Microsoft Word richard of holy trinity inp

Itinerary
92
dwelling, ought to be snatched from the heathen, of whom the Lord had
said, Òthat they should not enter into His Church.Ó They hastened,
therefore, with ready zeal and pious emulation to take the cross at the
hands of the clergy; so that the question was, not who should take it up,
but who had not already done so. The voice of song was now silenced, the
pleasures of eating and luxurious habits were abandoned, the quarrels of
disputants quieted; new peace was made between old enemies, causes of
litigation were settled by mutual agreement, and for this new ground of
quarrel, every one who had cause of dispute, even for long-standing
enmity, was reconciled to his neighbour. What need is there to say more?
By the inspiration of God, all were of one accord, for one common cause
led them to undertake the labour of this pious pilgrimage.
Chapter III. Ñ How Henry, king of England, and Philip, king of France, with an
immense multitude, took up the cross between Gisors and Trie.
Richard, then count of Poitou, was the first to take up the cross, and
an immense multitude with him; but they did not set out on their
pilgrimage, owing to some delay, occasioned by a dispute between Philip,
king of France, and Henry, king of England, the father of Count Richard.
An inveterate dispute had excited them to international war, as it had done
their ancestors, the French and Normans, from an inexorable and almost
uninterrupted feud. The archbishop of the land of Jerusalem, that is of
Tyre,
15
 was earnest to effect a reconciliation between them, and had fixed
the day they were to meet, to take up the cross, at a place between Gisors
and Trie. The aforesaid archbishop had come on a mission to animate the
faithful, and obtain assistance for the deliverance of the Holy Land, having
been specially sent to the king of England, the fame of whose virtues was
spread far and wide above all the other kings of the earth, on account of his
glory, riches, and the greatness of his power. On that day, after many plans
15This was William of Tyre, the author of the well-known history of the earlier period
of the Crusades,

---

Itinerary
93
had been proposed, and much spoken on either side, they both came
finally to the determination that each of them should take up the cross, and
depart from his land, it appearing to each a safe precaution against the one
invading the kingdom of the other, while absent, for neither would venture
to go unless the other went also. At length, these conditions having been,
with some difficulty, agreed on, the two kings exchanged the kiss of peace,
and assumed the cross with the blessing of the archbishop, and with them
an immense number of both nations, partly from the love of God and for
the forgiveness of their sins, partly from respect for their king; and so great
was the multitude that took up the cross on that day, that the people, from
the crush and intolerable heat (for it was summer) nearly fainted. The delay
in entering upon their march must be reprehended; it was the work of the
enemy of the human race, whose interest it is to foment discord, and excite
inexorable enmity, and by whose instigation, the altercation between the
kings was revived, and the seeds of discord sown from a very light
occasion, that by their diabolical superstition neither was inclined to
forego, lest, as it were, his fame and honour should be derogated thereby;
as if it were abject and mean to yield obedience to justice and right.
Chapter IV. Ñ Henry, king of England, dies.
The death of Henry, king of England, put an end to these dissensions,
and the vow of making the crusade, which he had deferred fulfilling while
in safety, after a lapse of time, could not be performed, by the intervention
of his death. As a vow must be entirely voluntary, so when taken, it must
irrefragably be discharged; and he who binds himself by a vow is to be
condemned for the non-performance of it, as he could not have made it
lawfully, but of his own accord and free-will. Now King Henry died on the
day of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, in the year of our Lord 1189, and
was buried at Fontevrault.
Chapter V. Ñ How Richard, count of Poitou, was crowned king of England.

---