THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the Prosperous Events that happened

to the Church during this Century.

dals, and others, who, either by their incur
of his victorious arm.
sions or by revolt, drew upon then the weight
He unsheathed his

work was brought to perfection by Absalom, archbishop of Lunden, a man of superior genius, and of a most excellent character in every respect, whose eminent merit raised him to the summit of power, and engaged Waldemar to place him at the head of affairs.*

sword, not only for the defence and happiness A CONSIDERABLE part of Europe lay yet in- of his people, but also for the propagation and volved in pagan darkness, which reigned more advancement of Christianity; and wherever especially in the northern provinces. It was, his arms were successful, he pulled down the therefore, in these regions of gloomy supersti- temples and images of the gods, destroyed their tion, that the zeal of the missionaries was prin- altars, laid waste their sacred groves, and subcipally exerted in this century; though their stituted in their place the Christian worship, efforts were not all equally successful, nor the which deserved to be propagated by better methods they employed for the propagation of means than the sword, by the authority of reathe Gospel equally prudent. Boleslaus, duke son, rather than by the despotic voice of of Poland, having conquered the Pomeranians, power. The island of Rugen, which lies in offered them peace, upon condition that they the neighbourhood of Pomerania, submitted to would receive the Christian teachers, and per- the victorious arms of Waldemar, A. D. 1168; mit them to exercise their ministry in that van- and its fierce and savage inhabitants, who quished province. This condition was accept- were, in reality, no more than a band of robed; and Otho, bishop of Bamberg, a man of bers and pirates, were obliged, by that prince, eminent piety and zeal, was sent, in the year to hear the instructions of the pious and learn1124, to inculcate and explain the doctrines of ed doctors that followed his army, and to reChristianity, among that superstitious and bar-ceive the Christian worship. This salutary barous people. Many were converted to the faith by his ministry, while great numbers stood firm against his most vigorous efforts, and persisted, with an invincible obstinacy, in the religion of their idolatrous ancestors. Nor was this the only mortification which that illustrious prelate received, in the execution of III. The Finlanders received the Gospe in his pious enterprise; for, upon his return into the same manner in which it had been propaGermany, many of those whom he had engag-gated among the inhabitants of the isle of Rued in the profession of Christianity, apostatised gen. They were also a fierce and savage peoin his absence, and relapsed into their ancient ple, who lived by plunder, and infested Sweprejudices: this obliged Otho to undertake a den in a terrible manner by their perpetual second voyage into Pomerania, A. D. 1126, incursions, until, after many bloody battles, in which, after much opposition and difficulty, they were totally defeated by Eric IX. styled his labours were crowned with a happier issue, after his death the Saint, and reduced under and contributed much to enlarge the bounds of the Swedish yoke. Historians differ about the the rising church, and to establish it upon so- precise time when this conquest was completlid foundations.* From this period, the Chris-ed; but they are all unanimous in their actian religion seemed daily to acquire new degrees of stability among the Pomeranians, who had hitherto refused to permit the settlement of a bishop among them. They now received Adalbert, or Albert, in that character, who was accordingly the first bishop of Pomerania. II. Of all the northern princes of this cenBeside the historians here mentioned by Dr tury, none appeared with a more distinguished Mosheim, we refer the curious reader to an excellent lustre than Waldemar I. king of Denmark, history of Denmark, written in French, by M. Mal who acquired an immortai name by the glori-let, professor at Copenhagen. In the first volume of this history, the ingenius and learned author has gi ous battles he fought against the pagan naven a very interesting account of the progress of ons, such as the Sclavonians, Venedi, Van- Christianity in the northern parts of Europe, and a particular relation of the exploits of Absalom, who was, at the same time, archbishou. general, admiral, and prime minister, and who led the victorious Danes to battle, by sea and land, without neglecting the cure of souls, or in the least diminishing his pious laboura in the propagation of the Gospel abroad, 2:1 ts maintenance and support at home.

*See Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiquæ, tom. iii. part ii. p 34, where we find the life of Otho, who, A. D. 1189, was canonised by Clement III. See the AcSanctor. Mensis Julii, tom. i. p. 349. Dan. Cramei Chronicon Eccles. Pomeraniæ, lib. i. as also a earned Dissertation concerning the conversion of he Pomeranians by the ministry of Otho, written in the German language, by Christopher Schotgen, and published at Stargard, in the year 1724. Add to these Mabillon, Annal. Benedict. tom vi. p. 123, 146, 323. VOL I.---38

counts of its effects. The Finlanders were commanded to embrace the religion of the conqueror, which the greatest part of them did, * Saxo-Grammaticus, Histor. Danic. lib. xiv. p. 239.-Helmoldus, Chron. Sclavorum, lib. ii. cap. xii. p. 234, and Henr. Bangertus, ad h. 1.—Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesiæ Danica, tom. i. p. 404.

† Most writers, with Baronius, place this event in the year 1151. Different, however, from this is the chronology of Vastovins and Oernhielmius, the for mer placing it in 1750 and the latter in 1157

ply with the invitations of the Gospel of Christ; and, as his pious labours were directed 6 true wisdom, and carried on with the most indefatigable industry and zeal, so were they attended with much fruit, even among that fierce and intractable people. Nor was his ministry among the Sclavonians the only circumstance that redounds to the honour of his memory; the history of his life and actions in general furnishes proofs of his piety and zeal, sufficient to transmit his name to the latest generations.*

mencement of th century, and proved, by its effects, extremely beneficial to the Christian cause. Toward the conclusion cf the preceding century, died Ko.remkhan, otherwise called Kenkhan, the most powerful monarch that was known in the eastern regions of Asia; and, while that mighty kingdom was deprived of its chief, it was invaded with such uncommon valour and success, by a Nestorian priest, whose name was John, that it fell before his victorious arms, and acknowledged this warlike and enterprising presbyter as its monarch. This was the famous Prester John (as he was called,) whose territory was, for a long time, considered by the Europeans as a second paradise, as the seat, of opulence and complete felicity. As he was a presbyter before his elevation to the royal dignity, many continued to call him Presbyter John, even when he was seated on the throne;* but his kingly name was Unkhan. The high notions which the

VI. It is needless to repeat here the observation we have so often had occasion to make upon such conversions as these, or to intimate to the reader that the savage nations, who were thus dragooned into the church, became the disciples of Christ, not so much in reality, as in outward appearance. [They professed, with an inward reluctance, a religion which was inculcated by violence and bloodshed, which recalled to their remembrance nothing but scenes of desolation and misery; and Presbyter, commonly called Prester John, who was, *The account I have here given of this famous which, indeed, when considered in the repre- for a long time, considered as the greatest and happi sentations that were given of it by the great-est of all earthly monarchs, is what appeared to me est part of the missionaries, was but a few de- the most probable among the various relations that have been given of the life and adventures of that grees removed from the absurdities of pagan- extraordinary man. This account is moreover conism.] The pure and rational religion of the firmed by the testimonies of contemporary writers, Gospel was never presented to these unhappy whose knowledge and impartiality render them wor nations in its native simplicity; they were only fresne's Adnot. ad Vitam Ludovici Sti. a Joinvillio thy of credit; such as William of Tripoli, (see Du taught to appease the Deity, and to render him scriptam, p. 89.) as also a certain bishop of Gabala propitious, by a senseless round of trifling ce- mentioned by Otto Frising. Chronic. lib. vii. cap. remonies and bodily exercises, which, in many xviii. p. 36, in the Antiqua in Asiam Itinera, collectXxxii. See also Guillaume Rubruquis, Voyage, cap. circumstances, resembled the superstitions they ed by father Bergeron, and Alberic in Chronico, ad were obliged to renounce, and might have been A. 1165, and 1170, in Leibnitii Accessionibus Histor easily reconciled with them, had it not been icis, tom. ii. p. 345, 355. It is indeed surprising, that that the name and history of Christ, the sign the observation of the learned, and that so many such authentic records as these should have escaped of the cross, and some diversity between cerdifferent opinions should have been advanced con tain rites and ceremonies of the two religions, cerning Prester John, and the place of his residence. opposed this coalition. Besides, the missiona- But it is too generally the fate of learned men, to overlook those accounts that carry the plainest ries whose zeal for imposing the name of marks of evidence, and, from a passion for the mar Christians upon this people was so vehement vellous, to plunge into the regions of uncertainty and even furious, were extremely indulgent in and doubt. In the fifteenth century, John II. king all other respects, and opposed their prejudices of Portugal, employed Pedro Covilliano in a labori ous inquiry into the real situation of the kingdom and vices with much gentleness and forbear- of Prester John. The curious voyager undertook ance. They permitted them to retain several this task, and, for information in the matter, travelrites and observances that were in direct oppo-led with a few companions into Abyssinia; and obsition to the spirit of Christianity, and to the nature of true piety. The truth of the matter seems to have been this, that the leading views of these Christian heralds, and propa-dence of that extraordinary monarch, who was the gators of the faith, a smaller number excepted, were rather turned toward the advancement of their own interests, and the confirming and extending the dominion of the Roman pontiffs,

than toward the true conversion of these savage Pagans; that conversion which consists in the removal of ignorance, the correction of error, and the reformation of vice

VII. A great revolution in Asiatic Tartary, which borders upon Cathay, changed the face of things in that distant region about the com

There is a particular and ample account of Vicelinus in the Cimbria Literata of Mollerus, tom. ii. p. 910, and in the Res Hamburg. of Lambecius, lib. ii. p. 12. See also upon this subject the Origines Nemonaster. et Bordesholmens. of the most learned and industrious Joh. Ern. de Westphalen, which are published in the second tome of the Monumenta indita Cimbrica, p. 2344, and the Preface to this tome, p. 33. There is in this work a print of Vicelinus well engraven

serving in the emperor of the Abyssinians, or Ethi opians, many circumstances that resembled the accounts which, at that time, prevailed in Europe con cerning Prester John, he persuaded himself that he had fulfilled his commission, and found out the resi

object of his researches. His opinion easily gained credit in Europe, which had not yet emerged out of its ignorance and barbarism. See Morinus, de Sacris Eccles. Ordinationibus, part ii. p. 367. But a new light was cast upon this matter in the seventeenth century. by the publication of several pieces, which the industry of the curious drew forth from their obscurity, and by which a great number of learned men were engaged to abandon the Portuguese opinion, and were convinced that Prester John reigned in Asia, though they still continued to dispute about the situation of his kingdom, and other particular circumstances. There are, notwithstanding all this, some men of the most eminent learning in our times, who maintain, that John was emperor of the Abyssinians, and thus prefer the Portuguese opinion, though destitute of authentic proofs and testimonies, to the other above mentioned, though supported by the strongest evidence, and the most unquestionable authorities. See Euseb. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 223, 337. Jos. Franc. Lafitau, Hist. des Decouvertes des Portugais, tom. i p. 58, and tom. iii. p. 57. Henr. le Grand, Dis. de Johanne Presbytero in Lobo's Voyage d' Abyssinie, tome i. p. 295.

Greeks and Latins generally entertained of the || engage the emperor and other Christian prince grandeur and magnificence of this royal presbyter, were principally produced by the letters he wrote to the Roman emperor Frederic I. and to Emanuel emperor of the Greeks, in which, puffed up with prosperity, and flushed with success, he vaunted his victories over the neighbouring nations that disputed his passage to the throne; described, in the most pompous and extravagant terms, the splendour of his riches, the grandeur of his state, and the extent of his dominions; and exalted himself far above all other earthly monarchs. All this was easily believed; and the Nestorians were extremely zealous in confirming the boasts of their vain-glorious prince. He was succeeded by his son, or, as others think, his brother, whose name was David, though, in common discourse, he was also called Prester John, as his predecessor had been. The reign of David was far from being happy, nor did he end| his days in peace; Genghiz Khan, the great and warlike emperor of the Tartars, invaded his territories toward the conclusion of this century, and deprived him both of his life and his dominions.

to undertake a new expedition into Palestine. IX. This new expedition was not, however, resolved upon with such unanimity and precipitation as the former had been; it was the subject of long deliberation, and its expediency was keenly debated both in the cabinets of princes, and in the assemblies of the clergy and the people. Bernard, the famous abbot of Clairval, a man of the boldest resolution and of the greatest authority, put an end to those disputes under the pontificate of Eugenius III. who had been his disciple, and who was wholly governed by his counsels. This eloquent and zealous ecclesiastic preached the cross, i. e. the crusade, in France and Germany, with great ardour and success; and in the grand parlia ment assembled at Vezalai, A. D. 1146, at which Louis VII. king of France, his queen, and a prodigious concourse of the principal nobility, were present, Bernard recommended this holy expedition with such a persuasive power, and declared with such assurance that he had a divine commission to foretell its glorious success, that the king, the queen, and al. the nobles, immediately put on the military VIII. The new kingdom of Jerusalem, cross, and prepared themselves for the journey which had been erected by the holy warriors into Palestine. Conrad III. emperor of Gerof France, near the close of the preceding cen- || many, was, for some time, unmoved by the tury, seemed to flourish considerably at the exhortations of Bernard; but he was at length beginning of this, and to rest upon firm and gained over by the urgent solicitations of the solid foundations. This prosperous scene was, fervent abbot, and followed the example of the however, but transitory, and was soon succeed- French monarch. The two princes, each at ed by the most terrible calamities and desola- the head of a numerous army, set out for Pations. For, when the Mohammedans saw|lestine, to which they were to march by differvast numbers of those who had engaged in ent roads. But, before their arrival in the this holy war returning into Europe, and the Holy Land, the greatest part of their forces Christian chiefs that remained in Palestine di- perished miserably, some by famine, some by vided into factions, and every one advancing the sword of the Mohammedans, some by shiphis private interest, without any regard to the wreck, and a considerable number by the perpublic good, they resumed their courage, re-fidious cruelty of the Greeks, who looked upon covered from the terror and consternation into which they had been thrown by the amazing valour and rapid success of the European legions, and, gathering troops and soliciting succours from all quarters, they harassed and exhausted the Christians by invasions and wars without interruption. The Christians, on the other hand, sustained these efforts with their usual fortitude, and maintained their ground auring many years; but when Atabeck Zenghi, after a long siege, made himself master of the city of Edessa, and threatened Antioch with the same fate, their courage began to fail, and a diffidence in their own strength obliged them to turn their eyes once more toward Europe. They accordingly implored, in the most lamentable strain, the assistance of the European princes; and requested that a new army of cross-bearing champions might be sent to support their tottering empire in the Holy Land. Their entreaties were favourably received by the Roman pontiffs, who left no method of persuasion unemployed, that might

* Atabeck was a title of honour given by the sultans to the viceroys or heutenants, whom they intrusted with the government of their provinces. The Latin authors, who have written the history of this holy war, and of whom Bongarsius has given 18 a complete list, call this Atabeck Zenghi, Sangui1 as. See Herbelot, Biblioth Orient. at the word Sabeck, p. 142.

the western nations as more to be feared than the infidels themselves. Louis VII. left his kingdom A. D. 1147, and, in the month of March of the following year, he arrived at Antioch, with the wretched remains of his army, dejected and exhausted by a series of hardships. Conrad set out also in the year 1147, in the month of May; and, in November following, he arrived at Nice, where he joined the French army, after having lost the greatest part of his own by calamities of various kinds. From Nice, the two princes proceeded to Jerusalem, A. D. 1148; whence they led back into Europe, the year following, the miserable handful of troops, which had sur vived the disasters of the expedition. Such was the unhappy issue of this second crusade, which was rendered ineffectual by a variety of causes, but more particularly by the jealousies and divisions that reigned among the Christian chiefs in Palestine. Nor was it more ineffectual in Palestine than it was detrimental to Europe, by draining the wealth of its fairest provinces, and destroying a prodigious number of its inhabitants.*

* Beside the historians enumerated by Bongarsius see Mabillon, Annal. Benedict. tom. vi. p. 399, 404, 407, 417, 451. Jac. Gervasii Histoire de l' Abbe Suger, tom. iii. p. 104, 128, 173, 190, 239. This was the famous Suger, abbot of St. Denys, who had seconded the exhortations of Berna'd in favour of the

X. The unhappy issue of this second expe- || lost his life in the river Saleph,* which runs dition was not however sufficient, when con- through Seleucia. The manner of his death sidered alone, to render the affairs of the is not known with certainty; the less however Christ ans in Palestine entirely desperate. Had of such an able chief dejected the spirits of his their chiefs and princes relinquished their ani- troops, so that considerable numbers of them mosities and contentions, and attacked the returned into Europe. Those who remained common enemy with their united force, they continued the war under the command of would have soon repaired their losses, and re- Frederic, son of the deceased emperor; but the covered their glory. But this was far from greatest part of them perished miserably by a being the case. A fatal corruption of senti- pestilential disorder, which raged with extraments and manners reigned among all ranks ordinary violence in the camp, and swept off and orders. Both the people and their leaders, vast numbers every day. The new general and more especially the latter, abandoned || died of this terrible disease, A. D. 1191; those themselves without reluctance to all the ex- who escaped its fury were dispersed, and few cesses of ambition, avarice, and injustice; they returned to their own country.† indulged themselves in the practice of all sorts of vices; and by their intestine quarrels, jealousies, and discords, they weakened their efforts against the enemies that surrounded them, and consumed their strength by thus unhappily dividing it. Saladin, viceroy or rather sultan of Egypt and Syria,* and the most valiant chief of whom the Mohammedan annals boast, took advantage of these lamentable divisions. He waged war against the Christians with the utmost valour and success; took prisoner Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, in a fatal battle fought near Tiberias, A. D. 1187; and, in the course of the same year, reduced Jerusalem itself under his dominion. The carnage and desolation that accompanied this dreadful campaign, threw the affairs of the Christians in the east into a deplorable condition, and left them no glimpse of hope, but what arose from the expected succours of the European princes. Succours were obtained for them by the Roman pontiffs with much difficulty, in consequence of repeated solicitations and entreaties. But the event, as we shall soon see, was by no means answerable to the deep schemes that were concerted, or to the pains that were employed, for the support of the tottering kingdom of Jerusalem.

XI. The third expedition was undertaken, A. D. 1189, by Frederic I. surnamed Barbarossa, emperor of Germany, who, with a prodigious army, marched through several Grecian provinces, where he had innumerable difficulties and obstacles to overcome, into Asia Minor, whence, after having defeated the sultan of Iconium, he penetrated into Syria. His valour and conduct promised successful and glorious campaigns to the army he commanded, when, by an unhappy accident, he crusade, and whom Louis appointed regent of France during his absence. Vertot, Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte, tom. i. p. 86. Joh. Jac. Mascovius, de Rebus Imperii sub Conrado III.

Saladin, so called by the western writers, Salaha'ddin by the Orientals, was no longer vizir or viceroy of Egypt, when he undertook the siege of Jerusalem, but had usurped the sovereign power in that country, and had also added to his dominions, by right of conquest, several provinces of Syria.

† See the Life of Saladin by Bohao'ddin Ebn Sheddad, an Arabian writer, whose history of that warlike sultan was published at Leyden in the year 1732, by the late celebrated professor Albert Schultens, and accompanied with an excellent Latin translation. See also Hericelot, Biblioth. Orient. at the article Salah-a'ddin, p. 742, and Marigny's Histoire des Arabes, tome iv. p. 299. But, above all, see the learned History of the Arabians in the modern part of the Universal History.

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XII. The example of Frederic Barbarossa was followed, in the year 1190, by Philip Augustus king of France, and the lion-hearted Richard, king of England. These two monarchs se out from their respective dominions with a considerable number of ships of war and trans ports; arrived in Palestine in the year 1191, each at the head of a separate army; and were pretty successful in their first encounters witn the infidels. After the reduction of the strong city of Acre or Ptolemais, which had been de fended by the Moslems with the most obsti nate valur, the French monarch returned into Europe, in the month of July, 1191, leav ing, however, a considerable part of the army which he had conducted into Palestine. After his departure the king of England pushed the war with the greatest vigour, gave daily marks of his heroic intrepidity and military skill, and not only defeated Saladin in several engagements, but also made himself master of Jaffa§ and Cæsarea. Deserted, however, by the French and Italians, and influenced by other motives and considerations of the greatest weight, he concluded, A. D. 1192, with Saladin, a truce of three years, three months, and as many days, and evacuated Palestine with his whole army. Such was the issue of the third expedition against the infidels, which nearly exhausted England, France, and Germany, both of men and money, without bringing any solid advantage, or giving even a favourable turn, to the affairs of the Christians in the Holy Land.

XIII. These bloody wars between the Christians and the Mohammedans gave rise to three famous military orders, whose office it was to

Maimbourg, in his Histoire des Croisades, and Marigny in his Hist. du xii. Siecle, say, that Frederic perished in the Cydnus, a river of Cilicia. But they are easily to be reconciled with our author, since, according to the descriptions given of the Sa leph by several learned geographers, and among others by Roger the Annalist, it appears that the Saleph and the Cydnus were the same river under different names.

See an ample and satisfactory account of this unhappy campaign in the Life of Frederic I. written in German by Henry count Bunau, p. 278, 293, 309. The learned authors of the Modern Univer sal History affirm that Philip arrived in Palestine, with a supply of men, money, &c. on board of six ships, whereas Renaudot mentions 100 sail as em. ployed in this expedition. The fleet of Richard con. sisted of 150 large ships, beside galleys, &c.

More commonly known by the name of Joppa. Daniel, Histoire de France, tome iii. p. 426.Rapin Thoyras, Histoire d'Angleterre, tome li Regne de Richard Coeur-de-Lion.-Marigny, His toire des Arabes, tome iv. p. 285.