The Deeds of God through the Franks

G >> Guibert of Nogent >> The Deeds of God through the Franks

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They approached the sepulchre of the Lord and thanked Him for what
they had sought, the liberation of the Blessed Places; He had
performed such great deeds with them as his instruments, that neither
those who had performed them nor any other men could properly
evaluate these great deeds. They kept in mind how much anguish they
had endured to achieve this, and how they had accomplished what they
could not have hoped for, and when they considered that they
themselves had done deeds which had been unknown for centuries, no
man could understand how blessed were the tears which they poured
forth. Omnipotent God, what deep emotion, what joy, what grief they
felt, after unheard-of sufferings, never experienced by any army,
like the tortures of child-birth, when, like new-born children, they
saw that they had attained the fresh joys of the long-desired vision.
Therefore they were sad, and after they had joyfully wept tears
sweeter than any bread, they rejoiced, and with overflowing emotions
they embraced the most pious Jesus, the cause of their excruciating
daily labors, as though he had been hanging on the cross, or had been
held until that moment in the shelter of the tomb from time
immemorial. Magnificent gifts of gold and silver were offered there,
but sincere devotion was more valuable than any gift.

At last the next day shone forth, and the Franks, sorry that they had
permitted those who had climbed to the top of the Temple (to whom
Tancred and Gaston had given their own standards, as we said earlier)
to remain alive, invaded the heights of the temple and cut the
Saracens to pieces, killing the women together with the men. Some of
them, preferring suicide, threw themselves from the top of the Temple.
Tancred, however, because he and Gaston had given their pledges of
security, was much disturbed by this killing. Then our men ordered
some of the Saracens to carry off the dead, because the foul stench
of the bodies was oppressive, and the city was filled with so many
corpses that the Franks were unable to move without stepping on dead
bodies. Therefore the pagans, when they had carried the bodies from
the city, in front of the main gates piled up mountains of corpses,
and burned them in a huge pile. We merely read about, and have never
seen such a killing of Gentiles anywhere; God repaid them who had
inflicted such pain and death upon the pilgrims--who had suffered for
such a long time in that land--by exacting a retribution equal to
their hideous crimes. For no one except God himself can calculate
how much suffering, how many labors, how much destruction all of
those who sought the Holy Places endured at the hands of the arrogant
Gentiles. God certainly must have grieved more over their suffering
than over the delivery of his Cross and Tomb into profane hands. But
before we turn our stylus to other matters, it should be made clear
that the Temple of Solomon, to which we referred earlier, is not the
structure which Solomon himself built, which the Lord had predicted
would not continue to stand, "one stone upon another," and which was
destroyed, but an imitation of it, built by I don't know whom, as
tribute to the noble ancient House. It certainly was a place of very
great beauty, built out of gold and silver, of immeasurable price,
and of incredible variety, with walls and gates plated with layers of
precious metals. Count Raymond then had the prefect who had been in
charge of the citadel, to whom he had sent his banners, brought out
of the citadel that night, together with his entire retinue, and
given safe conduct to Ascalon.

Then, when the holy places had been liberated, the entire Christian
army was ordered to give alms and offerings, so that their souls
might be properly receptive to the divine grace that they needed to
choose the man who would rule the holy city as its king. On the
eighth day after the taking of the city, they made an offer to the
count of Saint-Gilles, because of his excellence, but he, although
mindful of his high position, refused to take on such an onerous task,
for good reason (he was an old man, who had only one eye, but was
famous for his remarkable feats of arms and for his energy). Finally,
they approached duke Godfrey, and, at the urgent insistence of
everyone, the labor rather than the honor of this task was imposed
upon him, for he would have to battle unremittingly against the great
strength of the Gentiles, and to show good will towards the
neighboring Christians. Slender, relatively tall, eloquent, and
even-tempered, he had made himself known for his strength in battle
on the Lord's expedition. According to reliable, accurate testimony,
the following story is told about a remarkable deed he did, when he
met at Antioch, on the bridge over the Pharphar, a Turk, wearing no
cuirass, but riding a horse. Godfrey struck his guts so forcefully
with his sword that the trunk of his body fell to the earth, while
the legs remained seated as the horse moved on. The men of
Lotharingia customarily had remarkable long as well as sharp swords.

We think that another of his deeds, no less glorious, and worthy to
be told, should be included. They had taken Nicea, and since things
had gone well at Nicea, they hurried off to besiege Antioch; on the
way, from time to time, when the chance to relax their usual caution
occurred, they hunted beasts in the nearby forests (the fields in
this region were not as tall and thick as in our country). On one
occasion, a bear of enormous size came out of the bushes; when the
army caught sight of him, they set out in pursuit. Frightened by the
shouting crowd, the bear immediately sought out the woods from which
it had emerged. While many men were surrounding it, one wretch
happened to reach the beast's lair. Leaping forward, the bear
attacked the rash man, pinned him in his arms, and with his teeth
swiftly seized the leg of the man lying there.[214]

Then the Duke, separated from his men, went to help him; when the
wretched man, weeping with pain and fear, saw him, he called upon the
man's noble nature, and urged him to help him. Nor did the Duke,
whose nature consisted almost entirely of virtue, delay helping him,
but he swiftly drew his sword from its scabbard and forcefully struck
the head of the beast. More annoyed than wounded, because of the
hardness of its bones, the beast attacked the Duke, removing its
teeth from the leg of the unfortunate man whom he had first attacked
so fiercely. The man quickly departed, without troubling himself
about the Duke's difficulty, but saving himself, leaving the man and
the beast to resolve their conflict between them. The beast, angry
at the blow he had received, leapt up, seized the Duke with his claws,
threw him down, and pinned him under his terrible limbs. With his
raging mouth he bit the Duke's leg,[215] but the noble-minded man
remained steadfast in spite of his fall, and tightly held onto the
sword he had drawn.[216]

As he lay there, and the beast continued to gnaw at the hip he had
seized, the Duke, fully aware of his predicament, placed his sword
between the head and arm of the beast, gathered all of his strength,
and drove the point of the blade into the depths of the beast's body.
When he felt the metal gliding through his viscera, the beast
finally relaxed the jaws that had sunk into the Duke's flesh. When
the Duke saw that he had been released from the beast's mouth, and
noticed that the beast was not moving from its place, he pushed with
both feet, but in the act of pushing he received an almost mortal
wound in his leg from the sword that was stuck in the breast of the
beast above him. He fell down in worse shape than when he had been
held by the beast, and now, weakened from loss of blood, after some
time he was found by his men. The Duke was now sorry, although too
late, for having gone out by himself, since this adventure was costly
for his own warriors, and for the entire sacred army. Until the
siege of Antioch was over, he had to be carried on a litter, and
since he could not look after himself or others, he quickly lost
almost 15,000 men of those who had belonged to him, but who abandoned
him when he became disabled.

Since we have dealt with the bear, we would also like to mention a
deed performed by his brother Baldwin, who is now still the ruler of
Jerusalem, since no other more fitting place for the story may occur.
He suffered a similarly severe wound in battle, in the course of
saving one of his foot-soldiers, who had supported him bravely.
Foresight led the doctor whom he summoned to resist covering the
wound with medicinal poultices, because he knew that the wound was
very deep, and while the skin could be made smooth, the wound would
fester deep within his body. He proposed to conduct a remarkable
experiment. He asked the king to order one of the Saracens whom they
held prisoner to be wounded in the same place and in the same manner
that Baldwin himself had been (for it was forbidden for him to ask
for Christian), and to have him killed thereafter, so that he might
look more freely into the corpse, and determine from this inspection
something about the king's own internal wounds. The prince's piety
recoiled in horror at this suggestion, and he recalled the example of
ancient Constantine, declaring that he would not be the cause of the
death of any man, no matter how insignificant, for such insignificant
salvation, when it is ever doubtful. The doctor then said to him,
"If you have decided that no man's life can be spent for your own
well-being, then at least give the order to bring forward a bear, an
animal useless except for show, and have it hung up by its front paws,
then struck with an iron blade, so that I may then examine his
entrails, and I shall be able to measure how far it went in, and
thereby determine the depth of your own wound." The king answered
him, "The beast will be brought immediately, since it is necessary:
consider it a done deed." When the doctor had finished his
experiment at the animal's expense, he found, as we mentioned above,
that harm would come to the king if the wound were quickly covered,
unless the pus was removed and the interior part of the wound would
heal. To have said these things about the piety of the kings is
sufficient; they would have been deservedly famous had the choice of
a bishop, and the bishopric itself, not been defective.

Up to this point the careful Muse has proceeded through brambles,
along a narrow path. A cloud obscures the traveller's path, and the
dawning of the late star scarcely grows warm. Let the plague of
blood have run only thus far; let there be no further time for
slaughter and hunger. If Fortune has sometimes smiled on our efforts,
the rapacious air of destruction has soon followed. When the walls
of Nicea fell, and the city of Antioch was captured, what good was
produced? The good that resulted from the sufferings, for each holy
martyr, when death was conquered. For if grievous things had to be
suffered, bearing poverty and death at the same time, the grief
brought about future joys. I shall use the voice of the writer of
the Psalms, "I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the
house of the Lord;"[217] our feet shall tread the halls of Solyme,
walking there joyfully. Franks, take these rewards of labor; do not
grieve for the unhappiness you have endured. Take pleasure in the
sight of the Sepulchre you had long hoped for, and in the restoration
of the tear-stained Cross, and all suffering will leave your hearts.
This city, often made the spoil of kings, was given over to utter
ruin. O city made blessed by this capture, from now on you should
rule, drawing to you Christian kingdoms. You will see the glories of
the earth come here, to show filial gratitude to you. Not Ezra nor
Judas Machabee did as much, after your sufferings; Hadrian, whence
Elia gets its name, was not able, in reviving you, to give so much.
This world fights for you and yours; concern for you involves almost
the entire age. Once Judea, when it was at its strongest, could
match this glory. Why are knights sung of in battle? I ask that you
be the ruin of Persia and not of yourself. Attack the prince of
Babylon, and whatever stands in the way of Jerusalem, so that good
men may visit the Cross of Jesus, bowing their pious heads at the
Tomb. I shall cry out that our times have learned what no future
annals will teach.[218]

While temporal activities, which are thought to be the concern of the
royal administration, were being taken care of, internal
ecclesiastical concerns were not to be neglected, and as soon as a
king was set up, they dealt with replacing the patriarch. At that
time there was a cleric, of what rank I am not sure, named Arnulf.
He had some skill at logic, significant knowledge of grammatical
learning, and for some time had taught, in the subject mentioned
above, the daughter of the king of England, a nun. The count of the
Normans, through his sister, had promised him as much as a bishop's
honors, if any of his bishops happened to die. Meanwhile, when the
journey to Jerusalem was proposed, the bishop of Bayeux, whose name
was Odo, and who was very wealthy, vowed to undertake the journey.
Since he was the brother of William the elder, king of England, and,
in addition to the office of bishop, among the English he held the
county of Kent, with the expectation of great wealth, he seemed ready
to dare new enterprises, to the extent of plotting to take over the
kingdom from his brother. When the king found out about his
intentions, he put him in prison, where he remained until the day the
king died. At this time the bishop regained his freedom and office,
and, as I said earlier, when the pilgrimage was proclaimed, Odo,
accompanied by a large retinue and immense resources, set out on the
journey. Arnulf enrolled himself in his retinue, and when death
overtook this bishop, within the borders of Romania if I am not
mistaken, Odo bequeathed, out of the fortune which he left behind, a
legacy to him, which consisted of almost all of his most precious
possessions. Since he possessed a considerable amount of literary
knowledge, as well as native eloquence, and his increased wealth made
him more well known, he began to drive our men on with many speeches,
and to increase his fame in this way. The fact that learned men were
in short supply made him even more illustrious, and since a man's
voice is of more concern than the life he has led, he was called to
the patriarchy of Jerusalem. For some time, then, he presented
himself as the bishop, though in name only; he fulfilled his new
office by sermonizing. Finally, after a short time, when news of his
election reached the Apostlic See, after the death of the bishop of
Puy, Pope Paschal decreed that Daimbert, the archbishop of Pisa,
should administer pastoral care to the Lord's army. After Jerusalem
had been captured and the king had taken office, Daimbert arrived
with a large fleet; short while later he examined the process by
which Arnulf had been chosen, and decided that, in accordance with
canon law, it should be challenged. After a thorough investigation
of the man's origin, he was found to be the son of a priest and
therefore one who should not only be barred from sacred office, but,
according to a decision by the council of Toledo, he should be
ordered to become an eternal slave of that church whose dignity had
been affronted by his engendering. When he had been deposed, then,
in spite of his strenuous efforts to defend himself, the leaders
wanted to mitigate the shame that he felt at being rejected, and so
they asked him whom they should choose. In accordance with his
depraved nature, which envied both his peers and juniors, he said,
"Choose the Pisan himself, who is carrying out his assignment." The
leaders agreed with his words, seized the archbishop in the church
where he was sitting, almost without asking his consent, and escorted
him themselves to the cathedral to take up the see. A short time
later, after the death of the glorious king Godfrey, during the reign
of his brother Baldwin, who had previously ruled over Edessa, they
accused Daimbert of treason. Convicted of the crime, he who had
resigned his metropolitan see was deprived of the office of patriarch.
When another election was held to determine who would be bishop,
Arnulf shrewdly nominated one of his peers, whom he knew to be
submissive, a simple, illiterate man, named Ebremar, who would offer
no resistance to Arnold's power. He, however, behaved in a religious
fashion, and I think that he did not carry out Arnulf's wishes in
every way. As result, he soon was accused at the Apostolic See, but
the accusation failed miserably. As a result, Arnulf, together with
those who had been his accomplices in the accusation against Ebremar,
incurred the wrath of the king, who deprived him of the guardianship
of the Sepulchre, and drove him from the city. Reinstated by the
leaders of the Apostolic See, the bishop returned to Jerusalem, to
the great shame of his persecutors. This is quite enough to have
said about the election and deposition of that would-be patriarch.
The election, which was null and void in the minds of all
right-thinking men, took place on the day of the festival of
Saint-Peter-in-chains, but since he had no help from a pious life, it
dissolved. The city was captured by the Franks on the fifteenth day
of July, on the sixth day of the week, almost at the hour when Christ
was put on the cross.

A short time later, only a few days in fact, ambassadors[219] arrived
from the city of Naplouse,[220] which, unless I am mistaken, in
ancient times was called Emmaus. They invited Tancred and count
Eustachius, the brother of the duke who was now king, both of whom
were brave, noteworthy men, to set out for the above mentioned city,
bringing with them a large army, to take control of it. They set out,
bringing many men with them, including great number of foot-soldiers,
and reached the outskirts of the city. The residents of the town,
of their own free will, then opened the fortifications and
surrendered to them. Other messengers came to king Godfrey, bearing
the news that the emperor of Babylon was getting large numbers of
troops ready to wage war against him. The king, made fiercer by what
he had just been told, dispatched messengers to his brother Eustace
and to Tancred, instructing and urging them to return to Jerusalem as
soon as possible. The king also indicated that the battle would take
place at Ascalon. When these most fearless men heard what had
happened, they hastily set off through the mountains, where they
found none of the Saracens they thought would be up in arms against
them; then they reached Caesarea in Palestine. From there they
retraced their steps, proceeding to Ram, the town mentioned above,
made famous by the memory of Saint George, and situated on the shore
of the sea, where they met up with many Arabs, who were the vanguard
of the army they were to face. Our men joined forces against them,
attacked them, and by their united efforts overwhelmed the enemy, who
were compelled to flee. Many were captured alive, and they revealed
the enemies' plans for the battle about to take place: where the army
was going to assemble; what was its size; and where they planned to
stand and fight. After he had gathered this information, Tancred
sent messengers directly to Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, to tell him
what he had learned. He sent other messengers to Arnulf, the man
known as the patriarch, and to the other leaders, saying, "You should
know that a great battle awaits you, and since it is certainly about
to take place, come quickly to Ascalon, supported by as many fine
troops as you can quickly and carefully gather." The king, than whom
no one was wiser in his faith in God, by the authority invested in
him proceeded to rouse the entire army of God to perform this task,
and designated Ascalon as the place to which they should proceed to
face the enemy. He himself, together with the man called the
patriarch, and Robert, count of Flanders, left the city on the third
day of the week.

But the count of Saint-Gilles and the count of Normandy informed the
king that they were unwilling to proceed until they learned whether
the battle was certain to take place; they said that meanwhile they
would return to Jerusalem, offering to come quickly if needed. The
king departed, and when he saw the enemy from afar, quickly sent news
of what he had found back to those who were in Jerusalem. He
summoned a certain bishop,[221] and sent him to the city, to entreat
everyone to delay no longer, but, at this moment of need, to join him.
On Wednesday the leaders gathered together the Lord's expeditionary
forces and moved their camp outside the city. The bishop who had
brought the king's words to those who had remained in Jerusalem was
captured by Saracens, as he was making his way back to the king. It
is not clear whether he died or was led away captive. Peter the
Hermit, the official in charge of work that to this point was pious,
together with clerics, both Greek and Latin, remained in the city,
organizing processions, supervising prayers, preaching sermons,
urging the giving of alms, so that God might deign to add this
supreme victory to the victories of his people. The ecclesiastics
who could be present, dressed in their sacred vestments, as though
they were going to perform sacred offices, marched to the Lord's
Temple, where they led masses and delivered sermons that moved the
men and women deeply, asking God to end their exile. But the man
with the name of patriarch, together with the other bishops who were
present, gathered with several of the leaders at the river which is
known to be on this side of Ascalon. There, by the trickery of the
Gentiles, many thousands of animals, including herds of cows, camels,
and sheep, had been put in place. When the leaders learned that they
had been placed there as booty to tempt our men, the order was
circulated throughout the encampment that none of this booty was to
be found in anyone's tent, unless he could show that it was necessary
for his food that day.[222] Meanwhile, 300 Arabs rode into view, and
our men pursued them so effectively that they captured two of them as
they fled, and harassed the others by pursuing them to their
encampment.

Later on the same day, the man performing the function of patriarch
had the announcement made through the entire army that early the next
day everyone would prepare for battle, and he threatened to
excommunicate anyone who stopped during the battle to pillage; each
man was to suppress his desire for booty until the end of the battle.
He asked that they concentrate on killing the enemy, so that they
might not be diverted from the task by desire for shameful gain,
thereby permitting greed to stand in the way of the victory they had
in their grasp. Friday morning our army entered a very lovely valley,
on a level with the nearby river, where they set up their separate
battle lines. The Duke, who was now king, the count of Flanders, the
count of Normandy, the count of Saint-Gilles, Eustace of Bologne,
Tancred and Gaston together, in addition to others, both in single
and in shared commands, stood before their units. Bowmen and lancers,
who customarily march in front of the troops of foot-soldiers, were
drawn up, and king Godfrey with his troops took up the left side,
while the count of Saint-Gilles took up a position near the sea, and
the counts of Flanders and Normandy rode on the right side. Tancred
and others marched along in the center. Our foot soldiers moved
against the enemy's forces; the Gentiles prepared themselves for
battle without moving. You would have seen them carrying on their
shoulders vessels, which enabled them to hold the cool water in small
sacks,[223] from which they thought that they would drink while
pursuing us as we fled. But God provided something other than the
enemy race was imagining, for meanwhile, Robert, the count of
Normandy, saw shining from afar the spear of the leader of the army;
it seemed to be covered with bright silver, and its top decorated
with thick gold. Steadily spurring his swift horse on, he attacked
the prince, who was carrying spear as a standard, with great force,
wounding him with terrible blow. On the other side, the count of
Flanders loosened his horse's reins and plunged into the thick of the
enemy. Tancred rushed among the tents with a great company, and the
troops, along with their leaders, were revelling everywhere.[224]

The fields and plains became bloody with carnage. The enemy was
unable to bear their losses, and soon fled in despair. Even as the
number of pagans was great, so was the carnage great. If the waves
of the sea were great, so the Lord shows himself much more marvelous
in the deeps.[225] Then, so that it might be clear that the hand of
God only, and not that of man, was waging war, you would seen them
flee blindly, with their eyes open, and in their attempt to avoid our
weapons, they threw themselves on them. There was no place of refuge:

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