Liber recuperationis Terre Sancte

(Fol. 85r): Here begins the Book of the Recovery of the Holy Land.

To the most holy and most reverend father in Christ and lord, the lord Nicholas, by the grace of God supreme pontiff of the holy Roman and universal Church: brother Fidentius, least of the Order of Minors, to the kisses of the blessed feet.

The lord Pope Gregory, of happy memory, set on fire by the Holy Spirit and desiring with his whole heart the liberation of the Holy Land — which our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ acquired with his own blood — commanded me at the Council of Lyons to set down in writing how the Holy Land might be acquired out of the hands of the unbelievers, and how, once acquired, it might be preserved by Christ's faithful. I, for my part, though hardly fit for it, judged that I should write for Your Holiness what the aforesaid lord besides inspired, to the praise and honour of Our Lord Jesus Christ and for the guidance of those who out of love for our Saviour are to cross the seas — setting out in plain terms those things which I have in part seen with my own eyes and handled with my own hands.

It should be known, then, that the Holy Land has been held by different nations at different times.

For, first, it belonged to various gentile peoples. Second, it belonged to the Jews. Third, it belonged to the Assyrians. Fourth, to the Romans. Fifth, to the Christians. Sixth, to the Saracens. Seventh, it will belong to the Christians.

[Part One].

Chapter I. — How the Holy Land has been held by different nations.

This land, I say, first belonged to various gentile peoples; for before the entry of the children of Israel into this land, seven nations lived in it, which worshipped idols and graven [fol. 85v] images, served demons and sacrificed to them. Of these it is written in Deuteronomy 7: When the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has destroyed the nations before you — the Hittite and the Girgashite, the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations far more numerous than you and stronger than you — and your Lord has delivered them to you, you shall strike them down to utter destruction.

In this land there were very strongly fortified cities. Deuteronomy 7: All the cities were fortified with very high walls and with gates and bars. And we destroyed them. These are the words of Moses. ‖ There were also very strong peoples there, as is said in Numbers 13: the scouts who had gone to survey the Land of Promise said [p. 10] to Moses and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel: The land to which you sent us has very strong inhabitants, great cities with walls; the people we saw are of towering stature; there we saw certain monstrous men of the sons of Anak, compared to whom we seemed like locusts.

‖ That land also bore fruit in the greatest abundance. Leviticus 20: Take possession of the land, says the Lord, which I shall give you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. The scouts said the same thing. Numbers 13: The land flows with milk and honey, as may be known from these fruits — for, as it says in the same place, they cut off a vine-branch with its cluster of grapes, which two men carried on a pole; they also took some of the pomegranates and the figs of that place and showed them to the children of Israel. Likewise Deuteronomy 8: The Lord your God will bring you into a good land, of streams, of waters and of springs, a land of wheat, barley and vines, in which fig trees and pomegranates and olives grow, a land of oil and honey, where you will enjoy an abundance of all things.

‖ That land was also called by three names. ‖ For it is called the Land of Promise, the Land of Milk and Honey, and the Holy Land. ‖ It is called the Land of Promise because it was promised by God to the fathers of old, whence it is said in Genesis 15: The Lord said to Abraham: To your seed I shall give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, and so on. ‖ It is called the Land of Milk and Honey either because literally it abounds in milk and honey, or because it signified eternal life — which spiritually, as blessed Augustine says, flows with milk in our homeland, in the [fol. 86r] sight of the humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour; and it flows with honey in the sight of the divinity of our Redeemer. For God became man, as Augustine says, so that wherever a man turned he might find pasture: pasture outwardly in the humanity of the Saviour, and pasture inwardly in the divinity of the Redeemer. ‖ It is called the Holy Land by pre-eminence, because it was sanctified by Christ the Lord — for Christ was conceived in Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, and suffered in Jerusalem. Hence it is rightly called the Holy Land, because Christ sanctified it with his precious blood, sanctified it with his baptism, and sanctified it by walking through it, preaching, and working miracles.

Chapter II. — That the Holy Land once belonged to the Jews.

Second, the aforesaid land belonged to the Jews; for just as God had promised the said land to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so he handed it over to their children to possess, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. For the children of Israel had served Pharaoh king of Egypt and the Egyptians themselves for a long time, whence the Lord said to Abraham, Genesis 15: Know and understand beforehand that your seed will be a stranger in a land not its own, and they will subject them to slavery and afflict them for four hundred years. After this they will come out with great substance. And in the fourth generation they will return here.

Now after the children of Israel had served the Egyptians for many years and had been afflicted by them in many ways, the Lord their God had mercy; and he sent them Moses and Aaron, who at the Lord's command led them out of the land of Egypt, as is said in the Psalm: He sent Moses his servant, namely, and Aaron, whom he chose. And he placed in them the words of his signs, and so on. The Red Sea was opened before the children of Israel, and they walked on dry ground through the midst of it. And the Lord provided manna for the children of Israel in the desert for forty years. And the Lord gave the law to the children of Israel by the hand of Moses on Mount Sinai. Then Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness, and the Lord put in his place Joshua, son of mine (sic), the servant of Moses, who with the help of the Lord God brought the children of Israel into the Land of Promise; whence the Lord said to him, Joshua 1: Moses my servant is dead. Arise and cross this Jordan, you and your people with you, into the land which I shall give to the children of Israel. And the children of Israel entered the Land of Promise by warring and [fol. 86v] fighting with their enemies. They did not thereupon possess the whole of what had been promised them, because of their sins. Judges 2: You were unwilling to hear my voice; therefore I would not destroy your enemies before you, so that their gods may be your ruin. Likewise in the same chapter: Because this nation has broken [p. 11] my covenant which I made with their fathers, I too will not destroy the nations which Joshua left, and so on.

The children of Israel remained many years in the land promised them by God, and they had judges and many kings who ruled them. Afterwards, however, the children of Israel turned to depraved conduct, whence Moses speaks of these Jews in the words of the Lord, Deuteronomy 32: The beloved grew fat and kicked; grown fat, swollen, bloated, he abandoned God his maker and departed from God his salvation. They provoked him with strange gods and with abominations, they stirred him to anger. They sacrificed to demons and not to God, and so on. And therefore the Lord God cast out the children of Israel, because they had offended their God with many sins and above all through the sin of idolatry. For thus the Lord had threatened them, Deuteronomy 4: If you beget sons and grandsons and remain in the land, and being deceived make for yourselves any likeness, committing evil before the Lord your God, I call heaven and earth to witness this day that you will quickly perish from the land which, once the Jordan is crossed, you are to possess; you will not dwell in it a long time, but the Lord will destroy you and scatter you into all lands.

Chapter III. — That the Holy Land once belonged to the Assyrians and the Chaldeans.

Third, the aforesaid land belonged to the Assyrians and the Chaldeans. For the children of Israel were carried away from the land God had given them because of their sin, and the Assyrians took possession of the Land of Promise; whence it is said in 4 Kings 15 that in the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came and captured certain cities of the children of Israel and laid waste the whole region beyond the Jordan. And, as the Master says in the Histories, he carried off two and a half tribes into captivity. Some say that he led three tribes into captivity.

After this Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, as is said in 4 Kings 17, marched against Hoshea, king of Israel, and besieged Samaria for three years and took it, and deported Israel into Assyria — that is, the seven tribes that were left — and settled them by the river Gozan (Cozani, sic), beyond the mountains of the Medes and the Persians. And this was because, as is said in 4 Kings 17, the children of Israel offended the Lord [fol. 87r] their God and made for themselves statues and sacred groves on every high hill and under every leafy tree, and burned incense there upon altars after the manner of the nations which the Lord had removed from before them. And the king of the Assyrians brought peoples from Babylon and from Cuthah (Girtha, sic) and from Avva (Ajat, sic) and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim (Sopharnaim, sic) and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its towns.

After this the Jews too were carried away from Jerusalem and from Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon because of their sins, as is said in 4 Kings: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up, it says, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years, and then rebelled against him. This Jehoiakim died, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. Nebuchadnezzar also carried off Jehoiachin, king of Judah, the son of the aforesaid Jehoiakim, and all Jerusalem — all the princes and all the armies — into captivity. And the king of Babylon set up Zedekiah, his uncle, in his place. Afterwards Zedekiah revolted from the king of Babylon, and again Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem and besieged it and took it; and he seized Zedekiah and killed Zedekiah's sons before him and put out his eyes, and destroyed the walls of Jerusalem. The Assyrians and the Chaldeans ruled the whole Land of Promise for many years, through the sins of the children of Israel.

‖ But the Lord had mercy on the tribe of Judah, and the Lord brought the Jews back from captivity to Jerusalem — which the prophet Jeremiah prophesied concerning them: When seventy years begin to be completed in Babylon, I shall visit you and fulfil upon you my good word and bring you back to this place, and I shall make you return from the place to which I caused you to be deported. Jeremiah 29. This is also shown in Ezra 1: In the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, so that the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of the Persians, and he said: The Lord God of heaven has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is [in] Judea, and so on.

Chapter IV. — That the Holy Land belonged to the Romans.

Fourth, the aforesaid land belonged to the Romans. And this is shown first by the fact that Judas Maccabeus sent to Rome to make peace and friendship with the Romans — 1 Maccabees, chapter 8. After this, as the Master says in the Histories, Pompey besieged Jerusalem and took it and imposed tribute on the people of Jerusalem. And taking captive Aristobulus and his sons (?), Alexander and Antigonus, and likewise his sons — or that man's — he hurried to Rome by way of Cilicia. Again, Gabinius was sent by the (fol. 87v) Romans into Syria; he divided the Jewish people into five assemblies, that is, into five pentarchies, as though thereby breaking their pride. Again, after some time had passed, war broke out between Julius Caesar and Pompey. And when Pompey was dead, Julius Caesar granted the kingdom of Judea to Hyrcanus, on condition, however, that he not be called king. Sextus, moreover, his own kinsman, Caesar set over Syria.

At length, when Julius Caesar had been killed by the treachery of Brutus and Cassius, Herod called Asdolonita (sic) was declared king of Judea by the Roman Senate and crowned. This man was by descent an Idumaean (Dumeus, sic) on his father's side, and an Arab on his mother's. And the kingdom passed from Judah to a foreigner, with the coming of Christ close at hand. This is the Herod who killed the innocent children, miliario ij; and, as the History says, Christ was born in the thirtieth year of this Herod. ‖ Another was Herod Antipas, the son of the aforesaid Herod; this is the one who beheaded blessed John the Baptist, miliario xiij. ‖ The third was Herod who was called Agrippa, who was the nephew of the same; this is the one who killed blessed James and imprisoned blessed Peter. Acts 3. It is also quite clear that Judea was under the Romans, since blessed Paul appealed to Caesar. Acts 25. Hence he said: I appeal to Caesar, and Festus replied to blessed Paul: You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go. ‖ Other examples could be brought forward too, but these can suffice for the present subject.

Chapter V. — That the Holy Land belonged to the Christians.

Fifth, the aforesaid land belonged to the Christians, who indeed held it for a long time. For Saint Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem and discovered the Cross of the Lord. So too the emperor Heraclius exalted the Cross of the Lord, when the king of Persia had been subdued. So too many Christian kings went up to Jerusalem, as is clear from the outcome and as is clear from certain histories; as is also clear from this book of the acquisition of the Holy Land; as is also clear from the fact that many Latin patriarchs sat in Jerusalem, the royal city. But the Christians lost this most holy Land through their own great sins (denumeratis, sic). And therefore it is fitting that we should bring forward something concerning the Christians who lived in the Holy Land and concerning those who now dwell in it.

It must therefore be known that the Holy Land was [lost] by the Christian peoples (populibus, sic) for the following causes:

1. Infection. 2. Variation. 3. Effeminacy (fol. 88r). 4. Lack of discretion. 5. Division. 6. Failure. 7. Abandonment.

Chapter VI. — [That the infection of the Christians did harm].

The infection of the Christians, then, did them much harm and was a great cause of the loss of the Holy Land; for this cause has been present from that time down to the present day, and this because the Christians do not correct themselves, but add sins to sins and drag behind them a very long rope of sins, and when they ought to wash themselves from their sins, they strive rather to infect themselves with sins. Alas, for sorrow! some set out for the Holy Land clean, and afterwards, in the Holy Land itself, are infected with sins; and it is a marvel that in the Land of remission many become like the abomination of desolation. For this reason too their sin has brought the Christians into a wretched state. Proverbs 14: Sin makes peoples wretched. This is because the Christian inhabitants of the Holy Land did not keep the commandments of God. [p. 13] Ecclesiasticus 29: Those who transgress the commandment of the Lord shall fall into a wicked pledge. And what does the Lord say to the Jews through the prophet Isaiah? Isaiah 48: Would that you had heeded my commandments! your peace would have been made like a river. From which it follows that whoever does not keep the commandments of God falls into the hands of his enemies and into many evils. Thus the Jews, transgressors of the commandments of God, fell; so too the Christians have collapsed, and therefore [still] collapse, on account of their various transgressions of sins.

Chapter VII. — That the diversity of nations does harm.

The diversity of nations also did harm to the Christians dwelling in the Holy Land, and does them much harm. For to the Holy Land, and especially to Acre, there go and gather many Christians from almost every nation under heaven, who do not love that land as their own, nor guard it as the native-born do; for they are for the most part newcomers, who also have different languages and different rites and different ways of living; for there are in the Holy Land different Christians, of whom some are called Latins and some Syrians.

Latins, or Franks, is the name given to all Christians originating from the western regions, who are themselves differentiated according to their different languages and different customs, (fol. 88v) who also gather to the Holy Land, and many of them quickly return to their own lands, that is, to their own homeland; many of whom, moreover, go to the Holy Land with empty hands, so that if war breaks out with the unbelievers, they have no arms with which to defend themselves, and, as is very truly said, many of them are killed by the unbelievers, because they go incautiously to visit the holy places, and the Saracens lie in wait for them on the road and, finding them unarmed, strip them and slaughter them. And it is also a wonder that many Christians who set out for the Holy Land with great fervour return to their own homeland with greater fervour. And some who promise and say that they will do great things in the Holy Land do little or nothing and become carnal, and — what is very evil — they also cause great loss to the Christians, because they go into Jerusalem against the standing sentence of excommunication and pay a great sum of money to the Saracens; with which money the Saracens attack the Christians. There are also certain Latins, cursed by God and by the Church, who convey to the Saracens iron, arms, timber, and other prohibited goods, and give the Saracens the instruments with which they cut the throats of Christians and kill them. There is also another very great evil, that many Christians from among the Latins who cross the sea go over to the Saracens and, enticed by love of riches and of carnal pleasure, become Saracens and abandon the worship of Christianity, and afterwards, in arms, fight against the Christians; and, to put it briefly, many of the Christians who cross the sea are not to the advantage of the Christians but to their very great harm.

Those Christians are called Syrians who have arisen in the Holy Land and in the eastern regions from of old, whose forebears, too, in those regions were converted to the faith of Christ through the teaching of the apostles and of other saints. These, for the most part, wear the dress of the unbelievers, let their hair grow, and wear long and wide garments; some of whom, moreover, follow the rite of the Greeks, some that of the Jacobites, and they hold different opinions about it and think in different ways, and they do not love one another, but rather contradict one another; of whom there is no need to speak now in detail. These, generally speaking, are not warlike, and are of little profit for the defence of the Holy Land. And since the Christians dwelling in the Holy Land are, as has been said, so various and different from one another, they are for that reason less fit to make war against the unbelievers; whence the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah 12: Is my inheritance to me a bird of many colours? Is it a bird stained all over? (fol. 89r) Come and gather, all you beasts of the earth, and hasten to devour.

Chapter VIII. — That effeminacy harms the Christians.

Effeminacy also did much harm, and does harm, to the Christian inhabitants of the Holy Land. For the Christians who lived in the Holy Land lost heart and became utterly base in fighting, like women, because they did not dare to fight manfully against the Saracens, but rather, most basely and most wretchedly, turn their backs to the Saracens, so that few Saracens have sometimes conquered, and [still] conquer, many Christians. And so the Scripture is fulfilled which says, Deuteronomy 32: How was it that one pursued a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight? Was it not because God sold them and the Lord shut them up? And it is a wonder that the Christians [who] fight against one another in the Holy Land are like lions, for they strike one another, resist fiercely, and kill one another, but the face of the Saracens they scarcely dare to look upon; whence it is well said of them, Job 36: Their soul shall die in a storm, and their life among the effeminate. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 18: The souls of the effeminate shall hunger. Hence it is well shown; for the Saracens found the Christians most base, and therefore conquered and took possession of the Christians' cities and towns, and the Christians, who had been very rich, became exceedingly poor, so that they scarcely have bread to eat; and there can be said of them that which Jeremiah says, Trinus 5: Her nobles have perished of hunger, and her multitude has withered with thirst. Those who fed sumptuously have perished in the streets; those who were nurtured in scarlet have embraced dung.

Of the effeminacy and baseness of the Christians many examples could be given, but among the rest I shall relate one which all say was true. For the Saracens entered the kingdom of Lesser Armenia, which is a kingdom of Christians, and laid the land waste: now there is in that same kingdom a certain city situated by the sea, called Acium, to which come Venetians and Genoese and many other Latin merchants. Now a multitude of the Christians fled to the fortress that stands in the midst of the sea, and there they gathered together. But certain Christians, because perhaps they could not reach the sea-fortress, withdrew [themselves] to a certain rock set in the sea near the fortress, and there they thought themselves to be safe. But a certain Saracen, seeing the Christians standing upon the rock, swam as best he could to the aforesaid rock, holding a drawn sword in his hand. And when the unbeliever had drawn near to the rock and could not climb up well, the Christians helped him and drew him up onto the land. But the aforesaid Saracen rushed upon the Christians who were on that rock and killed, as they say, more than two hundred Christians in that one place, because no Christian was willing to defend himself. And a single Saracen, alone, with a single sword, made a slaughter of so many Christians, although those same Christians could have — as is said — swallowed him down, or overwhelmed him with their fists or with stones. And to conclude briefly, so great was, at times, the wretchedness of some of the Christians, that I am not able to recount it.

Chapter IX. — That lack of discretion harmed the Christians.

Often, too, lack of discretion harmed the Christians, because in their dealings and their battles with the Saracens they conducted themselves imprudently. For many times the Christians provoked to mischief the Saracens, who were not harming them but were at peace; on account of which the Saracens, provoked and multiplied in great number, invaded and laid waste the lands of the Christians. The Christians, too, did not know how to humble themselves at the proper time, nor to answer the Saracens humbly, nor did they send envoys of peace, as they ought. For according to the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 14: One who is about to go out to wage war against another king first considers whether with ten thousand he can meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand. Otherwise, while the other is still far off, he sends an embassy and asks for terms of peace. Solomon also says (Ecclesiastes 3): A time of war and a time of peace; and though a time of peace is very much to be welcomed, yet peace is especially to be sought when one [p. 15] perceives that his adversary is stronger in strength, richer in wealth, more numerous in people, shrewder in cunning, and crueller in tyranny.

Many examples of this are at hand, but out of many I shall relate one, concerning the city of Tripoli, which — besides many other causes — was lost through the folly of those within the city. For while the Sultan of Babylon was besieging the city with a very great army, the Saracens came many times and shouted to those who stood at the gates of the city: “Do you wish to send anything to the Sultan?” And by this they were inviting our men to send envoys to the Sultan and come to terms with him. Now it is plain that by some means they could have made peace with the Sultan. But so great was the imprudence of our men that they neither sent envoys, (fol. 90r) nor treated of peace, nor were willing to treat. It was also said by a certain great man: “Let us send out of the city the women and the old men, the boys and the girls, and we shall be the better for it; for if any danger should arise, all the aforesaid persons will be safe; the Sultan will care less to attack us, when he hears that the city has been emptied of its riches and its people; the men of arms will fight more bravely, when they know that their wives and their children are in a safe place; and a greater supply of provisions will remain in the city once so great a multitude of useless persons has been cleared out.” But alas! they refused to listen to counsel so good and sound, and so they all quickly perished. Our men also say that the Sultan said to certain Christians who came to him as envoys, after he himself had taken the city: “O Christians! you are exceedingly foolish and imprudent, for you do not know how to fight, you do not know how to make peace, and you do not know how to flee at the proper time.”

Chapter X. — That division greatly harmed the Christians.

Division, too, did much harm to the Christian inhabitants of the Holy Land. For among the few Christian inhabitants of the Holy Land there was no true love nor charity, but among them great discord sometimes flourished. For the three communes — namely, of the Venetians, the Genoese, and the Pisans — were at odds with one another and waged many wars, as is clear to all; between the king of Jerusalem, too, and the communes, no small strife was frequently stirred up. Certain confraternities of the Syrians, too, make war on one another. Among the Religious who bear arms, too, charity does not flourish as it ought. The barons of the Holy Land, too, often do not agree with one another in their counsels. Sometimes, nonetheless, one city is in concord with the Sultan and another in discord. One Order contracts friendship with the unbelievers, another wages wars with them; one suffers loss from the unbelievers, another furnishes them aid. How, then, can such Christians do well against the unbelievers, who are thus divided among themselves? Many examples could be given, but I pass over them, lest I become too long-winded. Indeed it must be that the word of the Lord is verified in them, Luke 11: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be laid waste. Likewise Hosea 10: Their heart is divided; (fol. 90v) now they shall perish.

Chapter XI. — The lack of a head does harm.

In the Holy Land, too, there was and is a great want of a single governing head. For the inhabitants of the Holy Land have no single head whom they may obey and whom they may follow; for the king of Jerusalem is not obeyed, and they will not obey him — neither the Venetians, nor the Genoese, nor the Pisans, nor the Templars, nor the Hospitallers, nor the Germans, nor any other barons likewise dwelling in those regions; nor was there any captain appointed by the Supreme Pontiff. And there may be said of the Holy Land that which is said in Judges 17: In those days there was no king in Israel, but each one did that which seemed right to himself. This too is what is said in 3 Kings 22: These have no lord. And accordingly the Prophet next says (in the same place): I saw all Israel scattered, like sheep that have no shepherd.

[p. 16] It is reported that a certain Sultan said to the Christian inhabitants of the Holy Land: “This,” he said, “is the difference between me and you. For I am like a serpent that has one head and many tails, and that head, since it is one, draws all the tails after it according to the pleasure of its own will. So I am one lord, and I draw all the Saracens after me, according to what I, as their leader, shall command them (?). But you Christians are like a serpent that has many heads, having different appetites, and one tail is not enough to follow the will of all the heads. So it is with you Christians who dwell in the Holy Land, because among you there are many lords, who will and desire different things. And therefore you cannot attain to completion in your affairs.”

Chapter XII. — That the withdrawal of aid harmed the Christians.

Our own Christians from across the sea, too, did not help the Christians overseas as would have been fitting, but rather abandoned them when they were set in the greatest straits; and if perhaps they sometimes did help them, afterwards they let them go and returned to their own homeland. For how can a few Christians resist so many thousands of unbelievers? The Roman curia, for a long time now past, did not help the Holy Land as would have been fitting; other business presses hard upon the hearts of the courtiers; but the business which above all [other] business ought to press upon their hearts is either not cared for or is reckoned of little account. The Christian kings make war on one another, (fol. 91r) and destroy and consume one another; if they love temporal possessions, why do they neglect to take the most ample and most opulent expanses of lands? Let them consider what the kingdom of Damascus is, what the kingdom of Egypt is, what the kingdoms established in Africa are — all which kingdoms, indeed, the Christians have lost through their own negligence. For the Christians in ancient times possessed the kingdom of Turkey; the kingdom of Armenia, which is still wretchedly held by the Christian Armenians; the principality of Antioch, where once there was the seat of a kingdom; the kingdom of Damascus, which is most opulent and great; the kingdom of Jerusalem, which among all other kingdoms is most precious and most lovable, for reverence of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the kingdom of Egypt, which abounds in all good things; the kingdom of Tunis, or of Carthage, which the Roman Christian emperors held for many ages. Let the rulers of the churches of Our Lord Jesus Christ blush for shame! let the Christian kings and princes be confounded, through whose negligence such things have been lost! Nor is it impossible to recover all these kingdoms; rather it is very possible, if only the Christians in their wars are willing to proceed rightly, as will be shown below.

Chapter XIII. — That the Saracens took possession of the Holy Land.

Sixthly, the Holy Land came to belong to the Saracens, as is plainly manifest. For they themselves hold the holy places; and among others there are three principal places, namely: Nazareth, in which Christ was conceived, Bethlehem, in which Christ was born, Jerusalem, in which Christ suffered. And it is the greatest reproach to the Christians. Now the aforesaid places the Saracens have held for a long time. ‖ Their father and their beginning in malice was Muhammad, a man utterly abominable, of whom [we shall now say] something to us.

Chapter XIV. — On Muhammad and his life.

The aforesaid man, then, was from Arabia, from the city that is called Mecca. His father was called Abdelecth — that is, “servant of the idol Leth” — and his mother was called Emina. Now his parents were idolaters and worshipped idols. He too, [p. 17] Muhammad, worshipped idols in his youth, and his very city of Mecca was given over to the worship of idols.

‖ But Muhammad's father came to his death and left his son, an orphan boy, in the keeping of his brother, who was called Abdannef. Then Muhammad, in the time [fol. 91v] of his boyhood, applied his heart to the study of letters, and diligently strove to become skilled in the mathematical arts (sic); in secret, too, he learned foolish sciences.

‖ In that time Sergius, a Nestorian monk, sinned grievously in his monastery, on account of which he was excommunicated and expelled from his monastery. He came to Mecca, where there were two peoples, one of which was gentile and a worshipper of idols, and the other was Jewish. This same monk Sergius found, in the aforesaid city of Mecca, Muhammad, who worshipped idols; and, wishing to convert the said Muhammad to the Christian faith, he taught him many things from the New and the Old Testament; and it is said that the said Muhammad became a Christian, a Nestorian. In the same city there were three Jewish men, exceedingly malicious and quite well versed in their law, who, fearing lest Muhammad should at some time become a perfect Christian, and lest through this their own law should suffer some harm, attached themselves to the aforesaid Muhammad and pressed him hard to lead him to the worship of one God, and to make him a proselyte of the Jews. But the aforesaid Muhammad saw and recognized that the Christians worship one God in substance and threefold in persons, and that the Christians profess unity and trinity, whereas the Jews profess unity and not trinity. Now since he was malicious and had already learned from Sergius the monk the law of the Christians, and from the Jews the law of the Jews, and since he had not yet set his foot firmly in any law, he conceived in his heart [the design] to convert the people of his city of Mecca and all the peoples of Arabia, who worshipped idols, to the worship of one God, and to bring it about that they should abandon the worship of idols. Nonetheless he considered that the law of the Christians is hard, and that the men of those regions would not easily be willing to submit themselves to the keeping of the evangelical law, and likewise that they would not readily become Jews, since they do not love the Jews; and so he thought to establish a third law, as it were compounded of two, namely of the evangelical law and of the Mosaic law.

But since the said Muhammad was poor and did not have enough for carrying out such great affairs, he attached himself to a certain woman who was called Adiga, and became her hireling, and used to keep the camels of the aforesaid mistress, and went with that mistress's camels into Syria and into other (fol. 92r) regions, as seemed good to the mistress. At length, since he was cautious and malicious, he so contrived that he took the said woman to wife. After he saw himself greatly enriched — and that by the wealth of the aforesaid woman — he attempted to seize lordship and kingship over his own people and his own country, so that thus at last he might more freely give them the law which he intended to establish. But since he still had few supporters, he used a twofold device, namely feigning and oppression: feigning, indeed, because he pretended to be a prophet and a messenger of God, [sent] to call men back from idolatry. Now the men of those regions were simple, and he deceived them the more easily inasmuch as he found them rude and far removed from all wisdom. Whenever he wished to set the word of his preaching before those men, he would have them all gathered together outside the city, and, in the presence of all — as though suffering the falling sickness — he would throw himself to the ground and, casting foam from his mouth, flinging his feet and hands about in disorder this way and that, cast down in the sand, he would roll about for a very long time. Then, after a space of time, he would restrain every motion of his limbs and close his eyes, so that he seemed lifeless. And when some space of time had passed, he would rise, and to the peoples who had long been waiting he would say that the angel Gabriel was being sent to him by God — [the angel] who threw him down to the ground and afflicted him in his body and harassed him while he was set in ecstasy, so that he might set forth to those who worshipped idols the words of God, [p. 18] which he brought back to him from God from heaven, and might more zealously draw men, once called back from idolatry, to the worship of one God.

Set, then, in the midst of the peoples, he would put before them not the words of an angel, but words that he himself invented and, as though from an angel, set before the untaught people as things said to him; and in secret he would preach. And whenever he preached to them, he would say: “I am the messenger of God; the words that the angel has placed in my mouth, these I set forth to you. I do not know letters; I am unlettered. The angel compels me to speak to you words of this kind”. And that he might the more easily draw men to his purpose, he urged that more good things be done than [things] tainted with many errors, and, as it were in a sweet apple, he set deadly poisons before them.

But not all followed Muhammad's words, and especially those of his own city of Mecca; and because of this, when they came to know all his tricks and evil deeds, [fol. 92v] he began to use violence and to oppress men, so that those who would not willingly receive the words of his law even in pretense should at least be compelled by the sword and by violence. Now he had forty men of his own, who guarded him against the others of Mecca; and since these were not enough, he gathered to himself all the fugitive and pestilent men, plotters against morals and oppressors of others, and also whatever murderers he could get, and he became their chief. These he would send to the wilds of the woods, to the tops of the mountains, to the roads of travelers and to any places whatever, to plunder men, to seize also their goods, and to kill those who resisted. And the fear of Muhammad fell upon all the men of those regions. And he had a color of excuse [for it], because he wished — according to what he pretended had been told to him by the angel — that he might call men back to the worship of one God. In this manner the false prophet went to places near and far, and violently compelled men to receive the law concerning the worship of one God, which he pretended had been handed down to him by God. Whence it came about that the men of those regions, whether willingly or unwillingly and compelled by Muhammad, received that law. And Muhammad little by little grew and became great, and named himself a prophet and a messenger of God — which name has remained to him among the Saracens even to the present day. Indeed the Saracens say of Muhammad that he is the seal of all the prophets, because they say that he is greater than [all] the other prophets, and because prophecy is so sealed that after Muhammad no other prophet will arise.

Now the aforesaid man was not only most false and most lying, and a most savage robber, and a most wicked shedder of human blood, but he was also most foul in the sin of lust: for he had at the same time fifteen freeborn wives (sic) and two handmaids, besides others whom he knew in sin; he also used to separate wives from their husbands and take them for himself. And out of many [instances] I shall relate one. There was a certain man [p. 19] by the name of Saidus, and he had a wife by the name of Sebib, who was one of the more beautiful women who lived in their days upon the earth. Now when Muhammad heard the report of her beauty, he blazed up into lust for her, and, desiring to see her, came to the woman's house in the absence of her husband, and asked after her husband. But she said: “O messenger (fol. 93r) of God, what do you wish, what do you seek? My husband has gone to attend to his affairs.” This did not escape the woman's husband. And when he had returned to his house, he said to his wife: “Was the messenger of God here?” She answered: “He was.” Then he: “Did he see your face?” She answered: “He saw it, and looked long upon me.” He said: “I can no longer be with you.” And while Muhammad was sitting with his companions, suddenly he fell upon his face, as he was accustomed to feign. And his companions said: “The angel Gabriel has come to him to reveal something to him.” After an hour he raised his head and said to his companions: “The Lord has appeared to me and rebuked me concerning the wife of Saidus.” His companions answered him: “And what is this, O messenger of God?” And when he wished to take her to himself as a wife, Saidus said to him: “O messenger of God, do you too wish to snatch away from me my wife, whom I have betrothed to myself?” Muhammad answered him: “O Saidus, God from heaven has rebuked me concerning your wife, and wills that I take her for myself. The witnesses of this matter are Michael and Gabriel, the angels of God.” After this, Muhammad rose in haste and went to the woman's house to take her for himself. But she, seeing him, blushed. He, however, said to the woman: “Do not blush, woman, for God has given me to you as a husband, and has ordained this marriage from heaven. The witnesses of this matter are Michael and Gabriel, the angels of God.” And so he took her to himself as a wife. And she afterward gloried in the presence of Muhammad's wives, saying: “You were handed over from the earth by your friends [to be] wives to the messenger of God; but God married me to the messenger of God from heaven.”

And that the abominable man might make his lust manifest to all, he wrote in his book that power had been given to his loins by God, such that he could match forty of the most powerful men in the intercourse of lust. Thus the false prophet conducted himself in the worst vices all the time of his life. Having at last fallen sick, he recognized that he was dying, and commanded his followers that they should not bury his dead body, because on the third day he was to be taken up into heaven. And they, keeping the command, awaited this with great longing. But he, as is reported, labored for seven days under a frenzied disease and lost his senses. And he died on the second day of the week [Monday], in the sixty-third year of his life; and his belly swelled up, and his little (fol. 93v) finger was bent backward. And from the second day of the week, on which he died, until the evening of the fourth day [Wednesday], wearied by the long waiting, they did not see him rise again, but a violent stench breathed out from his corpse; whereupon, being troubled, they cast his naked body outside.

This man was not that Nicolas, one of the seven deacons who was in the primitive church, as some falsely suppose; and they say that this Muhammad lived after Christ by six hundred years and more. For now — that is, at the time when this little book is written — there run from the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus one thousand two hundred and ninety-one years; and from Muhammad down [to now] there run six hundred and eighty-nine years. The proof of this matter is that, if he had been in the primitive church, the doctors of the holy church would have made some mention of him.

Let it be enough for us to have said these things about the false prophet; now let us set forth something about his followers, namely the Saracens. It should be known, then, that in the Saracens, as in poisoned sons [sprung] from a poisoned father or parent, many evils are found, which are these: Unbelief. ‖ Foulness. ‖ Cruelty. ‖ Greed. ‖ Shrewdness. ‖ Dullness. ‖ Instability.

Chapter XV. — [On the unbelief of the Saracens].

Unbelief, to be sure, reigns among the Saracens. For they deny the holy and undivided Trinity: for they confess that there is one God, creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and they say that there is one God, sole and true, who is not multiplied, and has no partner; and they take it much amiss that the Christians speak of the Trinity. For they do not understand the faith of the Christians: they suppose that the Christians speak of the Trinity in a human manner, as though they meant three gods, just as we say three men. And for this reason they even call the Christians “sharers,” as though because they give (fol. 94r) a part to God — because, that is, the Father would have a part, and the Son a part, and the Holy Spirit a part. And they say that God is without any beginning. ‖ On the outward face of it the Saracens seem to speak well; but far be it from the Christians that it should be so understood, or that they should say [it] as the Saracens say the Christians believe or say; for the Saracens do not distinguish, whereas the Christians, distinguishing, say that in divine matters one is to consider the essence and the persons. If discourse is had of him with respect to the essence, then the Christians say that there is one God and one alone, who is not multiplied, because there are not several Gods, but one God alone and true, most omnipotent, most all-wise, supremely good, uncompounded, most simple, most pure, uncircumscribable and immense; and much better and more subtly do the Christians think of God, and speak better [of him] than the Saracens; nor did any true Christian ever say that there were several gods. But if discourse is had of God with respect to the persons, then the Christians believe and say that there are three persons in God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; which persons indeed do not make the deity plural, but retain [its] unity; for the whole divine essence is in the Father, the whole in the Son, the whole in the Holy Spirit; likewise the Father has the deity, the Son has the same and not another deity, and likewise the Holy Spirit has the same and not another deity, because, since the deity is most one and most simple, it cannot be divided. And therefore it is necessary that, if each person is God — as is true — he is not another but is the same God; whence the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there is one God, because the divine substance is not multiplied in its supposits, as the human species is multiplied in its individuals; whence, if I shall say: Socrates is a man, Plato is a man, Cicero is a man — it well follows: therefore Socrates and Plato and Cicero are three men and are not one man. ‖ But by an infinite distance is the divine essence more excellent than any creature, and every comparison of a creature to God expresses dissonance rather than agreement, as the blessed Dionysius shows On Mystical Theology: although affirmations too are attributed to God, nevertheless negations are said of God more truly than affirmations.

They also define Christ [not] to be God or the son of God; and they say that God is not begotten, nor begets, nor has a son, and they take it very much amiss [fol. 94v] that it should be said that God has a son. For they do not understand generation in the way in which it ought to be taken and understood, but they understand [it] as if generation were spoken of in a human and carnal manner; and about this they much justify themselves, and they condemn the Christians, saying that the Christians are foolish and lost who give a son to God. And they say of Christ that he [is] the son of the Virgin and a great prophet, and that he is a man and not God; whence Muhammad in his book brings in angels speaking to the Blessed Virgin Mary and saying: O Mary, God has chosen you and cleansed you and preferred you above all the women of the nations. God has announced to you that there shall be to you a son, Christ Jesus, great in this world and in the world to come; and he shall speak to men in the cradle, and shall be among the saints. And Mary said: How shall I have a son, when no man has touched me? And it was said to her: Thus God creates what he wills. And God will teach him the Book and wisdom and the decalogue and the Gospel, and will give him as a prophet to the sons of Israel. And afterward he speaks in the person of Christ, saying: I will heal one born blind, and the leper, and I will raise the dead at the beck of God. Then Muhammad adds, [p. 21] concerning Christ: The likeness of Jesus Christ before God is like the likeness of Adam. They also say that Christ did not suffer, nor die, nor was buried; but they say that Christ [merely] seemed to suffer and to die and to be buried. Far be it, they say, from Christ that he underwent such reproaches.

The Saracens also greatly abhor images, and they destroy pictures, and spread them beneath themselves, and throw them into unclean places. I have learned, then, that lately, after the capture of the city of Tripoli, the Saracens dragged the cross of Christ at the tail of an ass, and heaped upon the images every insult they could. ‖ And when Sultan Bendocdar had taken the city and, victory won, was returning toward Damascus, I went to his army so that I might gain some benefit from the captives. And while I was walking through the army, certain Saracens called me, and put a question to me, saying: “Why do you Christians worship pictures and images?” To whom I answered, saying: “You are mistaken, for the Christians do not worship images or pictures, but they worship and venerate the Saints who are in heaven, whom the images re-[fol. 95r]-present.” At this they fell silent, not knowing what more they might say.

They also seize Christians and force them violently to become Saracens; for they so beat boys and girls, women and men, and promise them so much, that the Christians become Saracens. This great outrage too they used to commit at Tripoli — that they so contrived that boys who had been Christians spat upon the crosses of the Lord and the images of Our Lord Jesus Christ. ‖ Many other things could also be said about the unbelief of the Saracens, but for the sake of brevity let the things that have been said suffice.

Chapter XVI. — That the Saracens are foul with lust.

The foulness of lust is so great among the Saracens that it could scarcely be set forth in words. For from the sole of the foot to the crown they are sunk in the mire of the deep, and there is no soundness in them. For because their prophet was foul, he granted to the Saracens every foulness; whence he himself said in the Qur'an, his book: Contract [marriage] with those [women] who please you — a second, a third, and a fourth. For he granted that anyone might have four wives. And afterward in the same book he adds: And if you fear (sic) [for] one, you may have handmaids too, whom your right hand possesses; this is easier. Approach, he says, your wives. For your wives are to you as a vineyard. Raise them up, then, in whatever way it has pleased [you]. For on the night of your fast it is lawful for you to take your delight with your women. For they are garments to you, and you are garments to them. He therefore condescends to you and spares [you]. (sic) ‖ Likewise he granted [them] to give a bill of divorce to their wives. To divorce, he says, twice, is permitted. But if anyone divorces his wife, she is not lawful for him afterward, until she marries another man and contracts [marriage] with another. After this, however, they are not forbidden to reconstitute the marriage. Likewise the false prophet granted his [followers] to fornicate, whence in his Qur'an he says: You are not forbidden to fulfill [your] desire with a woman, once her fee has been paid to her.

Besides the uncleannesses mentioned above, the Saracens have many other uncleannesses greater than these, of which I make no mention here, because they do such and so great things that it is shameful even to speak [of them]. This too I say: that they perform such carnal crimes that they are worthy of death, as once [were] the citizens who were [in] Sodom and Gomorrah. And if there were (fol. 95v) no other cause but this, the Christians ought to fight against them and cleanse the land. The blessed Paul indeed speaks against such wicked men, saying, Rom.: For those who do such things are worthy of death — and not only those who do them, but also those who consent to those who do them. Now because the Saracens [p. 22] have so fixed their hearts on the stench of lust, therefore they too, according to their utterly vain fancies, say that in the future they will have earthly and carnal paradises in which they are to take carnal delight; whence their false prophet wrote in his book, saying: Those who have believed and have done good things shall have paradises, beneath which rivers flow down, and they shall have there chaste wives, and shall be everlasting in them. For God is not ashamed to bring in among them a likeness. Indeed, as is written in a certain little book, certain Jews, coming to Muhammad, questioned him, saying: “Tell us, O Muhammad, what life there is in the heavens of paradise.” He answered: “The floor of paradise is golden, set with emeralds and hyacinths frequently interposed, planted with every fruit-bearing tree, with pleasant [streams] running (sic) down through it, of which some pour forth milk, some white honey, some the purest wine. Whatever can be desired will be present at once to the inhabitants of paradise. They will be clothed in every color except black, all perfect — in stature indeed [that] of Adam, but in form [that] of Jesus Christ — never suffering any harm. And upon entering the first paradise, there is set before [one] to eat the liver of the fish albehbut, a food delightful beyond what can be believed; the fruits of the trees follow, and the drink of the flowing (sic) paradise.” But it is objected to him: “Tell [us], then: since whatever flows in must flow out — is it not so? Must it not be that, as they eat, so also they will have to void [it]?” He answered: “It does not follow; for even the infant in the womb, while it lives, feeds, and yet does not void; and when it begins to void, it undergoes the law of mortality. And necessity would follow for those [in paradise] too, if they voided; if anything is superfluous from it, it goes out through sweat, fragrant with the odor of musk.” — “But tell [us], will they eat bread and meat?” He answered: “Plainly, whatever of delight they crave will be present, except forbidden things, which will not please them — such as flesh and the like.” Behold, you have heard what kind of paradise the Saracens [fol. 96r] await.

Chapter XVII. — That the Saracens are cruel.

The Saracens are exceedingly cruel, for the Christians whom they hate they persecute most harshly; which indeed they do most of all toward those Christians who are perverted [to their sect] — by leading them off with themselves to hellish things, by demolishing the temporal goods of the Christians, by plundering [them] and destroying churches, and also by taking the persons of the Christians captive, subjugating [them], and killing [them]. For, as has been said above, the Saracens capture many Christians, whom they compel to lose their souls, while they make them forsake the law of Christ and serve their utterly vain traditions and uncleannesses. Woe, he says, to the sinful [nation]! They have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are turned away backward: Isaiah 1. The provinces, cities, strongholds, and villages of the Christians they have plundered and [now] possess; and if any Christians have escaped, they remain poor and beggars, since they lose all their movable and immovable [goods] at once. To nobility they show little or no regard, for they make ladies and damsels, the daughters of knights, serve like handmaids. Both sexes they abuse and consume. Women they sell among themselves, and they prostitute many of them, and about both sexes they do many evil and dishonorable things. Churches they destroy and cast down to the ground; sometimes they set up certain churches of the Christians to be their own oratories, and do not allow Christians to enter them. The blood of the Christians they thirst for, and gladly shed, and they think they render a sacrifice to God when they kill Christians. When the Saracens have war with the Christians, they gladly kill the men, lest at any time, if they should live, they might be able to do them harm. Captives they rarely release — unless they do so either for an exchange of their own [men], or when some other occasion intervenes — but they compel them to serve them for the longest times. The dead bodies of the Christians they often dishonor; for the heads of many they cut off, and of those who had long hair they flay the heads themselves and dry [them], and put the said skins on the tips of their lances and carry [them] for a standard or banner, as I have seen with my own eyes — which they do to the dishonor [p. 23] and (fol. 96v) loss of the Christians. Straps [of skin], crosswise from behind, from one arm all the way to the other arm, they take from the dead bodies of the Christians together with the very fingernails, and they make bowstrings for their bows. The corpses they disembowel, and take the gall, and store it up for medicine.

Chapter XVIII. — That the Saracens are greedy.

The Saracens are very greedy, both the greater and even the lesser, so that there is fulfilled in them that which is said, Jeremiah 8: From the least to the greatest, all pursue avarice; for they lay many tolls upon crafts, upon offices, upon places, upon the things that are sold and bought, [and] they make many exactions — so much so that it is said that the Saracens somewhere sell the sun; that is, the benefit of the sun, the places, namely, where cloths and other things are put out to dry. And therefore it is that the Saracens have great revenues and proceeds from some small city or village; and it seems that some Christians have learned from the Saracens, doing similar things. The Saracens, led by greed, despoil pilgrims, and there is scarcely any evil that they will not commit for money.

Chapter XIX. — That the Saracens are shrewd and malicious.

They are shrewd — that is, subtle and malicious in doing evil — so that the Christians can scarcely guard themselves against their devices and malices; wise, I say, they are, to do evil, but they do not know how to do good. Jeremiah 10. For with many words, many deeds, and many ways they circumvent the Christians.

Chapter XX. — That the Saracens are dull towards the good.

Dullness is proved to be in the Saracens in this: that they have shut off from themselves the way of salvation. For they will hear nothing that may seem contrary to the sayings of their prophet Muhammad, and if anyone says anything contrary, he is killed without mercy. But what greater folly is there than to be unwilling to hear and to learn the truth? For as the Philosopher says: Every man by nature desires to know. Hear what Solomon says, Proverbs 1: A wise man, by hearing, will be wiser, and one who understands will possess governance. He will attend to a parable and its interpretation, the words of the wise and their riddles. And it follows: Fools despise wisdom and doctrine. Fools, therefore, and dullards are they rightly judged to be, who are unwilling to receive the doctrine of God. For they stop their ears like (fol. 97r) serpents, that they may [not] hear the words of the charmer — that is, of wisdom preaching — as David the prophet says, kindled or inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore Solomon also says, Proverbs 28: He who turns away his ear so as not to hear his law, his prayer [is] abominable. This dullness the Saracens received from their prophet, who wrote in his book, saying: Fight against those who assail you in the way of God, and kill them wherever you seize them. By “the way of God” he means the faith, or the rite, or the superstition which this same Muhammad taught them. Thus were killed five Friars Minor who had set out for Marrakesh to preach the word of God to the unbelievers.

Chapter XXI. — On the instability of the Saracens.

The Saracens are unstable, and most of all in their promises. For they make a truce with the Christians, and certain pacts, which afterward they do not keep. The overseas Christians too, who are the Saracens' neighbors, say that however much the Sultan holds peace with the Christians, that peace does not last, nor does it stand except at the Sultan's will; and therefore the Christians cannot trust the Saracens, because they have no stability. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 11: The wicked man does an unstable work. And as the blessed apostle James says: A man of double mind is inconstant in all his ways.

[p. 24] When the Saracens see that the Christians are strong and can defend themselves and do them harm, then the Saracens humble themselves greatly, in guile, and say that they are the brothers and friends of the Christians; but when they see that the Christians are weak and powerless, then they seek occasions by which they may harm the Christians.

Of the instability of the Saracens and of their broken promised faith, many examples abound. But I shall now briefly set forth one. ‖ At the time when Benducdar was ruling over Egypt and over the kingdom of Damascus, being angered against the Christians, he inflicted many evils upon the Christians; for he destroyed their cities, took strongholds, and took captive and killed many thousands of Christians. And he advanced against Safed, a stronghold indeed of the Templars, with a very great army; and it was said that the Saracens were more than a hundred thousand, who were in the siege of the castle. Now there were in the castle, as the Master of the Temple who was [Master] at that time told me, about two thousand fighting men (fol. 97v). ‖ In that same castle there were also many Templar brothers, very worthy men, and with them were two Friars Minor, whom I had sent with the Templar brothers to the said castle, when I was vicar of the Holy Land, at the request of the Master of the Temple. ‖ So the Saracens fought against the said castle manfully and most valiantly and in manifold ways — namely with engines and arrows, and with underground mines, and by all the means they could; the Christians too who were in the castle defended themselves manfully and fought bravely, and at times they went out of the castle and fought hand to hand with the Saracens. At last the Christians were diminished in number, and many were killed in the war; amid such [losses] the Christians who remained alive in the castle [were] about five hundred or six hundred, and of them many were weakened by the continuous toil of the fighting, and many of them wounded. But the Christians, seeing that in the end they could not stand against the Saracens — because they themselves were being daily diminished and could get no relief, [while] the Saracens were daily increasing — treated of peace with the Sultan; who gladly assented to peace, and made a pact with the Christians who were in the castle in this manner: that the Christians themselves should hand over the castle to the Sultan, and the Sultan should have all the Christians conducted to Acre, with their persons and the movable [goods] they could carry. But when the pact had been made and the oath confirmed, the Christians went out of the castle and stood outside, heaped together in the square before the castle. The Saracens, however, entered the castle and took possession [of it]. But the Sultan belied his faith and broke his promise; for after sunset the Sultan sent one emir, as they say, with a drawn sword, and he said to them on the Sultan's behalf: “My lord, he says, has sent me to you, inviting and asking that you become Saracens; and if you do the Sultan's will, he will give you horses and arms and wives and riches, and will exalt you and make you great; otherwise tomorrow you will all be beheaded.” The Christians answered, saying: “Let the lord Sultan keep for us the pact which he made with us, for we do not wish to become Saracens, and it does not befit the Sultan to break his faith.” But when the Sultan's messenger had withdrawn, the Friars Minor exhorted the Christians all night long, [urging them] to stand firm in [the faith] (fol. 98r°), because they were without doubt to receive the crown of martyrdom. And they, comforted by the friars' very good discourses, resolved in their hearts by no reasoning and on no condition to forsake the Christian faith. When morning had come, the emir returned and asked the Christians whether they would do the lord Sultan's will. But they answered unanimously that by no pact would they withdraw from the Christian worship. Therefore all those Christians, by the Sultan's sentence — except the two Friars Minor and the prior of the Temple — were led to the place of martyrdom, on the slope of the mountain, and all were beheaded there, so that none of them denied the faith of Christ. And the blood of the beheaded flowed down to the foot of the mountain like a running stream of waters. And the number of the be-[p. 25]-headed was, as they say, more than five hundred men. Then, after the beheading of the aforesaid men, the two Friars Minor — one of whom was called brother James de Podio, and the other was called brother Jeremiah the Genoese — and the prior of the Templars, who was called brother Hugh, were brought to judgment in the square before the castle, and the judge said to them: “You have perverted others (sic) who would have been converted to our law. Now, therefore, be converted and become Saracens; otherwise you will suffer hard torments.” To whom the friars answered: “We do not fear your torments, but we are ready to endure all evils for the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ and for the love of the Christian faith.” But the judge, seeing that he could not bend them to his will, tortured them with a threefold punishment. For first he had them flayed alive; then, while they were still living, he had them most cruelly scourged upon the flesh laid bare of its skin; last, he had them brought to the place where the other Christians had been martyred, and had them beheaded beside the others. And the aforesaid Sultan had all the bodies of the slain Christians gathered into one place, and had a wall of stones made round about [them], which remain in that same place to this day. And the Christians said openly that, at the beginning of the killing of the aforesaid martyrs, a great light shone over their bodies in the night, in the sight of all the Saracens; (fol. 98v) and [even] seeing so great a light, they were in no way converted to the true faith of Christ. ‖

Another like thing which the aforesaid Sultan named Benducdar did ought to be inserted on this page. The Count of Jaffa, a noble Christian lord, had a truce with the Sultan and with the Saracens. Now Jaffa is a noble land situated beside the sea, which the lord Louis of good memory, king of France, surrounded with a great wall and fortified. But the aforesaid Sultan came to Jaffa, and wished to have it altogether. And because those within were few for the defense — [though], as regards the circuit of the walls and otherwise, they were sufficiently fortified — since they did not suspect any such evil, on account of the truce, they surrendered themselves to him, [on the terms] that their persons and the movables that could conveniently be carried away should be safe. Now the people of Jaffa wished to go to Acre by sea, but the boatmen demanded so great a price from them that they could not bear it; and it was told to the Sultan what the sailors were doing to the people of Jaffa. He, although an unbeliever and evil, had thereupon some pity, and loved that justice be done to others; [and] he said: “Cursed be these [men], for they are most wicked, because, although they are Christians, they wish to excommunicate their own fellow Christians.” Then the Sultan had camels and other animals prepared, and had the Christians conducted by land as far as Acre.

It happened, as was firmly reported, that a certain woman of Jaffa had with her a daughter, a maiden exceedingly beautiful; whom a certain emir, seeing, seized by force and deflowered. But the girl's mother, impatient of grief, went in haste to the Sultan, wailing and weeping and asking justice for the great injury done to her. To whom the Sultan answered: “Do you know the name of the said emir?” She answered: “No.” The Sultan said to her: “Would you recognize him if you saw him?” She answered: “I would recognize [him].” The Sultan then had all the emirs brought before him; and the woman carefully examined them one by one. At length, seeing the author of the crime, she said to the Sultan: “Lord, behold, this is that emir who deflowered my daughter.” To whom the Sultan said: “Did you not know that I had given security and safe-conduct to the Christians? Why, then, did you not fear, against my safe-conduct, to violate a Christian maiden by your lust?” And at once, in the sight of all, he had him beheaded, as he had deserved.

Lately too — that is, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and [fol. 99r] ninetieth — when the lord Aiton, king of Lesser Armenia, had peace with the Sultan and paid a great tribute yearly to the said Sultan for keeping the peace, the Saracens, the treaty broken, on the night before the Purification of the glorious Virgin entered Armenia, and most savagely fell upon the Armenian Christians dwelling in the villages, who suspected no evil, killing many men, and led away captive a great multitude of people of both sexes, having much spoil, namely of movable and immovable [goods]; and it was said that they destroyed about forty hamlets.

Chapter XXII. — That the Holy Land ought to belong to the Christians.

Seventhly, the Holy Land ought to belong to the Christians. Nor do I prophesy — for I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet — but I relate the things that I have found written, or that I could conjecture from the Scriptures. There is also a certain book written in Arabic or Saracen script — and perhaps this book was translated from Greek into Arabic — and this book is called Climens, that is, the book of Clement; in which book Christ is brought in speaking to the blessed apostle Peter, and the blessed Peter speaks to his disciple, Saint Clement. I recall, then, that I was at Tripoli before the noble city of Antioch was laid waste by the Saracens — which was taken by the Saracens in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-eight; and when it was heard that the Sultan named Bunducdar was going with a great army against Antioch, a certain Syrian Christian came bringing the Book of Clement with him to me, and we began to read about Antioch, where it was thus written, from the word of Our Lord Jesus Christ speaking to the Blessed apostle Peter and saying: ‖ “O Peter, woe to your city Antioch, for the evils that are to come upon it. The sons of the wolf will come, and will besiege it and surround it and press it hard. And the people of the city will cry out to me with a great cry, and will pray to me, and I will not hear them. Even if Sodom and Gomorrah had once cried out to me as the Antiochenes will cry out to me, I would surely have heard them, and they would not have perished; but the people of Antioch I will not hear, though they cry out to me, but they will all be delivered into the hands of the sons of the wolf, who will seize them, destroy and kill them; and none of them will escape out of all of them except only those who flee to the three surrounding mountains; for they alone will be freed from the sons of the wolf.” This prophecy we used to read, and we were afraid; but because the prophecy did not (fol. 99v) concern a [fixed] time but spoke indefinitely, we said: “Perhaps this prophecy will not be fulfilled at this time, since at another time the Sultan was at Antioch and did them no harm.” But alas! this prophecy has been fulfilled before our eyes; for the sons of the wolf — that is, the Saracens, on account of their rapacity and on account of their foulness — took Antioch, just as the prophet had foretold; and those alone escaped from the hands of the Saracens who fled to the three surrounding mountains, of which one is called Cursarius — where was the most noble castle of the lord Patriarch; another is called the Black Mountain, where many religious and servants of God dwelt in time of peace and there served the Lord; the third is called Carosius, which looks toward the sea. But how many evils the Saracens did upon Antioch and upon its citizens, who could recount them one by one? It is believed that, besides those killed and besides those who escaped, there were about forty thousand of both sexes taken captive, who were dispersed through all the lands of the Saracens, especially of Syria and Egypt, and almost all have been made Saracens; and the women who once bore sons and daughters for the Christian worship now bear them for the worship of Muhammad. After this, in the aforesaid prophecy, the Lord Jesus Christ consoles the Christians, who have suffered — or are yet to suffer — such great evils from the sons of the wolf. For the Lord Jesus Christ says to the blessed apostle Peter, and the blessed apostle Peter says to his disciple Clement: “There will come, says Christ, the whelp of the lion, and he will free the Christian people from the hands of the sons of the wolf, and will overcome them, and will drive the remnant of them back to the deserts from which they came out; and the Christians will subjugate the sons of the wolf forty times as much beyond that by which the sons of the wolf subjugated the Christians.” And Christ greatly commends the whelp of the lion for his goodness and holiness, and adds: “If you wish, he says, to know what this whelp of the lion is, I signify to you that he is the whelp of the lion whose kingdom his adversary will begin to seize; but the whelp of the lion, afterward gaining strength, will drive his adversary out of his kingdom. Then the Christians will dwell in the Holy Land with great peace and tranquil-[fol. 100r]-lity, and forty kings will reign in Jerusalem in turn, one after another. But after this the Christians who dwell in the Holy Land will provoke the Lord against themselves by their evil works; and just as, on account of the many sins of the Christians, the Christians themselves were given into [p. 27] the hands of the sons of the wolf, so then the Christians themselves, on account of the sins that they are to commit, will be handed over into the hands of the worst enemy — that is, of Antichrist, who will then appear — and he will afflict the Christians beyond what can be believed.” ‖ We can also conjecture, from the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that the dominion of the pagans over the holy city of Jerusalem must cease. For the Lord says in the Gospel (Luke 21): And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the gentiles, until the times of the nations be fulfilled. By “gentiles” are understood the pagans, and above all the Saracens, who have done the Christians as many evils as the Saracens themselves have done. For they are the ones who have trodden and tread Jerusalem down threefold, namely by destruction, by domination, and by exaction. By destruction, I say, because its houses and palaces are deserted, except for a few in which Saracens dwell, and a few Christians; and so too around Jerusalem the cities, villages, strongholds, and churches are destroyed, so much so that it is mournful to see. By domination indeed, because the Saracens hold lordship over all the places sanctified by Christ, and possess everything and take all the fruits of the land. By exaction, because from all the Christians who go to Jerusalem and wish to enter the church of the Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ they take a great tribute; for every Christian, man or woman, pays for his person about thirty-six or forty silver gros tournois. And know that not only the Christians who are called Latins — namely Italians, French, Spanish, English, Germans, and the like — go to Jerusalem, but there also go the overseas Christians — namely Greeks, Georgians, Armenians, and many others — from whom the Sultan takes a great tribute. And with this money which the Sultan takes from the Christians, the Sultan can make war against the Christians. But this trampling of the gentiles will have an end, as is plain from the words of the Lord (Luke 21:24): Jerusalem, he says, shall be trodden down until the times of the na-[fol. 100v]-tions be fulfilled — that is, of the gentiles. Which times are [times] of reigning, of dominating, of possessing, of trampling under, of laying waste, of making exactions, of sinning, and of doing evil. For then the Lord will set an end to their malice, that they may not be able so to harm the Holy Land, as is said in the Psalm (93:23): In their malice — that is, on account of their malice — the Lord our God shall destroy them. The Lord also intimates that, after the times of the nations have been fulfilled, there will be others in Jerusalem who will not trample it down but will build it up and restore it; and these are the Christians who truly worship Christ in the holy city of Jerusalem, and who will enlarge the worship of Christ in it manifoldly. Tobit 13 is a prophecy about the city of Jerusalem, for so the elder Tobit says: Jerusalem, city of God, the Lord has chastised you for the works of your hands. Trust in the Lord: you shall shine with a splendid light, and all the ends of the earth shall worship you. My soul, bless the Lord, for the Lord our God will deliver the city of Jerusalem from all its tribulations.

[Part Two].

Chapter XXIII. — How the Holy Land might be acquired, and how it may thereafter be preserved.

In what has gone before it has already been shown how, and in what manner, the Holy Land was possessed at various times by various men or nations. Now it remains for us to show how the Holy Land itself may be freed from the hands of the unbelieving Saracens, and how, with the Lord's help, it may thereafter be preserved. I say, then, that for accomplishing this some things are needful, and to be diligently maintained. For it is necessary that in the Christians who cross the sea there be these three, namely:

The sufficiency of the army.

The eminence of goodness.

The presiding of a head.

[p. 28] For it is necessary that there be so many Christian warriors that they may be able, on the field and on the sea, to show their face openly to the Saracens; for unless this be done, how will they be able to free the Holy Land from their hands? It is necessary, therefore, that the Christians who are to join battle against the Saracens be: — Many in number — Skilled in battle — Brave in spirit — Shrewd in judgment.

Chapter XXIV. — (Fol. 101 r) On the great number of the Christians.

It is necessary, I say, that they be many in number, so that they may be able to stand against the multitude of the unbelievers. For although it is easy, in the sight of God, to give victory to a few, nevertheless the Christians ought to do what is in their power, especially when they can. And it is plain that the Christians, if they will, can gather a great army. For the Saracens, the adversaries of the Christians, are very many — most of all because two kingdoms are gathered into one, so that one Sultan holds lordship beyond the desert and on this side of it; because, namely, he rules over the kingdom of Egypt and of Damascus, and his dominion stretches from the river Euphrates — or, to use the more usual name, from the cold waters — to the borders of the kingdoms of Africa, a journey of forty days and more; and he has under him very many peoples; and I fully think, indeed I do not doubt, that the Sultan can raise forty thousand horsemen and more, of whom many are exceedingly vigorous in arms and most valiant warriors. It is fitting enough, then — indeed even opportune — that in the army of the Christians there be many horsemen in number. And I think that thirty thousand Christian horsemen can suffice, or at least twenty thousand with the other aid which they will be able to have from elsewhere, as, concerning the land.........., will be said in its proper place. It is necessary also that in the army of the Christians there be many foot-soldiers, so that they too may fight against the Saracens in number and in strength.

It is necessary also that the Christians who are to make war against the Saracens on the field be skilled in battle; and their skill is that they be: — Fittingly armed — Well ordered — Disposed to unity.

Chapter XXV. — That the Christians ought to be fittingly armed.

The Christians will never be skilled [in battle] if in war they are not fittingly armed. For he is a fool who goes to war unarmed, for he exposes his whole body to the blows of his enemies. On the contrary, he is wise and prudent who goes into battle armed. Thus said the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad to Moses (Numbers 22, v. 17): We ourselves, armed and girded, will go forth to battle before the sons of Israel. Likewise the Lord says (Luke 11, v. 21): When the strong man armed [guards] his hall, all that he possesses is in peace. This is the prudence of the serpent; for the serpent covers its head with its whole body, in order to save it. Whence the Lord says (Matthew 10): Be prudent as serpents (fol. 101v). And note that the Saracens arm themselves above all threefold for attacking others; namely, because every Saracen horseman has a bow and a quiver with arrows, and without bow and arrows the Saracens do not go to war. Their arrows are very strong, because they are of good steel, and very sharp, so that what is said in the Psalm (119:4) may be fulfilled: The arrows of the mighty are sharp. The Saracens are most skilled archers, because from their infancy to their old age they never abandon the art of shooting. Likewise every Saracen horseman has a curved sword, which strikes very hard. Likewise every horseman has a most vicious iron mace. And it is said that, when the Christian will think that the Saracen is striking him on the helmet from behind, then the Saracen will strike the Christian from below, in order to break the fastenings of the helmet, so that the Christian is left with his head bare, and thus he kills him. Know also that the Saracens daily exercise themselves in the arms by which they may harm others, so that those who do not know may learn, and those who are learning may become more skilled at doing harm. But few Saracens use lances; for although some of them have lances, yet they do not all have them commonly. The horses of the Saracens, too, are not caparisoned, so that they may be readier for running. [p. 29] The Saracen foot-soldiers, too, are all archers, so that every horseman has a bow and a quiver with arrows; some too — and many Saracen foot-soldiers — have curved swords, though not all have swords. Let the Christians, therefore, see how they ought to arm themselves. And among other things I say that it would be very fitting and opportune that among the Christian horsemen there be some mounted archers, so that they might check the art of harm [the Saracens' archery] by art and by strength. It would also greatly profit that the Christians — whether signed with the cross or not — who are to engage against the Saracens should train themselves in arms, above all in lances, maces, swords, bows, or crossbows, so that they may be skilled in these at the opportune time.

Chapter XXVI. — That the Christians ought to be well ordered.

It is necessary also that the men of the Christian army be well ordered, for where there is no order, there is confusion. For the order of warriors, well arranged, strikes terror into the enemy. Whence it is said in the Song of Songs (6:9): Who is this that comes forth like the rising dawn? And it continues: Terrible as an army set in array. For the greater are to be ordered in one way, the lesser in another; the knights in one way, the foot in another; and so, according to the diversity of men and of ranks, the order of those who fight ought to be diverse. ‖ The Saracens are greatly ordered in their army, as I saw with my own eyes. For when the Saracens had taken Antioch, I went to their army, [to see] if perchance I might do some good for the Christian captives. Now the Saracens pitch their tents in this manner: the Sultan's tent is set in the middle of all, and around the circuit of his tent certain Saracens, noble and vigorous in arms — about two thousand — pitch (fol. 102r) their tents; and this is called the Sultan's circle. Secondly, after this first circle, other Saracens pitch their tents around the circuit of the first circle, who are in greater number than the Saracens of the first circle, because they occupy a greater space; and this circle is called by another name, and is the second circle. And in this manner the Saracens are ordered in their army, in orderly fashion by circles around the Sultan, so that every Saracen is, and knows, of which circle he is, and in which circle his tent ought to stand in the army, and in which part of the circle he ought to set his tent — namely to the right or to the left, to the east or to the west.

Let the army of the Christians, then, be ordered, so that the horsemen be diligently ordered; for some ought to be placed in front in the battle-line, others set behind for the guarding of the rest. And the horsemen ought always to have many crossbowmen or archers mixed in among them, so that through the crossbowmen or archers they may repel the malice of the Saracens; for the Saracens hurl countless arrows, and the Christian archers ought to shoot arrows back at them...... in like manner, so that they may not dare to make an assault against the Christians. But the Christian crossbowmen ought to take great care to strike the horses of the Saracens — because they are not caparisoned — so as to throw the Saracen horsemen to the ground; for the Saracens greatly fear to lose their horses, because they are not good on foot. Let the Christian horsemen also beware lest they desert their own foot-soldiers. The Christians ought also to carry with them many thousands upon thousands (sic) of good and sharp arrows, and they ought to carry them along on pack-animals, and these animals ought to be placed in a safe place — that is, about the middle of the battle-line — so that they may be in a safe place, [kept] as a great treasure. Nor ought the arrows to be shot in vain, but they ought to be shot in time of need; for at such a time every arrow is worth much. And the Christian horsemen would act wisely if they were to learn to shoot. For let the Christian horsemen know that the Saracens greatly fear the lances of the Christians, and greatly flee the blows of lances; therefore let every Christian horseman have a good and strong lance, and if he should have several lances, it will not be useless. If it should happen that the foot are in such a quantity that they cannot all be conveniently joined to the Christian horsemen, then the foot can be ordered by themselves, in such a way that they be ordered so that the Saracens cannot rush upon them with their horses. Let there be, then, among the foot many who have long and strong lances, and let these be placed around the circuit of all the [p. 30] foot, and let them hold lines of lances toward the unbelievers (fol. 102v), and let them be close-packed and tight among themselves, so that no enemy may be able to enter their formation; but within let them have some room, lest they be crushed against one another. Let there also be some, beside the lancers, with shields, to defend them and cover them from the arrows of the Saracens; these, then, ought to be like the wall of a castle, for the defense of all the rest. And within, the crossbowmen and archers ought to be well arranged, who may hurl arrows against the Saracens and kill their horses and drive the Saracens far away from themselves and from the army of the Christian foot; and let them carry with them many good arrows, and by no means let the Christian foot go to fight without arrows, because otherwise they could not stand against the assault of the Saracens, since with their arrows [the Saracens] would consume all the Christian foot. I therefore counsel, with sound counsel, all the Christian foot, that they all learn the art of shooting with bow or crossbow, and that without these they not go to war, and that they have with them good lances, swords, and blades, so that they may be able to protect themselves from the sons of Babylon. And let them have some arms or garments by which they may be protected from the blows of arrows. Nor let the Christians say: “We will cross over with our staffs, and we will conquer the enemies of the Christian faith.” For God will gladly help you, if only you are willing to help yourself.

Chapter XXVII. — That the Christians ought to reunite and re-form themselves.

The Christians ought also to be disposed to the repairing of unity. For the Saracens do so. For if the Christians make an assault against the Saracens, brandishing their lances over their horses, the Saracens give way and divide from one another and go off, some here, others there; but afterwards, at the sound of the trumpet, their captains gather together and make an assault upon the Christians, and strike the Christians' men and horses with many arrows and kill them. And if the Christian horsemen wish to run after the Saracens, they cannot run well, because the Saracens are lightly armed and their horses are not caparisoned, and therefore our horsemen cannot come up with the Saracens. But the Saracens so wear out the Christian horsemen — by fleeing, by returning, by shooting, by striking men and animals — that they conquer our men and lay them low. Our Christians, indeed, have a very bad habit — or rather, let me say, a baseness — that if once they are broken, they do not know how to re-form themselves, and, feeble, they flee to such a degree that they let themselves be taken, and are captured like sheep. Let the Christians therefore learn, in war, if they are broken, to re-form themselves again and again, and let them always gather together to one another, and let them defend themselves manfully as is fitting; for if the unbelievers see that the Christians, once scattered, re-form themselves and defend themselves manfully, they will fear them more and will trouble them (fol. 103r) less. Let the faithful therefore learn from the unbelievers, if it should be opportune, to re-form themselves, to unite anew, to defend themselves, and to make an assault upon the enemy, so that they may be able to drive their enemies far from them.

Chapter XXVIII. — That the Christians ought to be brave in war.

Christian warriors ought also to be brave and manly in spirit, so that their hearts be not cast down through fear of the unbelievers. For a great part of victory consists in goodness and strength of heart. For a great and manly heart, with divine wisdom, fitly accomplishes great things. Whence also the angel Raphael said to the elder Tobit, blinded by swallows' droppings (Tob. 5:13): Be of brave spirit; it is near at hand that you be healed by God. Likewise the Apostle says of the saints, Hebrews 11: By faith, he says, they conquered kingdoms, and below: They stopped the mouths of lions. They quenched the force of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword; they grew strong out of weakness, they were made brave in war, they turned back the camps of foreigners, etc. Let the true Christian therefore take care not to fear his enemies. Whence the wise man teaches every man, saying, Ecclesiasticus 7:9: Be not faint-hearted in your spirit.

Now every true Christian warrior ought to be brave in spirit in battle for a fourfold reason: namely, on account of the just cause, on account of the shame to be removed, on account of the punishment to be avoided, and the crown to be won. Every Christian fighter ought, I say, to be brave in war, because he has a just cause. For the Sar [p. 31] acens have violently seized the land and homeland which Our Lord Jesus Christ acquired by his own blood, which land the Christians possessed for a long time; whence the Christians seek and claim that which by right is their own. But the Saracens have not possessed the Holy Land by just title, since they hold and have it by violence alone. Therefore let every Christian fight bravely like a lion — as has been said — in all things, that he may have the land which by right is owed to Christ, and consequently to every Christian, as it is said in Proverbs 30:30: The lion, the strongest of beasts, will fear the onset of none. Likewise it is said, Ecclesiasticus 4:33: Strive unto death for justice. Likewise every Christian ought to fight bravely, that he may remove and take away the shame of Christ and of all Christians. For who will be able to tell how great a shame it is to the Christians that the Saracens possess those holy places of which, or for which, the Christians glory? How great, then, is the shame, that where Christ the Lord was conceived, where he was born, where he suffered, where he was transfigured, where he was raised up in the Ascension, where he taught, where he walked, where he appeared after the Resurrection, where he gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles, where he did many miracles — is it not a great shame that the cities are destroyed, the strongholds cast down, the churches thrown down (sic) and made stables of ani-[fol. 103v]-mals? Is it not a great shame that where the divine office was sung, now the perfidy of Muhammad sounds? And we can say that which is written in Maccabees (1:1:42) of Jerusalem: Jerusalem is made a stranger to her own offspring, and her children have forsaken her. Her sanctuary is made desolate like a wilderness; her feast days are turned into mourning, her sabbaths into reproach, her honours into nothing. According to her glory, so is her shame multiplied, and her loftiness is turned into mourning. ‖ Therefore the Christian fighters of Our Lord Jesus Christ ought to strive with all their power that all Christians be freed from so great a shame, as the Maccabees did, as is said in the first book of Maccabees, chapters 1 and 2, where Mathathias said to his sons: You therefore, my sons, be strengthened and act manfully in the law; and below: And Judas Maccabeus rose up. And all his brothers helped him, and all who had joined themselves to [his] father, and they fought the battle of Israel with gladness. And Judas put on a breastplate like a giant (sic), and girded on his weapons of war in battles, and protected the camp with his sword. He was made like a lion in his deeds, and like a lion's whelp roaring in the hunt. And he pursued the wicked, searching them out, and those who troubled his people he burned up in flames. ‖ Every Christian fighter ought also to fight bravely against the unbelievers on account of the punishment to be avoided. For if the Christians should be in a spacious and broad field, far from the strongholds of the Christians to which they ought to flee, it is manifest that they could not flee, but will fall into the hands of the unbelieving Saracens, who thirst for the blood of the Christians. and kill the Christians, or at least will take them and imprison them, where the hope of escaping is rare. For the Saracens do not willingly release captives who might one day fight against them. Let the faithful therefore beware not to flee from the battle-line of the Christians, because flight would be death to them; but let them stand bravely and fight manfully, for if they fight well and wisely, either the Saracens will let them go in peace, or they themselves will conquer the Saracens, or, if it happen that they die in battle, they will die honourably, and will kill many unbelievers, and in dying will avenge their own blood. And let the Christians know that the Saracens do not die willingly, and give way quickly to those who resist well; whence the blessed James says in his epistle, chapter 4: Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Nonetheless every Christian fighter ought to fight bravely against the unbelievers on account of the eternal crown to be won. For every Christian who is in a state of penitence, and who dies in such a battle, has re-[fol. 104r]-mission of all his sins, and acquires for himself eternal glory. Whence it is well said in the Psalms: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. On which word the blessed Augustine says: Precious is the death of his saints, because their price is the Blood of their Lord. For he suffered in his passion, because they were to suffer after him, etc. Of this crown the Lord says, Revelation 2:10: Fear none of those things which you are to suffer. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Chapter XXIX. — That the Christians ought to be shrewd in judgement.

It is necessary also that the Christian fighters be shrewd in judgement, so that they may always know and recognise how to flee evils and to do what is useful. Now this shrewdness consists chiefly in these things, which are as follows, namely: — the pitching of camp — the regulating of camp — the guarding of camp — the scouting out of the enemy — unremitting caution — continual union — the consideration of what is to be done.

Chapter XXX. — On the pitching of camp.

The Christians ought to pitch their camp in a safe and well-disposed place, where they can have an abundance of victuals and of all things that are necessary for an army, and where they may have an abundance of waters. For the Saracens too do so. For I myself, when I rode in the Sultan's army for some days, saw that the Saracens always pitched their tents beside some river, so that the men and all the animals might have plenty and abundance of waters. Now the Saracens have certain large vessels of thick leather, which have three rings, and through the rings they put three stakes, and drive them into the ground, so that the vessels made of leather stand upright and firmly by virtue of the stakes; and they fill them with water, so that all may have enough of that water for drinking. They have also some smaller vessels of leather, in the manner of buckets, in which they carry water from a river or from a spring, and they make them hang along the flanks of the horses, and with these they fill the other, larger vessels.

Chapter XXXI. — On the regulation of the camp.

There ought also to be a regulating of the camp, so that the Christians do not go beyond that place in which they are, unless they have first subdued the surrounding cities and strongholds and hamlets of the unbelievers. For the Christians ought so providently to conduct themselves and to proceed in their affairs, that (fol. 104v) they [leave] no unbelievers behind their backs, if some war should press them from the front. Then those who were in their rear would also make war upon them, and the Christians would be placed in the midst of their enemies, and would never stand secure in their own army, and would always be afraid and would become faint-hearted. Let there not be, therefore, too much haste in the movement of the camp, for, as Solomon says, Proverbs 19:2: He who is hasty stumbles with his feet. It is better, therefore, to proceed little by little and well, than to hasten and afterwards to fail. And this is what Solomon says, Proverbs 13:11: Substance hastily gotten will be diminished; but that which is gathered little by little by hand will be multiplied. According to the aforesaid manner the Tartars acted, and thus they proceeded, and they subdued many kingdoms to themselves. But if it should happen that it seemed expedient that some Saracens remain in the hamlets for some reason, then let the Christians not permit the Saracens to have any arms, but let them be as the Christians now are among the Saracens, who have no arms nor bear arms, but are tillers of the lands, workers of various crafts, and merchants. So the Philistines did with the sons of Israel, as is written in the first book of Kings 13: Moreover no ironsmith was to be found in all the land of Israel. For the Philistines had taken care lest perchance the Hebrews should make a sword or a lance.

Chapter XXXII. — On the guarding of the camp.

The Christians ought diligently to guard their camp, so that neither the unbelievers nor any enemies can harm them. For sometimes the Christians have guarded their camp badly, and, overcome by their unbelieving enemies, have been utterly laid low. The Christians ought therefore to guard the camp so that the enemy cannot suddenly rush upon them. The Christians ought therefore to make some small ditch around the camp, right round, or to make or have something else by which the unbelievers may be hindered from reaching the army of the Christians. Likewise there ought always to be guards outside the camp, at a distance, who may guard the army by day and by night, who may diligently keep the night watches and the day watches, and may guard all the roads by which there is a way to the [p. 33] Christian army. And the Christian fighters, as long as they are on campaign, ought to be armed — either all of them or the greater part of them — and let them always have their arms ready beside them, so that those who are not armed can be armed suddenly, so that, if it be necessary, they may always be ready to defend themselves from the unbelievers. In this manner also the Tartars act, and they guard their camp. It is said, moreover, that no one can go out from the army of the Tartars, and no one can enter their army, unless he has entered or gone out by their leave.

Chapter XXXIII. — On scouts.

The Christians ought also always to have scouts, through whom they may be able to know and recognise all the deeds and affairs of the Saracens, the ene-[fol. 105r]-mies of the Christian faith, so that they may better be able to do all their own deeds. So were scouts sent by Moses to survey the Land of Promise: Numbers 13. Faithful scouts do many goods, which are: the avoidance of evils, the attacking of enemies, the doing of goods, the quieting of minds. For when the Christians learn through scouts of the coming of enemies, either they themselves withdraw, if they are weak for resisting, or they make themselves ready to fight, if they feel themselves strong; they guard their goods and their persons from the enemy — if they have discretion and sense. Likewise, when the Christians know that their enemies are not coming against them, they can more safely and better fight against the Saracens who are placed near them, and can conquer and subdue and destroy them. Likewise the Christians, knowing the doings and affairs of the unbelievers, can much more have quiet in their spirit; for he who is always afraid always wavers, and always suffers the pain of his own heart. Likewise from these things follows the doing of goods, because when a man knows the truth of affairs, he can better do his own works, whether they be worldly or whether they be spiritual. The Sultans of the Saracens have many scouts, and they want to know all the deeds of the Christians, not only in nearby parts, but also in far-off parts.

Chapter XXXIV. — On the caution to be observed.

The Christians ought to take care for themselves diligently, unremittingly and anxiously, against all evils and against all things that can befall them, according to their ability. For Our Lord Jesus Christ also taught us to take care, saying, Matthew 10:17: But beware of men. For they will hand you over in councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you, etc. Now this caution is in many things, which have been spoken of above. But as to the present, I say that this caution is to be observed: that the Christians never trust the unbelievers, that they never presume themselves to be safe, that they never give heed to spoils. ‖ Let the Christians therefore take care for themselves against the unbelievers, and let them never trust them. For if they see that the Christians are powerful, they humble themselves greatly and promise many things; but they do not do this from the heart, but deceitfully — namely, that they may escape temporal evils and, if at any time they shall be able, may do evils, that they may do harm. Whence the Wise Man says, Ecclesiasticus 12: Trust not your enemy for ever; for as bronze rusts, so is his wickedness. And if he goes about bowed down and humbled, cast away your spirit and guard yourself from him. Likewise in the same chapter, below, the Wise Man says: The enemy sweetens with his lips, and in his heart he lies in wait, to overturn you into a pit. If, therefore, it should happen that the Christians make some peace with the Saracens, let them not trust them, but let them always take care for themselves and always dili-[fol. 105v]-gently guard themselves.

Let the Christians also be cautious, so that they never presume themselves to be safe; because, placed in the Holy Land or about it, they will be in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation. For it has harmed many who thought themselves to be safe, and, growing slack through too much security, some have been laid low by their enemies. So the sons of Dan laid low the men of Laish, who reckoned themselves to be safe. And the scouts of the sons of Dan said: Let us go and possess the land; there will be no labour. We shall enter in upon a people that are secure, into a most spacious region. There came, then, six hundred men of the sons of Dan, girt [p. 34] with weapons of war, into the sacks, to a people quiet and secure, and they struck them with the edge of the sword and gave the city over to burning, no one at all bringing help.

Let the Christians also be cautious, so that if at any time they strike the unbelievers, and conquer and kill them, they do not at once, led by greed, turn themselves to stripping the spoils. For, as has been said above, the Saracens know how to flee and give way in war, and again they know how to re-form themselves, and they stand at a distance and watch what the Christians are doing; and if they see the Christians busied about spoils, they suddenly rush upon them and strike and kill them; and so the Christians who were victors are afterwards conquered. The Christian fighters ought therefore first to have a complete victory and to pursue the unbelievers, and after all things have been accomplished, then at last let them gather the spoils and divide them among themselves; and let the Christians diligently take care for themselves, lest for the sake of temporal booty they lose lovely life.

Chapter XXXV. — On not dividing the Christian army.

The army of the Christians ought not to be divided into different parts, until full victory of the enemy (sic) has been achieved and all things have been accomplished. For sometimes, on account of the division of the army, the enemy have been made victors; for since the whole gathering of the Christians scarcely suffices for storming the unbelievers, how will it suffice if it be divided into very many parts, since the Saracens are many in number and in the greatest quantity? ‖ In this manner the Tartars were beaten in Syria; for the king of the Tartars, by name Hülegü, who took Baghdad and seized many lands of the Saracens, came and took Aleppo, a very great city, and, as is said, killed more than a hundred thousand Saracens there, and seized the whole kingdom of Damascus. And he possessed it, and left for the guarding of the kingdom which he had taken a certain Tartar, who was called Kitbuqa. But he, thinking himself to be safe — because no Saracens were near there who could harm him (Egypt too was far off, and because the desert was between, he did not think Egypt could injure him) — divided his ar-[fol. 106r]-my, and he himself remained with some part of the army. But the Sultan of Egypt, who had many scouts, [when] he learned that Kitbuqa, the captain of the Tartars who had remained in Syria, had sent the army away from himself, said: "They are ours; let us go to them." And he chose for himself a swift and large soldiery of Saracens from the land of Egypt; and quietly and without noise, so that it was not known where they were to make for, he swiftly crossed the desert and came into Syria and rushed upon the Tartars, who were quite unprepared for war, and fought against them and conquered them and killed Kitbuqa, the captain of the Tartars, and almost all the rest, except a few whom he took captive. And so the Saracens of Egypt recovered the kingdom of Damascus, and they hold it to this day. Therefore the aforesaid Tartars, on account of division, suffered ruin.

Chapter XXXVI. — On good judgement.

The Christians who are on campaign against the unbelievers ought to consider what they ought to do, unremittingly and at all times, so that they may have eyes before and behind, as is said of the Evangelists: Revelation 4:8: The living creatures were full of eyes before and behind; namely, that they may diligently consider circumstances past and to come. Likewise Solomon says: Ecclesiastes 2: The eyes of a wise man are in his head. The fool walks in darkness.

But that this consideration may be the better had, some wise men, and fearing God, are to be chosen, who may always consider and know concerning the multitude of the army, so that they may provide for all useful things and cast aside all harmful things. So the Romans did, as is written of them in the first book of Maccabees 8, where it is said that at Rome there were three hundred and twenty senators, who daily and always took counsel concerning the multitude, that they might do the things which are worthy. Likewise Solomon, Proverbs 11:14: There is safety where there are many [p. 35] counsels. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 13:10: Those who do all things with counsel are ruled by wisdom. Likewise Solomon says in the same place: The shrewd man does all things with counsel; but he who is a fool will lay open his folly. The Christians also, going heedlessly, and moreover acting stupidly, have many times been laid low by the unbelievers.

Above we have treated of the sufficiency of the Christian army; now let us say something of the sufficiency (?), of the eminence of goodness which ought to be in the faithful of Christ.

Chapter XXXVII. — On the excellence of goodness that ought to be in the Christians.

Goodness of life ought to be in the Christians, since they are to fight against the unbelievers, that in all their deeds they may be directed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what the Lord said to the people of Israel: Exodus 33: Behold, I will send my angel who shall go before you, and keep you on the way, and bring you into the place which I have prepared. And if you hearken (fol. 106v) to his voice and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to your enemies, and will afflict those who afflict you. And my angel shall go before you. And although goodness is contained in many things and shines forth in many things, yet in those who are to fight against the unbelievers the things written below especially prevail, which are: — Charity — Chastity — Humility — Mercy — Unity — Sobriety — Loyalty — Patience — Freedom from greed — Frequency of prayer.

Chapter XXXVIII. — On the charity to be maintained among the Christians.

Great charity ought to be among those who take the cross, who cross the seas, who go to fight against the unbelievers, that they may love one another like brothers of one womb. For in this they are true Christians, if they imitate Christ in charity; since he loved us and washed us from our sins, as it is said: Apocalypse 1. This too is what Christ commanded his disciples, saying: John 13: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. And Christ so loved us that he willed to die for us, to save us from sin, from the enemy, and from eternal punishment. Whence the Lord himself says, John 15: No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Let the Christians therefore love one another with so great a charity that one may expose himself to death for another, and each defend his neighbour as he wishes to defend his own self. And so there will be good brotherhood among them. And this is what blessed John the Evangelist says in his epistle, chapter 3: In this we have known the charity of God, that he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers — lives, that is, persons.

Of charity much might be said, but for the present I say that charity, in the Christians who are to fight against the unbelievers, will do many good things. For charity will bring it about that God will dwell in them; likewise that God will enlighten them; likewise that God will strengthen them in good things. I say (fol. 107r), then, that charity so works that God dwells in the true Christians through grace, whence blessed John says in his epistle, chapter 4: God is charity, and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him. Let a man consider how great an honour this is, that the immeasurable God should dwell in the tabernacle of his heart. Likewise charity enlightens the heart of man, that he may know and understand how he ought to conduct himself in what he has to do. Whence the Apostle says: 1 Thessalonians 3: And may the Lord direct your hearts in the charity of God — as if to say, in charity; as if it were through charity that the Lord directs our hearts, so that we may know, in doubtful matters, what we ought to choose. Likewise charity strengthens and fortifies the true Christians, that they may be able to stand against their enemies bravely and firmly. So Judith the widow, one of the daughters of Israel, moved by charity, went to Holofernes, the commander of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, who was besieging the city of Bethulia. And before she came to Holofernes, she prayed to God, saying: Look, O Lord, upon the camp of the Assyrians. Lift up your arm and shatter their strength. And below: You will strike him, O Lord — namely Holofernes — by the lips of my charity. Give me constancy in my mind, that I may despise him, etc. (Judith 9). And afterward it follows that Judith went up to the pillar that was at the head of his bed, and the dagger — that is, the sword — which hung bound to it, [p. 36] she loosed; and when she had unsheathed it, she seized the hair of his head and struck twice upon his neck and cut off his head. When this was done, the sons of Israel conquered the Assyrians and struck down many of them with the sword.

Chapter XXXIX. — On the chastity to be kept.

All Christians, and especially those who take the cross, ought diligently to take heed that they keep most pure chastity — whether virginal, or conjugal, or widowed — since it is fitting that the most pure Lord should have most pure ministers. Whence Our Lord Jesus Christ admonishes every Christian, saying, Apocalypse 3: I counsel you to buy from me gold tried by fire, that you may become rich, and to be clothed in white garments, that the shame of your nakedness may not appear. White garments are the garments of most pure chastity. But alas! there are many who have filthy garments — namely, of most foul and most filthy lust. Whence it is said in Zechariah 3 that the priest was clothed in filthy garments. And this plague of lust has grown so strong that many clerics and many laymen are defiled by the vice of lust. Let the pilgrims diligently beware of the stench of lust; and well do they need to beware, for the vice of lust flourishes greatly in the parts overseas, and there the women are evil and filthy. And let the pilgrims know that lust has done much (fol. 107v) evil. For lust blinds the lustful man, deprives him of grace, and damns him. Lust, I say, blinds the lustful man so that he cannot know the truth: whence it is said in Genesis 19 that two angels entered the house of Lot, and the lustful townsmen who had gathered at his house that they might satisfy their lust, they struck with blindness from the least to the greatest. Likewise Samson, deceived by the woman Delilah, was bodily blinded by the Philistines. Likewise lust deprives the lustful man of divine grace, which the Lord showed: Luke 15, where he says of the prodigal son that he wasted his substance, living lustfully; he wasted his substance, because he lost his spiritual goods, namely divine grace and the virtues and fruitful merits. Likewise lust damns the lustful man, because on account of the sin of lust a man is punished in this world and also in the world to come. For it is written, Numbers 25, that the sons of Israel fornicated with the daughters of Moab, and on account of this sin twenty-four thousand men were slain. Many other things might be said, but let these suffice for brevity's sake.

Chapter XL. — On the humility to be maintained.

The fighters of Christ ought always to keep humility with them, that there be no quarrels among them, since, as Solomon says, Proverbs 13: Among the proud there are always quarrels. Let the Christian fighters therefore be humble, since among other goods humility makes a man gracious, luminous, victorious, and glorious. Humility, I say, makes a man gracious before God and the angels. Whence blessed [Peter says], 1 Peter 5: All of you, urge humility upon one another, for God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace. So the blessed Virgin Mary found grace before God, as she herself says, Luke 1. For humility makes a man luminous, to know spiritual and divine things and to beware of and flee temporal evils. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 11: Where there is pride, there will also be reproach; but where there is humility, there also is wisdom. And wisdom makes the soul bright, according to what is said in the Book of Wisdom, chapter 6: Wisdom is bright, and never fades. Humility makes a man victorious, so that the humble man may conquer all his enemies, both spiritual and also temporal. And this is what the blessed Virgin Mary says in her canticle, Luke 1: He has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the humble. And this is what is said in Psalm: For you will save the humble people, and the eyes of the proud you will [p. 37] bring low, — since indeed the humble frequently become victors in battles and are exalted, while the proud are cast down and overcome. Humility also makes a man glorious, since indeed it leads (fol. 108r) a man to eternal life. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 29: Humiliation follows the proud man — that is, contempt and blindness and the pain of hell — and glory shall uphold him that is humble in spirit, since indeed the humble man will be led to eternal glory, the Lord attesting it, who says, Matthew 11: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.

Chapter XLI. — On mutual mercy and [com]passion.

Mutual mercy and firm compassion ought to be continual among the pilgrims: namely, that if any of them comes to poverty and has nothing to eat or to drink or to wear, the others who have temporal goods ought to relieve him, so that the army may not fail or break up through want. And this is what blessed Job says of himself, chapter 30: I wept once over him who was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor man. And below: If I ate my morsel alone, and the fatherless did not eat of it — since from my infancy mercy grew up with me, and it came forth with me from my mother's womb. Likewise the Apostle writes to Timothy his disciple, saying, 1 Timothy 4: Exercise yourself unto mercy; for mercy is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Likewise the Apostle leads us to mercy by an example, saying: First to the Corinthians 12: If one member suffers, all suffer together. Now you are the body of Christ, and members of a member. Since, then, we are all members of Christ, we ought to have compassion on one another, so that each may have compassion on the other and relieve him in time of need. This mercy, or compassion, blessed Paul perfectly had, saying: 2 Corinthians 11: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? etc. It is said that the Tartars have much compassion on one another; for if any of them has food ready prepared, he shares it with all who wish to eat.

Chapter XLII. — On the unity to be maintained among the Christians.

Unity ought to be among all Christians, and especially among those who, for love of the Lord Jesus Christ, wholly expose themselves to tribulations and to death. Such were the Christians in the primitive Church, as it is written: Acts 4: And of the multitude of believers there was one heart and one soul. The Christians are said to have had one heart and one soul because they agreed with one another in all things, alike in intention and in effect, since there was no discord among them. Therefore it well follows, concerning the believing Christians: Neither did any of them say that anything he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. To have this unity the Apostle exhorts us, saying: Ephesians 4: Careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of [fol. 108v] peace. Careful, I say, the fighters of Christ ought to be, that they may always keep the unity of the spirit — that is, the unity of good will toward one another — in the bond of peace: that is, that they be bound by the bond of mutual and peaceful concord, so that there be no discord among them. Therefore the Christians, joined together in the unity of concord, are the fitter to stand against the unbelievers, since, as it is said, Ecclesiastes 4: A threefold cord is hard to break. The threefold cord is the threefold unity that ought to be in the faithful, namely the unity of heart, of mouth, and of work. Of the unity of heart it has been said a little above, namely that of the believers there was one heart and one soul. Of the unity of mouth the Apostle says, First Corinthians 1: I beseech you, brothers, by the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you. Of the unity of work it has been said above, namely that to the believers all things were common. This threefold cord is not easily broken, since such and so great a unity cannot easily be broken. But where there is discord there is strife, and where there is strife, there can be no victory over the enemies. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 17: He who meditates discords loves strifes. Let the fighters of Christ therefore well beware that there be no discord among them, but that there be among them a mutual and perfect unity.

Chapter XLIII. — On sobriety to be maintained.

Sobriety is very necessary to all Christians, and above all to those who cross the sea, namely that every true worshipper of God be sober in food and drink. Whence the Apostle admonishes his disciple Timothy, saying: Fulfil thy ministry. Be sober. — 1 Timothy 10. And how the Apostle wishes his disciple to be sober, he himself shows by writing to the said Timothy in chapter 5: Do not go on drinking water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and consider thy frequent infirmities. By this the Apostle does not allow that his disciple drink much wine, nor pure wine but wine mixed with water, and he urges him to take wine as a medicine and not as the superfluous froth of lust and gluttony. This too is what the Wise Man says, Ecclesiasticus 31: How sufficient for an instructed man is a little wine. Likewise in the same chapter, further on: Wine, in sobriety, is a balanced life to men; wine was created for gladness, not for drunkenness, from the beginning. Let the faithful of Christ therefore be sober and not gluttonous, since the sin of gluttony does men much [harm], of which it is not now the place to speak one by one. But it suffices us to say a little briefly; for the wise man says, Ecclesiasticus 37: In many foods there will be sickness. Through surfeiting many have perished, or died (sic). But he who is wise will add to his life. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 23: Who has woe? whose father has woe? who has quarrels? who has pitfalls? who has wounds without cause? who has bloodshot eyes? (fol. 109r) Is it not those who linger over wine and are bent on draining their cups? There are many who cross the sea and squander all their goods in eating and drinking and wantonness; and there are many who eat and drink so much that they fall sick and die, as was said a little above: Ecclesiasticus 37: In many foods there will be sickness. Likewise Seneca says: Many dishes have made many diseases. The Christians ought to consider that the Saracens do not drink wine, unless they drink it hidden and by stealth, and that they never carry wine with them when they go on campaign, for Muhammad forbade them wine. The Tartars too carry no wine with them, but drink the milk of their mares, or the water of rivers or springs, as the Saracens also do. It is no great thing, then, if the Christians who are to fight with the unbelievers abstain from superfluous things, and above all from too much wine. And they ought to do this for this reason, that they may have health of body: Ecclesiasticus 31: Wholesome sleep is in a temperate man. Likewise that they may always keep soundness of the senses; whence Solomon says: Ecclesiastes 2: I thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might carry my mind over to wisdom and shun folly, and so on. Likewise that the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ may be truly kept; for he himself teaches the apostles and all Christians, saying: Ecc. 21: Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come suddenly upon you. For it will come like a snare, and so on.

Chapter XLIV. — On loyalty to be maintained.

Great loyalty, that is, faithfulness, ought to be among all Christians, and above all among those who are set together in one fellowship and in one work to be accomplished, and it ought most of all to be observed among those who are in the service of the Christian faith. Now this loyalty will be well kept if the word of the Apostle be fulfilled, First Thessalonians 4, where the Apostle says thus: Let no one overreach his brother in business. To overreach is to deceive one's neighbours by feigned words, by signs, or by fraudulent deeds — which in no way ought to be among the faithful. Now there is a twofold rule given to us by Sacred Scripture for keeping perfect loyalty, or faithfulness, well among Christians: one is negative, the other is affirmative. The first is that each of us beware of harming his neighbour. The second is that every man do good to his neighbour. Of the first rule it is written, Tobit 4. For Tobias called his son to him and taught him many things; among which he said to his son: What you would hate to be done to you by another, see that you never do to another — because, namely, just as you do not wish that anyone do you injury, so you ought not to do injury to another (fol. 109v). Of the second rule Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks, Luke 6: As you wish that men do to you, do you also to them in like manner — because, namely, just as we wish that [p. 39] men love us, honour us, and do us good, so we too ought to love our neighbours, honour them, and do them good. In these two things above said, then, is true loyalty, or faithfulness, among neighbours. Every man who keeps faith with his neighbour is much to be commended. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 28: A faithful man will be much praised. But, alas! few men are found today who are truly loyal, or faithful, according to the two rules above said. Therefore Solomon said, Proverbs 20: Many men are called merciful; but who will find a faithful man? As if Solomon should say: It is hard to find a faithful man.

Chapter XLV. — On patience to be maintained.

Patience is very necessary to those who wish to fight against the unbelievers; indeed, it is also very necessary to all Christians, who must live together with one another. For it is manifest that human frailty is great, and human life cannot be so led but that something is sometimes done by someone which does not please the eyes of others. For as the blessed apostle James says (chapter 3): In many things we all offend. And we offend not only God but also our neighbour — sometimes by word, sometimes by deed, sometimes by a sign or in other ways. And because we are all frail, each one of us therefore ought to bear with the other. Whence the Apostle says, Ephesians 4: I beseech you, that you walk worthily of the calling in which you are called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in charity. ‖ If, then, anyone be offended by his neighbour, he ought not at once to be puffed up or troubled against him, but ought to spare his brother, that their mutual fellowship be not broken. Whence the Apostle teaches us excellently, Galatians 6: Brothers, if a man be caught in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ. For each one of us ought to bear his brother's burdens — that is, his offences — so that he may be proved a true Christian and a lover of the Christian faith. And because it sometimes seems hard to bear the injuries of others, the Apostle therefore also says excellently, Hebrews 10: Patience is necessary for you, that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise. And we ought diligently to consider Christ the Lord, who is our head, since he was patient in all the things that were done to him unjustly by the Jews, to whom and to whose fathers he had done immense good. Whence the blessed (fol. 110r) Peter says, First Peter 2: Christ, he says, suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, did not revile; when he suffered, did not threaten, but gave himself over to him who judged him unjustly; who himself bore our sins in his body upon the wood of the cross, and so on. And this the blessed Gregory says: If the passion of the Lord be called back to memory, there is nothing hard for him that cannot be borne with an even mind. Likewise, concerning patience, the blessed Gregory says well, expounding that word of the Lord, Luke 21: In your patience you will possess your souls: True patience, he says, is to endure another's evils with an even mind, and to be moved by no grief of soul against him who inflicts the evils. Let this, which we have briefly said concerning patience, suffice.

Chapter XLVI. — That greed for earthly things is to be cast aside.

No greed for earthly things ought to be in Christians, and above all in those who ought to be the fighters of the Christian faith. To scorn earthly things there are certain considerations that ought to move the faithful of Christ, among which are these, namely: the condition of nature, the instruction of Christ, the avoidance of evil, and the attainment of good. The condition of nature ought to move all Christians to despise earthly things, since no man carries anything with him in entering the world, and takes nothing back from the world in leaving it. Whence the Apostle says, First Timothy 6: We brought nothing into this world; and without doubt, because we can carry nothing away. Having food, and something to be covered with, with these we are content. Likewise Job says in the first chapter: Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return thither. This too is what Tobias the Elder says to his son (chapter 4): We lead a poor life indeed. Poor — that is, wretched and frail. Whence also [p. 40] Seneca, considering the condition of the human race, says: With modest things nature is content, with boundless things opinion. If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to opinion, you will never be rich. The instruction of Christ too ought to move all the faithful to despise earthly things. For Christ teaches us to despise earthly things by deed and by word. By deed indeed, since he willed to be born of a poor mother, as it is written, Luke 2, that blessed Mary brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn. Whence Bernard says in a certain sermon: Namely, the Son of God, coveting this poverty, came down, that he might choose it for himself and, by his own esteem, make it precious for us also. By word too Christ instructed us, saying, Matthew 10: Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your belts; (fol. 110v) nor a wallet for the journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff. Christ speaks to the apostles and to perfect men; but others he instructs thus, that they should not love temporal goods overmuch, as the Psalm says: If riches abound, set not your heart upon them. Likewise the Lord says, Luke 14: He who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple. The Lord does not take away the use of temporal things, but he takes away the craving of coveting. Well had the Apostle removed his affection from earthly things, who said, Philippians 3: I count all things as dung, that I may gain Christ. The avoidance of evil too ought to move the faithful to despise earthly things. For a rich man is not without danger, since there are many who lie in wait for riches. Therefore the Apostle says, First Timothy 6: Those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many desires useless and harmful, which plunge men into destruction and perdition. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 11: He who trusts in his riches will fall. But he who scorns earthly things will be the safer, since — as the poet says — the empty-handed traveller will pass by in the presence of the robber. Likewise Gregory says well: He has in the world what he may love; there is nothing in the world that he dreads. The attainment of good too ought to move the faithful to scorn earthly things, since to those who are truly faithful, for the contempt of earthly things, the kingdom of heaven will be given, Matthew 5: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Likewise Matthew says, chapter 19: Everyone who leaves house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will possess eternal life. Therefore the faithful fighters of Christ, who for the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ expose their own lives, ought not to covet earthly substance inordinately, but they ought to set their heart upon the Holy Land, to be freed from the hands of the unbelievers, upon obtaining the pardon of all their sins, and upon possessing the glory of eternal life.

Chapter XLVII. — On prayer to be made.

The fighters of Christ ought to pray frequently, that they may fight no less with prayers than with their own strength. And this is what the Lord says, Luke 18: One must always pray and not fail. One must also know that the prayer of the faithful avails much; whence the blessed James says, chapter 5: The assiduous prayer of a just man avails much, and so on. For the prayer of the faithful of Christ avails, among other things, as to four: for through prayer there comes the remission of sins, the acquisition of spiritual goods, deliverance from evils, and the possession of eternal glory is obtained. I say, then, that we ought to pray willingly, since through prayer the remission of sins is found from God. Whence the Lord taught the apostles to pray, saying, Matthew 6: Thus therefore shall you pray (fol. 111r): Our Father, and so on, and forgive us our debts — for which we are debtors, since we have not observed thy commandments, O Lord. This remission is shown, Luke 18, where it is said: Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And it is said further that the publican stood afar off and struck his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner. And there follows the word that the Lord spoke: Amen I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other — he went down justified, because he was cleansed of his sins. And this is what the Psalmist prays, saying: Have mercy on me, O God; and further on it follows: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. This too is what Isidore says: By prayers we are cleansed, by readings we are instructed. Secondly, through prayer there comes the acquisition of spiritual goods, since, if anyone wishes [p. 41] to have any spiritual goods, let him ask them of God and he will give to him, if he ask well and worthily. Whence the Lord exhorts us to pray, saying, Matthew 7: Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Whence Augustine says: Let human sloth blush, since he is more willing to give than we to receive. Likewise the Lord says, Matthew 21: All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. ‖ Thirdly, through prayer there comes deliverance from evils. Whence we pray in the Lord's Prayer, saying: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil — from the evil of guilt, from the evil of present misery, from the evil of hell. Thus Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, praying, was delivered from the demon, as is said, Tobit 4. Thus Susanna prayed to the Lord and was delivered from a false accusation and from the peril of death, Daniel 13. Thus the three youths, praying and praising God, were delivered from the burning of the raging fire, Daniel 3. Thus King Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and was delivered from Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, together with his people; and the Lord sent his angel, who struck down in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men. For the Lord fights for those who pray, as is plain, Exodus 13, where it is said that the children of Israel fought against Amalek, and when Moses lifted up his hands Israel prevailed, but if he let his hands down a little, Amalek prevailed. The fighters of Christ ought therefore always to lift up their hands to pray, that they may well triumph over the enemies. Fourthly, I say, that through prayer we shall attain to everlasting glory. For the Lord exhorts us to pray and to seek the eternal kingdom, saying, Matthew 6: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be added to you. Likewise one of the thieves who hung on the cross beside the Lord cried out and said: Lord, remember me when (fol. 111v) thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord answered him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise (Luke 23). Thus we too pray, Matthew 6: Thy kingdom come — the heavenly kingdom, O Lord God; may we happily come to it. The Saracens, though they are unbelievers, nevertheless pray frequently, and place themselves in a common place when they are in camp; and at other times they pray and bend their knees in the sight of all, and praise the Lord God.

Chapter XLVIII. — On the presiding of one head over the Christians.

It has been shown above that in the Christians who cross the sea there ought to be a sufficiency of the army and an excellence of good life. Now, however, it remains to show that among the faithful of Christ there ought to be presiding heads; for without a presiding head they can do nothing perfectly. It is fitting, therefore, that all Christians should have one head by whom they may be directed, united, and corrected. Concerning the presiding of this head, many things are to be considered. For it is expedient that he who is to be the head and captain of the Christian army should have many good qualities.

Such a captain, then, ought to be: — Excelling in power — Honourable in life — Conspicuous for wisdom — Equitable in justice — Courageous in uprightness — Abounding in generosity — Careful in diligence — Gentle in conduct — Firm in steadfastness.

Chapter XLIX. — That the captain of the Christians ought to be a powerful man.

There ought, therefore, to be appointed some captain of the Christian army who is powerful, and great, and of such stature that all Christians may deservedly hold him in reverence and fear him. For it is expedient that he who must stand pre-eminent over all should have some excellence above all others, so that the rest of the Christians can in no way despise him, but all submit to him with a good heart and a good will. This is the counsel [of the Lord]..... which he himself gave to Moses in the desert, saying, Exodus 18: Provide out of all the people able men, and so on. This is what the Lord says through David the prophet (Psalm 88): I have laid help upon one who is mighty, and have exalted one chosen out of my people. Well, I say (fol. 112r), does the Lord say: "upon one who is mighty" — that is, upon a mighty captain, whom all will obey well; "I have laid" — that is, I shall lay help, since I myself will help [p. 42] him against the enemies of the faith, fighting with him or for him; and "I have exalted" — that is, I shall exalt and raise up the one chosen by me to fulfil so great an office. I shall exalt him, I say, in the present with divine grace, good fame, victory over his enemies, and abundance of merits, and in the future with eternal glory.

Such a captain also ought to be so powerful that he can pay many Christians out of his own money. For thus a man — and indeed any Christian — ought to fight for the faith of Christ willingly, and all the more willingly, just as he would fight for himself against his own enemy. And it is of greater merit that a Christian fighter, if he has the means, should fight with his own money than one who fights with another's money. And every Christian ought to consider in his heart that, if he risks his own person for Christ, it is no great thing that he should risk his earthly substance for Christ. And this stands against many men who, although they are rich enough and have the means to support themselves in their expenses, are nevertheless unwilling to make war against the unbelievers unless they have generous pay from the Holy Church — which some of them afterward, living carnally and too extravagantly, quickly consume and destroy.

Chapter L. — That he ought to be honourable in life.

Such a captain of the Christian army ought also to be honourable in life, so that he is not given to luxury, nor gluttonous, nor vicious in any crime, but adorned with the surpassing grace of good morals — so that it may be said of him what is said, Wisdom 10: The Lord honoured him in his labours, and completed his labours. And it follows: He stood by him against the fraud of those who circumvented him. He guarded him from enemies, and kept him safe from seducers, and gave him a hard struggle, that he might overcome. See how many good things attend the honourableness of a good life.

Such was Joseph, who, endowed with great honourableness, refused to commit adultery with his master's wife, and it is said there that he was of fair face and comely appearance, Genesis 39. By the face is understood the inner mind; by the appearance is understood the outward conduct. Such a captain ought therefore, like another Joseph, to have a fair face — that is, a fair intention — and a comely appearance — that is, good and honourable conduct — so that the light of his honourableness may shine before the whole multitude.

Chapter LI. — That he ought to be conspicuous for wisdom.

(Fol. 112r) ‖ The captain of the Christian army ought to be conspicuous for wisdom, that he may govern the people of the Lord prudently and usefully. For this reason Solomon asked wisdom of God, 1 Kings 3: I, said Solomon, am a little child, and know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of a people without number. Give, therefore, to thy servant a teachable heart, that he may judge thy people and discern between good and evil. To whom the Lord said: Behold, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart, and so on. It is expedient, therefore, that such a leader should be wise, that he may govern the people of the Lord well. And, to put it briefly, such a man will be wise by worshipping God and keeping his commandments, by doing good, by fleeing evil, by speaking discreetly, by providing good things, and by seeking counsel. I say, then, that such and so great a chief, set over the army of the Lord, ought to be wise by worshipping God his creator and his saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ — which he will do well if he keeps the commandments of the Lord. For there is no greater wisdom than to worship God perfectly and to keep his commandments perfectly. This is what Moses teaches the sons of Israel, saying, Deuteronomy 4: This is your wisdom and understanding before the nations, that when they hear all these precepts, they may say: Behold, a wise and understanding people. Nor is there another nation so great that has gods drawing near to it, as our Lord [is present] at all our supplications. This wisdom, moreover, as is said a little further on, consists in observing [p. 43] the ceremonies and the whole law of the Lord. Now he worships God well who keeps the commandments of God; whence the Psalmist says: Who is wise, and will keep these things? (Ps. 106) Likewise the Psalmist says: Serve the Lord in fear (Ps. 2). Likewise Solomon, Proverbs 28: He who keeps the law is a wise son. Likewise, such a man ought to be wise by doing good. And this is what Solomon says, Proverbs 10: A slack hand has wrought poverty; but the hand of the strong prepares riches. And further on he says: He who gathers in harvest is a wise son; but he who sleeps in summer is a son of confusion. And Solomon sets us an example, saying, Proverbs 6: Go to the ant, O sluggard, and learn wisdom, which prepares its food in summer, and gathers in harvest what it may eat. Such a leader ought also to be wise by fleeing evils, that is, sins. And likewise he will be wise if he knows well how to flee the schemes of the unbelievers. And this is what Solomon says, Proverbs 14: The wise man turns away from evil; the fool leaps on, and is confident. Likewise, Ecclesiasticus 3: A wise heart will abstain from sins. Such a man ought also (fol. 113r) to be wise, that he may know how to speak discreetly and to answer all men wisely. And this is what Solomon says, Proverbs 10: In the lips of the wise, wisdom is found. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 15: The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge; the mouth of fools bubbles over with folly. Such a man ought also to be wise in providing good things for the Christian people. Such was Joseph, of whom it is said: for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he gathered providently. But let the king [have] a wise and industrious man, and set him over the land of Egypt. For Joseph, set by Pharaoh over the land of Egypt, gathered much grain and provided for the coming seven years' famine, Genesis 41. Likewise, so great a man ought to be such that he does not trust overmuch in his own judgement. For the Lord says through Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah 5: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight! That is: woe to you who reckon yourselves so wise and so prudent that your judgement and your prudence prevail over all, and suffice for yourselves and others — since indeed such a reckoning is pride, as Solomon says, Proverbs 11: Where humility is, there also is wisdom. Let the leader of the Christian army, therefore, always have with him some wise men who fear God, by whose counsel he may discern between true and false, good and evil, what is to be done and what is to be left undone; and so let him take counsel about affairs [with] other men too. This is what Tobias the elder taught his son: Seek counsel, he said, always from a wise man, Tobit 4. Likewise divine Wisdom says, Proverbs 8: I, Wisdom, dwell in counsel, and am present in learned thoughts. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 12: The way of a fool is right in his own eyes; but he who is wise listens to counsels. Likewise it is written, Wisdom 6: A multitude of the wise is the health of the world, and a wise king is the stability of a people.

Chapter LII. — That he ought to be just.

The leader of the Christian people ought to be equitable in justice, so that he shows favour to no man's person, nor takes it unduly into account in judgement, but judges all things according to equity. Whence it is well written, Wisdom 1: Love justice, you who judge the earth. And this is well written, Deuteronomy 1: Judge what is just, whether it be a citizen or a stranger. There shall be no difference of persons, for it is the judgement of God. The leader of the Christian people ought therefore to hold the balance of justice in his hand, that he may know well how to weigh and balance all his judgements; for as is said, Proverbs 16: Weight and balance are the judgements of the Lord — since indeed the judgements of the Lord, which are rendered through the Lord's messengers, ought to be weighed on the balance of justice. This is done well when to each man his own right is duly rendered (fol. 113v). And this is what the blessed Augustine says: "Justice," he says, "I call the virtue by which each is given his own." Then indeed does a judge hold the balance of justice truly in his hand, when he is turned aside from equity by neither love, nor hatred, nor entreaty, nor bribe, nor fear, nor honour. Then is the judge truly directed by the Lord, as uncreated Wisdom says, Proverbs 4: I will lead you through the paths of equity, which when you have entered, your steps shall not be hemmed in, and running you shall meet no stumbling-block. But an unjust sentence greatly displeases God. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 11: A deceitful balance is an abomination before God.

Chapter LIII. — That the captain ought to be courageous.

The leader of the Christian people ought to be upright and courageous, so that by his uprightness and his courage all Christians may be rightly strengthened. And the leader of the army of the Lord ought to be such as Joshua was, of whom it is written, Ecclesiasticus 46: Valiant in war was Jesus, son of Nun, successor of Moses, who was eleventh (sic), for the salvation of the clergy of God, to overthrow the enemies that rose up, and so on (sic). Let him be also like another Jonathan, of whom it is said, 2 Kings 1: The arrow of Jonathan never went back. Let him be also like another Judas Maccabeus, of whom it is written, 1 Maccabees 3, where it is said that Judas Maccabeus spread abroad glory among his people, and put on a breastplate like a giant, and girded on his weapons of war in battles, and protected the camp with his sword. He became like a lion in his deeds, and like a lion's whelp roaring in his hunting. And he pursued the wicked, searching them out, and those who troubled his people he burned with flames. And the enemies were driven back for fear of him, and all the workers of iniquity were confounded, and salvation was made straight in his hand. Courage, however, ought always to be joined and united with wisdom, since the leader of the army of the Lord, as has been said above, ought to do all things wisely. Whence Solomon says, Proverbs 7: Say to Wisdom: You are my sister, and call Prudence your friend. Likewise Solomon says, Proverbs 24: A wise man is strong, and a learned man is robust and mighty, for war is waged with strategy, and there is safety where there are many counsels.

Chapter LIV. — That he ought to be generous.

The leader of the Christian people ought to be generous and not miserly, for Solomon says, Proverbs 29: A just king raises up his land; a miserly man will destroy it. The chief of the army of the Lord ought, I say, to be generous, so that he distributes earthly goods, both to himself and to others, as is fitting. For this is what Aristotle teaches his pupil Alexander the Great in the little book (fol. 114r) which he sent to him — a little book that begins thus: There are four kings; and he says there that that king is well to be commended who is generous to himself and generous to his household. And as the philosopher shows there, generosity is a mean between two excesses, which are prodigality and avarice. Generosity is to be praised; the extremes are to be condemned. For the prodigal man gives what should be given and what should not be given; the miserly man keeps what should be kept and what should not be kept; the generous man gives what should be given and keeps what should be kept, and so the generous man holds the mean between the two vices. And the philosopher there describes generosity, saying: Generosity is that which bestows what it is fitting to bestow on those upon whom it is incurred (sic), especially according to one's means, at a fitting time. Whoever transgresses this holds to an extreme and departs from the definition of generosity. For if anyone gives what it is not fitting to give, he will not be praiseworthy; and if he gives, but not at the right time, he will be like one who pours out bitter water upon the shore of the sea; and if he gives to one unworthy, he will be like him who arms his own enemy against himself; but he who gives what it is fitting to give, and gives at a fitting time, and gives to those who are worthy, he is generous both to himself and to his household, and he will be praiseworthy in his deeds — and this is the man the ancients called generous, and not the one who gives gifts to the unworthy, for such a man squanders and consumes the goods of the realm. Avarice, however, ought in no way to belong to kings, for avarice is an unworthy name, and ought to cling to no realm. O Alexander, I say to you, whatever king has transgressed by giving beyond what he can afford fails, and burdens his realm with what it will not be able to bear, and such a man destroys both himself and others. Thus far are the words of Aristotle. Let the leader of the Christian army, then, be generous in the manner the philosopher teaches; and let him above all be generous with the cities and towns which, God willing, he shall acquire from the neighbouring unbelieving Saracens.

Chapter LV. — That he ought to be diligent.

The leader of the Christian people ought to be diligent and careful for the people of God, so that he may guard the Christian people with loving care, that he may direct them well, that he may lay low the enemies of the Christian faith, that he may acquire the Holy Land. And this is what is said to the rulers of the people, 2 Paralipomenon 19: Do all things with diligence. Diligent in his deeds is he who ought to have forsworn all sloth (sic), and carefully searches out by meditating, by inquiring, by watching over the flock of the Lord, and by fulfilling in deed all things that can be of profit to the Christian [fol. 114v] people. Therefore the Apostle teaches us, saying, Romans 12: Not slothful in diligence. Solomon also rouses the slothful man and urges him toward diligence, saying (Prov. 6): How long, sluggard, will you sleep? When will you rise from your slumber? A little you will sleep, and a little you will slumber, a little you will fold your hands, that you may sleep, and poverty will come upon you like a traveller; but if you are not sluggish, it will come to you like a fountain of harvest, and poverty will flee far from you. Let the leader of the Christian people, then, be diligently careful for the people of God, that he may be like the potter, of whom it is said, Ecclesiasticus 38: The potter, sitting at his work, turning the wheel with his feet, is always set in care for his work. Well was the Apostle careful, who says, 2 Corinthians 11: In labours most abundant, and further on: Besides those things that are without, my daily pressing care, the care of all the churches.

Chapter LVI. — That he ought to be gentle.

The leader of the Christian people ought to be gentle, that he may be able to live peaceably with other men. "Be gentle," says the Lord, Matthew 5, where he says: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. Blessed, he says, are the meek. The meek, as a certain gloss says there, is the same as the gentle. The gentle man, however, as the gloss says, neither conquers nor is conquered; he does no harm, nor thinks to do harm. Likewise another gloss says: "The meek is he whom rancour or anger does not affect, but he bears all things with an even mind." Likewise, if the gentle drink anything deadly, it will not harm them, as is said, 3, 40 (Mark). "The meek," says the Lord, "shall possess the land." Augustine: "They shall possess," he says, "that land of which it is written: Let my portion be in the land of the living." Let the leader of the Christian people, then, be gentle — that is, kindly and tractable toward all, not irascible, not quarrelsome — since, as the Apostle says, 2 Timothy 2: The servant of the Lord ought not to quarrel, but to be gentle toward all. Let every Christian learn from our Lord Jesus Christ to be gentle in his conduct, for it is written of him, Matthew 3, and taken from Zechariah the prophet, chapter 9: Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king................. (a gap in the manuscript here). So too Moses, who ruled the people of the Lord, was meek and very gentle; for it is written of him, Numbers 12: Now Moses was a man exceedingly meek, above all men who dwelt upon the earth. Let every Christian also learn to be gentle in his tribulation and affliction, that he may be like Christ, who says (gloss 11): "I am like a gentle lamb that is carried to be a victim" — since Christ, in his passion, did not murmur and did not cry out, but rather prayed for those who killed him [fol. 115r] (Luke 23): Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And let the leader of the Christian people be such as is said, Ecclesiasticus 32: They have made you a ruler; be not lifted up; be among them as one of them.

Chapter LVII. — That he ought to be steadfast in the good.

Steadfast and firm in the good ought the leader of the Christian people to be, so that he is not moved by any wind of talk, of tribulations, or of temptations. Let him trust in the Lord and not waver in his heart, for, as the blessed apostle James says: He who wavers is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. Likewise the blessed James says in the same place: A man of two minds is inconstant in all his ways. Likewise Christ commends the blessed John the Baptist for his steadfastness, saying, [p. 46] Matthew 11: What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Blessed John was not a reed shaken by the wind, for he was not unsteady, but was steadfast and firm in the good — so much so that, for speaking and preaching the truth, he was put to death by the most cruel Herod. This is also what the Apostle admonishes us, saying, 1 Corinthians 15: Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Not in vain, I say, is labour, for, as is said, Wisdom 3: Glorious is the fruit of good labours.

Chapter LVIII. — On the condition, action, and effect of the twofold Christian army.

It has been shown above that those who cross the sea need certain things, without which the crossing of the Christians cannot be secure. Now, however, it must be said, concerning the army of the Christians itself, what it ought to do, and where it ought to make land, and concerning the advancement of the Christians in their own army. It is necessary, then, to know that if the Christians wish to fight directly and thoroughly against the Saracens, it is expedient that they make two armies, to fight in different quarters against the unbelievers. One of their armies ought to fight against the Saracens by sea, and the other army ought to fight against them by land. These two armies, moreover, ought to fight against the Saracens at the same time, so that they may do and inflict greater loss upon the Saracens. Of these two ways of fighting it is written in the first book of Maccabees, chapter 8: for the Romans wrote on behalf of the Jews to King Demetrius, saying: Why have you made your yoke heavy upon our friends and allies the Jews? If, then, they shall come to us again, we will do them justice against you, and we will fight against you by sea and by land.

Chapter LIX. — On the Christian army that ought to be raised by sea.

Let us speak first of the army of the Christians that ought to fight against the Saracens by sea (fol. 115v). Concerning this it must be known that, first, it is fitting that a ban be proclaimed throughout all the cities of the Christians that are situated on the sea, and throughout all the sea-ports, that no Christian sail or go into Egypt, or to any lands, places, or ports subject to the Sultan of Babylon, and that in no way should they go or send to the Saracens who are subject to the said Sultan, for the carrying on or the doing of any trade with them. But since among the Christians many are disobedient and wicked and do not fear God, because they care little for excommunication if they can gain worldly profit — indeed they would even despise the command, and would go to the Saracens and carry them many goods — therefore it is also fitting that a penalty should restrain those whom evil inclination binds. It is fitting, then, that an army be raised by sea, which will not permit any merchants to go or sail to the lands of the Saracens who make war on the Holy Land; and if they are found doing the contrary, let them undergo the penalty imposed by law, or a greater one, if it shall seem expedient.

It is also expedient that at the outset there should be many vessels by sea, which ought to do battle against the Saracens; and it would be good if there were fifty, or forty, or at least thirty, galleys, well armed and well equipped, both in men and in all the things that are necessary for war. It would also be good if some other vessels were with them — vessels to carry provisions and other necessities, which in due time could also make war against the unbelievers. As time goes on, however, the galleys could be fewer in number. These galleys, moreover, can do the Christians much good, and can inflict much harm upon the Saracens.

The first benefit that the aforesaid galleys can bring about is this: that the Saracens of Egypt, and the other Saracens who make war on the Christians of the Holy Land, will not be able to sail, nor to carry any goods, or anything else, by sea; and so there will come about a confinement of the Saracens, for they will be confined to the land and will lose the profit of the sea, since their seafaring will cease on account of their fear of the Christians, who will be lords of the sea.

Chapter LX. — The second benefit.

The second is that the Christians who dwell in the Holy Land will be secure from fear of the galleys of the Saracens, since, namely, the Saracens will not be able to harm the Christians from the side of the sea. For among the great fears that the inhabitants of the Holy Land have had and still have, this is one of the greatest: that the Christians have feared and still fear (fol. 116r) that the Sultan might perhaps have many galleys armed and send them against the lands of the Christians, and make war against the Christians, by himself and by his men, from the side of the land, and with his galleys bring war upon the Christians from the side of the sea; and if this should happen, the Christians would be shut in on every side, so that they could have no relief, nor could provisions or other necessities be brought to them. I reckon it is some twenty years, or thereabouts, since many galleys of the Saracens of Egypt were roving about the sea, so that they might harm the Christians; but, the Lord willing, the sea was disturbed, so that the galleys of the Saracens could not withstand the violence of the sea, but were dashed against the shore on the island of Cyprus and were wrecked. The Saracen men who were in the galleys were captured in great numbers; and so the captive Saracens amounted to many thousands; and the Christians of Cyprus took them, not by their own prowess, but because God delivered the Saracens into the hands of the Christians.

Chapter LXI. — The third benefit.

The third benefit that these galleys will bring about [is] that the Saracens would lose the great toll that they take from the Christians who go into Egypt with their goods. For many ships of the Christians are accustomed to go into Egypt, which pay very great sums of money to the Saracens. And I have heard it related by merchants that, of three ships' worth, the value of one ship — that is, of the goods that are carried by the Christians — remains with the Saracens. I have also heard it said that the Sultan, every day — reckoning one day for another — has from Alexandria about a thousand old bezants, which are worth more than a thousand florins, with which the Sultan can pay the wages of many Saracen horsemen. But if the Christians should not go into Egypt, the Saracens would lose this profit in money, and it would be very great damage to the Saracens.

Chapter LXII. — The fourth benefit.

The fourth benefit is to the Christians: that the Saracens will be deprived of many things which they cannot do without; for the Christians carry to the Saracens, into Egypt, iron, bronze, tin, and other metals; likewise they carry them forbidden timber, oil, honey, and many other things, which are very necessary to the Saracens, but very harmful to the Christians, since the Saracens make war on the Christians with the very things that wicked Christians carry to them. For although the land of Egypt abounds in many good things, still it does not have the aforesaid goods of itself; and if the aforesaid goods are not carried to the Saracens by the Christians, the Saracens themselves will sustain the greatest harm.

Chapter LXIII. — The fifth benefit.

(Fol. 116v) The fifth benefit of the aforesaid galleys is this: that the Saracens of Egypt will not only lose the toll that they collect from the Christians who carry their goods into Egypt, but they will also lose the profit that they get from the merchants who carry pepper and other spices from India, by the Red Sea, into Egypt. For if the Christian merchants do not buy the pepper and other spices that are carried from India, there will be no one to buy them, and so the merchants coming from India will labour in vain. And therefore it is fitting that that route from India into Egypt should cease, just as the route of the Christians to the land of Egypt ought to cease.

[p. 48] But if you should ask me and say: Where, then, will the Christians get pepper and other useful spices? I answer you: that pepper and other spices are carried not only by the Arabian Gulf, that is, by the Red Sea, but they are also carried by the Persian Gulf, and by another route as well; just as, indeed, spices are now carried and distributed through the northern regions, and are brought into Armenia from India and not from Egypt. And therefore the Christians cannot be deprived of aromatic spices, because if the Egyptian route should be closed, the other routes are not closed.

Chapter LXIV. — The sixth benefit.

The sixth is that the Saracens will not be able to sell certain goods of their own, which they need to sell if they wish to live. For the Saracens have much linen, much sugar, and they make many cloths of various colours — I do not mean woollen ones, but ones mixed with silk and cotton, or with gold, and others of this kind. And I have heard that there are very many weavers in Alexandria, and that there are more than ten thousand of them. These goods the Saracens will not be able to sell conveniently, if Christian merchants do not go into Egypt. And so the aforesaid goods, and also the crafts of the Saracens, will very largely disappear.

Chapter LXV. — The seventh benefit.

The seventh is that a reduction takes place in the Saracens who make war against the Christians. For the Sultan is accustomed to send, every year, certain ships beyond Constantinople to the Greater Sea, and he has young men of those nations that dwell around that sea bought in great numbers — whether the young men who are bought are the sons of pagans or of Christians, since they have a good and strong nature — and he has them brought into Egypt, and has them made Saracens, and also has them taught in every exercise of fighting and of riding; and when they have been well trained, he has horses and arms given to them, and pay generous enough, and they become vigorous horsemen in fighting. Of these men, moreover, some become emirs, and some of them even become Sultans, since the Saracens of Egypt in our time do not make their Sultans by descent, but rather he becomes Sultan among them who is more powerful, or who has more (fol. 117r) friends. The galleys of the Christians, therefore, can hinder this, so that no such young men can be brought into Egypt, and it will be a great harm to the Saracens.

Chapter LXVI. — The eighth benefit.

The eighth is that these galleys can devastate all the maritime lands in which the Saracens dwell, unless perhaps the Sultan of Egypt should have all the lands situated upon the sea fortified, which would be difficult. But if it should happen that the Christians destroy the maritime lands in which the Saracens hold dominion, they ought to take care not to harm the Christians who dwell in those lands together with the Saracens; for the Christians who dwell in the land of the Saracens greatly desire that the Latin Christians should be victorious and should acquire the Holy Land and the land of Egypt, which has now for a long time been lost — and these same Christians, moreover, do much good to our Christians who are led captive by the Saracens into those parts, and free such as they can, so that it would be wrong to harm them. Rather, our Christians ought to place those Christians in their galleys and lead them away with them to the lands in which Christians hold dominion.

Chapter LXVII. — The ninth benefit.

The ninth benefit is that if the Sultan wished to raise an army against our Christians, he would not be able to lead so great an army with him by land, because he would always fear the loss of the lands he possesses, on account of the galleys of the Christians, which he would know to be stationed off Egypt, and he would have to leave one part of his army behind to guard those lands. And so the Sultan cannot do so much harm to the Christians who dwell in the Holy Land.

Chapter LXVIII. — The tenth benefit.

The tenth benefit is that if the Christians of the Holy Land were attacked or besieged by the Saracens, these galleys could offer them aid, both by fighting and by bringing them what is necessary, and also by carrying fighting men to them for their aid.

Chapter LXIX. — The eleventh benefit.

The eleventh benefit is that these galleys can guard the sea, so that pirates do not trouble the Christians. For pirates are the most wicked of men, who spare neither sex nor age, and where the Saracens destroy Christians by land, they themselves plunder and prey upon Christians by sea. These men have also, at times, inflicted many troubles on the people of the Holy Land.

Chapter LXX. — Conclusion of the foregoing.

On account of all that has been said above, the Saracens of Egypt will be compelled either to seek peace and concord with the Christians, and to do the will of the Christians, or else they must be gradually worn down and reduced to little. I myself once held a discussion with certain Christians from (fol. 117v) Egypt who were coming to Acre on the business of the Holy Land, who said to me: "If Christian merchants do not come into Egypt with their goods, Egypt is conquered." And so privation alone brings about victory, since, as has been said above, if the Christians do not go into Egypt, and sell nothing to the Saracens, and buy nothing from them, Egypt must be reduced to nothing, or to very little.

Chapter LXXI. — On the station of the galleys.

The galleys mentioned above can remain off Egypt, since there are certain places there good enough for galleys to stand at, as those who have seen those places say; or they can be stationed at Cyprus, or at Acre, or on the island of A[n]terodi, or at Rhodes, or even in other places. But I think it better that the galleys should be off Egypt, so that they can suddenly do harm to the Egyptians, and not allow any vessels to arrive in Egypt, nor allow any vessels to leave from there.

Chapter LXXII. — On the men of the galleys.

On these galleys, foot soldiers without horses suffice, since the army of the galleys does not have to fight in open field against the Saracens, but must fight upon the water against the unbelievers — except against lands and places situated on the coast, against which they can suddenly rush in and destroy them, and at once gather themselves back to the sea.

Chapter LXXIII. — On the commanders of the galleys.

It is fitting, moreover, that there be placed in the aforesaid galleys commanders who fear God, who are faithful in all things, who are not covetous of earthly things, who are prudent and provident and diligently careful in all the affairs of the Christian faith, over whom some suitable captain should be set, who should be over all the vessels of the sea and whom all should obey, and who should be such as has (?) been described above.

The commanders of the aforesaid galleys should never place themselves in the power of the Saracens, and should never trust the Saracens so far — for the Saracens can always freely accomplish their own will without harm to themselves; indeed, if they could, they would gladly practise deceit on the Christians. And let them take careful heed lest they be corrupted by the gifts of the Saracens. Let the Christians also take heed against Greek fire, which the Saracens hurl — which fire, as is said, cannot be put out except with vinegar or urine — and therefore the Christians have been accustomed to place the hides of animals around the galleys and other vessels of the sea, so that they may be defended from that most evil fire. And, to put it briefly, these galleys can do many things which cannot be explained one by one. And perhaps the aforesaid galleys will be able to gain so much that they will suffice for their own expenses.

Chapter LXXIV. — (Fol. 118 r) On the just war.

In order, however, that the Christians may fight against the Saracens with a just war and a good conscience, and that the Lord may be with them, it seems fitting that they observe the form which the Lord God commanded the sons of Israel to observe firmly. For the Lord God says to the people of Israel, Deuteronomy 20: "When you shall come near to besiege a city, you shall first offer it peace. If it shall receive this and open its gates to you, all the people who are in it shall be saved, and shall serve you under tribute. But if they are unwilling to enter into a covenant and shall have begun war against you, you shall assault it. And when the Lord your God shall have delivered it into your hand, you shall strike all that is in it," etc. The Christians can, therefore, justly demand from the Saracens the whole of the Holy Land, which belonged to the Christians — under which is comprehended Egypt and the whole Holy Land as far as the Euphrates — and they can likewise demand all the damages which the Saracens have themselves inflicted on the Christians, both in their persons and in their various possessions. But if the Saracens should be willing to agree with the Christians, the Christians will be able to cross over without war, provided only that the galleys always remain in force, and are diligently and carefully kept armed and maintained; for if the Saracens should see that the galleys were failing, they would in no way keep the terms of peace they had promised. But if the Saracens are unwilling to accept the peace offered to them by the Christians, and are unwilling to make satisfaction to the Christians for the wrongs inflicted, as they ought, then the Christians can justly, and with a good conscience, wage war on the Saracens, and the Lord will help them in all things. For thus ought each man to fight against his enemy, so that justice always stands as his advocate. In this way did the Gileadite, as is said in Judges 11: "For the sons of Ammon were fighting against Israel. And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, who were to say in his own person: What have I to do with you, that you have come against me, to lay waste my land?" And it is said further on: "Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do evil against me, in declaring against me a war that is not just. May the Lord, the judge of this day, decide between Israel and the sons of Ammon. And the king of the sons of Ammon was unwilling to agree to the words of Jephthah, which he had sent by his messengers." And it follows: "And Jephthah passed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them, whom the Lord delivered into his hand, and he struck nine of their cities; and the sons of Ammon were humbled by the sons of Israel." If the Apostle should not seem to agree with this, saying, Romans 12: "If it is possible, so far as it lies with us, let us keep peace with everyone," yet it seems discourteous for a man to fall upon someone with no warning given beforehand. But once an enemy has been warned, and refuses to submit to what is fair, he can deservedly be attacked by those who have a just cause (fol. 118v).

The galleys mentioned above, moreover, are so useful, and can do so much good, that it is the opinion and common report of almost everyone who knows anything of this matter, that they alone suffice to free the Holy Land from the hands of the unbelievers — provided only that Acre and the other maritime lands are fortified with horsemen and footmen as is fitting.

[p. 51] It is necessary, moreover, that these galleys be continually kept at their full strength, until a complete victory has been won over the enemies of the Christians. And it is believed that the Holy Land will be able to be recovered — the unbelievers' men failing — provided that the Christians' galleys diligently accomplish, in a short time, everything described above.

Chapter LXXV. — On the Christian army to be raised by land.

Enough, I think, has been said of the Christian army that is to be raised by sea against the Saracens. It now remains for us to speak of the army that must fight against the Saracens by land, of which enough has already been said above. And so let us say only a little here, since it has been more fully set out above.

It is fitting, then, to see to which quarter the Christians' army ought to land, and how it ought to proceed. But let us first see by which way the Christians' army may more conveniently set out.

There are, moreover, three ways of proceeding: one is by land, another by sea, and a third is partly by land and partly by sea. The way by land is that the Christians should go by land as far as Constantinople and from there, once they have crossed the Arm of Saint George — whose width is about one mile — should pass through the territory of the emperor of the Greeks, which is called Nacolim, and from there pass through Turkey and come into Armenia, which is a land of Christians and borders on the Saracens, and is adjacent to Antioch. This way would be very good, because the Christians can bring with them all the horses and all the animals necessary to them, and could also buy many animals along the way, and could find everything necessary, since there are many good cities on the way. But if the Christians should be unwilling to take another way, then it is expedient that they forewarn the princes and peoples through whose lands they are about to pass, that they wish to do no one harm, and that they wish to proceed peaceably through their lands, and that those rulers should grant them passage through their own land. They can, moreover, make this known to them just as the sons of Israel did to those through whose lands they passed; for the sons of Israel went from Egypt and from the desert to the Holy Land, and the Christians likewise set out from the lands of the West, out of zeal for the Christian faith, toward the Holy Land. Now it is written, in the twentieth chapter of Numbers, that Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, who were to say: "Thus says your brother Israel to you: we beg that we may be allowed to pass through your land. We will not go through the fields or through the vineyards" (fol. 119r), "nor will we drink water from your wells, but we will walk by the public road, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your borders. We will walk by the beaten way, and if we drink your water, we will give what is just; there will be no difficulty over the price, so long as we may pass quickly."

The above-mentioned way lies through the dominion of Christians as far as Turkey, and it may reasonably be believed that the Christian lords will freely grant passage to our pilgrims, once they see that the Christian pilgrims wish to do them no harm but rather to be of service to them in every way. The Turks are subject to the dominion of the Tartars, who would themselves not dare to harm the Christians, once the Tartar king's own order had been given. If, then, the Christian pilgrims should choose to take this way, which is not a bad one but a good one, let them take diligent care to harm no one, both to avoid offending God and to avoid infamy, and also to avoid whatever penalty might follow upon them. Let them also carry with them provisions sufficient for several days, since the crossing sometimes passes through places where there is a lack of provisions and of the other things necessary to the army. Let them also take care not to place too much trust in any man or people, but let them always be ready to defend themselves, should war come upon them. We find, indeed, that excessive confidence has sometimes brought forth an evil outcome. Let them have with them skilled craftsmen, who may be ready in all things at the fitting time. Let them also have with them certain small tools, with which they can grind wheat and bake bread; for

[p. 52] the Saracens too, when they [are] on campaign, daily make flatbreads and fresh bread; there are also, in the army of the Saracens, certain men appointed who make food for the captain and for the army, so that it is not necessary for each man to see to his own cooking, since whoever wishes to buy cooked food finds it abundantly prepared.

The army, moreover, ought to proceed gradually and make short marches, so that the men may be able to journey forth unharmed and cheerful. The Christian pilgrims ought to have with them guides — whom they call "pedotos" — who may lead them by good and straight roads, and who may procure for them what they need along the way, from the cities and villages they pass through or near. Let them also have with them interpreters who know the various languages, since they must pass through various provinces, which have various tongues and various scripts.

The way by sea is that the Christians should, from some good and well-known port — such as the port of Venice, or of Genoa, or some other port — take to the sea, and from there go on as far as the land overseas. This way, however, is good, except that it is difficult to find so many ships as could carry so great a multitude of men and animals (fol. 119v).

The third way is one that is partly by land and partly by sea: that the Christians should go up by sea at Brindisi and from there cross the Adriatic Sea and go to Durazzo. And because that crossing is short, ships could quickly go to Durazzo and return again to Brindisi, and so transport all the animals and everything necessary to the army. Then, once all the pilgrims have been gathered together with their animals, they could at last go on to Constantinople and from there set out by the way named above. This way is a good one, and has at other times been taken by Christians. But whichever way the Christians cross, this much is good: that they should have their provisions and other necessities carried by sea in ships, since perhaps at the first attempt they might not be able to find everything necessary in full. But the Christians' way, even if it should be by land, will not lie far from the sea.

Chapter LXXVI. — On the landing of the Christians.

Let us now see at what place the Christians' army ought more fittingly to land. Already, different people hold different views on this. Some are entirely of the opinion, and say, that it is good to land at Acre; others, however, say that it is good to land at Tripoli; others say that it is good to land at Soldinum; and others still say that it is good to land at Portus Palorum, which is in Lesser Armenia, once called Cilicia.

Chapter LXXVII. — The first opinion.

Those who say that it is better to land first in Egypt have this in their favour: that if Egypt is conquered, the victory is complete; because, as [has] been said above, the Sultan of Egypt rules in his time over two kingdoms, namely the kingdom of Egypt and of Damascus. And if Egypt should be conquered, the Saracens who dwell in Syria could do little harm to the Christians, since they have little soldiery and little power, because the Sultan of Damascus has been greatly devastated and destroyed by the Tartars. They say, too, that the Christians will immediately be able to hold the island called Rasid, which the Nile [surrounds], and that from this island — since it is large and fertile — the whole of Egypt is made fruitful. And if the Christians should hold that island, and keep it, the Egyptians would not be able to hold out.

[p. 53] Yet although this consideration may seem to be a good one, there are nonetheless some who are not well agreed with this opinion, and these are: — the diversity of ways of fighting. — The unhealthiness of the place. — (Fol. 120r) The want of necessities. — The enemy's great strength. — The remoteness of aid. — The length of time required.

Chapter LXXVIII. — Against the opinion set out.

I say, then, that it does not seem fitting for the Christians' army to land first in Egypt, because, as has been said above, there ought to be two armies of the Christians: one that fights by sea, and another that fights by land — which also ought to fight in different places, so that the enemy may be made weaker and rendered less able to fight. They also have different ways of fighting; for a knight fights in one way, a foot-soldier in another; likewise, one fights in one way at sea, and in another way away from the sea. Now it has been said above that one army ought to be raised by sea against Egypt, and it is not necessary that a second army should again be raised against Egypt, since that army could be employed elsewhere much better and much more usefully. For if the Saracens should wish to fight against two Christian armies, they will have to divide themselves, and the more they are divided and separated from one another, the weaker they will be. And if you should perhaps say that the Christians' strength is diminished in the same way, because they are making two armies, the answer is that this does not follow well; for the Saracens would have to be divided by land alone — part of them would have to remain to guard Egypt, and part of them would have to go to fight against the other army. But the Christians' army that fights by sea does not diminish the army that must fight by land, although the soldiery that is to fight by land ought always to keep its ships and vessels not far from its own army.

The unhealthiness of the land of Egypt, too, shows that it is not good to land there; for the land of Egypt, and dwelling in it, is very unhealthy, and above all for men from a cold land, because the land of Egypt is very hot in summer and intemperate, and it is not expedient for men from beyond the mountains to be there, since the pestilence of that unhealthiness would suffice to consume the Christian people, should they choose to stay in that land for any time. And as experience [teaches] — in the time, of good memory, of the lord Louis, king of France, when he took Damietta from the hands of the unbelievers — many Christians fell sick and died in Egypt. The Tartars, too, take care not to attack certain lands in time of heat and unhealthiness, and willingly stay in cold lands (fol. 120v), to avoid sickness. Every man, moreover, ought to preserve the health of his own body, if he can do so in a good way, since a sick man cannot fight, nor perform other tasks. Whence the Wise Man says, in the thirtieth chapter of Ecclesiasticus: "There is no wealth above the wealth of bodily health, and no delight above the joy of the heart."

Furthermore, since Egypt lies at such a distance from the dominion of the Christians, the army could not conveniently have all it needed, as would be necessary, and above all in what pertains to food. The Christians' enemies, too, that is the Saracens, are stronger in their own home, close by, than in a far-off land. Now the whole strength of the Sultan's soldiery lodges in Egypt. There are, moreover, very many horsemen in Egypt, and foot-soldiers almost beyond counting, who strive with all their might to defend Egypt. And since the outcome of war is uncertain, a war undertaken in that land would not be without danger to the Christians, unless God should fight for them from above. Many times, too, in Egypt, when our men have fought, things have gone ill for the Christians, as is plain to everyone. Now the ruin of times past rouses us to firmer caution. Nor is it necessary to fight against Egypt with a sudden onslaught, but rather it is necessary to advance against them gradually with the galleys, as has been said above, so that they may be worn down not suddenly, but over time.

With the Christians positioned against Egypt, full aid could not be given by the Tartars into Egypt; for the Tartars would have to pass through the lands of the Saracens, which they could not do unless they were in great numbers. The Armenians, too, could not conveniently leave the Holy Land, since their strength would not [p. 54] suffice for the crossing, and because they could not leave their own land on account of their fear of the Saracens, who border upon them and who have also laid Armenia waste. And since, as has been said, the Saracens in Egypt are present in the greatest numbers, and are therefore also very strong, the Christians could not suddenly overcome them unless God should look down from on high, but the Christians would have to make a long delay in Egypt, so that they would be afflicted with great weariness; and if they should withdraw from there with the business of the Christian faith unaccomplished, it would be a great disgrace to them, and a great boast of heart would arise for the Saracens.

Chapter LXXIX. — [Another opinion].

Those who say that it is good for the Christians' army to land first at Acre seem to be moved to this because Acre is a city of the Christians, and there the dominion of the Latins prevails, where there are also great houses of the Temple and of the Hospital and of the Germans, and of many other nobles, where too (fol. 121r) there is a greater abundance of provisions, to which place also a multitude of merchants resort, where too all the overseas Christians can take counsel together, and, once counsel is settled, can go together against the Saracens, to whichever side they shall have judged the better, whether to the right hand or to the left. This consideration is good, if those who cross the sea are not sufficient to advance to conquer the lands of the unbelievers, or are not even sufficient to stand in the field against the Sultan's army. They will nonetheless be able, if they wish, to conquer and drive out the Saracens who dwell on the borders of Acre. But the people of Acre, and the other Christians of the Holy Land, have nourished serpents in their own bosom, in that they have kept Saracens among them in their villages, who, when there is discord between the Christians and the Saracens, attack the Christians and are as sirens or stakes in the Christians' eyes, and the Christians cannot drive them away from themselves. Indeed, these rustic Saracens cannot harm certain individual Christians so much in a time of truce, in particular, as much as they harm all the Christians together in a time of war. For it would be far more tolerable that the Holy Land should keep sabbaths for herself, so to speak, than that the rustic subjects of the Christians, who are themselves Saracens, should inflict such damage on so many Christians in an evil season. But if the Christians should cross the sea in great numbers and should wish to enter the lands of the Saracens, which once belonged to the Christians, they will be surrounded on every side by the Saracens, since unbelievers will be all around them, from the East and the West, from the North and the South. There are, moreover, very difficult passes to cross, and it is to be feared lest they be so hemmed in that they cannot easily get out from there; they would also [not] be able to have what is necessary for their sustenance, on account of the Saracens who would occupy the roads. Let all men of understanding also consider this: that if a man wishes to build a wall or a rampart, he does not begin from the middle toward the ends — for the ends ought not to be set in order from the middle, but the middle from the ends — but he begins from one end and draws a line through the middle as far as the other end, and so the work comes out straight, since that is straight whose middle does not deviate from the ends. In what way, then, will the Christians' army be able to proceed well, if it does not follow the way of reason? Nor does it seem to be sound counsel to begin making war from the middle, since, according to the true order of right procedure, a wise warrior ought to begin from the end. So too the Tartars do, for they begin to fight against their enemies (fol. 121v) from one end, and do not cease, until, advancing gradually, they pass through the middle to the other end. And in this way they have hitherto been the conquerors of many peoples. Let the Latin Christians also consider that neither the Armenians nor the Georgians, though they too are Christians, would be able to offer aid to our Latins, should they begin from the middle.

Chapter LXXX. — Another opinion.

Those who say that it is good to land first at Tripoli are moved to this because there is a good enough harbour there, and because the city of Tripoli, once destroyed by the Sultan, can immediately be recovered, and because that region is fair and healthy, and because the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon are Christians and will at once return to the obedience of the Latins; and because the Christians can gather there gradually, and because, if the Sultan should come against the Christians to give battle, he could more quickly be defeated and laid low in that place, since the space between the sea and Mount Lebanon is small and narrow, so that the Saracens would not be able to turn aside on account of the narrowness of the place.

This consideration is a good one, and states everything truly: but since the crossing overseas is undertaken not only for this, that coastal land may be acquired, but is undertaken above all for this, that Jerusalem, the holy city — which lies a single day's journey from the sea — may be recovered, and likewise that the rest of the Holy Land may be acquired. And this cannot be done unless the Christians advance and enter the interior parts of the Saracens' land; and so this opinion, too, does not suffice to accomplish the business of the Christian faith, on account of the obstacles named above.

Chapter LXXXI. — Another opinion.

Those who say that it is good to land first at Anterodum are moved to this because on the island of Anterodi there is an excellent harbour, in which many ships can lie, and because that island is also close to the mainland. The Christians' ships can lie in the harbour of Anterodi, while the men can go down onto the land. There is, moreover, a great breadth there, and an ample level ground, in which the Christians can well extend themselves, and they can very quickly recover that whole plain; and since the country people of the villages or hamlets of the plain of Anterodis are for the most part Christians, this consideration is a good one. Yet those who say this ought to take note that above Anterodum stand two great strongholds of the Saracens, which once belonged to the Hospital, one of which is called Cartum and the other Margatum, which might perhaps do the Christians some harm. There would also be certain of the same difficulties in advancing to the interior lands of the unbelievers, already set out above.

Chapter LXXXII. — Another opinion.

(Fol. 122r) Those who say that it is good to land near Soldinum have many good reasons on their side, nor does anything seem to stand against this consideration, except one thing, namely, that at Soldinum there is no harbour fit for large ships; but for smaller vessels — such as galleys and treretis and other craft, which are not very large — it is a good enough harbour, since the vessels that are brought in by sea are berthed in a river which, flowing past the walls of Antioch and descending from there, ends in the very salt sea.

Chapter LXXXIII. — Another opinion.

Those who say that it is good to land first at Portus Palorum, which is in Lesser Armenia, and is close to a city of Armenia called Ajacium, speak well, and all good opinions and reasons are on their side, as will presently be said below. Nor does anything seem to stand against this opinion, except that Armenia is not a very healthy province, and above all in summer, on account of the sun's rays, which

[p. 56] are bent back from the mountains onto the plain, and make the whole land grow hot; and because in the cities of Armenia, and on its plain, there is no abundance of good water — although there are in Armenia certain good and rather large rivers, and in some places certain springs, which well up good water.

Chapter LXXXIV. — What is more fitting to be done.

Let us see what, of all that has been said above, may be judged more fitting. If we consider well everything that has been said, from the last two considerations a single good and complete consideration arises. For the Christians who are to cross the sea for the liberation of the Holy Land can do two things at once; since Portus Palorum is close to the Black Mountain and to Soldinum — because, namely, the land of Armenia borders directly upon the land of Antioch, so that nothing lies between them — and since the Christians who are to cross must be many, both things can be done at once. For large ships can lie in Portus Palorum, while small vessels can be berthed in the river of Soldinum; and the Christians' army can be stationed on the Black Mountain, or on the plain lying beneath the Black Mountain. If our Christians wish all to disembark in Armenia, they may well and fittingly do so.

But if they should wish instead to be in a healthier land, they can settle themselves in the territory of Antioch and pitch their tents there. Yet since there is no other sufficient harbour nearby, except Portus Palorum alone, it is therefore fitting that the Christians' fleet, as has been said, should be placed and stationed in that harbour. There are, moreover, two ways from Portus Palorum to the Black Mountain: one is by sea, since a certain gulf of the sea lies between Portus Palorum and the Black Mountain, and it is a fairly short way, since the width of that gulf is reckoned at about thirty miles; the other way is by land, for a man who wishes to go from Armenia to the Black Mountain goes round the bend of the sea, and is soon there.

Chapter LXXXV. — (Fol. 123 r). On the city of Antioch and its conditions.

Now the Black Mountain, and the plain there, is a place well suited for the stationing and quartering of the Christians. The land of Antioch, moreover, has many good conditions. For this land is: — Situated at the border — Healthy — Beautiful — Well-watered — Abundant — Close to the Christians — Far from the Saracens — Strong in aid — Temperate.

The land of Antioch, I say, is situated at the border of the dominion of the Sultan of Babylon. For, as has been said above, the Sultan of Babylon now rules over two kingdoms that once belonged to the Christians, namely the kingdom of Egypt, which faces south, and the kingdom of Damascus, which, for those travelling along the coast, faces toward the north; and the dominion of the Sultan stretches from the far end of Egypt as far as the Euphrates — to the south, as I reckon it, or, another way, some forty and more (sic). Now it has been said above that if the Christians wish to fight the Saracens directly, they ought to begin from one end, so that they have no Saracen enemies at their backs. The Sultan's dominion, moreover, ends at the Euphrates; beyond the Euphrates the Saracens dwell, but they themselves are subject to the dominion of the Tartars. Let the Christians, then, begin warring from the northern quarter (sic) and go toward the south. And indeed, many years now having passed, I have heard it said by Christians of ancient stock from the land of Syria that they find that the Holy Land ought not to be acquired, nor wrested from the hands of the unbelievers, unless the Christians begin warring from the northern quarter and go toward the south. So indeed it was done on another occasion, when the Christians began fighting from the north and advanced toward the south, and won the whole of the Holy Land triumphantly.

The land of Antioch is also healthy, because it has good air on every side, which the countenance and vigour of the people dwelling there prove well.

It is also a beautiful land, for it has mountains and valleys, groves and various kinds of trees, gardens and orchards in which nightingales (fol. 123v) have been accustomed to pour forth their sweet melody.

It is well-watered, because there is there an abundance of many waters, both of the river and of various springs, which send forth sweet and most sweet water; and it is a region situated near the Jordan, "which was everywhere watered with waters." Gen. 8.

That land is also abundant, because it has been accustomed to abound in bread and wine, in fish and meat, in fruits, and in all good things.

It also borders on Armenia and lies close to Marochia, from which all good things can quickly be brought. It is likewise close to all the Christians lying round about it. For it is, as it were, in the middle among the Christians: to the south it has Acre and other coastal cities; to the north it has Lesser Armenia and Greece; to the west it has Cyprus, the land of Rhodes, and several other islands — from all of which it can very quickly be assisted, both in men and in necessary supplies.

It is also far from the Saracens, since Egypt lies at a great distance from Antioch. And in the kingdom of Damascus there are no Saracens who could do much harm, unless the Sultan of Babylon should station some soldiery there — since the kingdom of Damascus was greatly destroyed by the Tartars — nor are there any Saracens in those parts who could prevent the Christians from landing in that territory.

That land can also be strong in aid, because, as is firmly reported, the king of the Tartars has promised that, if the Christian army should cross the sea, he will send the Christians a great force of soldiery in aid; and it is firmly believed that he will fulfil his promise, especially if the Christian army should be either in Armenia or in the land of Antioch, because then the two armies — that is, of the Christians and of the Tartars — can easily be joined together, since Turkey, in which the dominion of the Tartars lies, borders on and marches with Armenia. And the reason why the king of the Tartars would gladly help the Christians is plain: namely, that when the Tartars had taken and won the whole kingdom of Damascus as far as the desert of Egypt, the Saracens of Egypt came against those Tartars and killed them, and recovered that kingdom by force, and so the Tartars suffered great disgrace in that land. And hence it is that the Tartars desire that the Saracens should lose that kingdom which the Tartars themselves once possessed. There is also another reason: namely, that no Saracens remain in the regions of the East to resist the Tartars, except only the Saracens who are in Egypt, over whom the Sultan rules, as also over the kingdom of Damascus, as far as the river Euphrates, which divides the dominion of the Tartars from the dominion of the Sultan of Egypt.

The aforesaid land is also well tempered (fol. 124r) in cold and heat, since it has neither too intense a cold nor too intense a heat, and is, in some part of itself, much like the land of Italy.

Beyond all that has been said, the said land of Antioch has great fitness for receiving the Christians' crossing, especially at the outset of the fitting undertaking. The more fitting time for the crossing, as I judge it — so that the Christians may reach port — is the month of September or October, so that, as the cold sets in, men may remain healthier.

Chapter LXXXVI. — [On the assembling and advance of the Christians].

The Christians, then, once gathered together, whether in coastal Armenia — once called Cilicia — or in the land of Antioch, as has been said, will be able to rest there, and, with a view to Jerusalem, to call to themselves the Christians round about, and to send to the king of the Tartars for aid, unless they are in so great a number that they need not implore their help. Once the whole army has been assembled — Latins as well as Armenians, and Georgians too, who are vigorous Christian soldiers — they will be able to advance toward the land of the unbelievers. They can take Antioch at the first attempt, since it is not guarded by the Saracens, and can fortify it, if they wish. Afterward they can begin from the lands that lie around the Euphrates and descend toward Aleppo and Damascus and thence toward Jerusalem, and do as has been stated above, from one end — that is, the northern — descending toward the south. Another Christian army ought to fight against them by sea, so that, attacked from both sides, the Saracens may grow weaker — so that the Saracens who are in Egypt, or from Egypt, may not go out to bring aid to the Saracens who dwell in the kingdom of Damascus, or, if it should happen that they do go out, they may not be able to go out in so great a number, for fear of the Christians whom they perceive to be fighting against Egypt.

How the Christians ought to act, and how they ought to proceed, has been said above.

Chapter LXXXVII. — [Certain conditions of the Saracens].

Concerning the Saracens, there exist certain conditions which appear to render them weaker, and on account of which the Christians, too, can more boldly launch an assault against them. The Saracens, indeed, make little use of lances, although some of them do have lances. The Saracens, moreover, greatly fear the lances of the Latins and gladly avoid a Latin charge; and therefore it is expedient that our Christians should have good and strong lances.

The Saracens also, and especially the horsemen, have leather cuirasses, and since they are all archers, when they wish to shoot, they take off the arm-guards of their cuirasses, so as to loose their arrows more easily and [fol. 124v] more readily, and so their arms remain unprotected.

Likewise, for the most part the Saracens have unprotected shins.

Likewise, the horses of the Saracens are not as large, nor as strong, as the horses of the Latins; and likewise their horses are not caparisoned or covered, as the horses of the Christians are.

Likewise, although among the Saracens there are some vigorous soldiers, yet for the most part they are not good warriors.

Likewise, the Saracens quickly give way before those who resist manfully; and therefore the Christians ought to fight stoutly and in no wise flee.

Behold, in the foregoing it has been shown by which ways or in which manners the Holy Land may be freed from the hands of the unbelieving Saracens; and if everything that has been said is diligently kept by the Christians, it must without doubt be believed that the Christians will win the victory over the unbelievers. For wars are to be undertaken in such a way that, with justice as their patron, everything is ordered with discretion and wisdom.

But how the Holy Land may be preserved once it has been recovered must now be briefly stated.

Chapter LXXXVIII. — On the preservation of the Holy Land.

The preservation of the Holy Land depends upon him who acquired it with his own precious blood. For in the eastern region there dwell, not only the Saracens, but also several other nations, who vary with different times and different rulers. Of the future, indeed, we can have no assurance; nevertheless there are certain things which serve, and are of profit, toward the preservation of the Holy Land, and these are: — A sufficient soldiery. — The guarding of the sea. — Firm fortification. — The presiding of a head. — Humble wisdom.

Chapter LXXXIX. — On a sufficient and continuous soldiery.

It is fitting, then, that for the preservation of the Holy Land there should be a sufficient soldiery, which should continually remain in the Holy Land; for it avails little if the Holy Land has been acquired, and is then straightway abandoned in disgrace. Now the inhabitants of the Holy Land say that it needs a soldiery that is continual, stable, and lasting, under whose protection they may defend themselves from the unbelievers. They say, moreover, that there are many bishoprics and many abbeys, so abounding in wealth that, by each contributing but a little, they could maintain, without burden to themselves, one, or two, or several knights continually in the Holy Land. The cities of the Christians, too, could [fol. 125r] do likewise. For what harm would it do any good city, if it kept one, or two, or three, or more knights in the Holy Land? No one would be burdened, and yet a great number of knights would result — for even if a drop of water is small, still many drops of water joined together make a great river. Taking the cross avails for a time, and then fails. But the aforesaid assigning and continuing of knights avails and profits greatly; though it might perhaps be said that, until now, there has been lacking one to command it, rather than one to carry it out.

Chapter XC. — On the guarding of the sea.

The guarding of the sea is necessary, so that the Christians may always be masters of the sea, so that they may always be able to confine the Saracens, and thereby also subdue them, permitting no merchants to have commerce with the Saracens, and so that, moreover, all the good things spoken of above may result from it. Once victory over the Saracens has been won, few galleys will suffice for the work of the sea. I judge, indeed, that ten galleys will be able to accomplish all that will be needful. And these, it is believed, will be able to earn enough to cover their own expenses.

Chapter XCI. — On the fortification of places.

The fortification of certain places would also be quite fitting, if only they were well fortified, provided the Christians were willing to defend themselves stoutly and fight manfully for the Christian faith. A very strong fortress could be built near Jaffa, upon the great rocks that are on the seashore. Another fortress could be built upon Mount Montjoie, which looks toward Jerusalem, so that the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem might always lie open. Some other places, too, could be fortified in the region of Galilee and elsewhere. It is believed, however, that if the Saracens should all fall together, Egypt could scarcely ever rise up again; and little is to be feared from the Saracens of the kingdom of Damascus, unless perhaps the Saracens who are in Egypt should wish to garrison that kingdom — but, as has been said above, the Egyptians can be so confined by sea, by the benefit of the galleys, that they will be able to inflict little harm on the Christians. It shall come to pass, nevertheless, God willing, that the land of Egypt too shall be subjected to Christian worship, so that the see — well (sic) — of the blessed Evangelist Mark may be restored to its former, original honour.

Chapter XCII. — On the presiding of a head.

The presiding of one good head is always necessary in the Holy Land, whom all the Christians should obey faithfully and devoutly, because, as has been said above, it is fitting that the diversity of the Christians be united under one head, without which nothing could be brought to completion. And let there be such a leader of the Christians, one who, even without the pay of the Christians [and] of the Church, could of himself (fol. 125v) maintain a good soldiery at his own expense; it is certain that, if the Christians have won the kingdom of Damascus, which [is] wealthy enough, they will be able to keep a great soldiery from the revenues of that kingdom.

Chapter XCIII. — On humble wisdom.

Humble wisdom is necessary for the Christians who will dwell in the Holy Land. For if perhaps some very powerful peoples should come against the Holy Land, it is fitting that the Christians, by their own wisdom and humility, should know how to lead them by the hand and pacify them, humbling themselves and addressing them prudently. So did the Apostle, who said, Phil. 4: "I know how to be humbled; I know both to abound, and to endure want." For the true Christian ought to humble himself, especially in time of adversity, suppressing his own excellence; he ought to abound in time of good prosperity, that is, by upholding the honour of Christendom; he ought also to endure want, by abstaining from what is superfluous. Let every Christian, too, consider the word of the Wise Man, who says, Eccli. 4: "Do not resist the face of the powerful, nor strive against the onrush of [the river]."

It is believed that the city of Antioch might still be standing, if the citizens of Antioch had had this wisdom. For it is said that when Baybars, Sultan of the Saracens, went against Antioch, he did not at once enter the city, but said to its chief men: «I give you the choice of three things: either you shall all withdraw from the city with your movable goods, and, your persons being safe, hand the city over to me; or you shall be under my dominion, as are the Christians who dwell in Damascus and in Egypt and in the other parts of my dominion; or you shall be tributary to me, so that each one of you shall pay me one gold bezant yearly for himself». But the Christians did not know how to choose any one of these, and for that reason they all perished together.

Chapter XCIV. — That part of the Sultan's army consists of bad Christians.

It should be known that a great part of the soldiery of the Sultan of Babylon consists of Christians. For the Sultan has taken boys and young men from Antioch and from Lesser Armenia and from other Christian lands, and has made them Saracens, who have become good and vigorous soldiers. And it is openly said and believed that, if the Latins were to give them pay, they would gladly return to the Christians, since some small spark of Christianity has remained in them. Whence, if the captain of the Christian army should be willing to give them pay, and to provide for them out of the lands that the Christians shall acqui[fol. 126r]re, it is confidently believed that many will return, and perhaps more than four thousand. These men know all the doings of the Saracens, and the entrances and exits of all the lands that are under the dominion of the Sultan of Babylon, and can be of great use in many things. And by this means, too, the Sultan's army will be diminished, and it will be a work of mercy that their souls should be saved, who were wickedly led astray by error.

Let our Christians also beware of doing harm to the Christians who dwell under the dominion of the Saracens, since they are among them very much as the children of Israel once were in Egypt under the dominion of Pharaoh; who greatly love the Latins, and greatly long for the crusade, that they may be delivered from the hands of the Saracens; who have done, and do, much good to the Latins whom the Saracens capture, since they nourish them with their own alms and have ransomed many of them — who, in turn, can be of much use to our own Christians in many things.

Closing verse

"Who will be set aflame,
who might cover me, stripped bare,
tormented by the wicked?
My holy things have been cast down,
lie scorned, exposed to savage wolves,
my grief is renewed,
the enemy hisses and rages.
Will not the beloved arise,
whom even the force of love urges,
that he might strike down the wicked enemies
and behold the eternal light?
Blessed is he who will give himself for me;
with me he will reign forever."

Explicit

Here ends the book composed by brother Fidentius of Padua, of the Order of Minors. And it concerns how the Holy Land might be recovered from the hands of the unbelievers, and held.