appealed to the Christian princes to take up the cause of the Cross. The
council was not successful, and Urban summoned another at Clermont, and
himself addressed the assembly. "It is the will of God" was the shout
that answered him, and the people flew to arms. "Every means was used to
excite an epidemical frenzy, the remission of penance, the dispensation
from those practices of self-denial which superstition imposed or
suspended at pleasure, the absolution of all sins, and the assurance of
eternal felicity. None doubted that such as persisted in the war
received immediately the reward of martyrdom. False miracles and
fanatical prophecies, which were never so frequent, wrought up the
enthusiasm to a still higher pitch. [Mosheim states, p. 231, that Peter
the Hermit carried about with him a letter from heaven, calling on all
true Christians to deliver their brethren from the infidel yoke.] And
these devotional feelings, which are usually thwarted and balanced by
other passions, fell in with every motive that could influence the men
of that time, with curiosity, restlessness, the love of licence, thirst
for war, emulation, ambition. Of the princes who assumed the cross,
some, probably from the beginning, speculated upon forming independent
establishments in the East. In later periods, the temporal benefits of
undertaking a crusade undoubtedly blended themselves with less selfish
considerations. Men resorted to Palestine, as in modern times they have
done to the colonies, in order to redeem their time, or repair their
fortune. Thus Gui de Lusignan, after flying from France for murder, was
ultimately raised to the throne of Jerusalem. To the more vulgar class
were held out inducements which, though absorbed in the more overruling
fanaticism of the first crusade, might be exceedingly efficacious when
it began rather to flag. During the time that a crusader bore the cross,
he was free from suit for his debts, and the interest of them was
entirely abolished; he was exempted, in some instances, at least, from
taxes, and placed under the protection of the Church, so that he could