on. Gregory VII., among the other vast ideas which he
entertained, had formed the design of uniting all the western
Christians against the Mahometans; but the egregious and violent
invasions of that pontiff on the civil power of princes had created
him so many enemies, and had rendered his schemes so suspicious, that
he was not able to make great progress in this undertaking. The work
was reserved for a meaner instrument, whose low condition in life
exposed him to no jealousy, and whose folly was well calculated to
coincide with the prevailing principles of the times.

Peter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens in Picardy, had
made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Being deeply affected with the
dangers to which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well
as with the instances of oppression under which the eastern Christians
laboured, he entertained the bold, and in all appearance
impracticable, project of leading into Asia, from the farthest
extremities of the West, armies sufficient to subdue those potent and
warlike nations which now held the holy city in subjection [h]. He
proposed his views to Martin II., who filled the papal chair, and who,
though sensible of the advantages which the head of the Christian
religion must reap from a religious war, and though he esteemed the
blind zeal of Peter a proper means for effecting the purpose [i],
resolved not to interpose his authority, till he saw a greater
probability of success. He summoned a council at Placentia, which
consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics, and thirty thousand
seculars; and which was so numerous that no hall could contain the
multitude, and it was necessary to hold the assembly in a plain. The
harangues of the pope, and of Peter himself, representing the dismal
situation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity suffered by
the Christian name, in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands
of infidels, here found the minds of men so well prepared, that the
whole multitude, suddenly and violently, declared for the war, and
solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, so meritorious,
as they believed it, to God and religion.
[FN [h] Gul. Tyrius, lib. 1. cap. 11. M. Paris, p. 17. [i] Gul.
Tyrius, lib. 1. cap. 13.]

But though Italy seemed thus to have zealously embraced the
enterprise, Martin knew that, in order to ensure success, it was
necessary to enlist the greater and more warlike nations in the same
engage