Microsoft Word richard of holy trinity inp

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Richard of Holy Trinity
Itinerary of Richard I and others
to the Holy Land
(formerly ascribed to Geoffrey de Vinsauf)
translated by
A Classical Scholar
and
A Gentleman Well-Read in Medi¾val History
In parentheses Publications
Medieval Latin Series
Cambridge, Ontario 2001

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2
Prologue
To the Itinerary of those who went in pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the
time of Saladin, and to the exploits of Richard king of England, and of the king of
France, and of the emperor of Germany.
It sometimes happens, that exploits, however well known and
splendidly achieved, come, by length of time, to be less known to fame, or
even forgotten among posterity. In this manner the renown of many kings
has faded, and their deeds have sunk with them into the grave where their
bodies lie buried Ñ deeds that had been performed with great splendour,
and were much celebrated in their own times, when their novelty brought
them into favour, and unanimous applause set them up as models before
the people. The ancient Greeks, aware of this, were wise enough to use the
pen as a remedy against oblivion, and zealously stimulated their writers,
whom they termed historiographers, to compile histories of noble deeds.
Thus the silence of the living voice was supplied by the voice of writing, so
that the virtues of men might not die with them. The Romans, emulating
the Greeks, with the view of perpetuating merit, not only employed the
service of the pen, but also added sculpture: and thus by exhibiting the
ancients they excited their descendants, and impressed the love of virtue
the more strongly on the minds of its imitators, conveying it in various
ways, both through their eyes and through their ears. Who would now
know anything about the voyage of Jason, the labours of Hercules, the
glory of Alexander, or the victories of C¾sar, if it had not been for the
service which writers have rendered? And, to adduce the examples of the
Holy Fathers, I may say, that neither the patience of Job, the liberality of

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Itinerary
3
Abraham, nor the gentleness of David, would have remained as an
example among the faithful of after-ages, if antiquity, with a due
appreciation of truth, had not bequeathed history for our perusal. Indeed,
kings formerly, when they became the objects of praise, were most anxious,
that, whilst they stood high in the estimation of their contemporaries, they
might also descend to the knowledge of posterity. However numerous
have been the historians, most of them have recorded what they heard; few
what they have seen. If Dares Phrygius
1
 is more readily believed about the
destruction of Troy, because he was an eyewitness of what others related
only on hearsay, we also, who treat of the history of Jerusalem, are justly
entitled to credit; for we testify what we have seen, and celebrate these
deeds with the pen, whilst our memory of them retains its freshness. If the
fastidious reader require a more elegant style, let him consider that we
wrote while in the camp, and that the noise of war did not admit of calm
and silent meditation. Truth has charms enough in herself, and even
though not decked out in pompous array, still possesses sufficient
attractions for all who are desirous of learning her secrets.
1Dares Phrygius, now universally acknowledged to be a forgery, was nevertheless one
of the most popular writers of the middle ages. Historical and literary criticism being
then at a very low ebb, few, if any, suspected the truth of a writer who boasted that he
had been present at the war of Troy.

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Book I.
Chapter I. Ñ In the year of the Incarnate Word 1187, when Urban III. held
the government of the Apostolic See, and Frederic was emperor of
Germany; when Isaac was reigning at Constantinople, Philip in France,
Henry in England, and William in Sicily, the LordÕs hand fell heavy upon
his people, if indeed it is right to call those his people, whom uncleanness
of life and habits, and the foulness of their vices, had alienated from his
favour. Their licentiousness had indeed become so flagrant that they all of
them, casting aside the veil of shame, rushed headlong, in the face of day,
into crime. It would be a long task and incompatible with our present
purpose to disclose the scenes of blood, robbery, and adultery, which
disgraced them, for this work of mine is a history of deeds and not a moral
treatise: but when the ancient enemy had diffused, far and near, the spirit
of corruption, he more especially took possession of the land of Syria, so
that other nations now drew an example of uncleanness from the same
source which formerly had supplied them with the elements of religion.
For this cause, therefore, the Lord seeing that the land of his birth and place
of his passion had sunk into an abyss of turpitude, treated with neglect his
inheritance, and suffered Saladin, the rod of his wrath, to put forth his fury
to the destruction of that stiff-necked people; for he would rather that the
Holy Land should, for a short time, be subject to the profane rites of the
heathen, than that it should any longer be possessed by those men, whom
no regard for what is right could deter from things unlawful. The approach
of future destruction was foretold by divers events: famine, earthquakes,
and frequent eclipses, both of the sun and of the moon. And that strong
wind also, which astronomers prophesied would spring out of the

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