nounced by Urban to be held in France; but several changes took place in regard to the day and the spot at which the Pope was to meet the great body of the church; and it may be supposed that some consideration as to his personal safety influenced the pontiff in this vacillation, one of his open and avowed objects being to reform abuses, and punish the licentiousness of the French monarch. The council was at length definitely fixed to meet at the town of Clermont, in Auvergne, which, although it was situated within the limits of the King of France's dominions, yet was more immediately under the rule of the powerful dukes of Aquitaine, whose authority, perhaps, might have afforded some security to the pontiff, if Philip had thought fit to proceed to any act of violence.

Urban arrived at Valence, on the Rhone, in July 1095. The day fixed for the council was the eighteenth of November, in the same year; and the Pope employed the interval in visiting the southern parts of France, which, possessed by great feudatories, were almost independent of the crown. It is probable that during this journey he made known to many persons his designs in regard to the crusade. At length, however, he turned his steps towards hermont, and arrived on the fourteenth of Novem"er in that city, where he was met by an immense number of bishops, abbots, clergymen, and noble, all filled with the expectation of hearing some extraordinary proposal touching the deli

very of Jerusalem, for which the minds of men throughout Europe had been prepared by the preaching of Peter the Hermit. The council was opened with matters totally distinct from that with which it was destined to conclude, and many rules and regulations were made, several causes judged, and various disputes arranged, on which I shall not touch in this place.

After the council had sat for a week, however, during which the human tide of listeners flowed daily from all parts of Europe towards Clermont, Urban proceeded into the great square, where the whole multitude had assembled to hear him, and there, surrounded by priests, prelates, princes, and all the chivalry of Europe, he addressed the meeting in one of the most eloquent speeches that have been transmitted to us in the records of history. That it was not, perhaps, word for word such as Robert the monk has preserved, may be admitted without in any degree lessening our admiration of the skill and genius which the pontiff displayed in working upon all the feelings, passions, and prejudices of his hearers. He spoke to the people of Europe, then, as a race peculiarly favoured by God; he dwelt upon their prowess, and their adherence to the Christian faith; and he drew a terrible picture of the wrongs and miseries of their brethren of Palestine. He told them that their fellow-christians of the east were trampled under the feet of infidel nations, strangers to God

and enemies to man, that fire and plunder and the sword had desolated the land deservedly called Holy, and that her children were slain in the battle, or enslaved, or died under tortures, all the horrors of which he depicted in the most fearful manner. He declared that the women of that country were subjected to the lust of the heathen, and that God's own altar, the symbols of salvation, and the relics of the saints, were daily desecrated by the filthy abominations of the pagans. "To whom," he cried, "to whom does it belong to punish all this to arrest all this? To whom but you, who have received from the Lord, above all other nations, glory in arms, greatness of soul, activity of body, and strength to trample on the heads of all who resist you. Oh, brave knights!" he cried, after pointing out the glorious deeds of Charlemagne and others, "oh, brave knights! offspring of invincible fathers, degenerate not from the glory of your ancestors; and if you feel held back from the course before you by the soft ties of domestic love, call to mind the words of our Lord himself, who said, 'Whosoever loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and whosoever shall abandon for my name's sake, his house, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his children, or his lands, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life.""

The pontiff, however, did not bound his exhortation to the prospect of mere spiritual advantages;

he held out as the reward of those who should take the cross, a thousand temporal objects of desire. Europe, according to his account, was but a dry and sterile country, Palestine a land flowing with milk and honey. Then again, he proceeded to speak once more of holier inducements, and represented the country to which he bade them go, as the land which the Redeemer of the human race had rendered illustrious by his advent, had honoured by his residence, consecrated by his passion, redeemed by his death, signalized by his sepulture.

66

"The royal city of Jerusalem," he went on, placed in the very centre of the world,* now held captive by her enemies, and made the handmaid of nations altogether ignorant of God, calls incessantly for aid and deliverance. From you above all other people on the earth, she demands this aid, because, as I have before said, God has granted you above all others, glory and might in arms. Go, then, take the way before you for the remission of your sins, secure of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven."

The moment that the Pontiff paused, a loud shout burst from the attentive multitude, every voice exclaiming, with one impulse, "God wills it! God wills it!" Urban seized upon the moment of enthusiasm, adopted the very words which were

* It is remarkable that Urban should use precisely the same figure to express the preeminence of Jerusalem, that Mahommed had done before him.

shouted forth in all the languages of the varied crowd that surrounded him, declared that God himself had prompted those words, and ordered the people to use them as their battle-cry in every struggle with the infidels. "Let the army of the Lord,” he said, "when it rushes upon His enemies, shout but that one sound, God wills it! God wills it!'

To this inspiring address, the Pontiff added a number of wise and important regulations calculated to fix the people in their determination, and to guide them in executing it with prudence and caution. He forbade the journey to the old, and the weak, and all those who were unfit to bear arms. He cautioned women not to undertake the crusade except in the company of their husbands, or brothers, or lawful guardians; he bade the clergy require in all cases, permission of their spiritual superior, and he called upon the rich to assist the poor, and not only to go themselves, but to lead to the Holy Land others who could do military service.

"Let every one," he said, "who is inclined to devote himself to the cause of God, bind himself by a solemn engagement, and until he sets out, let him bear the cross of the Lord, either on his breast or his brow. When he is ready to begin his march let him place the emblem of salvation on his shoulder, in memory of that precept of the Saviour, He that does not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me.'

6