hem at Tiberiade a complete
victory, which utterly annihilated the force of the already
languishing kingdom of Jerusalem. The holy city itself fell into his
hands, after a feeble resistance; the kingdom of Antioch was almost
entirely subdued; and except some maritime towns, nothing considerable
remained of those boasted conquests, which, near a century before, it
had cost the efforts of all Europe to acquire [k].
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 100.]

[MN 1187.] The western Christians were astonished on receiving this
dismal intelligence. Pope Urban III, it is pretended, died of grief,
and his successor, Gregory VIII., employed the whole time of his short
pontificate in rousing to arms all the Christians who acknowledged his
authority. The general cry was, that they were unworthy of enjoying
any inheritance in heaven, who did not vindicate from the dominion of
the infidel the inheritance of God on earth, and deliver from slavery
that country which had been consecrated by the footsteps of their
Redeemer. [MN 1188. 21st Jan.] William, Archbishop of Tyre, having
procured a conference between Henry and Philip near Gisors, enforced
all these topics; gave a pathetic description of the miserable state
of the eastern Christians, and employed every argument to excite the
ruling passions of the age, superstition and jealousy of military
honour [l]. The two monarchs immediately took the cross; many of
their most considerable vassals imitated the example [m]; and as the
Emperor Frederick I. entered into the same confederacy, some
well-grounded hopes of success were entertained; and men flattered
themselves that an enterprise which had failed under the conduct of
many independent leaders, or of impruddent princes, might, at last, by
the efforts of such potent and able monarchs, be brought to a happy
issue.
[FN [l] Bened. Abb. p. 531. [m] Neubrig. p. 435. Heming, p. 512.]

The kings of France and England imposed a tax, amounting to the tenth
of all moveable goods on such as remained at home [n]; but as they
exempted from this burden most of the regular clergy, the secular
aspired to the same immunity; pretended that their duty obliged them
to assist the crusade with their prayers alone; and it was with some
difficulty they were constrained to desist from an opposition, which
in them who had been the chief promoters of those pious enterprises,
appeared with the worst grace imaginable [o]. This backwardness of
the clergy is perhaps