s recently been broached: it is connected with the charge of
idolatry and Eastern heretical opinions subsequently made against
the Templars. "We have no doubt that they were Manichee or Gnostic
standards." (The author says the animals themselves were carried before
the army.--M.) "The goose, in Egyptian symbols, as every Egyptian
scholar knows, meant 'divine Son,' or 'Son of God.' The goat meant
Typhon, or Devil. Thus we have the Manichee opposing principles of good
and evil, as standards, at the head of the ignorant mob of crusading
invaders. Can any one doubt that a large portion of this host must have
been infected with the Manichee or Gnostic idolatry?" Account of the
Temple Church by R. W. Billings, p. 5 London. 1838. This is, at all
events, a curious coincidence, especially considered in connection with
the extensive dissemination of the Paulician opinions among the common
people of Europe. At any rate, in so inexplicable a matter, we are
inclined to catch at any explanation, however wild or subtile.--M.]

[Footnote 36: Benjamin of Tudela describes the state of his Jewish
brethren from Cologne along the Rhine: they were rich, generous,
learned, hospitable, and lived in the eager hope of the Messiah,
(Voyage, tom. i. p. 243-245, par Baratier.) In seventy years (he wrote
about A.D. 1170) they had recovered from these massacres.]

[Footnote 37: These massacres and depredations on the Jews, which
were renewed at each crusade, are coolly related. It is true, that St.
Bernard (epist. 363, tom. i. p. 329) admonishes the Oriental Franks, non
sunt persequendi Judaei, non sunt trucidandi. The contrary doctrine had
been preached by a rival monk. * Note: This is an unjust sarcasm against
St. Bernard. He stood above all rivalry of this kind See note 31, c. l
x.--M]

Between the frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzan tine
monarchy, the crusaders were compelled to traverse as interval of six
hundred miles; the wild and desolate countries of Hungary [38] and
Bulgaria. The soil is fruitful, and intersected with rivers; but it
was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless
extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth.
Both nations had imbibed the rudiments of Christianity; the Hungarians
were ruled by their native princes; the Bulgarians by a lieutenant of
the Greek emperor; but, on the slightest provocation, their ferocious
nature was rekindled, and ample provocation wa