telligence. Having been
seized with the mania of the age, he visited Jerusalem, and remained there
till his blood boiled to see the cruel persecution heaped upon the
devotees. On his return home he shook the world by the eloquent story of
their wrongs.

Before entering into any further details of the marvellous results of his
preaching, it will be advisable to cast a glance at the state of the mind
of Europe, that we may understand all the better the causes of his
success. First of all, there was the priesthood, which, exercising as it
did the most conspicuous influence upon the fortunes of society, claims
the largest share of attention. Religion was the ruling idea of that day,
and the only civiliser capable of taming such wolves as then constituted
the flock of the faithful. The clergy were all in all; and though they
kept the popular mind in the most slavish subjection with regard to
religious matters, they furnished it with the means of defence against all
other oppression except their own. In the ecclesiastical ranks were
concentrated all the true piety, all the learning, all the wisdom of the
time; and, as a natural consequence, a great portion of power, which their
very wisdom perpetually incited them to extend. The people knew nothing of
kings and nobles, except in the way of injuries inflicted. The first ruled
for, or more properly speaking against, the barons, and the barons only
existed to brave the power of the kings, or to trample with their iron
heels upon the neck of prostrate democracy. The latter had no friend but
the clergy, and these, though they necessarily instilled the superstition
from which they themselves were not exempt, yet taught the cheering
doctrine that all men were equal in the sight of heaven. Thus, while
Feudalism told them they had no rights in this world, Religion told them
they had every right in the next. With this consolation they were for the
time content, for political ideas had as yet taken no root. When the
clergy, for other reasons, recommended the Crusade, the people joined in
it with enthusiasm. The subject of Palestine filled all minds; the
pilgrims' tales of two centuries warmed every imagination; and when their
friends, their guides, and their instructors preached a war so much in
accordance with their own prejudices and modes of thinking, the enthusiasm
rose into a frenzy.

But while religion inspired the masses, another agent was at work upon the
nobility. These were f