ransplant themselves and their families to a land of liberty. The monk
might release himself from the discipline of his convent: the debtor
might suspend the accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of his
creditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every cast might continue to
brave the laws and elude the punishment of their crimes. [32]

[Footnote 30: The same hopes were displayed in the letters of the
adventurers ad animandos qui in Francia residerant. Hugh de Reiteste
could boast, that his share amounted to one abbey and ten castles, of
the yearly value of 1500 marks, and that he should acquire a hundred
castles by the conquest of Aleppo, (Guibert, p. 554, 555.)]

[Footnote 31: In his genuine or fictitious letter to the count of
Flanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the relics
of saints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum foeminarum
voluptas, (p. 476;) as if, says the indignant Guibert, the Greek women
were handsomer than those of France.]

[Footnote 32: See the privileges of the Crucesignati, freedom from debt,
usury injury, secular justice, &c. The pope was their perpetual guardian
(Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651, 652.)]

These motives were potent and numerous: when we have singly computed
their weight on the mind of each individual, we must add the infinite
series, the multiplying powers, of example and fashion. The first
proselytes became the warmest and most effectual missionaries of the
cross: among their friends and countrymen they preached the duty, the
merit, and the recompense, of their holy vow; and the most reluctant
hearers were insensibly drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion and
authority. The martial youths were fired by the reproach or suspicion
of cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army the sepulchre of
Christ was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and children, who
consulted rather their zeal than their strength; and those who in the
evening had derided the folly of their companions, were the most eager,
the ensuing day, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance, which
magnified the hopes, diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the
Turkish conquest, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs
themselves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and the
state of their enemies; and such was the stupidity of the people, that,
at the sight of the first city or castle beyond the limits of their
knowledge, they were ready to ask wh