Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/181

 gift which made illiterate Peter eloquent, and scholarly Bernard persuasive, began to move the laggard hearts of men and to turn them in the direction of the Holy Land. The usual signs which may be predicted of all great preachers followed in the track of his harangues. They are familiar to us now as then. There was the transitory religious revival; sinners confessed and renounced their sin, while the influence and terror of the voice was upon them; yet after a brief space the wickedness of the world went on as usual; foolish women renounced their folly, burnt their ribbons, gave up their golden bracelets, while the preacher was among them; oppressors repented their oppressions, until the preacher was gone. Fulke began, indeed, as a preacher of repentance, and it was at the instance of the newly-enthroned Pope Innocent III. that he passed—a bold and confident step for a preacher to take—from general admonition to special exhortation, and invited the young and able-bodied to wear the cross and carry a pike to Palestine.

It was not a propitious time for preaching Crusades. The kings of France and England had already fulfilled their promises, and done enough for the Cross which they had taken. To fight once on that burning soil of Syria was surely a sufficient merit for any Christian, however sinful. As well expect a Mohammedan Haj to journey on foot the whole way from Bosnia to Mecca twice in his lifetime. The Emperor of Germany was a child of six years old, and the preacher had to rely upon the leadership of those secondary princes who saw in a Crusade the opportunity of striking a blow at once for