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 358 THE DECLINE AND FALL personal esteem for the character of Frederic. The enemy of the church is accused of maintaining with the miscreants an in- tercourse of hospitality and friendship, unworthy of a Christian ; of despisinjj the barrenness of the land ; and of indulging a pro- fane thought that, if Jehovah had seen the kingdom of Naples, he never would have selected Palestine for the inheritance of his chosen people. Yet Frederic obtained from the sultan the restitution of Jerusalem, of Bethlem and Nazareth, of Tyre and Sidon ; the Latins were allowed to inhabit and fortify the city ; an equal code of civil and religious freedom was ratified for the sectaries of Jesus, and those of Mahomet ; and, while the former worshipped at the holy sepulchre, the latter might pray and preach in the mosque of the temple,^*'^ from whence the prophet undertook his nocturnal journey to heaven. The clergy de- plored this scandalous toleration ; and the weaker Moslems were gradually expelled ; but everj- rational object of the crusades was accomplished without bloodshed ; the churches were restored, the monasteries were replenished ; and, in the space of fifteen years, the Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number of six thousand. This peace and prosperity, for which they were ungrateful to their benefactor, was terminated by the irruption of the strange and savage hordes of Carizmians.^*^^ Flying from the arms of the Moguls, those shepherds of the Caspian rolled headlong on Syria ; ^'^'■^ and the union of the Franks Avith the sultans of Aleppo, Hems, and Damascus was insuf- ficient to stem the violence of the torrent. Whatever stood against them was cut off by the sword or dragged into captivity ; the military orders were almost exterminated in a single battle; and in the pillage of the city, in the profmation of the holy sepulchre, tlie Latins confess and regret the modesty and dis- cipline of the Turks and Saracens. St. Louis, and Of the sevcn crusades, the two last were undertaken by Louis crusade. the Ninth, king of France, who lost his liberty in Egypt, and his life on the coast of Africa. Twenty-eight years after his death, he was canonized at Rome ; and sixty-five miracles were readily found, and solemnly attested, to justify the claim of the Invasion of the Cariz mians. A.D. 1243 [Battle of Gaza. A.D. 1244, Oct. 14] A.D. 1248-1254 ^"1 The clergy artfully confounded the mosque, or church of the temple, with the holy sepulchre ; and their wilful error has deceived both Vertot and Mura- tori. i»2 The irruption of the Carizmians, or Corasmins, is related by Matthew Paris (p. 546, 547), and by Joinville, Nangis, and the Arabians (p. iii, 112, 191, 192, 528, 530)." 103 [They were called in as allies by the Sultan of Egypt, As-Salih Ayyub.]