ment; and having previously exhorted Peter to visit the chief
cities and sovereigns of Christendom, he summoned another council at
Clermont in Auvergne [k]. The fame of this great and pious design
being now universally diffused, procured the attendance of the
greatest prelates, nobles, and princes; and when the pope and the
Hermit renewed their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if
impelled by an immediate inspiration, not moved by their preceding
impressions, exclaimed with one voice, IT IS THE WILL OF GOD! IT IS
THE WILL OF GOD! Words deemed so memorable, and so much the result of
a divine influence, that they were employed as the signal of
rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of those adventurers
[l]. Men of all ranks flew to arms with the utmost ardour; and an
exterior symbol too, a circumstance of chief moment, was here chosen
by the devoted combatants. The sign of the cross, which had been
hitherto so much revered among Christians, and which, the more it was
an object of reproach among the pagan world, was the more passionately
cherished by them, became the badge of union, and was affixed to the
right shoulder, by all who enlisted themselves in this sacred warfare
[m].
[FN [k] Concil. tom. x. Concil. Clarom. Matth. Paris, p. 16. M.
West. p. 233. [l] Historia Bell. Sacri, tom. i. Musaei Ital. [m]
Hist. Bell. Sacri, tom. i. Mus. Ital. Order. Vital. p. 721.]

Europe was at this time sunk into profound ignorance and superstition:
the ecclesiastics had acquired the greatest ascendant over the human
mind: the people, who, being little restrained by honour, and less by
law, abandoned themselves to the worst crimes and disorders, knew of
no other expiation than the observances imposed on them by their
spiritual pastors; and it was easy to represent the holy war as an
equivalent for all penances [n], and an atonement for every violation
of justice and humanity. But, amidst the abject superstition which
now prevailed, the military spirit also had universally diffused
itself; and though not supported by art or discipline, was become the
general passion of the nations governed by the feudal law. All the
great lords possessed the right of peace and war: they were engaged in
perpetual hostilities with each other: the open country was become a
scene of outrage and disorder: the cities, still mean and poor, were
neither guarded by walls, nor protected by privileges, and were
exposed to every