. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. he pious and touching appeals of St. Bernard attained the success hedesired. King Louis, his wife Eleanor, his principal nobility and clergy,many thousand knights, and a vast number of the lower classes, enrolledthemselves under the banner of the cross. As soon as it was agreed thatthey should set out at the expiration of a year, says another chronicler, all joyfully returned home. But the Abbot of Clairvaux went aboutpreaching from place to place, and it soon became impossible to reckon thenumber of the Cru
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. he pious and touching appeals of St. Bernard attained the success hedesired. King Louis, his wife Eleanor, his principal nobility and clergy,many thousand knights, and a vast number of the lower classes, enrolledthemselves under the banner of the cross. As soon as it was agreed thatthey should set out at the expiration of a year, says another chronicler, all joyfully returned home. But the Abbot of Clairvaux went aboutpreaching from place to place, and it soon became impossible to reckon thenumber of the Crusaders. From France, Bernard crossed over to Germany,where the influence of his inspired words fully revealed itself, for wholepopulations, unable even to understand the language he addressed them in,carried away by the marvellous charm of his manner, smote their breasts, andcried out, God be merciful to us ! The saints be with us ! 120 THE CRUSADES. The Emperor Conrad, whom the Abbot endeavoured to persuade tojoin the King of France in the new crusade, at first gave the enterprise. Fig. 105.—Facade of the Abbey Church of the Magdalen, as it now stands at Vezelai, -where, in1146, St. Bernard preached the Second Crusade (Twelfth Century). considerable opposition; but at last, at a meeting held at Spires, the 28th ofDecember, 1146, Bernards extraordinary eloquence produced such an effect THE CRUSADES. 121 upon him that he vowed on the spot to assume the cross. His example wasimmediately followed by several German princes, amongst whom was hisown nephew, the youthful Frederick of Suabia, who afterwards became socelebrated under the name of Frederick Barbarossa. A few months later, the French and German armies, each of whichcontained more than a hundred thousand fighting men, without reckoningthe swarm of pilgrims who accompanied them, set out, well armed, wellequipped, and full of confidence, for the East. The two armies containedthe elite of the chivalry of both countries. Euro
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