f their character;
and their seditious clamors had required that the choice of a bishop
should precede that of a king. The revenue and jurisdiction of the
lawful patriarch were usurped by the Latin clergy: the exclusion of the
Greeks and Syrians was justified by the reproach of heresy or schism;
and, under the iron yoke of their deliverers, the Oriental Christians
regretted the tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert,
archbishop of Pisa, had long been trained in the secret policy of Rome:
he brought a fleet at his countrymen to the succor of the Holy Land, and
was installed, without a competitor, the spiritual and temporal head of
the church. The new patriarch immediately grasped the sceptre which
had been acquired by the toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims;
and both Godfrey and Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands the
investiture of their feudal possessions. Nor was this sufficient;
Daimbert claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa; instead
of a firm and generous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest; a
quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modest bishop
was satisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on the death of
Godfrey without children, or on the future acquisition of a new seat at
Cairo or Damascus.

Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been stripped
of his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem and Jaffa, with
about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent country. Within this
narrow verge, the Mahometans were still lodged in some impregnable
castles: and the husbandman, the trader, and the pilgrim, were exposed
to daily and domestic hostility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and of
the two Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded to the throne,
the Latins breathed with more ease and safety; and at length they
equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the millions
of their subjects, the ancient princes of Judah and Israel. After
the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and
Ascalon, which were powerfully assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa,
and Pisa, and even of Flanders and Norway, the range of sea-coast
from Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the Christian
pilgrims. If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts
of Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of
Jerusalem: the Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates;