirmed by Oath the strongest bond of conscience the end of particular strife the souldier of publick peace the sole assurance of amitie betwixt divers nations made here below but inrolled in his high court whose glorious name doth sign it a sinne I say so hainous that God cannot but must severely
entertainment to Pilgrimes as to Duke Godfrey and Frederick Barbarossa with all their souldiers as they travelled through it Had the Kings of Hungarie had the same principle of basenesse in their souls as the Emperours of Grecia they had had the same cause of jealousie against the Christians that passed this way yet they used them most kindly and disdained all dishonourable suspicioâ—s True it is at the first voyage King Coloman not out of crueltie but carefulnesse and necessary securitie did use his sword against some unruly and disorderly Pilgrimes but none were there abused which first abused not themselves But what-ever Hungarie was in that age it is at this day Christendomes best land bulwark against the Turks Where this prettie custome is used That the men wear so many feathers as they have killed Turks which if observed elsewhere either feathers would be lesse or valour more in fashion Poland could not stirre in this warre as lying constant perdue of Christendome against the Tartarian yet we find Boleslaus Crispus Duke or King thereof waiting on shall I say or accompanying Conrade the Emperour in his voyage to Palestine and having defraid all his and his armies costs and charges towards Constantinople he returned home as not to be spared in his own Countrey But if by King Davids statute the keepers of the baggage are to be sharers in the spoil with the fighters of the battel then surely Poland and such other countreys may entitle themselves to the honour of the warre in Palestine which in the mean time kept home had an eye to the main chance and defended Europe against forrein invaders Norway in that age the sprucest of the three Kingdomes of Scandia and best tricked up with shipping though at this day the case is altered with her and she turned from taking to paying of tribute sent her fleet of tall souldiers to Syria who like good fellows asked nothing for their work but their victuals and valiantly wonne the city of Sidon for the King of Jerusalem And it is considerable that Syria but a step or stride from Italie was a long race from Norway so that their Pilgrimes went not only into another countrey but into another world Denmark was also partner in the foresaid service Also afterwards Ericus her King though he went not quite through to the Holy land yet behaved himself bravely in Spain and there assisted the winning of Lisbon from the Infidels His successour Canutus anno 1189 had provided his navie but was prevented by death his ships neverthelesse came to Syria Of Sweden in this grand-jurie of nations I heare no Vous avez but her default of appearance hath been excused before Chap. 23. Of the Scottish Welsh and Irish their severall adventures THere remain behind the Scottish Welsh and Irish. It may occasion suspicion that these nations either did neglect or are neglected in this Holy warre because clean through this Historie there is no mention of them or their atchievements True it is these countreys can boast of no King of their own sent to Syria nor of any great appearing service by them alone performed It seemeth then they did not so 〈◊〉 much play the game themselves as bet on the hands of others and haply the Scottish service is accounted to the French the Welsh and Irish to the English That Scotland was no ciphre in this warre plainly appeareth 1. In that David Earl of Huntington and younger brother to William the Elder King of Scotland went along with our Richard the first no doubt suitably attended with souldiers This David was by a tempest cast into Egypt taken captive by the Turks bought by a Venetian brought to Constantinople there known and redeemed by an English merchant and at last safely arrived at Alectum in Scotland which Alectum he in memorie and gratitude of his return called Dundee or Dei donum Gods gift 2. By the plentifull provision which there was made for the Templars and Hospitallers Who here enjoyed great priviledges this amongst many others Take the Scottish law in its pure naturals That the Master of the Knicts of the Temple and chief Priors of the Hospitall of Jerusalem wha were keepers of strangers to the Haly grave sould be receaved themselves personally in any suit without entertaining a procuratour for them Nor must we here forget a Saint Willam a Scot of Perth by birth by trade a baker in charitie so abundant that he gave his tenth loaf to the poore in zeal so fervent that he vowed to visit the Holy land But in his journey as he passed through Kent he was slain by his servant buried at Rochester afterwards Sainted and shewed many miracles Neither may we think whilest all other nations were at this Martiall school that Wales the while truanted at home The Welsh saith my Authour left their forrests and now with them no sport to the hunting of Turks especially after that Wizo and Walter his sonne had founded the fair Commandrie for Hospitallers at Slebach in Pembroke-shire and endowed it with rich revenues Ireland also putteth in for her portion of honour in this service Indeed for the first fourescore yeares in the Holy warre Ireland did little there or in any other Countrey It was divided into many pettie Kingdomes so that her peoples valour had no progressive motion in length to make any impression in forrein parts but onely moving round in a circle at home their pettie Reguli spending themselves against themselves till our Henry the second conquered them all After which time the Irish began to look abroad into Palestine witnesse many houses for Templars and the stately Priorie of Kilmainam nigh Dublin for Hospitallers the last Lord Prior whereof at the dissolution was Sir John Rawson Yea we may well think that all the consort of Christendome in this warre could have made no musick if the Irish harp had been wanting Chap. 24. Of the honourable Arms in scutcheons of Nobilitie occasioned by their service in the Holy warre NOw for a corollarie to this storie if we survey the scutcheons of the Christian Princes and Nobilitie at this day we shall find the Arms of divers of them pointing at the atchievements of their predecessours in the Holy warre Thus the Dukes of Austria bear Gules a Fesse Argent in memory of the valour of Leopoldus at the siege of Ptolemais whereof before The Duke of Savoy beareth Gules a Crosse Argent being the Crosse of S. John of Jerusalem because his predecessours were speciall benefactours to that Order and assisted them in defending of Rhodes Queens Colledge in Cambridge to which I ow my education for my first seven yeares in that Universitie giveth for parcel of her Arms amongst many other rich Coats the Crosse of Jerusalem as being founded by Queen Margaret wife to King Henry the sixth and daughter of Renate Earl of Angiers and titular King of Sicilie and Jerusalem The noble