CHAPTER III. THE SECOND CRUSADE

W1inged is each heart, and winged every heel; They fly, yet notice not how fast they fly; But by the time the dewless meads reveal The fervent sun’s ascension in the sky, Lo, towered Jerusalem salutes the eye! A thousand pointing fingers tell the tale; “Jerusalem!” a thousand voices cry, “All hail, Jerusalem!” hill, down, and dale Catch the glad sounds, and shout, “Jerusalem, all hail!”

2--TASSO (_Jerusalem_, Canto iii).

3[Sidenote: [1147-1189 A.D.]]

4The enthusiasm of the First Crusade is a natural and simple event, while hope was fresh, danger untried, and enterprise congenial to the spirit of the times. But the obstinate perseverance of Europe may indeed excite our pity and admiration: that no instruction should have been drawn from constant and adverse experience; that the same confidence should have repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six succeeding generations should have rushed headlong down the precipice that was open before them; and that men of every condition should have staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate adventure of possessing or recovering a tombstone two thousand miles from their country.

5In a period of two centuries after the Council of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land; but the seven great armaments or crusades were excited by some impending or recent calamity; the nations were moved by the authority of their pontiffs and the example of their kings; their zeal was kindled, and their reason was silenced, by the voice of their holy orators; and among these, Bernard, the monk or the saint, may claim the most honourable place.