CHAP. VII. FAILURE OF THE CRUSADES. 123 affairs of the Empire; the Archbishop of Mentz lingered to the last, and at length, he too turned his back on the Holy Land. The French, who had remained after the departure of Philip Augustus, resented the insufferable arrogance of the Germans; the Germans affected to despise the French. But their only achievement, as Innocent himself tauntingly declared, had been the taking of undefended Berytus; while the Unbeliever boasted that he had stormed Joppa in the face of their whole host, with infinite slaughter of the Christians. All was dissension, jealousy, hostility. The King of Antioch was at war with the Christian King of Armenia. The two great Orders, the only powerful defenders of the land, the Hospitallers and the Templars, were in implacable feud. The Christians of Palestine were in morals, in character, in habits, the most licentious, most treacherous, most ferocious of mankind. Isabella, the heiress of the kingdom, had transferred the short-lived sceptre to four successive husbands. It rested now with Amalric, King of Cyprus. Worst of all, terrible rumours were abroad of suspicious compliances, secret correspondences, even secret apostasies to Mohammedanism, not only of single renegades. If those rumours had not begun to spread concerning the dark dealings of the Templars with forbidden practices and doctrines, which led during the next century to their fall, Innocent himself had to rebuke their haughty contempt of the Papal authority. In abuse of their privilege, during times of interdict whenever they entered a city they commanded the bells to ring and the divine offices to be publicly celebrated. They impressed with the sign of the cross, and affiliated for a small annual payment of two or three pence, the lowest of mankind, usurers and other criminals, to their order; and taught them that, as of their order, they had a right to be buried with the rites of the Church in consecrated earth, whether they died in excommunication or not; it was said that the guilty licentious and rapacious order wore not the secular garb for the sake of religion, but the garb of religion for the sake of the world." "Dum utentes doctrinis dæmoniorum in cujusque tructanni pectore Crucifixi signaculum imprimunt . . . asse rentes quod quicunque duobus vel tribus denariis annuis collatis eisdem, se in eorum fraternitatem contulerint, carere Innocent urges the Crusade. But the darker the aspect of affairs, the more firmly throughout his Pontificate seemed Innocent to be persuaded that the Crusade was the cause of God. Among his first letters were some addressed to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and to Conrad of Mentz with the Crusaders of Germany. In every new disaster, in every discomfiture and loss, the Popes had still found unfailing refuge in ascribing them to the sins of the Christians: and their sins were dark enough to justify the strongest language of Innocent. To the Patriarch he pledges himself to the most earnest support, exhorts him and his people to prayer, fasting, and all religious works. It needed but more perfect faith, more holiness, and one believer would put to flight twelve millions; the miracles of God against Pharaoh and against the Philistines would be renewed in their behalf. For the first two or three years of Innocent's Pontificate, address after address, rising one above another in empassioned eloquence, enforced the duty of contributing to the Holy War. In the midst of his contest with Markwald, his strife concerning the Empire, his interdict against the King of France, he forgot not this remoter object. This was to be the principal, if not the exclusive theme of the preaching of the clergy. In letters to the Bishop of Syracuse, to all the Bishops of Apulia, Calabria, and Tuscany, he urges them to visit every city, town and castle; he exhorts not only the nobles, but the citizens to take up arms for Jesus Christ. Those who cannot assist in person are to assist in other ways, by furnishing ships, provisions, money. Somewhat later came a more energetic epistle to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and princes and barons of France, England, Hungary, and Sicily. He spoke of the insulting language of the enemies of Christ. "Where," they say, "is your God, who cannot deliver you out of our hands? Behold, we have defiled your sanctuaries. We have stretched forth our arm, we have taken at the first assault, we hold, in despite of you, those your desirable places, where your superstition had its beginning. We have weakened and broken the lances of the de jure nequeant ecclesiasticâ sepulturâ etiamsi interdicti." Epist. x. 121. This letter belongs to the year 1208. с * CHAP. VII. INNOCENT URGES THE CRUSADE. 125 French, we have resisted the efforts of the English; we have repressed the strength of the Germans. Now, for a second time we have conquered the brave Spaniards. Where is your God? Let him arise and protect you and himself." The Pope bitterly alludes to the campaign of the Germans, the capture of defenceless Berytus, the loss of well-fortified Joppa. The Vicar of Christ himself would claim no exemption from the universal call; he would, as became him, set the example, and in person and in estate devote himself to the sacred cause. He had, therefore, himself invested with the cross two cardinals of the Church, who were to precede the army of the Lord, and to be maintained, not by any mendicant support, but at the expense of the Holy See. The Cardinal Peter was first to proceed to France, to settle the differences between the Kings of England and France, and to enlist them in the common cause; the Cardinal Soffrido to Venice, to awaken that powerful Republic. After the Pope's ex- Contributions ample, before the next March, every archbishop, required. bishop, and prelate was to furnish a certain number of soldiers, according to his means, or a certain rate in money for the support of the crusading army. Whoever refused was to be treated as a violator of God's commandments, threatened with condign punishment, even with suspension. To all who embarked in the war Innocent promised, on their sincere repentance, the remission of all their sins, and eternal life in the great day of retribution. Those who were unable to proceed in person might obtain the same remission in proportion to the bounty of their offerings and the devotion of their hearts. The estates of all who took up the cross were placed under the protection of St. Peter. Those who had sworn to pay interest for sums borrowed for these pious uses were to be released from their oaths; the Jews were especially to be compelled by all Christian princes to abandon all their usurious claims on pain of being interdicted from all commercial dealings with Christians. "If the soldiers of the Cross, so entering on their holy course, should walk in the way of the Lord, not as those before them, in revellings and drunkenness, and in licentious indulgencies in foreign lands, of which they would have been ashamed at home, they would trample their enemies down as mice under their feet." But Christendom heard the address of the Pope with apathy approaching to indifference; so utterly might the fire seem extinct, which on former occasions ran wild through Europe, and such was the jealousy which had been raised of the rapacity of the Roman court, that sullen murmurs were heard in many parts, that all this zeal was but to raise money for other ends; that only a small part of the subsidies levied for the defence of the Holy Land would ever reach their destination. Nor was this the suspicion of the vulgar alone, it seems to have been shared by the clergy. The Pope was compelled to stand on his defence; to repel the odious charge, to disclaim all intention that the money was to be sent to Rome, to appoint the bishop of each diocese with one Knight Templar, and one Knight of St. John, as the administrators of this sacred trust. General More than a year elapsed; the supplications for aid from King Amalric and King Leo of Armenia, from the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem became more urgent. Innocent found it necessary to make a stronger and more specific appeal to the sluggish and unawakened taxation. clergy. On the last day of the century issued forth a new proclamation to the archbishops, bishops, and prelates of Tuscany, Lombardy, Germany, France, England, Hungary, Sclavonia, Ireland, Scotland. Dec. 31, 1199. The Pope and his cardinals, and the clergy of Rome, had determined in this pressing exigency to devote a tenth of all their revenues to the succour of the Holy Land. All prelates and clergy in Latin Christendom were summoned to contribute at least a fortieth to this end. But they were assured that this was not intended as a permanent tax, it was a special burthen not to be drawn into precedent. How criminally hard-hearted he who should refuse so small a boon in this hour of need to his Creator and d Walter der Vogelweide, Radulf de Diceto. Compare Wilken, p. 80. "Non est ab aliquo præsumendum, ut ea, quæ a fratribus et coepiscopis nostris, et tam prælatis quam subditis ecclesiarum, in opus tam pium erogari mandavimus, propriis velimus usibus applicare, aut aliorum eleemosynas cupiditate quadam terræ sanctæ subtrahere." -Epist. i. 409. "Sciat autem se culpabiliter durum, et dure culpabilem."-Epist. ii. 270. CHAP. VII. SUBSIDIES. 127 Redeemer! These funds were to be deposited in a safe place, the amount notified to Rome. From this enforced. contribution were exempted the Cistercian and Carthusian monks, the Præmonstratensian canons, and the hermits of Grandmont. It was left to their devout hearts to fulfil their part in the common sacrifice; but it was suggested that not less than a fiftieth could be just; and there was a significant menace that they would be deprived of all their privileges, if they were slow and sparing in their offerings. In like manner all Christian people were to be called upon incessantly, at masses appointed for the purpose. In every church was to be an alms'-chest, with three keys, one held by the bishop, one by the parson of the parish, one by a chosen laic. The administration was committed to the Bishops, the Knights of the Hospital, and those of the Temple. These alms were chiefly designed to maintain poor knights who could not afford the voyage to the Holy Land; but for this they were to serve for a year or more, and obtain a certificate of such service under the hand of the King and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, of the Grand Master of the Templars and of the Hospitallers, and one of the Papal Legates. If they died or fell in battle, what remained of their maintenance was to be assigned to the support of other soldiers of the Cross. The demands of the Pope met with no opposition, yet with but scanty compliance. At the Council of Dijon, held concerning the interdict of the King of France, by Peter, Cardinal of Capua, the clergy voted not a fortieth but a thirtieth of their revenue to this service: but the collection encountered insurmountable difficulties; and Innocent found it necessary to address a still sterner rebuke to the clergy of France. "Behold, the crucified is crucified anew! he is again smitten, again scourged; again his enemies take up their taunting reproach, ‘If thou be the Son of God, save thyself; if thou canst, redeem the land of thy birth from our hands, restore thy cross to the worshippers of the cross.' But ye, I say it with grief, though I ask you again and again, will not give me one cup of cold water. The laity, whom you urge to assume the cross by your words, not by your acts, take up |