f the race of Mahomet, harangued
the conqueror, and was invited to court; his geography of the seven
climates was translated into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent perusal,
preferred the work of the Arabian to the writings of the Grecian
Ptolemy. [57] A remnant of Christian natives had promoted the success of
the Normans: they were rewarded by the triumph of the cross. The island
was restored to the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff; new bishops
were planted in the principal cities; and the clergy was satisfied by
a liberal endowment of churches and monasteries. Yet the Catholic hero
asserted the rights of the civil magistrate. Instead of resigning the
investiture of benefices, he dexterously applied to his own profit the
papal claims: the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged, by
the singular bull, which declares the princes of Sicily hereditary and
perpetual legates of the Holy See. [58]

[Footnote 52: Latrocinio armigerorum suorum in multis sustentabatur,
quod quidem ad ejus ignominiam non dicimus; sed ipso ita praecipiente
adhuc viliora et reprehensibiliora dicturi sumus ut pluribus patescat,
quam laboriose et cum quanta angustia a profunda paupertate ad summum
culmen divitiarum vel honoris attigerit. Such is the preface of
Malaterra (l. i. c. 25) to the horse-stealing. From the moment (l. i. c.
19) that he has mentioned his patron Roger, the elder brother sinks into
the second character. Something similar in Velleius Paterculus may be
observed of Augustus and Tiberius.]

[Footnote 53: Duo sibi proficua deputans animae scilicet et corporis si
terran: Idolis deditam ad cultum divinum revocaret, (Galfrid Malaterra,
l. ii. c. 1.) The conquest of Sicily is related in the three last
books, and he himself has given an accurate summary of the chapters, (p.
544-546.)]

[Footnote 54: See the word Milites in the Latin Glossary of Ducange.]

[Footnote 55: Of odd particulars, I learn from Malaterra, that the
Arabs had introduced into Sicily the use of camels (l. i. c. 33) and of
carrier-pigeons, (c. 42;) and that the bite of the tarantula provokes a
windy disposition, quae per anum inhoneste crepitando emergit; a symptom
most ridiculously felt by the whole Norman army in their camp near
Palermo, (c. 36.) I shall add an etymology not unworthy of the xith
century: Messana is divided from Messis, the place from whence the
harvests of the isle were sent in tribute to Rome, (l. ii. c. 1.)]

[Footnote 56: See the capi