the other besieged in vain by Baldwine SIdon is the most ancient citie of Phenicia And though the proud Grecians counted all Barbarians besides themselves yet Phenicia was the schoolmistress of Grecia and first taught her her alphabet For Cadmus a Phenician born first invented and brought letters to Thebes Sidon had her name from the eldest sonne of Canaan and was famous for the finest crystall-glasses which here were made The glassie sand was fetched 40 miles off from the river Belus but it could not be made fusile till it was brought hither whether for want of tools or from some secret sullen humour therein we will not dispute This city anciently was of great renown but her fortune being as brittle as her glasses she was fain to find neck for every one of the Monarchs yokes and now at last by the assistance of the Danish and Norvegian fleet was subdued by the Christians Fleshed with this conquest they next besieged Tyre Sea and land nature and art consented together to make this city strong for it was seated in an island save that it was tacked to the continent with a small neck of land which was fortified with many walls and towers It is questionable whether the strength or wealth of this city was greater but out of question that the pride was greater then either Here the best purples were died a colour even from the beginning destined to Courts and Magistracy and here the richest clothes were embroidered and curiously wrought And though generally those who are best with their fingers are worst with their arms yet the Tyrians were also stout men able mariners and the planters of the noblest colonies in the world As their city was the daughter of Sidon so was it mother to Romes rivall Carthage Leptis Utica Cadiz and Nola. The most plentifull proof they gave of their valour was when for three years they defended themselves against Nebuchadnezzar and afterwards stopped the full career of Alexanders conquests so that his victorious army which did flie into other countreys was glad to creep into this city Yet after seven moneths siege such is the omnipotency of industry he forced it and stripped this lady of the sea naked beyond modesty and mercy putting all therein to the sword that resisted and hanged up 2000 of the prime citizens in a rank along the sea-shore Yet afterwards Tyre out-grew these her miseries and attained though not to her first giant-like yet to a competent proportion of greatnesse At this time wherein King Baldwine besieged it it was of great strength and importance insomuch that finding it a weight too heavy for his shoulders he was fain to break off his siege and depart With worse successe he afterwards did rashly give battel to the vast army of the Persian Generall wherein he lost many men all his baggage and escaped himself with great difficulty Chap. 13. The pleasurable voyages of King Baldwine and his death AFter the tempest of a long warre a calm came at last and King Baldwine had a five years vacation of peace in his old age In which time he disported himself with many voyages for pleasure as one to the Red-sea not so called from the rednesse of the water or sand as some without any colour have conceited but from the neighbouring Edomites whom the Grecians called Erytheans or re◠men truly translating the Hebrew name of Edomites they had their name of rednesse from their father Edom. And here Baldwine surveyed the countrey with the nature and strength thereof Another journey he took afterwards into Egypt as conceiving himself ingaged in honour to make one inrod◠into that countrey in part of paiment of those many excursions the Egyptians had made into his Kingdome He took the city of Pharamia anciently called Rameses and gave the spoil thereof to his souldiers This work being done he began his play and entertained the time with viewing that riddle of Nature the river of Nilus whose stream is the confluence of so many wonders first for its indiscoverable fountain though some late Geographers because they would be held more intelligent then others have found the head of Nilus in their own brains and make it to flow from a fountain they fansie in the mountains of the moon in the south of Africa then for the strange creatures bred therein as river-bulls horses and crocodiles But the chiefest wonder is the yearly increasing thereof from the 17. of June to the midst of September overflowing all Egypt and the banks of all humane judgement to give the true reason thereof Much time Baldwine spent in beholding this river wherein he took many fishes and his death in eating them for a new surfet revived the grief of an old wound which he many years before received at the siege of Ptolemais His sicknesse put him in mind of his sinnes conscience speaking loudest when men begin to grow speechlesse And especially he grieved that having another wife alive he had married the Countesse of Sicilie the relict of Earl Roger But now heartily sorrowfull for his fault he sent away this his last wife yet we reade not that he received his former again Other faults he would have amended but was prevented by death And no doubt where the deed could not be present the desire was a sufficient proxy He died at Laris a city in the road from Egypt and was brought to Jerusalem and buried on Palm-sunday in the temple of the Sepulchre in the 18 year of his reign A Prince superiour to his brother Godfrey in learning equall in valour inferiour in judgement rash precipitate greedy of honour but swallowing more then he could digest and undertaking what he was not able to perform little affected to the Clergy or rather to their temporall greatnesse especially when it came in competition with his own much given to women besides the three wives he had first marrying Gutrera an English-woman after her death Tafror an Armenian Lady and whilest she yet survived the Countesse of Sicilie yet he had no child God commonly punishing wantonnesse with barrennesse For the rest we referre the reader to the dull Epitaph written on his tomb which like the verses of that age runneth in a kind of rythme though it can scarce stand on true feet Rex Baldwinus Iudas alter Maccabaus Spes patriae vigor Ecolesiae virtus utriusque Quem formidabant cui dona tributa ferebant Cedar Aegypti Dan ac homicida Damascus Proh dolor 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 tomb is laid Let him whô 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
allowance little feared of his foes and as little loved of his friends The more martiall Christians sleighted him as a slug and neglected so lazy a leader that could not keep pace with those that were to follow him Yea they refused whilest he was Protectour at his command to fight with Saladine and out of distast to their Generall suffered their enemy freely to forrage which was never done before For the Christians never met any Turks wandring in the Holy land but on even terms they would examine their passe-port how sufficient it was and bid them battel Guy stormed at his displacing and though little valiant yet very sullen left the Court in discontent went home and fortified his cities of Joppa and Askelon What should King Baldwine do in this case Whom should he make Protectour Guy had too little Reimund too much spirit for the place He feared Guy's cowardlinesse lest he should lose the kingdome to the Turks and Reimunds treachery lest he should get it for himself Thus anguish of mind and weaknesse of body a doughtie conquest for their united strengths which single might suffice ended this Kings dayes dying young at five and twenty years of age But if by the morning we may guesse at the day he would have been no whit inferiour to any of his predecesssours sours especially if his body had been able but alas it spoiled the musick of his soul that the instrument was quite out of tune He reigned twelve years and was buried in the Temple of the Sepulchre a King happy in this that he died before the death of his Kingdome Chap. 43. The short life and wofull death of Baldwine the fifth an infant Guy his father in law succeedeth him IT is a rare happinesse of the family of S. Laurence Barons of Hoath in Ireland that the heirs for 400 years together alwayes have been of age before the death of their fathers For Minors have not onely baned families but ruined realms It is one of Gods threatnings I will give children to be their Princes and babes shall rule over them With this rod God strook the Kingdome of Jerusalem thrice in fourty years Baldwine the third fourth and fifth being all under age and this last but five years old He was the posthumus sonne of William Marquesse of Montferrat by Sibyll his wife sister to Baldwine the fourth daughter to King Almerick She afterwards was married to Guy Earl of Joppa and Askelon Now Reimund Earl of Tripoli challenged to be Protectour of this young King by the virtue of an Act of the former King so assigning him But Sibyll mother to this infant to defeat Reimund first murdered all natural affection in her self and then by poyson murdered her son that so the Crown in her right might come to her husband Guy This Baldwine reigned eight moneths eight dayes saith mistaken Munster and some mistake more who make him not to reign at all cruel to wrong his memory of his honour whom his mother had robbed both of his life and Kingdome His death was concealed till Guy his father in law had obtained by large bribes to the Templars and Heraclius the Patriarch to be crowned King One more ennobled with his descent from the ancient family of the Lusignans in Poictou then for any eminency in himself His gifts were better then his endowments Yet had he been more fortunate he would have been accounted more virtuous men commonly censuring that the fault of the King which is the fate of the Kingdome And now the Christian affairs here posted to their wofull period being spurred on by the discords of the Princes Chap. 44. Church-affairs Of Haymericus Patriarch of Antioch Of the Grecian Anti-Patriarchs and of the learned Theodorus Balsamon WHilest Heraclius did Patriarch it in Jerusalem one Haymericus had the same honour at Antioch He wrote to Henry the second King of England a bemoning letter of the Christians in the East and from him received another fraught with never performed fair promises This man must needs be different from that Haymericus who began his Patriarchship in Antioch anno 1143 and sate but twelve years say the Centuriatours But Baronius as different from them sometimes in Chronologie as Divinity maketh them the same Then must he be a through-old man enjoying his place above fourty years being probably before he wore the style of Patriarch well worn in years himself I must confesse it passeth my Chymistry to exact any agreement herein out of the contrariety of writers We must also take notice that besides the Latine Patriarchs in Jerusalem and Antioch there were also Grecian Anti-Patriarchs appointed by the Emperour of Constantinople who having no temporall power nor profit by Church-lands had onely jurisdiction over those of the Greek Church We find not the chain of their succession but here and there light on a link and at this time in Jerusalem on three successively 1. Athanasius whom though one out of his abundant charity is pleased to style a Schismatick yet was he both pious and learned as appeareth by his epistles 2. Leontius commended likewise to posterity for a good Clerk and an honest man 3. Dositheus inferiour to the former in both respects Isaac the Grecian Emperour sent to make him Patriarch of Constantinople and Dositheus catching at both held neither but betwixt two Patriarchs chairs fell to the ground Antioch also had her Greek Patriarchs As one Sotericus displaced for maintaining some unsound tenets about our Saviour After him Theodorus Balsamon the oracle of the learned Law in his age He compiled and commented on the ancient Canons and principally set forth the priviledges of Constantinople listening say the Romanists to the least noise that soundeth to the advancing of the Eastern Churches and knocking down Rome wheresoever it peepeth above Constantinople This maketh Bellarmine except against him as a partial writer because a true Historian should be neither party advocate nor judge but a bare witnesse By Isaac the Grecian Emperour this Balsamon was also deceived he pretended to remove him to Constantinople on condition he would prove the translation of the Patriarch to be legall which is forbidden by the Canons Balsamon took upon him to prove it and a Lawyers brains will beat to purpose when his own preferment is the fee. But herein he did but crack the nut for another to eat the kernel For the Emperour mutable in his mind changing his favourites as well as his cloâ—hes before they were old when the legality of the translation was avowed bestowed the Patriarchship of Constantinople on another and Theodorus was still staked down at Antioch in a true spirituall preferment affording him little bodily maintenance Chap. 45. The revolt of the Earl of Tripoli The Christians irrecoverably overthrown and their King taken prisoner THere was at this time a truce betwixt the Christians and Saladine broken on this occasion Saladines mother went from
maintenance and the Kingdome after the death of his father in law which he received accordingly He was welnigh 60 years old And by his first wife he had a sonne Geffrey Plantagenet Earl of Anjou to whom he left his lands in France and from whom our Kings of England are descended This Fulco was a very valiant man able both of body and mind His greatest defect was a weak memory though not so bad as that of Messala Corvinus who forgot his own name insomuch that he knew not his own servants and those whom he even now preferred were presently after strangers unto him Yet though he had a bad memory whilest he lived he hath a good one now he is dead and his virtues are famous to posterity Chap. 20. The Church-story during this Kings reigne The remarkable ruine of Rodolphus Patriarch of Antioch THe Church of Jerusalem yielded no alterations in the reign of Fulco But in Antioch there was much stirre who should succeed Bernard that peaceable long-lived man who fate 36 years and survived eight Patriarchs of Jerusalem Now whilest the Clergie were tedious in their choice the Laity was too nimble for them and they thinking it equall to have an hand in making who must have their arms in defending a Patriarch clapped one Rodolphus of noble parentage into the chair He presently took his pall off from the altar of S. Peter thereby sparing both his purse and pains to go to Rome and acknowledging no other superiour then that Apostle for his patrone This man was the darling of the Gentry and no wonder if they loved him who was of their cloth and making but hated of the Clergy Wherefore knowing himself to need strong arms who was to swim against the stream he wrought himself into the favour of the Princesse of Antioch the widow of young Boemund so that he commanded all her command and beat down his enemies with her strength He promised to make a marriage betwixt her and Reimund Earl of Poictou a Frenchman of great fame who was coming into these parts but he deceived her and caused the Earl to marry Constantia the daughter of this Lady by whom he had the principality of Antioch Indeed this Constantia was but a child for age but they never want years to marry who have a Kingdome for their portion The Patriarch to make sure work bound Prince Reimund by an oath to be true to him But friends unjustly gotten are seldome comfortably enjoyed Of his sworn friend he proved his sworn enemy and forced him to go up to Rome there to answer many accusations laid to his charge wherein the ground-work perchance was true though malice might set the varnish on it The main matter was that he made odious comparisons betwixt Antioch and Rome and counted himself equal to his Holinesse Rodolphus coming to Rome found the Popes dores shut against him but he opened them with a golden key Money he sowed plentifully and reaped it when he came to be tried for he found their hands very soft towards him whom formerly he had greased in the fist He also resigned his old pall and took a new one from the Pope As for his other crimes it was concluded that Albericus Bishop of Ostia should be sent into Syria the 〈…〉 to examine 〈◊〉 and to proceed accordingly with the â—atriarch as things there should be found alledged and proved Whereat his adversaries much stormed who expected that he should instantly have been deposed Yet afterwards they prevailed mightily with Albericus the Legaâ—e and bowed him on their side He coming to Antioch cited the Patriarch to appear who bâ—ing thrice called came not On his absence all were present with their conjectures what should cause it Some impuâ—ing it to his guiltinesse others to his contempt others to his fear of his enemies potency or judges partiality for indeed the Legate came not with a virgin judgement but ravished with prejudice being prepossessed with this intent to dispossesse him of his place Some thought he relied on his peace formerly made at Rome where the illegality of his election was rectified by his laying down his first pall and assuming a new one from the Pope Here was it worth the beholding in what severall streams mens affections ran All wished that the tree might be felled who had hopes to gather chips by his fall and especially one Arnulphus and Dean Lambert the promoters against the Patriarch Others pitied him and though perchance content that his roof might be taken down were loth he should be razed to the ground Some reserved their affections till they were counselled by the event which side to favour and would not be engaged by any manifest declaration but so that they might fairly retreat if need required Amongst other Prelates which were present Serlo Archbishop of Apamea was one who formerly had been a great enemy to the Patriarch but had lately taken himself off from that course The Legate demanded of him why he proceeded not to accuse the Patriarch as he was wont To whom he answered What formerly I did was done out of unadvised heat against the health of my soul discovering the nakednesse of my father like to cursed Cham and now God hath recalled me from mine errour so that I will neither accuse nor presumptuously judge him but am ready to die for his safety Hereupon the Legate immediately such was the martiall law in a Church-man deposed him from his Archbishoprick Little hope then had the Patriarch who saw himself condemned in his friend and he himself followed not long after being thrust out by violence cast into prison and there long kept in chains till at last he made an escape to Rome intending there to traverse his cause again had not death occasioned by poison as is thought prevented him Chap. 21. Calo-Iohannes the Grecian Emperour demandeth Antiochia Reimund the Prince thereof doeth homage to him for it CAlo-Johannes the Grecian Emperour came up with a vast army of horse and foot and demanded of Reimund Prince of Antioch to resigne unto him that whole Signorie according to the composition which the Christian Princes made with Alexius his father Hereat Reimund and all the Latines stormed out of measure Had they purchased the inheritance of the land with their own bloud now to turn tenants at will to another Some pleaded That the ill usage of Alexius extorted from Godfrey and the rest of the Pilgrimes that agreement and an oath made by force is of no force but may freely be broken because not freely made Others alledged That when Antiochia was first wonne it was offered to Alexius and he refused it so fair a tender was a paiment Others argued That that generation which made this contract was wholly dead and that the debt descended not on them to make it good But most insisted on this That Alexius kept not his covenants and assisted them not according to the agreement
the terrour of the world for the punishment of Christians and we may justly hope that when the correction is done the rod shall be burnt especially finding already their force to abate being at this day stopt with the half-kingdome of Hungary who formerly could not be stayed by the whole Empire of Greece The first step these Turks took out of their own countrey was into Turcomania a northern part of Armenia conquered and so called by them where they lived like the Scythian Nomades alwaies wandring yet alwaies in their way none claiming a propriety in the land as his all defending the common interest therein as theirs The next step was into Persia whither they were called to assist Mahomet the Saracen Sultan against his enemies where taking notice of their own strength the Saracens cowardize and the pleasure of Persia they under Tangrolipix their first King overcame that large dominion Then did the Turks take upon them the Mahometan religion and having conquered the Saracens by their valour were themselves subdued by the Saracen superstition An accident more memorable because not easily to be paralleled excepting King Amaziah who having taken Edom was took with the idolatry thereof because conquerours commonly bring their religion into the places they subdue and not take it thence Their third large stride was into Babylon the Caliph whereof they overcame And shortly after under Cutlu-muses their second King they wan Mesopotamia the greatest part of Syria and the city of Jerusalem Mean time whilest these vultures Turks and Saracens pecked out each others eyes the Christians if they had husbanded this occasion might have advantaged themselves and might have recovered their health by these contrary poysons expelling each other But the Grecian Emperours given over to pleasure and covetousnesse regarded not their own good till at last the Turks devoured them as God willing shall be shewed hereafter As for those Christians who lived in Palestine under the Turks they had no lease of their safety but were tenants at will for their lives goods to these tyrants though it rained not down-right yet the storm of persecution hung over their heads their minds were ever in torture being on the rack of continuall fear and suspense and Simon himself was no better then an honourable slave though Patriarch of Jerusalem as appeareth by his letters of complaint Chap. 8. The character of Peter the Hermite his soliciting the Holy warre the Councel at Clermont and the successe thereof IT happened there came a pilgrime to Jerusalem called Peter an Hermite born at Amiens in France one of a contemptible person His silly looks carried in them a despair of any worth and yet as commonly the richest mines lie under the basest and barrennest surface of ground he had a quick apprehension eloquent tongue and what got him the greatest repute was accounted very religious With him Simon the Patriarch of Jerusalem often treated concerning the present miseries of the Christians under the Turks what hope of amendment and how the matter might secretly be contrived that the Princes of Europe might assist and relieve them Peter moved with the Patriarchs perswasions the equity and honourablenesse of the cause and chiefly with a vision as they say from heaven wherein our Saviour himself appointed him his Legate with a commission to negotiate the Christian cause took the whole businesse upon him and travelled to Rome to consult with Pope Urbane the second about the advancing of so pious a design Now though many cry up this Hermite to have been so pretious a piece of holinesse yet some suspect him to be little better then a counterfeit and a cloke-father for a plot of the Popes begetting because the Pope alone was the gainer by this great adventure and all other Princes of Europe if they cast up their audite shall find themselves losers This with some is a presumption that this cunning merchant first secretly employed this Hermite to be his factour and to go to Jerusalem to set on foot so beneficiall a trade for the Romish Church As for the apparition of our Saviour one may wonder that the world should see most visions when it was most blind and that that age most barren in learning should be most fruitfull in revelations And surely had Peter been truly inspired by God and moved by his Spirit to begin this warre he would not have apostared from his purpose so mortified a man would not have feared death in a good cause as he did afterwards and basely ran away at Antioch For when the siege grew hot his devotion grew cold he found a difference betwixt a voluntary fast in his cell and a necessary and undispensable famine in a camp so that being well hunger-pincht this cunning companion who was the trumpet to sound a march to others secretly sounded a retreat to himself ran away from the rest of the Christians and was shamefully brought back again for a fugitive But to return to Pope Urbane who was zealous in the cause to further it and called a Council at Clermont in France where met many Princes and Prelates to whom he made a long oration Authours differ in the mould but they agree in the metall that it was to this effect First he bemoned the miseries of the Christians in Asia and the vastation of those holy places Jerusalem which was once the joy of the whole earth was now become the grief of all good men the Chapell of Christs conception at Nazareth birth at Bethlehem buriall on mount Calvarie ascension on mount Olivet once the fountains of piety were now become the sinks of all profanenesse Next he encouraged the Princes in the Council to take arms against those infidels and to break their bonds in sunder and to cast their cords farre from them and as it is written to cast out the handmaid and her children Otherwise if they would not help to quench their neighbours houses they must expect the speedy burning of their own and that these barbarous nations would quickly overrun all Europe Now to set an edge on their courage he promised to all that went this voyage a full remission of their sins and penance here and the enjoying heaven hereafter Lastly thus concluded Gird your swords to your thighs O ye men of might It is our parts to pray yours to fight ours with Moses to hold up unwearied hands to God yours to stretch forth the sword against these children of Amalek Amen It is above belief with what chearfulnesse this motion meeting with an active and religious world was generally entertained so that the whole assembly cried out God willeth it A speech which was afterwards used as a fortunate watch-word in their most dangerous designes Then took many of them a crosse of red cloth on their right shoulder as a badge of their devotion And to gain the favourable assistance of
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 â—ansome was a Sword and a Belt it being conceived that their poor state could stretch to no higher price But after their order was confirmed by Pope Honorius by the intreaty of Stephen the Patriarch of Jerusalem who appointed them to wear a White garment to which Eugeâ—ius the third added a Red crosse on their breast they grew wonderfully rich by the bounty of severall Patrons Yea the King and Patriarch of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 this infant-order so long in their laps till it brake their knees it grew so heavie 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 dye then to flie afterwards lazinesse withered their arms and swelled their bellies They laughed at the rules of their first Institution as at the swadling-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 defence 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 reign was checquered with variety of fortune For first Roger Prince of Antioch or rather guardian in the minority 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 victory 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 navie 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 yielded 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 year 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 Borsâ—quin their Captain at Antiochia and not long after he conquered Dordequin 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 surfeited of the worlds vanity 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 dye But we must believe 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 year of his reign and was buried with his predecessours in the temple of the Sepulchre By Morphe a Grecian Lady his wife he had four daughters whereof Millesent was the eldest the second Alice married to young Boemund Prince of Antioch the third Hodiern wife to Reimund Prince of Tripoli and Mete the youngest Abbesse of Bethanie Chap. 19. Of Fulco the fourth King of Ierusalem FUlco Earl of Tours Main and Anjou coming some three years before on pilgrimage to Jerusalem there took in marriage Millesent the Kings daughter He had assigned to him the city of Tyre and some other princely accommodations for his present
Indeed he called these Princes his sonnes but he disinherited them of their hopes and all their portion was in promises never payed No reason then that the knot of the agreement should hold them fast and let him loose The worst of these answers had been good enough if their swords had been as strong as the Grecian Emperours But he coming with a numerous army in few dayes overcame all Cilicia which for fourty years had belonged to the Prince of Antioch and then besieged the city of Antioch it self Force is the body and resolution the soul of an action both these were well tempered together in the Emperours army and the city brought to great distresse Whereupon Fulk King of Jerusalem with some other Princes fearing what wofull conclusion would follow so violent premisses made a composition between them So that Reimund did homage to the Emperour and held his principality as a vassall from him And though four years after the Emperour came again into these parts yet he did not much harm pillaging was all his conquest Some years after he died being accidentally poisoned by one of his own arrows which he intended for the wild boar A Prince so much better to the Latines then his father Alexius as an honourable foe is above a treacherous friend His Empire he disposed to Emmanuel his sonne Chap. 22 The succession of the Turkish Kings and the Saracen Caliphs Of the unlimited power of a Souldan Some resemblance thereof anciently in the Kingdome of France NO great service of moment was performed in the reigne of King Fulk because he was molested with domesticall discords and intestine warres against Paulinus Count of Tripoli and Hugh Earl of Joppa Onely Beersheba was fortified and some forts built about Askelon as an introduction to besiege it Also skirmishes were now and then fought with variety of successe against Sanguin one of the Turks great Princes And here let the reader take notice that though we have mentioned many Commanders as Auxianus Corboran Ammiravissus Tenduc Gazi Balak Dordequin Borscquin Sanguin some Turkish some Saracen yet none of these were absolute Kings though perchance in courtesie sometimes so styled by writers but were onely Generals and Lieutenants accountable to their superiours the Caliphs either of Babylon or Egypt Who what they were we referre the reader to our Chronology Caliph was the Pope as I may say of the Saracens a mixture of Priest and Prince But we need not now trouble our selves with curiosity of their successions these Caliphs being but obscure men who confined themselves to pleasures making play their work and having their constant diet on the sawce of recreation We are rather to take notice of their Generalls and Captains which were the men of action For a Souldan which was but a Vice-roy with his borrowed light shineth brighter in history then the Caliph himself Yet may we justly wonder that these slothfull Calipâ—s should do nothing themselves and commit such unlimited power to their Souldaâ—â— especially seeing too much â—â—ust is a strong tentation to make ambitious flesh and bloud diâ—loyall Yet something may be said for the Caliph of Egypt besides that the pleasures of that countrey were sufficient to invite him to a voluptuous life First the awfull regard which the Egyptians had of their Princes gave them security to trust their officers with ample commission Secondly herein they followed an ancient custome practised by the Pharaohs anciently who gave unto Joseph so large authority as we may reade in Genesis Some example also we have hereof in France about nine hundred years ago Childerick Theodorick Clovis Childebert Dagobert c. a chain of idle Kings well linked together gave themselves over to pleasures privately never coming abroad but onely on May-day they shewed themselves to the people riding in a chariot adoâ—ned with flowers and drawn with oxen â—low cattel but good enough for so lazy luggage whilest Charles Martell and Pipin Maiours of the palace opened packets gave audience to Embassadours made warre or peace enacted and repealed laws at pleasure till afterwards from controllers of the Kings houshold they became controllers of the Kings and at last Kings themselves To return to Egypt Let none be troubled pardon a charitable digression to satisfie some scrupulous in a point of Chronologie if they find anciently more Kings of the Egyptians and longer reigning then the consent of times will allow room for for no doubt that which hath swelled the number is the counting Deputies for Kings Yea we find the holy Spirit in the same breath 1. Reg. 22. 47. speak a Vice-roy to be a King and no King There was no King in Edom a Deputy was King Chap. 23. The lamentable death of King Fulk WHen Fulco had now eleven years with much industry and care though with little enlarging of his dominions governed the land he was slain in earnest as following his sport in hunting to the great grief of his subjects And we may hear him thus speaking his Epitaph A â—are I hunted and death hunted me The more my speed was was the worse my speed For as well-mounted I away did flee Death caught and kill'd me falling from my steed Yet this mishap an happy misse I count That fell from horse that I to heaven might mount A Prince of a sweet nature and though one would have read him to be very furious by his high-coloured countenance yet his face was a good hypocrite and contra leges istius coloris saith Tyrius he was affable courteous and pitifull to all in distresse He was buried with his predecessours in the temple of the Sepulchre leaving two sonnes Baldwine who was 13 and Almerick 7 years old Chap. 24. The disposition of Baldwine the third The care of Queen Millesent in her sonnes minority BAldwine succeeded his father who quickly grew up as to age so in all royall accomplishments and became a most complete Prince well-learned especially in history liberall very witty and very pleasant in discourse He would often give a smart jest which would make the place both blush and bleed where it lighted Yet this was the better taken at his hands because he cherished not a cowardly wit in himself to wound men behind their backs but played on them freely to their faces yea and never refused the coin he payed them in but would be contented though a King to be the subject of a good jest and sometimes he was well-favouredly met with as the best fencer in 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. Beâ—â—â—ard 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 insolency 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 securig of Pilgrimes till at last having sate in his place fifteen years 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 poor 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 years 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 fewel 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 pretence of being free 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 years 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 years that they sate such is the obscurity and confusion of it Yet no doubt this Haymericus was the same with Almericus who about the year 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 year 1216 by Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem with certain Canonicall observations imposed upon them And in the next age these bees which first bred 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 read 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 near 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 compared them to the tail of the Dragon so that their luxury differed from Elias his austerity as much as velvet from sackcloth Wherefore that the Carmelites came from mount Carmel cannot be denyed But on that mountain I find that both Elias and Baals priests gathered together and let the indifferent reader judge which of them their lives do most resemble Afterwards Pope Honorius 3. counting the party-coloured coats these Carmelites did wear to be too gaudy caused them to wear onely white the
reader To conclude The devotion of this man was out of question so neglecting this world that he even did spit out that preferment which was dropped into his mouth But as for his judgement it was not alwayes the best which gave occasion to the proverb Bernardus non videt omnia Chap. 31. Vnseasonable discords betwixt King Baldwine and his mother Her strength in yielding to her sonne UPon the departure of Emperour Conrade and K. Lewis Noradine the Turk much prevailed in Palestine Nor was he little advantaged by the discords betwixt Milleâ—ent Queen-mother and the Nobility thus occasioned There was a Noble-man called Manasses whom the Queen governing all in her sonnes minority made Constable of the Kingdome This man unable to manage his own happinesse grew so insolent that he could not go but either spurning his equals or trampling on his inferiours No wonder then if envy the shadow of greatnesse waited upon him The Nobility highly distasted him but in all oppositions the Queens favour was his sanctuary who to shew her own absolutenesse and that her affection should not be controlled nor that thrown down which she set up still preserved the creature she had made His enemies perceiving him so fast rooted in her favour and seeing they could not remove him from his foundation sought to remove him with his foundation instigating young King Baldwine against his mother and especially against her favourite They complained how the State groaned under his insolency He was the bridge by which all offices must passe and there pay toll He alone sifted all matters and then no wonder if much bran passed He under pretence of opening the Queens eyes did lead her by the nose captivating her judgement in stead of directing it He like a by-gulf devoured her affection which should flow to her children They perswaded the King he was ripe for government and needed none to hold his hand to hold the sceptre Let him therefore either un tie or cut himself loose from this slavery and not be in subjection to a subject Liberty needeth no hard-pressing on youth a touch on that stamp maketh an impression on that waxen age Young Baldwine is apprehensive of this motion and prosecuteth the matter so eagerly that at length he coopeth up this Manasses in a castle and forceth him to abjure the Kingdome Much stirre afterwards was betwixt him and his mother till at last to end divisions the Kingdome was divided betwixt them She had the city of Jerusalem and the land-locked part he the maritime half of the land But the widest throne is too narrow for two to sit on together He not content with this partition marcheth furiously to Jerusalem there to besiege his mother and to take all from her Out of the city cometh Fulcher the good Patriarch his age was a patent for his boldnesse and freely reproveth the King Why should he go on in such an action wherein every step he stirred his legs must needs grate and crash both against nature and religion Did he thus requite his mothers care in stewarding the State thus to affright her age to take arms against her Was it not her goodnesse to be content with a moyety when the whole Kingdome in right belonged unto her But ambition had so inchanted Baldwine that he was penetrable with no reasons which crossed his designes so that by the advice of her friends she was content to resign up all lest the Christian cause should suffer in these dissensions She retired her self to Sebaste and abridged her train from State to necessity And now the lesse room she had to build upon the higher she raised her soul with heavenly meditations and lived as more private so more pious till the day of her death Chap. 32. Reimund Prince of Antioch overcome and killed Askelon taken by the Christians The death of King Baldwine THese discords betwixt mother and son were harmonie in the ears of Noradine the Turk Who coming with a great army wasted all about Antioch and Prince Reimund going out to bid him battel was slain himself and his army overthrown nor long after Joceline Count of Edessa was intercepted by the Turks and taken prisoner As for Constantia the relict of Reimund Prince of Antioch she lived a good while a widow refusing the affections which many princely suiters proffered unto her till at last she descended beneath her self to marry a plain man Reinold of Castile Yet why should we say so when as a Castilian Gentleman if that be not a needlesse tautologie as he maketh the inventory of his own worth prizeth himself any Princes fellow And the proverb is Each lay-man of Castile may make a King each clergy-man a Pope Yea we had best take heed how we speak against this match for Almericus Patriarch of Antioch for inveighing against it was by this Prince Reinold set in the heat of the sunne with his bare head besmeared with honey a sweet bitter torment that so bees might sting him to death But King Baldwine mediated for him and obtained his liberty that he might come to Jerusalem where he lived many years in good esteem And Gods judgements are said to have overtaken the Prince of Antioch for besides the famine which followed in his countrey he himself afterwards fighting unfortunately with the Turks was taken prisoner But let us step over to Jerusalem where we shall find King Baldwine making preparation for the siege of Askelon Which citie after it had been long locked up had at last an assaultable breach made in the walls thereof The Templars to whom the King promised the spoil if they took it entred through this breach into the citie and conceiving they had enow to wield the work and master the place set a guard at the breach that no more of their fellow-Christians should come in to be sharers with them in the booty But their covetousnesse cost them their lives for the Turks contemning their few number put them every one to the sword Yet at last the city was taken though with much difficulty Other considerable victories Baldwine got of the Turks especially one at the river Jordan where he vanquished Noradine And twice he relieved Cesarea-Philippi which the Turks had straitly besieged But death at last put a period to his earthly happinesse being poisoned as it was supposed by a Jewish physician for the rest of the potion killed a dog to whom it was given This Kings youth was stained with unnaturall discords with his mother and other vices which in his settled age he reformed Let the witnesse of Noradine his enemy be believed who honourably refused to invade the Kingdome whilest the funerall solemnities of Baldwine were performing and professed the Christians had a just cause of sorrow having lost such a King whose equall for justice and valour the world did not afford He died without issue having reigned one and twenty years So that sure it is the
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
would weary them with set battels having men numberless and those near at hand and so he would tame the Romane Eagle by watching him giving him no rest nor respite from continuall fighting It is therefore no Paradox to say That in some case the strength of a Kingdome doth consist in the weaknesse of it And hence it is that our English Kings have suffered Time without disturbing her meals to feed her belly full on their in-land castles and citie-walls which whilest they were standing in their strength were but the nurseries of rebellion And now as one observeth because we have no strong cities war in England waxeth not old being quickly stabbed with set battels which in the Low-countreys hath already outlived the grand climactericall of threescore and ten years But Frederick the Emperour being now entring into the Holy land was to the great grief of all Christians suddenly taken away being drowned in the river of Saleph a river such is the envie of Barbarisme obscuring all places which cannot accurately be known at this day because this new name is a stranger to all ancient maps If he went in to wash himself as some write he neither consulted with his health nor honour Some say his horse foundred under him as he passed the water others that he fell from him But these severall relations as variety of instruments make a dolefull conâ—ort in this that there he lost his life and no wonder if the cold water quickly quenched those few sparks of naturall heat left in him at seventy years of age Neubrigensis conceiveth that this his sudden death was therefore inflicted on him because in his youth he fought against the Popes and Church of Rome But I wonder that he seeing an Emperour drowned in a ditch durst adventure into the bottomlesse depths of Gods counsels Let it content us to know that oftentimes heaven blasteth those hopes which bud first and fairest and the feet of mighty Monarchs do slip when they want but one step to their enemies throne After his death Frederick Duke of Suevia his second sonne undertook the conduct of the army Now the Turks conceiving grief had steeped and moistened these Pilgrimes hearts gave them a sudden charge in hope to have overthrown them But the valiant Dutch who though they had scarce wiped their eyes had scoured their swords quickly forced them to retire Then Frederick took the citie of Antioch which was easily delivered unto him and his hungry souldiers well refreshed by the citizens being as yet for the most part Christians Marching from hence in set battel he overthrew Dordequin Generall of Saladines forces slew four thousand and took a thousand prisoners with little losse of his own men and so came to the city of Tyre where he buried the corpse of his worthy father in the Cathedrall Church next the tomb of the learned Origen and Guilelmus Tyrius the worthy Archbishop preached his funerall sermon We may hear his sorrowfull army speaking this his Epitaph unto him Earth scarce did yield ground enough for thy sword To conquer how then could a brook afford Water to drown thee brook which since doth fear O guilty conscience in a map t' appear Yet blame we not the brook but rather think The weight of our own sinnes did make thee sink Now sith 't is so wee 'l fetch a brackish main Out of our eyes and drown thee once again From hence by sea they were conveyed to the Christians army before Ptolemais where young Frederick died of the plague and his great army which at first consisted of an hundred and fifty thousand at their setting forth out of Germany had now no more left then eighteen hundred armed men Chap. 5. The continuation of the famous siege of Ptolemais The Dutch Knights honoured with a Grand Master WE have now at our leisure overtaken the snail-like fiege of Ptolemais still slowly creeping on Before it the Christians had not onely a Nationall but an Oecumenicall army the abridgement of the Christian world Scarce a state or populous city in Europe but had here some competent number to represent it How many bloudy blows were here lent on both sides and repayed with interest what sallies what assaults what encounters whilest the Christians lay betwixt Saladine with his great army behind them and the city before them One memorable battel we must not omit It was agreed betwixt Saladine and the Christians to try their fortunes in a pitched field and now the Christians were in fair hope of a conquest when an imaginary causelesse fear put them to a reall flight so ticklish are the scales of victory a very mote will turn them Thus confusedly they ran away and boot would have been given to change a strong arm for a swift leg But behold Geoffrey Lusignan King Guy's brother left for the guarding of the camp marching out with his men confuted the Christians in this their groundlesse mistake and reinforced them to fight whereby they wonne the day though with the losse of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars It was vainly hoped that after this victory the city would be surâ—endred but the Turks still bravely defended it though most of their houses were burnt and beaten down and the city reduced to a bare sceleton of walls and towers They fought as well with their wits as weapons and both sides devised strange defensive and offensive engines so that Mars himself had he been here present might have learned to fight and have taken notes from their practice Mean time famine raged amongst the Christians and though some provision was now and then brought in from Italy for so far they fetched it yet these small showers after good droughts parched the more and rather raised then abated their hunger Once more we will take our farewell of this siege for a twelve-moneth But we must not forget that at this time before the walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order or Dutch Knights which since the dayes of Baldwine the second lived like private pilgrimes had now their order honoured with Henry of Walpot their first grand Master and they were enriched by the bounty of many Germane benefactours These though slow were sure they did hoc agere ply their work more cordiall to the Christian cause then the Templars who sometimes to save their own stakes would play booty with the Turks Much good service did the Dutch Knights in the Holy warre till at last no wise Doctour will lavish physick on him in whom he seeth faciem cadaverosam so that death hath taken possession in the sick mans countenance finding this warre to be desperate and dedecus fotitudinis they even fairly left the Holy land and came into Europe meaning to lay out their valour on some thing that would quit cost But hereof hereafter Chap. 6. Richard of England and Philip of France set forward to the Holy land The danger of the interviews of Princes THe
branded with rashnesse and cruelty 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 asunder with faction Philip the French King Odo Duke of Burgundy 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 seize 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 poverty 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 advantagious to the cause then the death of him present and by importunity 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 army to the Duke of Burgundy 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 carry 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 innocency 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 quarrell 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 years 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 mercy lies Of vilest varlets that their own despise His faction survived after his death affronting Guy the antient King and striving to depose him They pleaded that the Crown was tyed 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 â—quare 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 relished to the palate of this hungry 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 years 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 empty 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 air 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 years 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 happy in expressing it whether for want of opportunity or shortnesse of his reign 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 maturity It was now determined they should march towards
fail Baronius hath a rasour shaveth all scruple clear away For saith he Quidquid sit fides purgat facinus So that he worshipeth the false Reliques of a true Saint God taketh his good intention in good worth though he adore the hand of Esau for the hand of Jacob. But enough of thesefooleries Chap. 13. King Richard taken prisoner in Austria sold and sent to the Emperour dearly ransomed returneth home KIng Richard setting sail from Syria the sea and wind favoured him till he came into the Adriatick and on the coasts of Istria he suffered shipwrack Wherefore he intended to pierce through Germany by land the next way home But the nearnesse of the way is to be measured not by the shortnesse but the safenesse of it He disguised himself to be one Hugo a merchant whose onely commodity was himself whereof he made but a bad bargain For he was discovered in an Inne in Austria because he disguised his person not his expenses so that the very policy of an hostesse finding his purse so farre above his clothes did detect him Yea saith mine Authour Facies orbiterrarum nota ignorari non potuit The rude people flocking together used him with insolencies unworthy him worthy themselves and they who would shake at the tail of this loose Lion durst laugh at his face now they saw him in a grate Yet all the weight of their cruelty did not bow him beneath a Princely carriage Leopoldus Duke of Austria hearing hereof as being Lord of the soil seised on this Royall stray meaning now to get his penny-worths out of him for the affront done unto him in Palestine Not long after the Duke sold him to Henry the Emperour for his harsh nature surnamed Asper and it might have been Saevus being but one degree from a tyrant He kept King Richard in bands charging him with a thousand faults committed by him in Sicilie Cyprus and Palestine The proofs were as slender as the crimes grosse and Richard having an eloquent tongue innocent heart and bold spirit acquitted himself in the judgement of all the hearers At last he was ransomed for an hundred and fourty thousand marks Colein weight A summe so vast in that age before the Indies had overflowed all Europe with their gold and silver that to raise it in England they were forced to sell their Church-plate to their very chalices Whereupon out of most deep Divinity it was concluded That they should not celebrate the Sacrament in glasse for the brittlenesse of it nor in wood for the sponginesse of it which would suck up the bloud nor in alchymie because it was subject to rusting nor in copper because that would provoke vomiting but in chalices of latine which belike was a metall without exception And such were used in England for some hundred years after untill at last John Stafford Archbishop of Canterbury when the land was more replenished with silver inknotteth that Priest in the greater excommunication that should consecrate Poculum stanneum After this money Peter of Blois who had drunk as deep of Helicon as any of that age sendeth this good prayer making an apostrophe to the Emperour or to the Duke of Austria or to both together Bibe nunc avaritia Dum puteos argenteos Larga diffundit Anglia Tua tecum pecunia Sit in perditionem And now thou basest avarice Drink till thy belly burst Whil'st England poures large silver showre To satisfie thy thirst And this we pray Thy money may And thou be like accurst The ransome partly payed the rest secured by hostages King Richard much befriended by the Dutch Prelacy after eighteen moneths imprisonment returned into England The Archbishop of Colein in the presence of King Richard as he passed by brought in these words in saying masse Now I know that God hath sent his angel and hath delivered thee out of the hand of Herod and from the expectation of the people c. But his soul was more healthfull for this bitter physick and he amended his manners better loving his Queen Beringaria whom he slighted before As souldiers too often love women better then wives Leave we him now in England where his presence fixed the loyalty of many of his unsetled subjects whilest in Austria the Duke with his money built the walls of Vienna So that the best stones and morter of that bulwark of Christendome are beholden to the English coin We must not forget how Gods judgements overtook this Duke punishing his dominions with fire and water which two elements cannot be Kings but they must be tyrants by famine the ears of wheat turned into worms by a gangrene seising on the Dukes body who cut off his leg with his own hand and died thereof Who by his testament if not by his will caused some thousand crowns to be restored again to King Richard Chap. 14. The death of Saladine His commendation even with truth but almost above belief SOn after Saladine the terrour of the East ended his life having reigned sixteen years Consider him as a man or a Prince he was both wayes admirable Many Historians like some painters which rather shew their skill in drawing a curious face then in making it like to him whom it should resemble describe Princes rather what they should be then what they were not shewing so much their goodnesse as their own wits But finding this Saladine so generally commended of all writers we have no cause to distrust this his true character His wisdome was great in that he was able to advise and greater in that he was willing to be advised Never so wedded to his own resolves but on good ground he would be divorced from them His valour was not over-free but would well answer the spurre when need required In his victories he was much beholden to the advantage of season place and number and seldome wrested the garland of honour from an arm as strong as his own He ever marched in person into the field remembring that his predecessours the Caliphs of Egypt brake themselves by using Factours and imploying of Souldans His temperance was great diet sparing sleep moderate not to pamper nature but to keep it in repair His greatest recreation was variety and exchange of work Pleasures he rather sipped then drank off sometimes more to content others then please himself Wives he might have kept sans number but stinted himself to one or two using them rather for posterity then wantonnesse His justice to his own people was remarkable his promise with his enemies generally well kept Much he did triumph in mercy Fierce in fighting mild in conquering and having his enemies in his hand pleased himself more in the power then act of revenge His liberality would have drained his treasure had it not had a great and quick spring those Eastern parts being very rich Serviceable men he would purchase on any rate and sometimes his gifts bare better proportion to his own greatnesse then
undertaken which if crowned with successe have been above censure yea have passed not onely without questioning but with commendations But this is the misery of misery that those who are most afflicted of God shall be most condemned of men Wherefore they requested them to pity their brethren and not to leave them in this forlorn estate How clamorous would their innocent bloud be in the court of Heaven to sue for revenge on those who forsook them in this distresse And grant Damiata a citie of great consequence yet cities in themselves were but dead things and men were the souls to enliven them so that those souldiers which wonne Damiata if preserved alive might haply recover as strong a citie afterwards But finding their arguments not to prevail they betook themselves to arms by force to compell the adverse party to resigne the citie King John also threatned in case they denied to surrender it to give up to Meladine Ptolemais in Syria in exchange for Damiata At last according to the agreement Damiata was restored to the Turks and the Christian army let out of the trap wherein it was taken Meladine out of his princely goodnesse furnished them with â— victuals and with horses to carry their feeble persons upon And thus the Christians had the greatest blow given them without a blow given them the Egyptians obtaining their victory not by bloud but by water Chap. 28. Iohn Bren resigneth the Kingdome of Ierusalem to Frederick the second Germane Emperour THere was also concluded a peace with the Turks for eight years And now matters being settled as well as they might be in Syria King John took a journey to Rome where he was bountifully feasted and honourably entertained by the Pope Here it was agreed whether at the first by his voluntary offer or working of others it appeareth noâ— that he should resigne the Kingdome of Jerusalem to Frederick the second Germane Emperour who was to marry Iole the sole daughter of King John by his first wife though by a second he had another Martha married to Robert Emperour of Constantinople so that he was father in law both to Emperour of East and West Some condemned his resignation as an unadvised act as if he had first parted from his wits who would willingly part from a Kingdome whilest others commend his discretion For first his wife was dead in whose right he held his Kingdome and thereby a door was opened for other litigious pretenders to the Crown Secondly it was policie fugere ne fugaretur yea this was no flight but an honourable departure Well he knew the Turks power to invade and his own weaknesse to defend what was left in Syria So that finding the weight too heavy for himself he did well to lay it on stronger shoulders Thirdly before his resignation he had little more then a title and after it he had nothing lesse men having so tuned their tongues to salute him King of Jerusalem that he was so called to the day of his death Lastly what he wanted in the statelinesse of his bed he had in the soundnesse of his sleep and though his commons perchance were shorter yet he battled better on them He got now more in a twelve-moneth then in seven years before going from countrey to countrey And yet the farther this stone rolled the more mosse he gathered In France besides rich gifts left to himself he had the managing of sixty thousand crowns the legacie which Philip Augustus the King on his death-bed bequeathed to the Templars and the Holy warre In England he received from Henry the third many great presents though afterwards he proved but unthankfull for them In Spain he got a rich wife Beringaria the daughter of the King of Castile In Italie he tasted very largely of the Popes liberaliâ—ie and lived there in good esteem But he went off the stage without an applause because he lost himself in his last act perfidiously raising rebellions against Frederick his sonne in law at the instigation of his Holinesse Nor recovered he his credit though after he went to his sonne Robert to Constantinople and there did many good offices He died anno 1237. Chap. 29. The true character of Frederick How the history of his life is prejudiced by the partiality of Authours on both sides THe nuptiall solemnities of Frederick with the Lady Iole were performed at Rome in the presence of the Pope with all ceremonies of majesty and Frederick promised to prosecute in person his title in Palestine within two years Little hope have I to content the reader in this Kings life who cannot satisfie my self writers of that age are so possessed with partiality The faction of the Guelfes and Gibellines discovereth not it self more plainly in the Camp then in the Chronicles Yea Historians turn Schoolmen in matters of fact arguing them pro con And as it is in the Fable of the man that had two wives whilest his old wife plucked out his black hairs the evidence of his youth his young one ungray-haired him that no standards of antiquity might remain they made him bald betwixt them So amongst our late writers whilest Protestants cut off the authority from all Papized writers of that age and Romanists cast away the witnesse of all Imperialized authours then living such as Urspergensis is and generally all Germanes counting them testes domesticos and therefore of no validitie betwixt them they draw all historie of that time very slender and make it almost quite nothing We will not engage our selves in their quarrels but may safely believe that Frederick was neither saint nor devil but man Many virtues in him his foes must commend and some vices his friends must confesse He was very learned according to the rate of that age especially for a Prince who onely baiteth at learning and maketh it not his profession to lodge in Wise he was in projecting nor were his thoughts ever so scattered with any sudden accident but he could instantly recollect himself Valiant he was and very fortunate though this tendeth more to Gods praise then his Wondrous bountifull to scholars and souldiers whose good will he enjoyed for he payed for it But this Gold had its allay of Cruelty though this was not so much bred in him as he brought to it Treasons against him were so frequent he could not be safe but he must be severe nor severe without incurring the aspersion of crueltie His Pride was excessive and so was his Wantonnesse A Nunnes vail was but a slender shield against his lust This sinne he was given to which was besides the custome of the Dutch saith one who though great friends to Bacchus are no favourites of Venus which is strange that they should heap up so much fewel and have no more fire In a word he was a better Emperour then a man his vices being personall most hurting himself his virtues of a publick nature and accomplishing him for government
not out in the election of their Prince being in a manner all equall amongst themselves We see elective States in Christendome though bound with the straitest laws often sagge aside into schismes and factions whereas this strange Empire in their choice had no dangerous discords but such as were quenched in the kindling Lastly who ever knew a wall that had no better cement to stand so sure and so long Two hundred sixty and seven years this State endured and yet had it to do with strong and puissant enemies Some Kingdomes ow their greatnesse not so much to their own valour and wisdome as to the weaknesse of their neighbours but it fared not thus with the Mammalukes To omit Prester John who neighboured them on the south on all other sides they were encompassed with potent opposers From whom right valiantly they defended themselves till in the yeare 1517 they were overcome by Selimus the great Turkish Emperour To conclude As for the Amazons and their brave atchievements with much valour and no manhood they and their State had onely being in the brains of fabulous writers As for the Assasines or regiment of rogues it never spread to the breadth of any great countrey nor grew to the height of a Kingdome but being the jakes of the world was cast out in a place betwixt barren hills But this Empire of vassals was every way wonderfull stretching so farre over all Egypt and most of Syria and lasting so long A strange State wherein slavery was the first step to their throne and apostasle the first article in their religion Chap 20. The manner of the death of Frederick King of Ierusalem His Will and posterity after him An interregnum both in Germanie and the Kingdome of Ierusalem IN this same yeare Frederick King of Jerusalem and Emperour of Germanie ended his troublesome dayes A Prince who in the race of his life met with many rubs some stumbles no dangerous fall Besides the Turk he had to do with the Pope the Pope immortall in his succession And though his Holinesse was unfit for warre as being alwayes old and never ripe for that place till almost rotten yet he used his own head and commanded the hands of others whereby he kept Frederick in a continuall warre Yet never could he have beaten him with fair play had he not used a weapon if not against the law of Arms against the law of God and against which no guard Arming his subjects against him and Dispensing with the oath of allegeance But he gave Frederick the mortall wound in setting himself against himself I mean Henry his eldest sonne And though Frederick easily conquered that rebellious youth and made him fast enough keeping him in prison in Apulia where he died yet he carried the grief hereof to his grave For now he knew not where or in whom to place any confidence as suspecting the single cord of Loyalty would not hold in others which brake in his own sonne though twisted with Naturall affection The greatnesse of his spirit was a great hastening of his death and being of a keen eager and active nature the sharpnesse of the sword cut the scabbard the sooner asunder Bow he could not break he must What-ever is reported he died of no other poison then sorrow which ushered him into a wasting ague grief being a burden whereof the strongest shoulders can bear the least As for the same that Maufred his base son should stifle him with a pillow though I must confesse he might be taken on suspicion as likely enough to play such a devilish prank yet it is unreasonable that he who is acquitted by the Authours of the same time should be condemned on the evidence of the writers of after-ages He died at Florence in an obscure castle on S. Lucies day having reigned King of Jerusalem three and twenty years By his Will he bequeathed many ounces of gold to the Knights Templars and Hospitallers in recompence of the wrongs they had received by him He left a great summe of money for the recovery of the Holy land to be disposed at the discretion of the foresaid knights He forbad any stately funerall for himself though in his life immoderately excessive in pomp as if he would do penance for his pride after death A Prince who had he not been hindred with domesticall discords would have equallized Caesar himself For if thus bravely he â—aid about him his hands being tied at home with continuall dissentions what would he have done if at liberty A scandal is raised since his death That he was but a millers sonne but he would have ground them to powder who in his life-time durst have averred it Indeed he was very happy in mechanicall matters such as we may term Liberall handicrafts as casting founding carving in iron and brasse Nether did this argue a low soul to dabble in such mean imployments but rather proved the amplitude and largenesse thereof of so generall acquaintance that no Art was a stranger to him But the suspicion of his birth rose from the almost miraculous manner of it Constantia his mother bearing him when welnigh sixty years of age But both in Scripture and other writers we may see the sonnes of long barren-mothers to have been fruitfull in famous atchievements Pity it was that he had some faults yea pity it had been if he had not had some But his vices indeed were notorious and unexcusable Many wives and concubines he had and by them many children His wives His legitimate children Their preferment 1. Constantia Queen of Aragon Henry who rebelled against him King of the Romanâ—s 2. Iole daughter to John Bren. Conrade Duke of Suevia 3. Agnes daughter to the Marquesse of Moravia childlesse divorced 4. Rutina 5. Isabella of Bavaria Agnes Married to Conrade Landâ—grave of Hessen 6. Mawd daughter to John King of England Constance Wife to Lewis Landâ—grave of Hessen  His base sonnes His concubine Blanch. 1. Henzius King of Sardinâ—a 2. Maufred Usurper of Sicily 3. Frederick Prince of Antioch It is much that succession adventured in so many severall bottoms should miscarry Yet these foure sonnes dying left no lasting issue and in the third generation Fredericks stock and that whole raâ—e of Suevian Princes was extinct Which in the judgement of some men was a judgement of God on him for his lasciviousnesse We must not forget a memorable passage which happened more then twenty yeares after Fredericks death One Tylo Colupp a notable juggler sometime brought up at the Court cunningly sowing together all the old shreds of his Courtship and stretching them out with impudency pretended to be Frederick the Emperour long detained in captivity in Palestine The difference betwixt their aâ—pects was easily reconciled for few Physâ—ognomy marks are so deeply fixed in any face but that age and misery will alter them The credulity of the vulgar sort presently betrayed them to be couzened by him yea some
Princes took this brasse for gold without touching it But the best engine which gave this puppet his motion was a bruit constantly buzzed That Frederick was not dead For Princes the manner of whole deaths hath been private and obscure fame commonly conjureth again out of their graves and they walk abroad in the tongues and brains of many who affirm and believe them to be still alive But the world soon suifeted of this cheaters forgerie and this glow-worm when brought into the light shined no more but at Nantes was burnt to ashes by Rodulphus the Emperour After Fredericks death there was an interregnum for three and twenty yeares in the Empire of Germany True it is that of some William Earl of Holland one without a beard not valour was nominated Emperour The Spirituall electours chose Richard brother to our King Henry the third And as in Cornwall he got much coin so Germany gave him a bottomlesse bag to put it in A third party named Alphonse King of Castile an admirable Mathematician But the ointment of his name is marred with the dead flie of his Atheisticall speech That if he had been in Gods stead he could have framed the world better then now it is Notwithstanding the best Dutch writers make an interregnum as counting the Empire still a widdow and all these rather her suiters then any her husband In like manner also in Palestine there was not any King for fourteen years after Fredericks death The right indeed lay in Conrade Duke of Suevia Fredericks sonne by Iole daughter to John Bren King of Jerusalem But he was so imployed in defending himself in Sicily against Mauâ—ted his base brother who soon after dispatched him out of the way that he had no leisure to prosecute his title to the fragments of his Kingdome of Jerusalem Chap. 21. The Pastorells killed in France King Lewis returned home GO we back to King Lewis who all this while stayed in Palestine busying himself partly in building and fencing of Sidon and Cesarea partly in composing discords betwixt the Pisans and Genoans even proceeding to threaten them into agreement But these armed men little cared for his naked menacing He being also an excellent religious Antiquary and Critick on holy monuments much employed himself in redeeming of old sacred places from the tyranny of time and oblivion Mean time in his Kingdome of France happened this strange accident An Hungarian pesant who is said to have been an apostate to Mahomet and well learned gathered together many thousands of people pretending they had intelligence from heaven to march to the Holy land These took on them the name and habit of Pastorelli poore shepherds in imitation belike as the Devil is Gods ape of those in the Gospel who were warned by Angels in a vision to go to Bethlehem Being to shape their course into Palestine they went into France shewing they had a vertigo in their heads mistaking the West for the East or else that like vagabonds they were never out of their way The Holy Lamb was their ensigne but their actions neither holy nor lambe-like They pillaged and killed the poor Jews as they went an unhappy nation whose heads lie pat for every ones hands to hit and their legges so stand in mens way that few can go by them without spurning at them Where they wanted Jews they made Jews of Christians especially if they were rich using them with all cruelty But at last near Burdeaux threescore thousand of them were slain and the rest dispersed A rhymer of that age or in courtesie call him a Poet made this Epitaph on them M semel bis C LI conjungere disce Duxit Pastorum saeva Megaera chorum Learn to put together well What M C C L I do spell When some devilish fiend in France Did teach the Shepherds how to dance By this time Lewis in Syria had stayed out the death and buriall of all his hopes to receive succour from his own countrey Long expecting in vain that France should come to him he at last returned to it The greatnesse of the burden he bore made him to go the faster and being loaden with debts to his Italian creditours he secretly hasted home Where safely arriving besides loyaltie to their Prince love to a stranger was enough to make him welcome Chap. 22. The conversion of the Tartarians Haalon conquereth Persia and extinguisheth the Caliphs of Babylon LEwis is gone and left the Christians in Syria in a wofull condition without hope of amendment Now can any good come out of Tartary Can the Northern wind blow a comfortable warmth Yea see a strange vicissitude of things Haito the Christian King of Armenia had travelled to Mango the Cham of Tartary to communicate to him the present danger of the Tâ—rks and to consult of a remedy He shewed how if order were not taken with them in time they would over-runne all Asia Let him not count that he lay out of their rode because of his remote situation For what is the way wanderers will not trace He might expect onely this courtesie to be last devoured In conclusion Haito prevailed so farre with this Pagan that he not onely promised his assistance but also was baptised and took the Christian religion on him So also did his whole countrey by his example and Christianity being the Court-fashion none would be out of it Never since the time of Constantine the Great did the devill at once lose a greater morsel or was there made a more hopefull accession to the Faith Understand we this conversion of Tartary though Authours predicate it universally of that whole countrey onely of Cathaia the Eastern and most refined part of that Empire For Cannibals were still in the North who needed first to be converted to reason and to be made men before they could become Christians Also at this same time we find a swarm of Western Tartarian heathens forraging Poland So it seemeth so vast was the Empire that it was still night in the West though it was day in the Eastern part thereof Now whether the conversion of these Tartarians was solemnly deliberately and methodically wrought by preaching first those things wherein the light of Nature concurreth with Faith then those wherein humane reason is no foe but standeth neuter such as are merely of Faith leaving the issue of all to God whose oratory onely can perswade souls or whether which is more probable it was but tumultuously done many on a sudden rather snatching then embracing religion we will not dispute Sure it is that Mango sent Haalon his brother who is said to have married a wife an excellent Christian and descended from the Wise-men who came to see our Saviour with a great army to suppresse the Turks and assist the Christians It seemeth his army rid post for falling into Persia he conquered it sooner then one can well travell it in half
observed that the sea cannot digest the cruditie of a dead corpse being a due debt to be interred where it dieth and a ship cannot abide to be made a bier of He was Sainted after his death by Boniface the eighth and the five and twentieth day of August on which day in his first voyage to Palestine he went on shipboard is consecrated to his memorie Herein he had better luck then as good a man I mean our Henry the sixth who could not be canonized without a mightie summe of money belike Angels making Saints at Rome Chap. 28. Tunis taken The French return home whilest our Edward valiantly setteth forward for Palestine BY this time Tunis was brought to great distresse and at last on these conditions surrendred That it should pay yearly to Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem fourtie thousand crowns That it should receive Christian Ministers freely to exercise their religion If any Saracen would be baptized he should be suffered That all Christian captives should be set free That they should pay back so much money as should defray the Christians charges in this voyage Our Edward would needs have had the town beaten down and all put to the sword thinking the foulest quarter too fair for them Their goods because got by robberie he would have sacrificed as an anathema to God and burnt to ashes His own share he execrated and caused it to be burnt forbidding the English to save any thing of it because that coals stolen out of that fire would sooner burn their houses then warm their hands It troubled not the consciences of other Princes to enrich themselves herewith but they glutted themselves with the stolen honie which they found in this hive of drones And which was worse now their bellies were full they would go to bed return home and goe no further Yea the young King of France called Philip the Bold was fearfull to prosecute his journey to Palestine whereas Prince Edward struck his breast and swore That though all his friends forsook him yet he would enter Prolemais though but onely with Fow in his horse-keeper By which speech he incensed the English to go on with him The rest pleading the distemperature of the weather went to Sicily in hope with change of aire to recover their health Where many of them found what they sought to avoid death amongst other Theobald King of Navarre and Isabell his wife and William Earl of Flanders who ended their dayes at Drepanum Besides their navie was pursuivanted after with a horrible tempest and a curse entailed either on their ill-gotten goods or deserting Gods cause or both arrested them in their return so that of this great wealth little was landed in Europe their ships being wracked and the goods therein cast into the sea with which the waves played a little and then chopped them up at a morsel Whilest the weather frowning on them smiled on the English Prince Edward no whit damnified either in his men or ships with Elenor his tender consort then young with child safely arrived at Ptolemais to the great solace and comfort of the Christians there being in great distresse Chap. 29. Prince Edwards performance in Palestine He is dangerously wounded yet recovereth and returneth home safe AT his arrivall the last stake of the Christians was on losing For Bendocdar the Mammaluke Prince of Egypt and Syria had brought Ptolemais to so low an ebbe that they therein resolved if some unexpected succour reversed not their intentions within three dayes to resigne the citie unto him Edward landing stayed this precipitation who arrived with his armie there in the very interim in opportunitie it self which is the very quintessence of time so that all concluded his coming thus hitting the mark was guided by the hand of an especiall providence And now those who before in despair would have thrown up their cards hope at least to make a saving game and the Christians taking comfort and courage both defie their enemies and their own thoughts of surrendring the citie Prince Edward having sufficiently manned and victualled Ptolemais taking six or seven thousand souldiers marched to Nazareth which he took and slew those he found there After this about midsummer understanding the Turks were gathered together at Cakhow fourtie miles off very early in the morning he set upon them slew a thousand and put the rest to flight In these skirmishes he gave evident testimonies of his personall valour Yea in cold bloud he would boldly challenge any Infidel to a duell To speak truth this his conceived perfection was his greatest imperfection For the world was abundantly satisfied in the point of his valour yet such was his confidence of his strength and eagernesse of honour that having merited the esteem of a most stout man he would still supererogate yea he would profer to fight with any mean person if cried up by the volge for a tall man this daring being a generall fault in great spirits and a great fault in a Generall who staketh a pearl against a piece of glasse The best was in that age a man fighting with sword and buckler had in a manner many lives to lose and duells were not dangerous Whilest he stayed at Ptolemais Elenor his Lady was delivered of a fair daughter called from her birth-place Joan of Acres But fear of her husbands death abated her joy at her daughters birth The Turks not matching him in valour thought to master him with treachery which was thus contrived The Admirall of Joppa a Turk pretended he would turn Christian and imployed one Anzazim an Assasine in the businesse betwixt him and Prince Edward who carried himself so cunningly that by often repairing to our Prince he got much credit and esteem with him Some write this Anzazim was before alwayes bred under ground as men keep hawks and warre-horses in the dark to make them more fierce that so coming abroad he should fear to venture on no man But sure so cunning a companion had long conversed with light and been acquainted with men yea Christians and Princes as appeareth by his complying carriage else if he had not been well read in their company he could not have been so perfect in his lesson But let him be bred any where or in hell it self For this was his religion To kill any he was commanded or on the non-performance willingly to forfeit his life The fifth time of his coming he brought Prince Edward letters from his Master which whilest he was reading alone and lying on his bed he struck him into the arm with an invenomed knife Being about to fetch another stroke the Prince with his foot gave him such a blow that he felled him to the ground and wresting the knife from him ranne the Turk into the belly and slew him yet so that in struggling he hurt himself therewith in the forehead At this noise in sprang his servants and one of them with a stool beate the braines out of
torment then generous spirits who are for the enduring of honourable danger and speedie death but not provided for torment which they are not acquainted with neither is it the proper object of valour Again it is produced in their behalf that being burned at the stake they denied it at their death though formerly they had confessed it and whose charitie if not stark-blind will not be so tender-eyed as to believe that they would not breath out their soul with a lie and wilfully contract a new guilt in that very instant wherein they were to be arraigned before the Judge of heaven A Templar being to be burned at Burdeaux and seeing the Pope and King Philip looking out at a window cried unto them Clement thou cruell Tyrant seeing there is no higher amongst mortall men to whom I should appeal for my unjust death I cite thee together with King Philip to the tribunall of Christ the just Judge who redeemed me there both to appear within one yeare and a day where I will lay open my cause and justice shall be done without any by-respect In like manner James grand Master of the Templars though by piece-meal he was tortured to death craved pardon of God and those of his Order that forced by extremitie of pain on the rack and allured with hope of life he had accused them of such damnable sinnes whereof they were innocent Moreover the people with their suffrage acquitted them happie was he that could get an handfull of their ashes into his bosome as the Relique of pious martyrs to preserve Indeed little heed is to be given to peoples humours whose judgement is nothing but prejudice and passion and commonly envie all in prosperitie pitie all in adversitie though often both undeservedly And we may believe that the beholding of the Templars torments when they were burned wrought in the people first a commiserating of their persons and so by degrees a justifying of their cause However vulgus non semper errat aliquando elìgit and though it matters little for the gales of a private mans fancie yet it is something when the wind bloweth from all corners And true it is they were generally cryed up for innocents Lastly Pope Clement and King Philip were within the time prefixed summoned by death to answer to God for what they had done And though it is bad to be busie with Gods secrets yet an argment drawn from the event especially when it goeth in company with others as it is not much to be depended on so it is not wholly to be neglected Besides King Philip missed of his expectation and the morsell fell besides his mouth for the lands of the Templars which were first granted to him as a portion for his youngest sonne were afterwards by the Council of Vienne bestowed on the Knights-Hospitallers Chap. 3. A moderate way what is to be conceived of the suppression of the Templars BEtwixt the two extremities of those that count these Templars either Malefactours or Martyrs some find a middle way whose verdict we will parcell into these severall particulars 1. No doubt there were many novices and punies amongst them newly admitted into their Order which if at all were little guiltie for none can be fledge in wickednesse at their first hatching To these much mercy belonged The punishing of others might have been an admonition to them and crueltie it was where there were degrees of offenses to inflict the same punishment and to put all of them to death 2. Surely many of them were most hainous offenders Not to speak what they deserved from God who needeth not pick a quarrel with man but alwayes hath a just controversie with him they are accounted notorious transgressours of humane laws yet perchance if the same candle had been lighted to search as much dust and dirt might have been found in other Orders 3. They are conceived in generall to be guiltlesse and innocent from those damnable sinnes wherewith they were charged Which hainous offenses were laid against them either because men out of modestie and holy horrour should be ashamed and afraid to dive deep in searching the ground-work and bottome of these accusations but rather take them to be true on the credit of the accusers or that the world might the more easily be induced to believe the crimes objected to be true as conceiving otherwise none would be so devilish as to lay such devilish offenses to their charge or lastly if the crimes were not believed in the totall summe yet if credited in some competent portion the least particular should be enough to do the deed and to make them odious in the world 4. The chief cause of their ruine was their extraordinary wealth They were feared of many envied of more loved of none As Naboths vineyard was the chiefest ground for his blasphemie and as in England Sr John Cornwall Lord Fanhop said merrily That not he but his stately house at Ampthill in Bedford-shire was guiltie of high treason so certainly their welath was the principall evidence against them and cause of their overthrow It is quarrell and cause enough to bring a sheep that is fat to the shambles We may believe King Philip would never have tooke away their lives if he might have took their lands without putting them to death but the mischief was he could not get the hony unlesse he burnt the bees Some will say The Hospitallers had great yea greater revenues nineteen thousand Mannors to the Templars nine thousand yet none envied their wealth It is true but then they busied themselves in defending of Christendome maintaining the Island of Rhodes against the Turks as the Teutonick order defended Pruss-land against the Tartarian the world therefore never grudged them great wages who did good work These were accounted necessary members of Christendome the Templars esteemed but a superfluous wenne they lay at rack and manger and did nothing who had they betook themselves to any honourable employment to take the Turks to task either in Europe or Asia their happinesse had been lesse repined at and their overthrow more lamented And certain it is that this their idlenesse disposed them for other vices as standing waters are most subject to putrifie I heare one bird sing a different note from all the rest in the wood namely that what specious shews soever were pretended the true cause of their ruine was that they began to desert the Pope and adhere to the Emperour If this was true no doubt they were deeply guiltie and deserved the hard measure they suffered Sure I am how-ever at this time they might turn edge they had formerly been true blades for his Holinesse All Europe followed the copie that France had set them Here in England King Edward the second of that name suppressed the Order and put them to death So by vertue of a writ sent from him to Sir John Wogan Lord chief Justice in Ireland were they served
the portraiture of a dead man lying on his shroud the most artificially cut in stone saith my Authour that ever man beheld Others had rent assigned them of 200l 80l l 60l l 50l l 20l l 10l l according to their severall qualities and deserts At the same time justs and tornaments were held at Westminster wherein the challengers against all comers were Sr John Dudly Sr Thomas Seymore Sr Thomas Poinings Sr George Carew Knights Anthonie Kingstone and Richard Cromwell Esquires To each of whom for reward of their valour the King gave a hundred markes of yearely revenues and a house to dwell in to them and their heires out of the lands belonging to these Hospitallers And at this time many had Danae's happinesse to have golden showres rained into their bosomes These Abbey-lands though skittish mares to some have given good milk to others Which is produced as an argument That if they prove unsuccessefull to any it is the users default no inherencie of a curse in the things themselves But let one keep an exact Register of lands and mark their motions how they ebbe and flow betwixt buyers and sellers and surely he will say with the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is most sure Let land be held in never so good a tenure it will never be held by an unthrift The Hospitallers Priory-church was preserved from down-pulling all the dayes of King Henry the eighth but in the third yeare of King Edward the sixth with the bell-towre a piece of curious workmanship graven gilt and enamelled it was undermined and blown up with gunpowder and the stone imployed in building the Lord Protectours house in the Strand Thus as chirurgeons in cutting off a gangrened leg alwayes cut it off above the joynt even where the flesh is whole and sound so belike for fear of further infection to banish Monkerie for ever they rased the structures and harmlesse buildings of Priories which otherwise in themselves were void of any offence They feared if Abbeys were onely left in a swound the Pope would soon get hot water to recover them To prevent which they killed them and killed them again overturning the very foundation of the houses infringing altering and transferring the lands that they might never be reduced to their own propertie Some outrages were committed in the manner of these dissolutions Many manuscripts guilty of no other superstition then red letters in the front were condemned to the fire and here a principall key of antiquitie was lost to the great prejudice of posteritie But in sudden alterations it is not to be expected that all things be done by the square and compasse Chap. 8. Queen Mary setteth up the Hospitallers again They are again deposed by Queen Elisabeth QUeen Mary a Princesse more zealous then politick attempted to restore Abbeys to their pristine estate and former glory And though certain of her counsellers objected that the state of her Kingdome and dignity thereof and her Crown imperiall could not honourably be furnished and maintained without the possession of Abbey-land yet she frankly restored resigned and confirmed by Parliament all ecclesiasticall revenues which by the authority of that high Court in the dayes of her Father were annexed to the Crown protesting she set more by her salvation then by ten Kingdomes But the Nobilitie followed not her example They had eaten up the Abbey-lands and now after twenty yeares possession digested and turned them into good bloud in their estates they were loth therefore to emptie their veins again and the forwardest Romanist was backward enough in this costly piece of devotion However out of her own liberalitie she set up two or three bankrupt Covents as Sion and Westminster and gave them stock to trade with The Knights also of S. John of Jerusalem she reseated in their place and Sr Thomas Tresham of Rushton in Northamptonshire was the first and last Lord Prior after their restitution For their nests were plucked down before they were warm in them by the coming in of Queen Elisabeth To conclude in the founders of religious houses were some good intents mixt with superstitious ends amongst the Religious persons themselves some pietie more loosnesse and lazinesse in the confounders of those houses some detestation of the vices of Friars more desire of the wealth of Friaries in God all just all righteous in permitting the badnesse and causing the destruction of these numerous Fraternities Chap. 9. Observations on the Holy warre The horrible superstition therein WE have finished the story of the Holy warre And now I conceive my indentures are cancelled and I discharged from the strict service and ties of an Historian so that it may be lawfull for me to take more libertie and to make some observations on what hath been past Before I go further I must deplore the worlds losse of that worthy work which the Lord Verulam left unfinished concerning the Holy warre an excellent piece and alas it is but a piece so that in a pardonable discontent we may almost wish that either it had been more wholly to have satisfied our hunger or lesse not at all to have raised our appetite It was begun not in an historicall but in a politick way not reporting the Holy warre past with the Turks but advising how to manage it in the future And no doubt if he had perfected the work it would have proved worthy the Authour But since any have been deterred from finishing the same as ashamed to add mud-walls and a thatched roof to so fair a foundation of hewen and polished stone From that Authour we may borrow this distinction That three things are necessary to make an invasive warre lawfull the lawfullnesse of the jurisdiction the merit of the cause and the orderly and lawfull prosecution of the cause Let us apply it to our present purpose in this Holy warre For the first two Whether the jurisdiction the Christians pretended over the Turks dominions was lawfull or not and Whether this warre was not onely operae but vitae pretium worth the losing so many lives we referre the reader to what hath been said in the first Book Onely it will not be amisse to adde a storie or two out of an Authour of good account When Charles the sixth was King of France the Duke of Bourbon 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 again their messenger 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
Estius dist 12. §. 2. * Possevin in Apparatu sacro Rutheni See Brierwoods Enquiries chap. 18. * Sr Edw. Sand. West Relig. pag. 100. * Idem pag. 242. 1238 * Magdeburg Cent. 13. cap. 16. Decennales inducias nuper denu ò confirm ârat * Iidem ibidem 1239 * Matth. Paris pag. 670. 1240 Oct. 11. * Cambden in Cornwall * Matth. Paris in Heâ— 3. pag. 719. * Idem pag. 729. * Called anciently Arabia Petraea Tyrius lib. 21. cap. 5. 1241 * Matth. Paris pag. 765. * Cambden in Cornwall Matth. Paris pag. 851. 1244 * Matth. Paris pag. 835. * In his letter to Richard of Cornwall * Caes. lib. 3. De bello Gallico * Graft in Riâ—h 3. fol. 102. †Matth. Paris pag. 834. * Matth. Paris pag. 475. * Except any make them to be Chorasmii a people placed by Athâ—naeus in the East of Parthia 1245 * Matth. Paris pag. 880. Et P. Aemyl in D. Ludov. pag. 214. * Fox Martyrolog pag 293. * Camden in Wiltshire 1246 * Matth. Paris in anno 1246. pag. 943. Fox Matyrolog pag. 292. * Matth. Paris pag. 995. 1248 Aug. 25. Sept. 20. * P. Aemyl in Ludâ—v 9. pag. 2â—5 * P. Aemyl ut priús 1249 * P. Aemyl pag. 216. * Knolls Turk hist. pag. 102. Iune 4. * P. Aemyl pag. 216. 5. 9. * Matth. Paris pag. 1047. Knolls Turk Hist. 1250 Matth. Paris pag. 1049. * Matth. Paris pag. 1060. * Erimus credo hodie ubi non audebis caudam equi mei attingere Idem ibid. Apr. 5. * Quos Martyres credimus esse manifestos Matth. Paris pag. 1059. * Ut priús * Matth. Paris pag. 1051. * Du Serres in the life of Lewis the 9. * Matth. Paris pag. 1091. * Matth. Paris pag. 1091. * S â— Tristram a Knight long before See Carew in Cornwall fol. 61. * Book 2. chap. 40. * Knolls Turk Hist. pag. 107. * Bzovius anno 1250. § 14. * Falsum ex ejus temporis hominum testimonio eâ—â—e convinciâ—ur Pantal. in Fred. 2â— Dec. 13. As others 26. * Others say a falconers or a physicians See Munster De Italia lib. 2. pag. 235. Gathered out of Lampad Mellif hist. part 3. pag. 306. * Calvisius anno 1285. ex Spang Et Pantal. in Rodulpho Caesare 1251 * Matth. Paris pag. 1094. * Magdeburg Gem. 13. cap. 16. col 698. 1253 Apr. 25. Marinus Sanutus Magdeburg Cent. 13. cap. 16. col 699. 1254 * Calvisius ex Hist. Pol. in anno 1259. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. thanasius 1255 * Magdeburg Cent. 13. cap. 2. pag. 5. * So Knolls Turk Hist. pag. 112. The Magdeburgenses say lesse Semestri spatio Cent. 13. cap. 16. col 699. 1256 * Magdeburg Knolls ut prius 1258 * Calvisius in anno 1158. ex Bizarâ— 1260 * So saith Blondus Decad 2. lib. 8. pag. 308. But if we consult with Tyrius lib. 10. cap. 28. the Genoans and not the Venetians wonne Ptolemais * Lâ—co priùs citato * Platina in Urban iv 1265 * Besoldus De reg Sicil. pag. 645. 649. * See these conditions at large five and twenty in number out of Io. Anton. Summâ—nt cited in Besoldus pag. 647. * Platina in Clem. iv Neve Imperium Romanum etiam ultrò oblatum acciperet * Calvifius in anno 1269. ex Marino Sanuto 1269 Sept. 27. 1261 * Calvisius ex Marino Sanuto in anno 1260. 1262 * Magdeburg Cent. 13. cap. 16. col 699. 1268 * Harding chap. 147. * Vincents Discoveries of Brooks errours Tit. Lancaster 1270 1270 * Sr. Walter Ralegh hist. part 1. lib. 5. cap. 3. * Alfâ—nso Villeg in the life of S. Lewis * Continuat Matth. Paris in anno 1273. 1271 1271 * Continuas Matth. Paris in anno 1272 pag. 1345. 1272 * Speed in Edward the first * See Fox Martyrolog pag. 337. * P. Aemyl in D. Ludovico pag. 227. * Continuat Matth. Paris in anno 1272. pag. 1347. * Sr. Robert Cotton in his Henry iii. * Marinus Sanutus 1273 * Pantal. De illustr Germ. part 2. in vita Rodulphi 1275 * Pantal. De illustr Germ. part 2. pag. 245. 1282 1284 * Vide Calvisium in anno 1227. Magdeburg Cent. 13. * Magdeburg Cent. 13. cap. 16. Col. 701. 1285 1289 1290 1291 * Lampad Mellif bist part 3. pag. 313. * Sand. Trav. pag. 204. * Lampad pag. 312. * Sand. Trav. pag. 204. Anno Dom. 1310 * Sabellicus Enn. 9. lib. 7. Platina in vita Clem. V. 1310 * Hospin de orig Mon. cap. 18. fol. 193. * P. Aemylim in Philippo Pulchro 1301 1310 * Urspergens Paralip fol. 368. Antonius tit 21. cap. 1. §. 3â— * Camdens Brit. in Bedfordshire * Jacob. Stephanus De jurisdictione lib. 4. cap. 10. §. 18. 1311 * Hospin De orig Mon. cap. 18. fol. 193. * Hicronima Romano De la republica Christ. lib. 7. cap. 6. Et Pero Mexya De la silva de varia lettion lib. 2. cap. 5. * Hospin De orig Mon. cap. 17. fol. 190. * Acts 28. 4. * Mr. Gr. Gibs of S. Perrot Dorset * Cassanaem part 9. considerat 4. * Statut. in 27â— Henr. viii * Parlam Anno 320. Henr. viii * Weaver Mon. pag. 114. 1540 May 7 ' * Idem pag. 430. stow * Parlam Anno 2â— 3â— Phil. Mariae * Chap. 9. and 10. * Froissard lib. 4. cap. 18 19. * Monstrell lib. 3. cap. 68. * Epist. seu Orat. de iis qui adeunt Hierosol Edit Gr. Lat. Parisils 1615. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * M. Paris in anno 1099. * Idem * M. Paris * Roger Hoveden in anno 1187. * Nauclcrus Gen. 42. * Chron. Pruten * Spondanus in anno 1291. * Miraeula si piâ—a utilitate aut necessitate careant de facto suspecta sunt rejicienda Gerson Psal. 15. * M. Paris pag. 1047. Huic pacis formae ex Papae mandato rebellis erat Legatus frontosè contradicens c. * Dist. 40. can Si â—apa suae fraternae salutis negligens * Book 2. chap. 9 27. * Lib. 3â— * M. Paris pag. 197. * Totum vulgus tam casti quà m incesti adulteri homicidae perjuri praedones Albertus Aqueusis Chron. Hierosol lib. 1. cap. 2. Besoldus pag. 101. ex Brochardo Malefactor deprehensus homicida latro fur incestuosus adulter fornicator timet à judice condignam poenam transfretat in terram Sanctam * Especially in the end of King Almericks life * Tyrius lib. 19. cap. 11. * Annal. Ecclesiast in anno 1100 1104. * Malmesb. lib. 4. pag. 133. Sexagies surely a mistake for sexies centum millia * Lamp Mellific hist. pag. 313. 1095 Tyrius lib. 9. cap. 12. 1099 Ursperg in Chron. pag. 239. * P. Aemyl in Phil. Aug. pag. 175. * Knolls Turk hist. pag. 106. * Magdeburg Cent. 13. col 606. * Fox in Martyrol in Hen. 3. pag. 337. * Vide M. Solden on Polyelbion pag. 150. * SaÌ„ndy Travels pag. 229. Tyrius lib. 10 cap. 28. lib. 12. cap. 25. 1147 * Munst. Cosmog in Polon * 1. Sam. 30. 24. * Vide Calvisium in anno 1145. Io. Magnum Hist. Goth. lib. 19. cap. 10. * Baroniâ—s in anno 1189. * Lib. cap. â—3 * Buchan in Guilielmo Senjore * Hect. Boeth Third book of Majest cap. 18. Lambert Peramb Kent * w. Malms lib. 4. pag. 133. * Cambden in Pembr 1147 * Pantal. De illustr Germ. part 2. pag. 201. * Hospin De orig Mon. cap. 17. fol. 190. * Camden in his descript of Cludisdale * Zuerius Boxborn his Apologie for the Holland shipping * Guill in his Heraldrie * Burton in Leicestershire * Hospin De orig Monin Ioan. * Dr. Ridly View of the Civil law § 5. pag. 100. * Lord Verulam in his Henry vii pag. 87. * Luke 2. 26. * L. Verulam in Henry vii * Buchanan in the life of Iames iiii * Camdens Remains * Centuriatores pag. totius operis penult 1298 * Psal. 122. 3. * Bydulph pag. 117. * Sandys Travels pag. 158. * Carew in his survey of Cornwall pag. 118. * Bydulph pag. 119. * Camdens Elisabeth in anno 2 96. * Deterra Sancta part 2. cap. 1. * Acts 16. 9. * Matth. 1. 16. * Sabcllicus Ennead 9. lib. 5. pag. 378. * In his Proeme fol. 5. * Institut lib. 1. tit 8. §. 1. * Knolls Hist. Turk pag. 123. * Sr. Edwin Sandys View of the West world pag. 137. * Centur iatores Cent. 13. cap. 16. col 692. * Heylin Microcos in Palestine * Knolls in his descrip of the greatnesse of the Turkish Empire * Knolls * Anno 1131. Helvicus giveth Baldwine the second sixteen yeares but herein he is deceived as also in allowing King Fulk but eight We according to the consent of the best Authours have given the former thirteen the latter ten * 1156. This catalogue of the Masters of the Hospitallers I find in Hospinian De origine Monachatûs It seemeth strange this Nestor Rodulphus should govern his Order 54 yeares yet it appeareth to be so if we compare Tyrius lib. 14. cap. 6. * That Antioch was betrayed by a Patriarch is plain by Sabellicus but whether Almericus was this traytour-Patriarch or whether it was done by the Grecian Antipatriarch is uncertain Here we cease that columne as despairing to continue their succession any longer *** 1192. Here is a subject for industrie to deserve well in filling up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Masters of the Templars from the death of Geraâ—d till the yeare 1215 whose names we cannot find ** 1193 Hitherto the succession of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem is accurately collected out of Tyrius The Order of those which follow is not so authentick being catcht as we might out of severall Authours * 1230. Severall Authours assigne severall dates wherein the Dutch Knights came into Prussia Perchance they came in severall parcels Their succession I had out of Pantaleon Munster and the Centurists Quaere whether these Masters of the Dutch Knights in Prussia had also command over those of their Order in Syria * 1245 Here we are at another losse for the names of the Templars and will be thankfull to those which will help us to them * For in the ninth yeare of his reigne he winneth the city of Jerusalem and restoreth it to the Eastern Christians who soon after lose it to the Sultan of Egypt
most religious orders to be clear in the spring and mirie in the stream These Hospitallers afterwards getting wealth unlaced themselves from the strictnesse of their first Institution and grew loose into all licentiousnesse What was their obedience to their master but rebellion against the Patriarch their first patrone as shall be shewed hereafter What was their poverty but a couzenage of the world whilest their order sued in form a pauperis and yet had nineteen thousand mannours in Christendome belonging unto them Neither will it be scandalum magnatum to their lordships to say what Saint Bernard speaketh of their chastity how they lived inter scorta epulas betwixt bawds and banquets And no wonder if their forced virginity was the mother of much uncleannesse For commonly those who vow not to go the high-way of Gods ordinance do haunt base and unwarrantable by-paths I will not forestall the history to shew how these Hospitallers were afterwards Knights of Rhodes and at this day of Malta but will conclude with the ceremonies used at their creation because much materiall stuff no doubt may be picked out of their formalities There is delivered them 1. a sword in token that they must be valiant 2. with a crosse-hilt their valour must defend religion 3. With this sword they are struck three times over the shoulders to teach them patiently to suffer for Christ 4. They must wipe the sword their life must be undefiled 5. Gilt spurres are put on them because they are to scorn wealth at their heels 6. And then they take a taper in their hands for they are to lighten others by their exemplary lives 7. and so go to hear Masse where we leave them At the same time Knights of the Sepulchre were also ordained which for their originall and profession are like to these Knights-hospitallers The order continueth to this day The Padre Guardian of Jerusalem maketh them of such as have seen the Sepulchre They should be Gentlemen by birth but the Padre carrieth a Chancerie in his bosome to mitigate the rigour of this Common law and will admit of him that bringeth fat enough though no bloud as of late he made an Apothecary of Aleppo of that honour So that there the sword of Knighthood is denyed to none who bring a good sheath with them and have a purse to pay soundly for it Chap. 5. The scuffling betwixt the King and Patriarch about the city of Ierusalem the issue thereof NOt long after there was started a controversiè of great consequence betwixt the King and Patriarch the Patriarch claiming the cities of Jerusalem and Joppa with the apperteinances the King refusing to surrender them The Patriarch pleaded That these places anciently belonged to his predecessours He set before the King the hainousnesse of sacriledge how great a sin it was when Princes who should be nursing-fathers and suckle the Church shall suck from it and shewed how the Common-wealth may grow fat but never healthfull by feeding on the Churches goods On the other side the King alledged That the Christian Princes had now purchased Jerusalem with their bloud and bestowed it on him that the Patriarchs overgrown title was drowned in this last conquest from which as from a new foundation all must build their claims who challenge any right to any part in that city Secondly he pleaded it was unreasonable that the King of Jerusalem should have nothing in Jerusalem as at this day the Romane Emperour is a very ciphre without power or profit in Rome and should live rather as a sojourner then a Prince in his royall city confined to an airy title whilest the Patriarch should have all the command To this the Patriarch answered That the Christians new conquest could not cancell his ancient right which was enjoyed even under the Saracens That this voyage was principally undertaken for advancing the Church and not to restore her onely to her liberty and withhold from her her lands so that in this respect she should find better usage from her foes then from her children If we mistake not the chief pinch of the cause lieth on the Patriarchs proof that the lands he demanded formerly belonged to his predecessours and we find him to fail in the main issue of the matter True it was that for the last thirty years the Patriarchs on condition they should repair and fortifie the walls of Jerusalem were possessed of a fourth part of the city even by grant from Bomensor the Emperour of the Saracens in the yeare of our Lord 1063. But that ever he had the whole city either by this or by any previous grant it appeareth not in Tyrius who saith moreover We wonder for what reason the lord Patriarch should raise this controversie against Duke Godfrey Let me adde that this our Authour is above exception for being both a politick states-man and pious prelate no doubt his penne striketh the true and even stroke betwixt King and Patriarch Besides he might well see the truth of this matter writing in a well-proportioned distance of time from it Those who live too near the stories they write oftentimes willingly mistake through partiality and those who live too farre off are mistaken by uncertainties the footsteps of truth being almost worn out with time But to return to Godfrey who though unwilling at first yet afterwards not onely on Candlemasse-day restored to the Patriarch the fourth part of the city but also on the Easter following gave him all Jerusalem Joppa and whatsoever he demanded conditionally that the King should hold it of the Patriarch till such time as he could conquer Babylon or some other royall city fit for him to keep his Court in If in the mean time Godfrey died without issue the Patriarch was to have it presently delivered unto him We will be more charitable then those that say that the Patriarch herein did bewitch and bemad Godfrey to make this large donation to him by torturing his conscience at the confession of his sinnes Onely we may question the discretion of this Prince in giving a gift of so large a size for Charities eyes must be open as well as her hands though she giveth away her branches not to part with the root And let the reader observe that Godfrey at the time of this his bountifull grant lay on his death-bed sick of that irrecoverable disease which ended him How easily may importunity stamp any impression on those whom desperate sicknesse hath softned And if the sturdiest man nigh death may be affrighted into good works for fear of Purgatory no wonder if devout Godfrey were pliable to any demand Pierce Plowman maketh a witty wonder why Friers should cover rather to confesse and bury then to christen children intimating it proceeded from covetousnesse there being gain to be gotten by the one none by the other And this was the age wherein the Covents got their best living by the dying which made them contrary to
all other people most to worship the sunne setting Chap. 6. Godfreys death and buriall AUthours differ on the death of this noble King some making him to die of that long-wasting sicknesse others of the plague It may be the plague took him out of the hands of that lingring disease and quickly cut off what that had been long in fretting He died July 18. having reigned one yeare wanting five dayes A Prince valiant pious bountifull to the Church for besides what he gave to the Patriarch he founded Canons in the temple of the Sepulchre and a monastery in the vale of Jehoshaphat We would say his death was very unseasonable leaving the orphane State not onely in its minority but its infancy but that that fruit which to mans apprehension is blown down green and untimely is gathered full-ripe in Gods providence He was buried in the temple of the Sepulchre where his tombe is inviolated at this day whether out of a religion the Turks bear to the place or out of honour to his memory or out of a valiant scorn to fight against dead bones or perchance the Turks are minded as John King of England was who being wished by a Courtier to untombe the bones of one who whilest he was living had been his great enemy Oh no said King John would all mine enemies were as honourably buried Chap. 7. Baldwine chosen King He keepeth Ierusalem in despite of the Patriarch GOdfrey being dead the Christians with a joynt consent dispatched an embassie to Baldwine his Brother Count of Edessa a city in Arabia the lord whereof had adopted this Baldwine to be his heir entreated him to accept of the Kingdome which honourable offer he courteously embraced A Prince whose body Nature cut of the largest size being like Saul higher by the head then his subjects And though the Goths had a law alwayes to choose a short thick man for their King yet surely a goodly stature is most majesticall His hair and beard brown face fair with an eagles nose which in the Persian Kings was anciently observed as a mark of magnanimity Bred he was a scholar entred into Orders and was Prebendary in the churches of Rhemes Liege and Cambray but afterwards turned secular Prince as our Athelwulphus who exchanged the mitre of Winchester for the crown of England Yet Bald wine put not off his scholarship with his habit but made good use thereof in his reign For though bookishnesse may unactive yet learning doth accomplish a Prince and maketh him sway his sceptre the steadier He was properly the first King of Jerusalem his brother Godfrey never accounted more then a Duke and was crowned on Christmas-day The reason that made him assume the name of a King was thereby to strike the greater terrour into the Pagans Thus our Kings of England from the dayes of King John were styled but Lords of Ireland till Henry the 8. first entituled himself King because Lord was sleighted by the seditious rebells As for that religious scruple which Godfrey made to wear a crown of gold where Christ wore one of thorns Baldwine easily dispensed therewith And surely in these things the mind is all A crown might be refused with pride and worn with humility But before his Coronation there was a tough bickering about the city of Jerusalem Dabert the Patriarch on the death of Godfrey devoured Jerusalem and the tower of David in his hope but coming to take possession found the place too hot for him For Garnier Earl of Gretz in the behalf of King Baldwine who was not yet returned from Edessa manned it against him But so it happened that this valiant Earl died three dayes after which by Dabert was counted a just judgement of God upon him for his sacriledge Now though it be piety to impute all events to Gods hand yet to say that this mans death was for such a sinne sheweth too much presumption towards God and too little charity towards our neighbour Indeed if sudden death had singled out this Earl alone it had somewhat favoured their censure but there was then a generall mortality in the city which swept away â— thousands and which is most materiall what this Patriarch interpreted sacriledge others accounted loyalty to his Sovereign As for that donation of the city of Jerusalem and tower of David which Godfrey gave to the Patriarch some thought that this gift overthrew it self with its own greatnesse being so immoderately large others supposed it was but a personall act of Godfrey and therefore died with the giver as conceiving his successours not obliged to perform it because it was unreasonable that a Prince should in such sort fetter and restrain those which should come after him Sure it is that Baldwine having both the stronger sword and possession of the citie kept it perforce whilest the Patriarch took that leave which is allowed to loosers to talk chafe and complain sending his bemoaning letters to Boemund Prince of Antioch inviting him to take arms and by violence to recover the Churches right but from him received the uselesse assistance of his pity and that was all Chap. 8. The Church-story during this Kings reigne A chain of successive Patriarchs Dabert Ebremare Gibelline and Arnulphus Their severall characters AFterwards this breach betwixt the King and Patriarch was made up by the mediation of some friends but the skinne onely was drawn over not dead flesh drawn out of the wound and Arnulphus whom we mentioned before discontented for his losse of the Patriarchs place still kept the sore raw betwixt them At last Dabertus the Patriarch was fain to flee to Antioch where he had plentifull maintenance allowed him by Bernard Patriarch of that See But he was too high in the instep to wear another mans shoes and conceived himself to be but in a charitable prison whilest he lived on anothers benevolence Wherefore hence he hasted to Rome complained to the Pope and received from his Holinesse a command to King Baldwine to be reestablished in the Patriarchs place but returning home died by the way at Messana in Sicily being accounted seven years Patriarch four at home and three in banishment Whilest Dabert was thrust out one Ebremarus was made Patriarch against his will by King Baldwine An holy and devout man but he had more of the dove then the serpent and was none of the deepest reach He hearing that he was complained of to the Pope for his irregular election posted to Rome to excuse himself shewing he was chosen against his will and though preferment may not be snatched it needs not be thrust away But all would not do It was enough to put him out because the King put him in Wherefore he was commanded to return home and to wait the definitive sentence which Gibellinus Archbishop of Arles and the Popes Legate should pronounce in the matter Gibellinus coming to Jerusalem concluded the election