material acquisitions pervades everyone's hearts, God ordained holy
wars in our time, so that the knightly order and the erring mob, who,
like their ancient pagan models, were engaged in mutual slaughter,
might find new way of earning salvation. Thus, without having chosen
(as is customary) a monastic life, without any religious committment,
they were compelled to give up this world; free to continue their
customary pursuits, nevertheless they earned some measure of God's
grace by their own efforts. Therefore, we have seen nations,
inspired by God, shut the doors of their hearts towards all kinds of
needs and feelings, taking up exile beyond the Latin world, beyond
the known limits of the entire world, in order to destroy the enemies
of the name of Christ, with an eagerness greater than we have seen
anyone show in hurrying to the the banquet table, or in celebrating a
holiday.[53] The most splendid honors, the castles and towns over
which they held power, meant nothing to them; the most beautiful
women were treated as though they were worthless dirt; pledges of
domestic love,[54] once more precious than any gem, were scorned.
What no mortal could have compelled them to do by force, or persuade
them to do by rhetoric, they were carried forward to do by the sudden
insistence of their transformed minds. No priest in church had to
urge people to this task, but one man urged another, both by speech
and by example, proclaiming his determination, both at home and in
the streets, to go on the expedition. Every man showed the same
fervor; the chance to go on the trip appealed both to those who had
little property, and to those whose vast possessions or stored-up
treasures permitted them to take the richest provisions for the
journey. You would have seen Solomon's words clearly put into action,
"the locusts have no king, yet they march together in bands."[55]
This locust made no leap of good works, as long as he lay in the
frozen torpor of deep sin, but when the heat of the sun of justice