C R O I 
?$ut though Italy feemed to have embraced the defign 
With ardour, Martin yet thought it necellary, in order 
to infure perfedt fuccefs, to engage the greater and more 
warlike nations in the fame enterprize. Having there¬ 
fore exhorted Peter to vifit the chief cities and fovereigns 
of Chriftendom, lie fummoned another council'at Cler¬ 
mont in Auvergne. The fame of this great and pious 
defign being now univerfally diffufed, procured the at¬ 
tendance of the greateft prelates, nobles, and princes ; 
and when the pope and the hermit renewed their pathe¬ 
tic exhortations, the whole alfembly, as if impelled by 
an immediate infpiration, exclaimed with one voice, “ It 
is the will of God !” Thefe words were deemed fo me¬ 
morable, and fo much the elfect of a divine impulfe, 
that they were employed as the fignal of rendezvous and 
battle in all future exploits of thefe adventurers. Men 
of all ranks flew to arms with the utmoft ardour, and a 
crofs was affixed to their right ihoulder by all who in- 
lifted in this holy enterprife. 
At this time Europe was funk in the moll profound 
ignorance and fuperftition, The eccleliaftics had gained 
the greateft afeendant over the human mind ; and the 
people, who committed the moil horrid diforders, knew 
of no other expiation than the obfervances impofed on 
them by their fpiritual pallors. But amidft the abjedt 
fuperftition which prevailed, the military fpirit had uni¬ 
verfally diffufed itfelf; and, though not fupported by 
art or difeipline, was become the general paflion of the 
nations governed by the feudal law. All the great lords 
poffeffed the right of peace and war. They were engaged 
in continual hoftilities with one another : the open coun¬ 
try was become a feene of outrage and diforder: the cities, 
ftill mean and poor, were neither guarded by walls nor 
protected by privileges. Every man was obliged to de¬ 
pend for fafety on his own force, or his private alliances; 
and valour was the only excellence which was held in 
efteem, or gave one man the pre-eminence above an¬ 
other, When all fuperftitions, therefore, were united in 
one great objedt, the ardour for private hoftilities took 
the fame diredlion ; “ and all Europe, (as the princefs 
■Anna Comnena expreffes herfelf,) torn from its founda¬ 
tions, feemed ready to precipitate itfelf in one united 
body upon Alia.” 
All orders of men, now deeming the croifades the only 
road to heaven, were impatient to open the way with 
their fwords to the holy city. Nobles, artizans, peafants, 
priefts, alike inrolled their names ; and to decline this 
iervice was branded with the reproach of impiety or 
cowardice. The nobles who inlifted themfelves were 
moved, by the romantic fpirit of the age, to-hope for 
opulent eftablifhments in the Eaft, the chief feat of arts 
and commerce at that time. In purfuit of thefe chime¬ 
rical projects, they lold at the loweft price their ancient 
■caftles and inheritances, which now loft all value in 
their eyes. The infirm and aged contributed to the ex¬ 
pedition by prefects and money ; and many of them, not 
Jatisfied with this, attended it in perfon. Women even, 
concealing their fex under the difguife of armour, at¬ 
tended the camp ; fo that the multitude of adventurers 
became fo confiderable, that their more fagacious leaders 
were apprehenfive left the greatnefs of the armament 
would be the caufe of its own difappointment. For this 
reafon they permitted an undifeiplined multitude, com¬ 
puted at 300,000 men, to go before them, under the com¬ 
mand of Peter the hermit, and Gautier, or Walter, fur- 
named the moneylejs, from his being a foldier of fortune. 
Thefe took the road towards Conftantinople through 
Hungary and Bulgaria; and, trufting that heaven, by iu- 
pernatural aftiftance, would fupply all their neceflities, 
they made no provifion for fubliftence in their march. 
They foon found themfelves obliged to obtain by plun¬ 
der what they vainly expected from miracles ; and the 
enraged inhabitants of the countries through which they 
palled, attacked the diforderly multitude, and flaughtered 
4-hem without refiftance. The more difeiplined armies 
S A D E. 375 
followed after; and, palling the - ftraits of Conftantinople, 
they'were muftered in the plains of Alia, and amounted 
to no lefs than 700,000 men. 
The rage for conquering the Holy Land did not ceafe 
with this expedition. It continued nearly two centuries, 
and eight different croifades were let on foot, one after 
another. The firft was in the year 1096, as above ob- 
ferved. The princes engaged in it were, Hugo count 
of Vermandois, brother to Philip I. king of France; 
Robert duke of Normandy; Robert earl of Flanders; 
Raymond earl of Touloule and St. Giles; Godfrey of 
Bouillon duke of Lorrain, with his brothers Baldwin 
and Euftace ; Stephen earl of Chartres and Blois ; Hugo 
count of St. Paul ; with a great number of other lords. 
The general rendezvous was at Conftantinople. In this 
expedition, the famous Godfrey belieged and took the 
city of Nice. Jerufalem was taken by the confederated 
army, and Godfrey chofen king. The Chriftians gained 
the famous battle of A fealon againft the foldan of Egypt; 
which put an end to the firft croifade. 
The fecond croifade, in 1144, Ivas headed by the em¬ 
peror Conrad III. and Louis VII. king of France. The 
emperor’s army was either deftroyed by the enemy, or 
periftied through the treachery of Manuel the Greek 
emperor; and the fecond army, through the unfaithful- 
nefs of the Chriftians of Syria, was forced to break up 
the fiege of Damafcus. 
The third croifade, in n88, immediately followed the 
taking of Jerufalem by Saladin the foldan of Egypt. The 
princes engaged in this expedition were, the emperor 
Frederic Barbaroffa ; Frederic duke of Suabia, his fe¬ 
cond fon ; Leopold duke of Auftria ; Berthold duke of 
Moravia ; Herman marquis of Baden; the counts of 
Naffau, Thuringia, Miffen, and Holland ; and above 
fixty other princes of the empire ; with the bifhops of 
Befanyon, Cambray, Munfter, Ofnaburgh, Miffen, Paffau, 
Vifburg, and feveral others. In this expedition, the em¬ 
peror Frederic defeated the foldan of Iconium : his fon 
Frederic, joined by Guy Lufignon king of Jerufalem, in 
vain endeavoured to take Acre or Ptolemais. During 
which tranfadlions, Philip Auguftus king of France, and 
Richard I. king of England, furnamed Cceur de Lion, joined 
the croifade ; by which means the Chriftian army con¬ 
fided of 300,000 fighting men : but great difputes hap¬ 
pening between the kings of France and England, the 
former quitted the Holy Land, and Richard concluded a 
peace with Saladin. 
The fourth croifade was undertaken, in 1195, by the 
emperor Henry VI. after Saladin’s death. In this expe¬ 
dition the Chriftians gained feveral battles againft the 
infidels, took a great many towns, and were in the way 
of fuccefs, when the death of the emperor obliged them 
to quit the Holy Land, and return into Germany. 
The fifth croifade was fet on foot by order of pope 
Innocent III. in 1198. Thofe engaged in it made fruit- 
lefs efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land ; for, though 
JohndeNeule, who commanded the fleet equipped in 
Flanders, arrived at Ptolemais a little after Simon of 
Montfort, Renard of Dampie'rre, and others ■ yet the 
plague deftroying many of them, and the reft either re¬ 
turning or engaging in the petty quarrels of the Chriftian 
princes, there was nothing done ; fo that the foldan of 
Aleppo eafily defeated their troops in 1204. 
The fixth croifade began in 1228 ; in which the Chrif. 
tians took the town of Damietta, but were forced to fur- 
render it again. The next year the emperor Frederic 
made peace with the foldan for ten years. About 1240, 
Richard earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry III. king of 
England, arrived in Paleftine at the head of the Engliih 
croifade ; but finding it mod advantageous to conclude 
a peace, he re-embarked, and fleered towards Italy. I« 
1244, the Karafmians being driven out of Perfia by the 
Tartars, broke into Paleftine, and gave the Chriftians a 
total defeat near Gaza. 
The feventh croifade was headed by St. Louis, in the 
yew? 
