e purse and the person introduced, in the eleventh century, a more
honorable mode of satisfaction. The merit of military service against
the Saracens of Africa and Spain had been allowed by the predecessors
of Urban the Second. In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed
a plenary indulgence to those who should enlist under the banner of the
cross; the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt for all that
might be due of canonical penance. [28] The cold philosophy of modern
times is incapable of feeling the impression that was made on a sinful
and fanatic world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber, the
incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls,
by repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised
against their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement were
eagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and denomination. None were
pure; none were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who
were the least amenable to the justice of God and the church were the
best entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their pious
courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesitate
to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; [29] and should they
survive, they could expect without impatience the delay and increase of
their heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the Son of God, who
had laid down his life for their salvation: they took up the cross, and
entered with confidence into the way of the Lord. His providence would
watch over their safety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power would
smooth the difficulties of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillar
of Jehovah had marched before the Israelites into the promised land.
Might not the Christians more reasonably hope that the rivers would open
for their passage; that the walls of their strongest cities would fall
at the sound of their trumpets; and that the sun would be arrested in
his mid career, to allow them time for the destruction of the infidels?

[Footnote 22: The penance, indulgences, &c., of the middle ages are
amply discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. v.
dissert. lxviii. p. 709-768,) and by M. Chais, (Lettres sur les Jubiles
et les Indulgences, tom. ii. lettres 21 & 22, p. 478-556,) with this
difference, that the abuses of superstition are mildly, perhaps faintly,
exposed by the learned Italian, and peevishly magnified by the Dutch
mini