C. G. Addison

“ Your marches against the infidels, the dangers you encounter, the wounds you receive, and every minute action, down to the fording of a river, are they not written in the book of God? Thirst, hunger, fatigue, and death, will they not obtain for you the everlasting treasures of heaven, and open to your gaze the delicious groves and gardens of Paradise? In whatsoever place ye remain, O men, death hath dominion over you, and neither your houses, your lands, your wives, your children, nor the strongest towers, can defend you from his darts. ”

“ Be it known to our honourable father, the archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and to all the prelates of holy church, and to all Christians, that all we brethren of the Temple here assembled, and every of one of us are Christians, and believe in our Saviour Jesus Christ, in God the Father omnipotent, &c., &c.... And we believe all that the holy church believes and teaches us. We declare that our religion is founded on vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, and of aiding in the conquest of the Holy Land of Jerusalem, with all the power and might that God affordeth us. ”

“ Within the walls, for one night at least, the name of Christ was invoked with true piety and fervent devotion; while without the city, the eternal truth and the Moslem fiction were loudly proclaimed, “There is but one God, and Mahomet is his apostle.”
That very night, when the Mussulmen had finished their prayers, and ere darkness spread its sable shroud over the land, the loud trumpets of Saladin summoned the Christians to surrender “the house of God” to the arms of the faithful: but the Christians returned for answer, that, please God, the Holy City should not be surrendered. ”

“ Saphet is one of the four holy cities of the Talmud, and is held in peculiar veneration by the Jews. The castle of the Templars crowned the summit of a lofty mountain, along the sides of which extended the houses and churches of the town. It was the strongest fortress possessed by the order in Palestine. From the ramparts the eye ranged over a rich prospect of luxuriant vineyards and smiling villages, and embraced a grand panoramic view of lofty mountains. Through the valley below rolled the Jordan; to the southward extended the vast blue expanse of the lake of Tiberias ”

“ The memory of these holy warriors is embalmed in all our recollections of the wars of the cross; they were the bulwarks of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem during the short period of its existence, and were the last band of Europe’s host that contended for the possession of Palestine. To the vows of the monk and the austere life of the convent, they added the discipline of the camp, and the stern duties of the military life, joining “the fine vocation of the sword and lance” with the holy zeal and body-bending toil of a poor brotherhood. ”

“ The Lord Reginald of Sidon, the Lord Ballovius, and we ourselves, escaped with vast difficulty from that miserable field. The pagans, drunk with the blood of our Christians, then marched with their whole army against the city of Acre, and took it by storm. The city of Tyre is at present fiercely besieged, and neither by night nor by day do the infidels discontinue their furious assaults. So great is the multitude of them, that they cover like ants the whole face of the country from Tyre to Jerusalem, and even unto Gaza. ”

“ To all the professed knights, both in winter and summer, we give, if they can be procured, WHITE GARMENTS, that those who have cast behind them a dark life may know that they are to commend themselves to their Creator by a pure and white life. For what is whiteness but perfect chastity, and chastity is the security of the soul and the health of the body. And unless every knight shall continue chaste, he shall not come to perpetual rest, nor see God, as the apostle Paul witnesseth: Follow after peace with all men, and chastity, without which no man shall see God.... ”

“ Never did the flame of enthusiasm burn with fiercer or more destructive power than at this famous siege of Acre. Nine pitched battles were fought, with various fortune, in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel, and during the first year of the siege a hundred thousand Christians are computed to have perished. The tents of the dead, however, were replenished by new-comers from Europe; the fleets of Saladin succoured the town, the Christian ships brought continual aid to the besiegers, and the contest seemed interminable. Saladin’s exertions in the cause of the prophet were incessant. ”

“ Know ye not, O men, that ye are the only army of Islam, and its only defence. The lives and fortunes and children of the Moslems are committed to your protection. If ye now quail from the fight, (which God avert,) the foe will roll up these countries as the angel of the Lord rolls up the book in which the actions of men are written down.” After an eloquent harangue from the sultan, Saifeddin Meshtoob, and the Mamlooks exclaimed with one voice, “My Lord, we are thy servants and slaves; we swear, by God, that none of us will quit thee so long as we shall live.” ”

“ The armies of the infidels, numerous as the stars of heaven, have come forth from the remote countries situate beyond Constantinople, to wrest from us those conquests which have gladdened the hearts of all who put their trust in the Koran, and to dispute with us the possession of that holy territory whereon the Caliph Omar, in bygone days, planted the sacred standard of the Prophet. O men, prepare ye to sacrifice your lives and fortunes in defence of Islam. ”

“ Immediately after the destruction of the city, Bendocdar caused the following letter to be written to the prince of Antioch, who was at Tripoli: “Since not a soul has escaped to tell you what has happened, we will undertake the pleasing task of informing you.... We have slain all whom you appointed to defend Antioch. We have crushed your knights beneath the feet of our horses, and have given up your provinces to pillage: your gold and silver have been divided amongst us by the quintal, and four of your women have been bought and sold for a crown. ”

“ An astonishing enthusiasm was excited throughout Christendom in behalf of the Templars; princes and nobles, sovereigns and their subjects, vied with each other in heaping gifts and benefits upon them, and scarce a will of importance was made without an article in it in their favour. Many illustrious persons on their deathbeds took the vows, that they might be buried in the habit of the order; and sovereign princes, quitting the government of their kingdoms, enrolled themselves amongst the holy fraternity, and bequeathed even their dominions to the Master and the brethren of the Temple. ”

“ Nothing could withstand the fierce onslaught of the Moslems. In vain were the first ranks of their cavalry laid prostrate with the dust, and both horses and riders hurled headlong over the ruined walls and battlements into the moat below; their fall only facilitated the progress of those behind them, who pressed on sword in hand over the lifeless bodies of men and horses, to attack the faint and weary warriors guarding the breach. ”

“ To alleviate the dangers and distresses to which they were exposed, to guard the honour of the saintly virgins and matrons, and to protect the gray hairs of the venerable palmer, nine noble knights, who had greatly distinguished themselves at the siege and capture of Jerusalem, formed a holy brotherhood in arms, and entered into a solemn compact to aid one another in clearing the highways, and in protecting the pilgrims through the passes and defiles of the mountains to the Holy City. ”

“ The great tower of the Hospitallers was the only edifice that resisted the flames and the exertions of the destroyers. It stood frowning in gloomy and solitary magnificence over the wide extended scene of ruin. “We must not depart,” said Saladin, “until yon lofty tower has been brought low,” and he ordered it to be filled with combustibles and set on fire. “It stood,” says Bohadin, “by the sea-side, and was of amazing size and strength. ”

“ Hail, land of promise, which, formerly flowing only with milk and honey for thy possessors, now stretchest forth the food of life, and the means of salvation to the entire world. Most excellent and happy land, I say, which, receiving the celestial grain from the recess of the paternal heart, in that most fruitful bosom of thine, has produced such rich harvests of martyrs from the heavenly seed, and whose fertile soil has no less manifoldly engendered fruit a thirtieth, sixtieth, and a hundredfold in the remaining race of all the faithful throughout the entire world. ”

“ When the sun had sunk to rest, and darkness had put an end to the slaughter, a crowd of Christian fugitives, who survived the long and frightful carnage, attempted to gain the summit of Mount Hittin, in the vain hope of escaping from the field of blood, under cover of the obscurity of the night. ”

“ On the conquest of Jerusalem by the Moslems, this venerable church was converted into a mosque, and was called D’Jamé al Acsa; it was enclosed, together with the great Mussulman Temple of the Lord erected by the Caliph Omar, within a large area by a high stone wall, which runs around the edge of the summit of Mount Moriah, and guards from the profane tread of the unbeliever the whole of that sacred ground whereon once stood the gorgeous temple of the wisest of kings. ”

“ Clements at Sandwich, swore before the Papal inquisitors assembled at London, that he had heard that a boy had been murdered by the Templars in the Temple, because he had crept by stealth into the Hall to witness the proceedings of the assembled brethren.
At the west end of the hall are considerable remains of the ancient convent of the Knights. A groined Gothic arch of the same style of architecture as the oldest part of the Temple Church forms the roof of the present buttery, and in the apartment beyond is a groined vaulted ceiling of great beauty. ”

“ Crowds of armed pilgrims again quitted the shores of Europe for Palestine, and the Templars, obedient to the pressing calls of their brethren, hurried from their preceptories to the seaports of the Mediterranean, and embarked in the ships of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. The Grand Master of the Temple, and the king of Jerusalem, placed themselves at the head of the newly arrived battalions, and established their head quarters at Ras el Ain, a small village on the main land opposite Tyre. ”

“ A century after the death of Mahomet, the Moslems had extended their religion and their arms from India to the Atlantic Ocean; they had subdued and converted, by the power of the sword, Persia and Egypt, and all the north of Africa, from the mouth of the Nile to the extreme western boundary of that vast continent; they overran Spain, invaded France, and turning their footsteps towards Italy they entered the kingdoms of Naples and Genoa, threatened Rome, and subjected the island of Sicily to the laws and the religion of their Prophet. ”

“ The Carizmians had advanced into the plain of Ramleh by way of Baalbec, Tiberias, and Naplous, and they now directed their footsteps towards Jerusalem. They entered the Holy City sword in hand, massacred the few remaining Christians in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, pillaged the town, and rifled the tombs of the kings for treasure. They then marched upon Gaza, stormed the city, and put the garrison to the sword, after which they sent messengers across the desert to the sultan of Egypt to announce their arrival. ”

“ They renounced the world and its pleasures, and in the holy church of the Resurrection, in the presence of the patriarch of Jerusalem, they embraced vows of perpetual chastity, obedience, and poverty, after the manner of monks. Uniting in themselves the two most popular qualities of the age, devotion and valour, and exercising them in the most popular of all enterprises, they speedily acquired a famous reputation. ”

“ Shortly after the disasters in Egypt, and the conclusion of the eight years’ truce with the infidels, John de Brienne, the titular king of Jerusalem, prepared to bid adieu for ever to Palestine. Since the death of the young queen, his wife, he had regarded his kingdom as a place of exile, and was anxious to escape from the toil and turmoil and incessant warfare in which his feeble dominions were continually involved. ”

“ But the impetuous courage of the Count d’Artois and the Templars had led them far away from the support of the main body of the army, and their horsemen became embarrassed in the narrow streets of Mansourah, where there was no room to charge or manœuvre with effect. The infidels rallied; they returned to the attack with vast reinforcements; the inhabitants of the town mounted to their house-tops, and discharged stones and brickbats upon the heads of the christian knights, and the Templars were defeated and driven out of the city with dreadful carnage. ”

“ He laid waste all the country from Daron and Gerar to Jerusalem. In front of his fierce warriors were to be seen the long bands of mournful captives tied together by the wrists, and behind them was a dreary desert, soaked with christian blood. Saifeddin had besieged the strong town of Mirabel, and placed his military engines in position, when the terrified inhabitants sent a suppliant deputation to implore his clemency. He agreed to spare their lives in return for the immediate surrender of the place, and gave them an escort of four hundred Mussulmen, to conduct them in safety to Jerusalem. ”

“ But we know more concerning that same Christ than ye know, and we magnify him more than ye magnify him. And as to what you say concerning your desire for peace, tranquillity, and quiet, and that you wish to put down war, so also do we; we desire and wish nothing to the contrary. But let the pope know, that between ourselves and the emperor (Frederick) there hath been mutual love, and alliance, and perfect concord, from the time of the sultan, my father, (whom may God preserve and place in the glory of his brightness!) and between you and the emperor there is, as ye know, strife and warfare ”