alarmed the hearts of you believers in Christ, and not only of such as are simple-minded, but even of those among you who are believed to be wise. For they say that in the year which is the five hundred and seventy-second of the Alligera," and the one thousand one hundred and eighty-sixth from the Incarnation of your Lord Christ, in the month which you call September, there is to be a very mighty wind, such as is not often experienced, which shall destroy cities and towns, and overthrow everything it meets on the earth in its course. This wind shall come, they say, from the West, and shall extend even unto the East; and after the wind a most dreadful stench, that shall destroy human beings. Of this circumstance they allege no further cause than that the planets will come in conjunction in Libra, which is an aërial sign, and therefore a cause of windy weather. Now, it may at once be answered these persons, by even our children, that not only is Libra an aërial sign, but so also are Gemini and Aquarius aërial signs; in both of which, many planets have come in conjunction, and still no danger of winds or of pestilential exhalations or of mortality has ensued. But while Saturn and Mars are two unfortunate stars, Jupiter and Venus are fortunate ones and propitious; wherefore, if they shall happen to be in the same sign with the others, without any setting or attractions,50 or shall keep themselves duly balanced, their beneficent effect will temper the evil effects of the former ones. But on the day of the month in which they say that this will take place, Mars will not be in Libra, but in the thirteenth degree of Virgo; while Venus in Scorpio, which is the house of Mars, will entirely do away with all the evil influence of Mars, both as regards his house in which she is reigning, as also in consequence of the respect due to her sex, by means of which she attracts Mars to feelings of courtesy towards her. Jupiter also, will assuage the disastrous influence of Saturn, Mercury being nearer to Jupiter than Saturn. Such persons ought also to recollect, that inasmuch as Saturn performs his revolution once in thirty years, he remains two years and a half in each of the signs; whereas Mars accomplishes his course through each

51

49 Clearly meaning the Hegira. See the note to page 36.

50 It may appear doubtful, except to those versed in astrological lore, what is meant by "Si in eodem signo fuerint cum eis sine respectu, aut applicatione." 51 In each revolution.

of the signs in little less than a year and a half. Since then, it is a matter of necessity, that in every thirty years Saturn must always make a stay of about two years and a half in Libra; by the same necessity52 it comes to pass, that before Saturn goes out of Libra, Mars must be in the same sign of Libra together with Saturn. If then, Mars and Saturn have already hitherto been every thirty years once together in Libra, and are so to be in future, either these pestilential winds have happened before, or will happen from their evil influence when in a windy sign, or the converse. But that they have happened at any previous time, we neither read in the writings of the masters, nor have we witnessed the fact in our own times. Consequently, we ought to feel assured that they will not happen, since upon similar combinations it has never fallen out that any thing of a like nature has happened. Therefore, let your astrologers peruse the tables of the Inner Persians, and of the Arabians, Hermes, Astalius, and Abidemonus, as well as of Albumasar, of more modern date; and let them compute proportionally the influences of the stars, their settings, attractions, separations, equalities, and other matters which it were tedious to recount to those even who have time to listen thereto; and when they have found that from a like conjunction of the stars that is false which they are dreaming of, either let them relinquish opinions based upon such idle stories, or else be converted to the religion of Ishmael which we profess. However, according to the judgment of Messehella and Alkandus, unless God shall ordain it otherwise, there will be a scanty vintage, crops of wheat of moderate average, much slaughter by the sword, and many shipwrecks."

In the year of grace 1185, being the thirty-first year of the reign of king Henry, son of the empress Matilda, that king was at Windsor in England, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord. In the same year, on the day of the Circumcision of our Lord, died Gilbert, the son of Fergus, who had taken his brother Uchtred, the father of the noble man Roland, and had caused him to be deprived of his eyes, tongue, and virility, by his own son Dunecan; and who had also given up his son the before-named Dunecan, to the king of England as a hostage to ensure the preservation of the peace. After his death, Roland,

52 This is the first attempt at reasoning, which has been met with in all this astrological parade.

the son of Uchtred, invaded all the lands of the before-named Gilbert, and gained possession of them.

In the same year, Baldwin the Leper, king of Jerusalem, and the Templars and Hospitallers, sent to the king of England, the son of the empress Matilda, Heraclius, the Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the grand Masters of the Hospital and Temple, together with the royal standard, and the keys of the Sepulchre of our Lord, of the Tower of David, and of the city of Jerusalem, asking of him speedy succour, as being the heir and lord of the land of Jerusalem.53 For it ought to be known, that Fulk, the brother of Geoffrey, earl of Anjou, the father of the said Henry, was king of Jerusalem, as we have previously mentioned. Wherefore, when the before-named Patriarch and Master of the Hospital came to England, the king of England met them at the town of Reading, and received them with great joyousness; on which, immediately falling at the king's feet, with great weeping and sobbing, they uttered the words of salutation on behalf of the king, and principal men, and the whole of the people of the land of Jerusalem, and, explaining the cause of their coming, delivered to him the royal standard, and the keys of the Sepulchre of our Lord, and those of the Tower of David and of the city of Jerusalem, in behalf of the king and the principal men of the city of Jerusalem, besides letters from pope Lucius, to the following effect :

The Letter of pope Lucius on giving aid to the land of Jerusalem.

"Lucius, the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Henry, the illustrious king of the English, health and the Apostolic benediction. Inasmuch as all your predecessors have been especially distinguished above all the other princes of the earth for glory in arms and nobleness of spirit, and the people of the faithful have been taught to look upon them in their adversity as their defenders; deservedly is application made to you, the heir not only of your father's kingdom but of his virtues, a certain degree of security being assured therefrom, at a

35 The true version of the story is, that Baldwin the Leper had recently died, and his son Baldwin, a child five years of age, had ascended the throne. Of course these political envoys would not let him stand in the way of their gaining their object by flattering Henry's ambition. Indeed, Roger of Wendover distinctly says, that they were despatched for the purpose of offering Henry the throne of Jerusalem.

time when peril or even extermination is dreaded as impending over the Christian people; that by the arm of your royal mightiness, protection may be granted to the members of Him who has in His mercy allowed you to reach such a height of glory and pre-eminence, and has rendered you an invincible wall of defence against those who wished to impugn His name. In the first place, be it known to your serene highness how that the land of Jerusalem has been here buffeted by frequent and vexatious disputes on these matters, the special inheritance of Him who was crucified, and the place in which the mysteries were foretold of our salvation, and brought to a completion by the carrying out of that event, and of which He who comprehended all things in His death, by a peculiar privilege made it the scene; and how being now trampled under foot, and hemmed in by the pressure of a perfidious and most abominable race, it stands nodding to its downfall; and how, which God forbid, the Christian religion must thereby sustain irreparable loss. For Saladin, the most inhuman persecutor of that holy and fearful name, has now risen to such a pitch in the spirit of his fury, and is to such a degree putting forth all the might of his wickedness for the destruction of the people of the faithful, that, unless the vehement onset of his wickedness is checked as though by barriers placed in his path, he may entertain an assured hope and belief that Jordan will flow before his face, and that the land that was consecrated by the shedding of the vivifying blood, will be polluted by the contact of his most abominable superstitions, and the country which your glorious and noble predecessors, amid many labours and perils, rescued from the dominion of the unbelieving heathens, will once more be subjected to the accursed dominion of this most nefarious tyrant. In consequence, therefore, of the urgency of the necessity, and of the sorrows thus imminent, we have deemed it advisable, by these Apostolic letters, to entreat your mightiness, or rather with a palpitating heart to call upon you with the loudest voice, showing regard for the honor of Him who has set you upon high, and, in comparison with the name of the mighty ones who are on earth, has bestowed upon you a glorious name, in the earnestness of your. pious zeal, to give your attention to the desolate state of the before-named land, and, to the end that, in those parts, the confusion of Him may be put an end to, who, in your behalf, submitted to be held in

derision in that self-same land, to afford efficacious aid. Wherefore, following in the footsteps of your predecessors, by the aid of the Lord, let that land be preserved in the worship of the great God by means of your diligence, which they rescued from the jaws of the prince of darkness. In such straits of oppression it befits your highness to labour with the more earnest zeal, inasmuch as you are aware that the land is deprived of the protection of a king, and the powerful men have thought proper to centre all their hopes of defending it in the protection of your mightiness. And this your serene highness may be the better enabled to understand, from the fact that they have despatched to your excellency the chief men of that land and the mighty defenders thereof, namely, our venerable brother Heraclius, the Patriarch, and our dearly beloved son, the Master of the Hospital, that from their dignified presence you may be enabled to take under consideration the present state of affairs, and to see how great and extreme is the necessity, on account of which they have so long endured to be without protection; to the end that in person they might the more easily incline your devotedness to comply with their desires. Receive, therefore, the persons before-named with all kindness, as though sent to you by the Lord Himself, treat them in all things with that brotherly love which is their due, and show yourself ready to acquiesce in their requests, according as, having regard to their weight and their probity, you shall think them deserving of your grace and favour. And further, let your prudence call to mind, and with anxious meditation thereon ponder over those promises by which you have so often bound your highness as to undertaking the protection of the land so often named; and show yourself in this respect so wary and so zealous, that, at the terrible day of judgment your conscience may not accuse you, and the question put to you by that searching Judge who is not to be deceived, may not lead to your condemnation."

54

After hearing these requests, our lord the king made answer that, God willing, all things would yet be well, and appointed a time for his answer, namely, the first Sunday in Lent, at London. Accordingly, on this day, our lord the king, the Patriarch, the bishops, abbats, earls, and barons of the kingdom of England, William, king of Scotland, and his brother David, together with the earls and barons of his kingdom, met at

54 This council was held at Clerkenwell.