Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/555

 The Crusades A71 In regard to the less distinguished recruits, a historian of the time tells us that so many thieves and robbers hastened to take the cross that every one felt that such enthusiasm could only be the work of God himself. St. Bernard himself, the chief promoter of the expedition, gives a most unflattering description of the " soldiers of Christ." " In that countless multitude you will find few except the utterly wicked and impious, the sacri- legious, homicides, and perjurers, whose departure is a double gain; Europe rejoices to lose them and Palestine to gain them ; they are useful in both ways, in their absence from here and their presence there." It is unnecessary to describe the movements and fate of these cru- saders ; suffice it to say that, from a military stand- point, the so-called Second Crusade was a miserable failure. In the year 1 187, forty years later, Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin, the most heroic and distinguished of all the Moham- medan rulers of that period. The loss of the Holy City led to the most famous of all the military expeditions to the Holy Land, in which Frederick Barbarossa, Richard the Lion-Hearted of England, and his political rival, Philip Augustus of France, all took part (see above, p. 417). The accounts of the enterprise show that while the several Christian leaders hated one another heartily enough, the Christians and Mohammedans were coming to respect one another. We find examples of the most courtly Fig. 174. Tomb of a Crusader The churches of England, France, and Germany contain numerous figures in stone and brass of crusading knights, reposing in full armor with shield and sword on their tombs