Cantacuzene assumes the Purple, 1347 He re-enters Constantinople, 1347-1355. Reign of John Cantacuzene, 1353 John Palæologus takes up arms against him, 1355 Abdication of Cantacuzene, 1341-1351. Dispute concerning the Light of Mount Thabor, ib. Conquests of Zingis Khan and the Moguls from China to Po- land.-Escape of Constantinople and the Greeks.—Origin of the Ottoman Turks in Bithynia.-Reigns and Victories of Othman, Orchan, Amurath the First, and Bajazet the First.-Foundation and Progress of the Turkish Monarchy pire from the Moguls, 1341-1347. First Passage of the Turks into Europe, 1346 Marriage of Orchan with a Greek Princess, 1360-1389. The Reign and European Conquests of A- murath I. THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAP. LVIII. Origin and Numbers of the First Crusade.-Characters of the Latin Princes.-Their March to Constantinople.-Policy of the Greek Emperor Alexius-Conquest of Nice, Antioch, and Jerusalem, by the Franks.-Deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre.-Godfrey of Bouillon, first King of Jerusalem.-Institutions of the French or Latin kingdom. A LVIII. BOUT twenty years after the conquest of CHAP. Jerusalem by the Turks, the holy sepulchre was visited by an hermit of the name of The first Peter, a native of Amiens, in the province of Picardy in France. His resentment and sympathy VOL. XI. B were * Whimsical enough is the origin of the name of Picards, and from thence of Picardie, which does not date earlier than A. D. crusade, a. D. 10951099. Peter the Hermit. LVIII. CHAP. were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian name; he mingled his tears with those of the patriarch, and earnestly inquired, if no hopes of relief could be entertained from the Greek emperors of the East. The patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the successors of Constantine. "I will rouse," exclaimed the her. mit," the martial nations of Europe in your cause;" and Europe was obedient to the call of the hermit. The astonished patriarch dismissed him with epistles of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari, than Peter hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman Pontiff. His stature was small, his appearance contemptible; but his eye was keen and lively; and he possessed that vehemence of speech, which seldom fails to impart the persuasion of the soul. He was born of a gentleman's family (for we must now adopt a modern idiom), and his military service was under the neighbouring Counts of Boulogne, the heroes of the first crusade. But he soon relinquished the sword and the world; and if it be true, that his wife, however noble, was aged and ugly, he might withdraw, with the less reluctance, from A. D. 1200. It was an academical joke, an epithet first ap plied to the quarrelsome humour of those students, in the university of Paris, who came from the frontier of France and Flanders. (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 447. Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 54.) : * William of Tyre (l. i. c. 11. p. 637. 638.) thus describes the hermit Pusillus, persona contemptibilis, vivacis ingenii, et oculum habens perspicacem gratumque, e fponte fluens ei non deerat eloquium. See Albert Aquenfis, p. 185. Guibert, P. 482. Anna Comnena in Alexiad, 1. x. p. 284. &c. with Ducange's notes, p. 349. LVIII. X from her bed to a convent, and at length to an CHAP. hermitage. In this austere solitude, his body was emaciated, his fancy was inflamed; whatever he wished, he believed; whatever he believed, he saw in dreams and revelations. From Jerusalem, the pilgrim returned an accomplished fanatic; but as he excelled in the popular madness of the times, Pope Urban the Second received him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the Pontiff, his zealous missionary traversed, with speed and success, the provinces of Italy and France. His diet was abstemious, his prayers long and fervent, and the alms which he received with one hand, he distributed with the other his head was bare, his feet naked, his meagre body was wrapt in a coarse garment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and the ass on which he rode was sanctified in the public eye by the service of the man of God. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets, and the high-ways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the palace and the cottage; and the people, for all was people, were impetuously moved by his call to repentance and arms. When he painted the sufferings of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted to compassion; every breast glowed with indignation, when he challenged the warriors of the age to defend their brethren, and B 2 rescue |