Part 12 (1/2)
Britons never will be slaves!
The nations not so blest as thee, Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall, Whilst thou shalt flourish, great and free, The dread and envy of them all
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never will be slaves!
Still n stroke; As the loud blast that tears the skies, Serves but to root thy native oak
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never will be slaves!
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall taenerous flame, But work their woe and thy renown
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never will be slaves!
To thee belongs the rural reign; Thy cities shall with commerce shi+ne; All thine shall be the subject main, And every shore it circles thine
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never will be slaves!
The Muses, still with freedom found, Shall to thy happy coast repair; Blest isle! with uard the fair
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never will be slaves!
XIX THE FIRST CRUSADE
DAVID HUME--1711-1776
_From_ HISTORY OF ENGLAND
After Mahomet had, by means of his pretended revelations, united the dispersed Arabians under one head, they issued forth fro aniion, and supported by the vigor of their new government, they made deep impression on the eastern eard both to military discipline and to civil policy Jerusalem, by its situation, became one of their most early conquests; and the Christians had the mortification to see the holy sepulchre, and the other places, consecrated by the presence of their religious founder, fallen into the possession of infidels But the Arabians or Saracens were so employed in military enterprises, by which they spread their ees to the Straits of Gibraltar, that they had no leisure for theological controversy: and though the Alcoran, the original monument of their faith, seems to contain some violent precepts, they were otry and persecution than the indolent and speculative Greeks, ere continually refining on the several articles of their religious systerims, who daily flocked to Jerusale a moderate tribute, to visit the holy sepulchre, to perforious duties, and to return in peace But the Turcomans or Turks, a tribe of Tartars, who had e wrested Syria fro, in the year 1065, e erous to the Christians The barbarity of their overnrims to many insults, robberies, and extortions: and these zealots, returning fros, filled all Christendoainst the infidels, who profaned the holy city by their presence, and derided the sacred ory VII, a the other vast ideas which he entertained, had forainst the Mahoious and violent invasions of that pontiff on the civil power of princes, had created him so many enemies, and had rendered his scheress in this undertaking The as reserved for a meaner instrument, whose low condition in life exposed him to no jealousy, and whose folly ell calculated to coincide with the prevailing principles of the times
Peter, commonly called the Here to Jerusaleers to which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well as with the instances of oppression under which the Eastern Christians labored, he entertained the bold, and, in all appearance, i into Asia, from the farthest extremities of the West, armies sufficient to subdue those potent and warlike nations which now held the holy city in subjection He proposed his views to Martin II, who filled the papal chair, and who, though sensible of the advantages which the head of the Christian religion h he estee the purpose, resolved not to interpose his authority, till he saw a greater probability of success He summoned a council at Placentia, which consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics, and thirty thousand seculars; and which was so numerous that no hall could contain the multitude, and it was necessary to hold the asseues of the Pope, and of Peter hi the disnity suffered by the Christian na the holy city to remain in the hands of infidels, here found the minds of men so well prepared, that the whole multitude suddenly and violently declared for the war, and solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, so ion
But though Italy seemed thus to have zealously embraced the enterprise, Martin knew, that, in order to insure success, it was necessary to enlist the greater andpreviously exhorted Peter to visit the chief cities and sovereigns of Christendone The fa now universally diffused, procured the attendance of the greatest prelates, nobles, and princes; and when the Pope and the Hermit renewed their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if impelled by an i impressions, exclaimed with one voice, _It is the will of God, It is the will of God!_--words deemed so memorable, and so much the result of a divine influence, that they were enal of rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of those adventurers Men of all ranks flew to arms with the utmost ardor; and an exterior symbol, too, a circumstance of chief n of the cross, which had been hitherto soChristians, and which, the an world, was the e of union, and was affixed to their right shoulder, by all who enlisted themselves in this sacred warfare
Europe was at this tinorance and superstition
The ecclesiastics had acquired the greatest ascendant over the hu little restrained by honor, and less by law, abandoned themselves to the worst crimes and disorders, knew of no other expiation than the observances imposed on them by their spiritual pastors: and it was easy to represent the holy war as an equivalent for all penances, and an atonement for every violation of justice and humanity But amidst the abject superstition which now prevailed, the military spirit also had universally diffused itself; and though not supported by art or discipline, was becooverned by the feudal law All the great lords possessed the right of peace and war: they were engaged in perpetual hostilities with each other: the open country was becoe and disorder: the cities, still uarded by walls nor protected by privileges, and were exposed to every insult: individuals were obliged to depend for safety on their own force, or their private alliances: and valor was the only excellence which was held in esteeave one man the pre-eminence above another When all the particular superstitions, therefore, were here united in one great object, the ardor for military enterprises took the sa passions, was loosened, as it were, from its foundations, and seemed to precipitate itself in one united body upon the East
All orders ofthe Crusades the only road to heaven, enlisted themselves under these sacred banners, and were impatient to open the ith their sword to the holy city nobles, artisans, peasants, even priests, enrolled their names; and to decline this meritorious service was branded with the reproach of iraceful, of cowardice and pusillanied contributed to the expedition by presents and money; and many of them, not satisfied with the merit of this atonement, attended it in person, and were deterht of that city where their Saviour had died for theuise of arreatest criarded as a propitiation for all cri the course of those expeditions, coed by example, and impelled by necessity The reat, that their h count of Ver, Raymond count of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, prince of Brabant, and Stephen count of Blois, becareatness itself of the armament should disappoint its purpose; and they permitted an undisciplined o before them, under the command of Peter the Hermit and Walter the Moneyless These ary and Bulgaria; and trusting that Heaven, by supernatural assistance, would supply all their necessities, they made no provision for subsistance on their ed to obtain by plunder, what they had vainly expected froed inhabitants of the countries through which they passed, gathering together in arhter without resistance Thethe straights at Constantinople, they were mustered in the plains of Asia, and amounted in the whole to the number of 700,000 combatants
After the adventurers in the holy ere assembled on the banks of the Bosphorus, opposite to Constantinople, they proceeded on their enterprise; but immediately experienced those difficulties which their zeal had hitherto concealed from them, and for which, even if they had foreseen them, it would have been almost impossible to provide a remedy
The Greek emperor, Alexis Comnenus, who had applied to the Western Christians for succor against the Turks, entertained hopes, and those but feeble ones, of obtaining such a ht enable him to repulse the enemy: but he was extremely astonished to see his dominions overwhelmed, on a sudden, by such an inundation of licentious barbarians, who, though they pretended friendshi+p, despised his subjects as unwarlike, and detested them as heretical By all the arts of policy, in which he excelled, he endeavored to divert the torrent; but while he e services towards the leaders of the crusade, he secretly regarded those ierous than the open enemies by who effected that difficult point of dise them safely in Asia, he entered into a private correspondence with Soliman, emperor of the Turks; and practised every insidious art, which his genius, his power, or his situation, enabled hiing the Latins frorations His dangerous policy was seconded by the disorders inseparable from so vast a multitude, ere not united under one head, and were conducted by leaders of the most independent intractable spirit, unacquainted with military discipline, and determined enemies to civil authority and subue, the influence of unknown climates, joined to the want of concert in their operations, and to the sword of a warlike enemy, destroyed the adventurers by thousands, and would have abated the ardor of men impelled to war by less powerful motives Their zeal, however, their bravery, and their irresistible force, still carried thereat end of their enterprise After an obstinate siege they took Nice, the seat of the Turkish ereat battles; they made themselves masters of Antioch; and entirely broke the force of the Turks, who had so long retained those countries in subjection The soldan of Egypt, whose alliance they had hitherto courted, recovered, on the fall of the Turkish power, his former authority in Jerusalem; and he informed them by his ambassadors, that if they caious vows, and that all Christian pilgriht expect the saood treatment which they had ever received from his predecessors The offer was rejected; the soldan was required to yield up the city to the Christians; and on his refusal, the chae of Jerusalearded as the consummation of their labors By the detachments which they had one, they were diminished to the number of twenty thousand foot, and fifteen hundred horse; but these were still formidable, from their valor, their experience, and the obedience which, from past calae of five weeks, they took Jerusalem by assault; and, ie, they put the nuarrison and inhabitants to the sithout distinction