Temple, the Castle on the Plain, Ramah, Bethurun of the Knights, Castle Arnald, Castle Bourgoing, Tarentum, Blanchewarde, Galatia, Gasseres, Darun, 63 Rouge Cisterne, the Castle of Saint Peter, Saint Lazarus of Bethany, Saint Mary of Mount Sion, and the City of Jerusalem.

On this, the queen, the wife of Guido, betook herself, with her two daughters and her household, to the city of Ascalon, and fortified it with provisions and soldiers; these, however, in the second year after, she surrendered to Saladin for the ransom of her husband Guido, and thus liberated him from the custody of Saladin. All those, however, who had fled to Acre, and a multitude of Christians who had taken to flight, betook themselves to Tyre, and made Conrad their ruler and protector; Antioch also, and Margat, with nearly all the lands of the prince thereof, stoutly fortified themselves against Saladin.

While the earl of Tripolis was endeavouring to wean his nation from the worship of God, and to betray his country to Saladin, he was found dead in his bed just as though fast asleep; on which his wife, with all her people, surrendered herself and the city of Tripolis to Raymond, prince of Antioch, and he appointed his son Jocelyn lord thereof.

Now when pope Urban heard that in his time the king of Jerusalem had been taken prisoner, as also the Cross of our Lord, and the Holy City of Jerusalem, he was greatly afflicted, and fell ill, and died on the thirteenth day before the calends of November, at Ferrara; being succeeded in the papacy by Albert his chancellor, who was called pope Gregory the Eighth. On this, the cardinals, with the sanction of our lord the pope, strictly pledged themselves to each other, disregarding all wealth and luxuries, to preach the cross of Christ, and that not in word only but by deed and example, and to be the first, assuming the cross, to go begging for succours, and to precede the rest to the land of Jerusalem. They also, with the consent of our lord the pope, established a most strict truce between all the princes of Christendom, to last for a period of seven years; on the understanding that whoever in the meantime should commence war against a Christian, should be subject to the curse of God, and of our lord the pope, and the excommunication of all the prelates of the Universal Church. They also solemnly promised each other, that from thenceforth they would receive presents from no one who had a cause to try 63 A great portion of these names are most probably incorrect.

in the court, but would only receive as much as should be given, or sent to supply their necessities and for their sustenance; as also that they would not mount a horse so long as the land on which the feet of the Lord had stood should remain under the feet of the enemy.

It is also worthy of observation, and to be ascribed to the Divine Providence, that at the time when the city of Jerusalem and Antioch had been rescued from the power of the Pagans, on the expedition headed by Audemar, bishop of Puy, and many other bishops and religious men, as also Hugh, brother of Philip, king of France, Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, Stephen, count of Chartres, Robert, duke of Normandy, brother of William the Second, the king of England, then reigning, (which Robert conquered in battle, Colbrand, the chief of the knighthood of the Pagans), Robert, earl of Flanders, Eustace, earl of Boulogne, and Baldwin, the two brothers of duke Godfrey, Raymond, earl of Saint Gilles, Boamund, son of Robert Guiscard, and many other noblemen, the pope who was then living was named Urban, the Patriarch of Jerusalem was called Heraclius, and the emperor of Rome was called Frederic; and so now, when the land of Jerusalem was taken from the hands of the Christians by the people of Saladin, the pope was called Urban, the patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius, and the Roman emperor Frederic. It also deserves to be known, that between the time when Jerusalem was rescued from the hands of the Pagans by the warriors before-named, and the time when king Guido was deprived of it, a space of eighty-seven years intervened. The Letter of Terricius, Master of the Temple, on the capture of the land of Jerusalem.

"The brother Terricius, so called Grand Master of the most impoverished house of the Temple, and of all the brethren himself the most impoverished, and that brotherhood all but annihilated, to all commanders and brethren of the Temple to whom these presents shall come, greeting, and may they lift up their sighs to Him at whom the sun and moon are astounded. With how many and how great calamities, our sins so requiring it, the anger of God has lately permitted us to be scourged, we are unable, O sad fate! either in writing or in the language of tears to express. For the Turks, assembling together an immense multitude of their nations, began with bitter hostility to invade the territories of us Christians; and accordingly, uniting the

forces of our nation against them, we ventured, before the octave of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, to attack them; and for that purpose ventured to direct our march towards Tiberias, which, leaving their camp unprotected, they had taken by storm. After repulsing us among some most dangerous rocks, they attacked us with such vehemence, that after they had captured the Holy Cross and our king, and a whole multitude of us had been slain, and after two hundred and thirty of our brethren, as we verily believe, had been taken by them and beheaded, (besides those sixty who had been slain on the first of May), with great difficulty, the lord the earl of Tripolis, the lord Reginald of Sidon, the lord Ballovius, and ourselves, were enabled to make our escape from that dreadful field. After this, the Pagans, revelling in the blood of us Christians, did not delay to press on with all their hosts towards the city of Tyre; and, taking it by storm, spread themselves over nearly the whole of the land, Jerusalem, Tyre, Ascalon, and Berytus being alone now left to us and to Christendom. These cities also, as nearly all the citizens have been slain, we shall not be at all able to retain in our hands, unless we speedily receive the Divine assistance, and aid from yourselves. For at the present moment they are besieging Tyre with all their might, and cease not to assault it either night or day, while so vast are their numbers, that they have covered the whole face of the land from Tyre, as far as Jerusalem and Gaza, just like swarms of ants. Deign, therefore, with all possible speed, to bring succour to ourselves and to Christianity, all but ruined in the East, that so through the aid of God and the exalted merits of your brotherhood, supported by your assistance, we may be enabled to save the remainder of those cities. Farewell."

In the same battle in which Guido, king of Jerusalem, was made prisoner, Roger de Mowbray was also taken; whom in the following year the brethren of the Hospital and the Temple ransomed from the hands of the Pagans; shortly after which he died. In the same battle also, Hugh de Beauchamp was slain.

In the same year, the king of England gave Constance, countess of Brittany, the mother of Arthur, in marriage to Ranulph, earl of Chester. In this year also, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, erected new buildings and a church near the walls of the city of Canterbury, and assigned thereto prebends in the churches of the monks at Canterbury; but Akington, or Hackington, in the suburbs of Canterbury.

the said monks complaining in consequence thereof, pope Urban forbade that this should be done, and thus the persons who had built the place expended their labour in vain. However, the said archbishop transferred this building to Lamhe,64* which is on the other side of the Thames, opposite to Westminster. In the same year, Richard, earl of Poitou, assumed the cross of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

The Letter of pope Gregory the Eighth to all the faithful in

66

Christ.

Gregory, the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful in Christ, to whom these presents shall come, health and the Apostolic benediction. On hearing of the severity of the tremendous judgment which the hand of God has inflicted upon the land of Jerusalem, both we and our brethren have been put to confusion with terror so extreme, and afflicted with sorrows so great, that it did not readily suggest itself to us what we were to do, or what indeed we ought to do. We only called to mind the words of the Psalmist, where he laments and says, 65 O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance: thy holy temple have they defiled, they have laid Jerusalem in heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.' For, taking advantage of the dissensions, which, through the wickedness of men, at the suggestion of the Devil, had arisen throughout the earth, Saladin came with a multitude of troops to those parts, and, being met by the king, the bishops, Templars, Hospitallers, earls, and barons, with the people of the land, together with the Cross of our Lord (through which, by the remembrance of Christ and faith in Him who hung therefrom and redeemed mankind, there used formerly to be assured protection, and a defence now vainly regretted against the assaults of the Pagans) part of our people were there slain, the Cross of our Lord was captured, the bishops slaughtered, the king made prisoner, and nearly all either slaughtered with the sword or taken by the hands of the enemy, so much so, that it is said that but very few escaped. The Templars also, and Hospitallers, were beheaded in his presence. How, after they had vanquished our army, they subsequently attacked and gained possession of all 66 These words in our

64* Lambeth.

65 Psalm lxxix. 1, 2.

version appear in the text as "in pomorum custodiam."

quarters, so that only a few places are said to be remaining which have not fallen into their hands, we do not think requires to be set forth in our letters. However, although we may now say with the Prophet, 'Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep night and day for the slain of my people ;'67 still, we ought not to be so utterly cast down as to fall into distrustfulness, and to believe that God is so angered with His people, that what in His wrath He has allowed to be done through the multitude of our sins in common, He will not speedily, when appeased by our repentance, in His compassion alleviate, and will, after our tears and lamentation, cause gladness and rejoicing. Whatever person then, amid such vast grounds for lamentation, does not, if not in body, still in heart, condole with us, is not only forgetful of the Christian faith, which teaches us to grieve with all who grieve, but even of his own self and of our common humanity, as every person of ordinary discretion is able well to estimate both the very magnitude of the danger, the fierceness of the barbarians who thirst for Christian blood, and exert the whole of their might in profaning the holy places, and using their endeavours to sweep away the name of God from off the earth, points on which we will not enlarge. And whereas the Prophets first laboured with all their zeal, and after them the Apostles and their followers, that the worship of God might exist in that land, and flow thence unto all regions of the world, aye, and even more than that, God (who was willing to become flesh, by whom all things were made, and who in his ineffable wisdom and his incomprehensible mercy was willing thus to work out our salvation, through the infirmity of the flesh, through hunger, fasting, thirst, the cross, and His death and resurrection, according to the words, 'Of himself he wrought out our salvation in the midst of the earth;') also deigned here to undergo labours as well, neither tongue can tell, nor sense can imagine what grief it causes to us and to all Christian people to think what this land has now endured, and what under its former people it is read of as having suffered. Still, we ought not to believe that it is through the injustice of the judge who smites, but rather through the iniquity of the sinful people that these things have come to pass; since we read that when the people turned unto the Lord, one thousand pursued, and twelve thousand fled; nay more, that, while the people slept, the army 67 Jer. ix. 1.