POPE CELESTINE III PROMOTES A CRUSADE (1195 A.D.)

[1Sidenote: [1195-1198 A.D.]]

2Two years before this favourable moment, the daring and ambitious pope Celestine III had again sounded the trumpet of war. France had not revived from its losses in the Third Crusade, and Philip Augustus heard the appeal with indifference. Many of the people of England enrolled their names as holy warriors, obtained spiritual absolution, and then abandoned their pious resolves. The pope hurled his thunders against those who deserted their profession, except for some legitimate cause; but all thoughts of a crusade gradually died away in England, for the king was too much occupied in political concerns to encourage it. But wild schemes of war were occasionally in his mind, and the early writers have ascribed to his dauntless spirit the vast design of conquering Egypt and, after having gained the Holy Land, of possessing himself of the throne of Constantinople.

3Designs equally ambitious were entertained by the emperor Henry, the enemy of Plantagenet. Seconded by imperial influence, the clergy successfully preached the crusade through all the German states. The emperor declared that he would provide a passage for both rich and poor who wished to go. But, though influenced, he was not absorbed by the love of barren glory, and when the possession of Sicily seemed an easy achievement, he postponed the gathering of laurels in Palestine till he had added a great state to his empire in Europe. Tancred, prince of Sicily, had lately died, and Henry, in right of his wife Constanza, put in his claims. This defection from the holy war was declared to be in accordance with the opinions of his wisest princes and lords, and it did not quench the spirit of fanaticism and romance.