Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/29

Rh did so many miracles, and where his sepulchre still remained, to the scandal of the Christian name, lay groaning under the tyranny of infidels; that the swords which Christian princes had drawn against each other, ought to be turned against the common enemy of their name and religion; that this should be reckoned an ample satisfaction for all their past sins; that those who died in this expedition should immediately go to Heaven, and the survivors would be blessed with the sight of our Jesus's sepulchre.

Moved by these arguments, and the influence of the person who delivered them, several nobles and prelates immediately took upon them the cross; and the council dissolving in this high fit of zeal, the clergy, upon their return home, prevailed so far in their several countries, that in most parts of Europe some great prince or lord became a votary for the Holy Land; as Hugh the Great, brother to the king of France; Godfrey duke of Lorrain; Reimond count of Toulouse; Robert duke of Normandy, and many others. Neither ought it to be forgotten, that most of these noble and generous princes, wanting money to maintain the forces they had raised, pawned their dominions to those very prelates who had first engaged them in this enterprise: doubtless a notable mark of the force of oratory in the churchmen of those ages, who were able to inspire that devotion into others, whereof they seemed so little sensible themselves.

But a great share in the honour of promoting this religious war, is attributed to the zeal and industry of a certain French priest, commonly called Peter the Hermit; who being at Jerusalem upon pilgrimage some time before, and entering often into private treaty with the patriarch of that city, came back Rh