Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England
- Автор: Harding Samuel B.
- Год: 1909
- Язык: английский
- Год: Heritage History
- Жанр: История
Электронная книга - «Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England». Краткое содержание книги:
Greek Gods and Heroes
City of the Seven Hills
The Story of the Middle Ages
The Story of England
"Some of the bolder of the Turkish soldiers, however, entered Syria and hastened by forced marches night and day to enter the royal city of Antioch before our approach. The whole army of God, learning this, gave due praise and thanks to the all-powerful Lord. Hastening with great joy to Antioch, we besieged it, and had many conflicts there with the Turks. Seven times we fought, with the fiercest courage and under the leadership of Christ, against the citizens of Antioch and the innumerable troops which were coming to its aid. In all these seven battles, by the aid of the Lord God, we conquered, and assuredly killed an innumerable host of them. In those battles, indeed, and in very many attacks made upon the city, many of our brethren and followers were killed, and their souls were borne to the joys of Paradise.
"In fighting against these enemies of God and of our own, we have by God's grace endured many sufferings and innumerable evils up to the present time. Many have already exhausted all their resources in this very holy expedition. Very many of our Franks, indeed, would have met death from starvation, if the mercy of God, and our money, had not helped them. Before the city of Antioch, and indeed throughout the whole winter, we suffered for our Lord Christ from excessive cold and great torrents of rain. What some say about the impossibility of bearing the heat of the sun throughout Syria is untrue, for the winter here is very similar to our winter in the West.
"When the Emir of Antioch—that is, its prince and lord—perceived that he was hard pressed by us, he sent his son to the prince who holds Jerusalem, and to the prince of Damascus, and to three other princes. These five Emirs, with 12,000 picked Turkish horsemen, suddenly came to aid the inhabitants of Antioch. We, indeed, ignorant of this, had sent many of our soldiers away to the cities and fortresses; for there are one hundred and sixty-five cities and fortresses throughout Syria which are in our power. But a little before they reached the city, we attacked them at three leagues' distance, with seven hundred soldiers. God surely fought for us against them; for on that day we conquered them and killed an innumerable multitude; and we carried back to the army more than two hundred of their heads, in order that the people might rejoice on that account.
"These things which I write to you are only a few, dearest, of the many deeds which we have done. And because I am not able to tell you, dearest, what is in my mind, I charge you to do right, to carefully watch over your land, to do your duty as you ought to your children and your vassals. You will certainly see me just as soon as I can possibly return to you. Farewell."
The capture of Antioch was the hardest task that the Crusaders had to perform; and it was not until three months later that the city was finally safe in their hands. Many of the Crusaders became discouraged meanwhile and started home.
At this trying time, a priest declared that it had been revealed to him in a dream, thrice repeated, that the head of the spear which had pierced our Lord's side lay buried near one of the altars of a church near by; and it was further revealed, he said, that if this was found and borne at the head of the army, victory would surely follow. After long search, and much prayer and fasting, the "holy lance" was found. Then there was great joy and new courage among the Christians; and when next they marched against the Turks, the Crusaders fought more fiercely than ever.
"Thanks to the Lord's Lance," writes one of their number, "none of us were wounded,—no, not so much as by an arrow. I, who speak these things, saw them for myself, since I was bearing the Lord's Lance."
The Crusaders continued to fight valiantly until Antioch was theirs, and the armies which had marched to its relief were defeated and scattered.
The Crusaders were now free to march on to Jerusalem. There men and animals suffered much from lack of food and water. "Many," an old writer says, "lay near the dried-up springs unable to utter a cry because of the dryness of their tongues; and there they remained, with open mouths, and hands stretched out to those whom they saw had water."
Again the priests saw visions; and it was promised to the Crusaders that if the army marched barefoot around the city for nine days, the city would fall.
So, a procession was formed, and the Crusaders marched around the city, with white-robed priests and bishops, cross in hand, at their head, chanting hymns and praying as they went. As the procession passed by, the Mohammedans mocked at them from the walls; and some beat a cross, crying out:
"Look, Franks! It is the holy cross on which your Christ was slain!"
After this the chiefs ordered an attack on the city from two sides. The Mohammedans were now beaten back from the walls by the showers of stones thrown by the hurling machines, while blazing arrows carried fire to the roofs of the buildings in the city. Battering rams, too, were at work breaking great holes in the solid walls, and scaling ladders were placed, by which the Christians swarmed over the ramparts. So, at last, the city fell.
MACHINE FOR HURLING STONES.
Jerusalem,—the holy Jerusalem, which held the tomb of Christ—was now once more in the hands of the Christians. But what a terrible day was that! How little of the meek and just spirit of Christ did his followers show! "When our men had taken the city, with its walls and towers," writes one of the Crusaders, "there were things wondrous to be seen. For some of the enemy—and this is a small matter—were deprived of their heads; others, riddled through with arrows, were forced to leap down from the towers; and others, after long torture, were burned in the flames. In all the streets and squares there were to be seen piles of heads, and hands, and feet; and along the public ways foot and horse alike made passage over the bodies of the slain."
In this way the Crusaders fulfilled their vow to "wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel." How many hundreds of thousands of lives, both Christian and Mohammedan, were lost to gain this end! What agonies of battle, what sufferings on the way, what numbers of women made widows and children left fatherless! And all this that the tomb of Christ might not remain in the hands of a people who did not accept His religion! How pityingly the Christ must have looked down upon this struggle with His mild, sweet eyes! How far away this bloodshed and war seems from the teachings of Him whose birth was heralded by the angels' cry: "Peace on earth, good will towards men!"
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," said Christ; but this teaching, alas, the Crusaders seemed not to know.
Later Crusades
After the Holy Land was won, a government had to be organized to prevent the land from slipping back into the hands of the infidels.
The Crusaders knew only one way to rule a land—namely, the feudal way. That was the way Western Europe was ruled, so that was the form of government set up in Palestine. The land was divided into a number of fiefs, and each of these was given to a Crusading chief. In each fief the feudal law and a feudal government was then introduced. Jerusalem, with the country about, was formed into "the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem," and was given to Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the most famous of the Crusaders. The rest of the land was formed into three principalities, each with its own feudal head, and with many vassal Crusaders.
The peasants who tilled the soil before the Crusaders came were not driven off. They had long been Christians, though they worshiped more like the Greeks than like the Latins. The only difference in their position was that now they were to pay rent and taxes to Christian masters, and not to Turks and Saracens.
As soon as Jerusalem had fallen, most of the Crusaders began to make preparations for returning home. Soon Godfrey and his fellow rulers were left with mere handfuls of men to resist the attacks of the Mohammedans. If the latter had been united, they could easily at this time have driven the "Franks" into the sea. But the Mohammedans were quarreling among themselves, and besides had learned to fear the mail-clad Franks.